Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development

Vygotsky’s theory (contrast to Piaget’s)

Vygotsky agreed with Piaget that a child’s thinking is qualitatively different to an adult’s.

However he placed greater emphasis on the importance of the social context of children’s learning. He believed culture is the prime determinant of individual development.

Cognitive maturation is driven by a child’s biological maturation, but it is most importantly a product of a child’s interactions with others.

Elementary and higher mental functions

Vygotsky claimed we are born with 4 elementary mental functions:

• Attention

• Sensation

• Perception

• Memory

Our social and cultural environment allows us to use these skills to develop fully and finally gain “higher mental functions”. Elementary functions are biological and shared with other mammals, whereas higher mental functions are exclusively human. The role of culture is to transform elementary to high mental functions.

The role of others: experts or More knowledgeable others (MKOs)

Children learn through problem-solving experiences share with someone else, usually a parent or teacher but also more competent peers. People will greater knowledge than the child are called experts or More knowledgeable others (MKO). Intially, the person interacting with the child assumes most of the responsibility for guiding the problem-solving acidity, but gradually this responsibility transfers to the child.

The role of language (importance, process, contrast to Piaget)

Vygotsky emphasised the role of language that experts use. He said that culture is transmitted through language from expert to child. The process:

• First language is external or social - it is shared dialogue between an adult and child.

• As the child develops the skills of mental representation they begin to communicate with themselves - egocentric speech.

• Which leads to development of inner speech / thought.

Therefore, if reasoning abilities are acquired from others via the language they use, the child will acquire the reasoning abilities of those particular people. Meaning there may be cultural difference in cognitive development, with children picking up the mental tools most important for life within their physical, social and work environment ( this is in direct contrast to Piaget).

The zone of Proximal development (ZDP)

The region where cognitive development takes place, it is the gap between a child’s current development (e.g. what they understand and do alone, and what they can potentially understand after interaction with more expert others).

‘Proximal’ refers to those skills that the learner is ‘close’ to mastering.

Expert assistance allows the child to cross the ZPD and understand as much of the subject or situation as they are capable - children still limited by their development stage to some extent.

Vygotsky believed children develop a more advanced undertsnaing of the situation (and therefore more advanced reasoning abilities needed to deal with it) with collaboration from others / MKO, Piaget believed children should learn through individual exploration of the world.

Scaffolding

The next logical step in understanding ZDP, refers to all the kind of help experts give a child to help them across the ZDP. First introduced by Bruner and his colleagues. Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976) identified 5 aspects to scaffolding (which are general ways where the adult can help a child better understand and perform a task):

• Recruitment - engaging child’s interest in the task.

• Reduction of degrees of freedom - focusing child on task and where to start with solving it.

• Direct maintenance - encouraging child in order to help keep them motivated and continue trying to complete task.

• Marking critical features - highlight the most important parts of task.

• Demonstration - showing child how to do aspects of task.

Wood et al. noted the particular strategies experts use when scaffolding. In general as a learner crossed the ZDP, the level of help given declines from level 5 (most help) to level 1 (least help).

Evaluation of Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive devlopment

Piaget and Vygotsky image summary