Vygotsky - role of culture and social interaction

What are the key assumptions of Vygotsky’s theory?

role of culture and social interaction is important
kids need assistance from expert to cross ZPD
experts provide assistance through scaffolding

What does ZPD stand for?

zone of proximal development

Cultural differences in cognitive abilities

children thought to benefit from knowledge of previous generations
this will be different knowledge in different cultures

What did Vygotsky suggest about knowledge?

it’s first inter-mental (parent and child) then intra-mental (within mind of child)

Study for role of cultural differences in cognitive abilities

Gedler (1992)

Gedler (1992)

counting system in Papua New Guinea where counting starts on thumb and moves up arm
system makes it very difficult to subtract and add large numbers

Zone of proximal development - what is it?

the gap between a child’s current level of development and what they could understand after interaction with expert others

Zone of proximal development - how to cross it?

with expert assistance
helps them learn more facts and also get more advanced reasoning skills

What did Vygotsky believe about formal reasoning?

could only be acquired through interaction with more advanced others

Evidence for role of ZPD in cog development

Roazzi and Bryant (1998)

Roazzi and Bryant (1988) - METHOD

4-5 year olds
estimating number of sweets in a box
1 condition child worked alone, other condition they worked with older child

Roazzi and Bryant (1998) - FINDINGS

kids alone failed to give good estimate
expert group offered prompts and were more accurate