1.5: Vygotsky

Vygotsky: Sociocultural Theory

Lev Vygotsky believed that a person has both a set of abilities and a set of potential abilities that can be reached if given the proper guidance from others (Paris et al., 2019).

Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory emphasizes the importance of culture and interaction in the development of cognitive abilities. He concentrated more on children’s immediate social and cultural environment and their interactions with adults and peers. He saw a child as an apprentice, learning through a social environment with others who had more experience and were sensitive to the child’s needs and abilities.

Vygotsky theorized that through guided participation with a teacher or a more capable person, also known as scaffolding, a child can learn cognitive skills within a certain range known as the zone of proximal development. According to Vygotsky, development occurs first through children’s immediate social interactions and then moves to the individual level as they began to internalize their learning.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): One child showing another child how to tie their shoes. (CC BY-NC 4.0; Allison Shelley via EDUimages)

Lev Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development

Have you ever taught children how to perform a task? Maybe it was brushing their teeth or tying their shoestrings. Chances are you spoke to them and described what you were doing while you demonstrated the skill and let them work along with you throughout the process. You provided them assistance when they seemed to need it, but once they knew what to do, you stood back and let them perform the task alone. This is an example of scaffolding (Leon, n.d.)

Examples of scaffolding, the temporary support that parents, peers or teachers give a child to perform a task, can be seen throughout the world in an unlimited number of situations. Vygotsky’s theory contends that instead of assessing what people are doing, people should be understood in terms of what they are capable of doing with the proper guidance. This approach to teaching has also been adopted by educators as seen here.

The zone of proximal development (ZPD) is the distance between a child’s potential to learn and the actual learning that takes place. Vygotsky hypothesized that a “quality teacher” first identifies a child’s ZPD and then helps the child learn beyond their ZPD (Vygotsky, 1978). After this, the teacher (or any person with more advanced skills) gradually withdraws support until the child can perform the task without assistance. It is all about providing the right level of challenge and support to gradually support new skills without making the new skills seem undoable for the learner. A practical example is a child engaging in a puzzle. A child will have a current level of competence of completing a 50 piece puzzle without support. A 25 piece puzzle is to easy and a 200 piece puzzle maybe too challenge even with support from a teacher. The ZPD for this child's next growth may be 100 piece puzzle with support.

Cultural Consideration

Vygotsky’s theory promotes a learning model in which children play an active role in learning. Roles of teachers and students are therefore transformed into a reciprocal collaborative process in which teachers help facilitate meaning construction in students. Thus learning becomes a reciprocal experience for students and educator (Rogoff, 2003). In this framework educators must sometimes accept differences of behavior in children and accommodate these differences in the classroom. Speech and language development played an influential role in Vygotsky’s theories of language acquisition and learning in general. Children develop language skills individually, but they do so within a cooperative learning context as peers, family members, teachers, and others engage, support, and teach them.Supporting multi-language learners in their home language is an example of using (ZPD) of learning through a reciprocal and dialogic interaction. The ZPD is a level of development obtained when children engage in social interactions with others; it is the distance between a child’s potential to learn and the actual learning that takes place.This practice demonstrates respect for a family's primary language and communicates that the educator values the family and child's culture. NAEYC recommends for educators to encourage and assistant all parents in becoming knowledge about the cognitive value for children of knowing more than one language and provide them with strategies , support, maintain and preserve home language learning (NAEYC, 1996).

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References

Leon, A. R. (n.d.). Children's Development: Prenatal through Adolescent Development. West Hills Community College Lemoore.

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). (1996). Linguistic and Cultural diversity—Building on America’s strengths.

Paris, J., Ricardo, A., Rymond, D. (2019). Child Growth and Development. College of the Canyons.

Rogoff, B. (2003). The Cultural Nature of Human Development. Oxford University Press.

Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.