Vygotsky Theory Of Development

Vygotsky proposed that children’s development is affected by their culture and social interaction. He also suggested that children are not born with knowledge but they gain it through their social interactions with peers and adults; he does not rule out the importance of biological processes but proposes an interdependent relationship between biological development alongside social activity and cultural interaction.

The zone of proximal development, often abbreviated as ZPD, is the difference between what a learner can do without help and what he or she cannot do. The concept was introduced, but not fully developed, by psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_of_proximal_development)

In Vygotsky’s concept, zone of proximal development he explains that it is the distance between a child’s developmental level, which is determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance (Vygotsky, 1978, p174). This concept is highly used in education and in classrooms. For example, I work with a student who is eighteen years of age and has intellectual disabilities. During our morning routine he enjoys working on puzzles. He has a difficult time putting the puzzle together so I help him with clues and or prompt him to the puzzle piece that fits. He moves onto a new puzzle once I no longer have to give him clues or prompts. As I have tracked his progress he has needed less prompt than he did three months ago. The goal of this concept is that, as an adult collaborates with a child to help them move from where they are to where they should be with help by accomplishing the exercise through prompts, clues, modeling, and etc.

Lev Vygotsky developed a theory of cognitive development in children and young adults. His theory of cognitive development states that people’s mental structures are based on their interactions with OTHERS. Basically he says that other people create our thinking processes and cognitive structures as we interact with them, which begins particularly at a young age. Vygotsky supported sociocultural theory, “which states that the role of development in children happens through their community and interactions” (Woolfolk 59). This is referring to peoples ways of thinking and behaving in other words. Vygotsky notes three themes that explain how these social interactions dictate people thoughts. The three themes are co-constructed, cultural tools, and private speech. “Every function in a child’s cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level and later on the individual level; first between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological). This applies equally to voluntary attention, logical memory, and to the formation of concepts. All the higher functions originate as actual relations between human individuals” (Woolfolk 59). Higher mental processes and thinking through problems are first co-constructed during activities between children and another person. The child internalizes the process and it becomes part of their activities with other people. It means that together they figure something out, then later on the child can use that interaction to regulate their own behavior. This can be applied in a classroom for a lot of problem solving situations. For intense if I gave a math word problem, and asked the class a serious of questions as to help them figure out the problem, they would be able to answer the question. This would help them to answer this kind of math problem in the future, without my help. Vygotsky believed that children’s cognitive development happens through interactions with people who have a higher, more advanced thinking, people such as PARENTS or TEACHERS. This could be applied in the classroom, because children learn from their teachers, who have a more advanced thinking and they help their students solve problems, and questions, and

Unlike Piaget, Vygotsky alleged that adults play a fundamental role in the development of children as they nurtured their learning in a premeditated way (McDevitt et al, 2013), rather than entrusting it to natural processes. Vygotsky also believed that language played a primary responsibility in a child’s development, while Piaget excluded this from his theory (McDevitt et al, 2013). The social experiences a child encounter along with conversations they have with others and themselves (self-talk), greatly influences their capacity to grow and learn. One of the benefits of Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development is the Zone of Proximal development. Where children are frequently being pressed to the limit of their comfort zones within learning in order of forward progression (McDevitt et al, 2013).

Lev Vygotsky believed that social and cognitive development work simultaneously to build and evolve on one another. He believed that social, cultural and personal experience cannot be detached from each other and many things influence the way children learn and develop, not just their own experiences, thus Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory. Vygotsky’s ideas were and remain controversial as he had no specific training in psychology or children’s development. His preeminent contribution to children’s development is his recognition of the value of progressing knowledge by means of interaction with educators, peers and family (Mooney, 2000, p. 83). The major ideas of Vygotsky’s theory are scaffolding and the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). Scaffolding is a process Vygotsky described as the framework or temporary support for children’s learning. In order for scaffolding to be beneficial, it must be responsive to the child’s needs (Coon & Mitterer, 2013, pp. 106-107).

This can be linked to Vygotsky’s (1978) (cited in Nevid 2007) theory of Zone of Proximal Development. The Zone of Proximal Development is closely linked to scaffolding. Vygotsky sees the Zone of Proximal Development as the area where the child needs the most guidance. He looks at the interaction of peers as a great way of developing skills. The Zone of Proximal Development provides support for the learner’s development. According to (Nevid 2007) the followers of Vygotsky believe that parents and practitioners should use the skill of scaffolding in order to support children when they are gaining new

Many psychological researchers such as Lourenco (2012) argue that the development theories of Piaget and Vygotsky are too fundamentally different to be amalgamated. Others, such as Bruner (1966) and Glassman (1994), support the similarities (Butterworth & Harris, 2002), and state that together, they could give a more substantial understanding of development. This essay will focus on some of these similarities and differences. Consideration will be given to each of these approaches in regards to environmental relationships between the child and development, the methods used to undertake the subject of development and the theory of dialogue will be also be considered as another key focal point.

Vygotsky's Social Developement theory focused on the connections between people and the social and cultural context, in which they act and interact with others. According to Vygotsky, humans use tools that develop from a culture, such as speech and writing, to mediate their social environments. Intinitally children develop these tools to serve solely to communcate needs. Vygotsky believed that the internatlization of these tools led to higher thinking skills.

One of the most prevailing aspects of Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory is what he named the zone of proximal development. Vygotsky defined the zone of proximal development as “[t]he area of development into which a child can be led in the course of interaction with a more competent partner, either adult or peer. [It] is not some clear-cut space that exists independently of joint activity itself. Rather, it is the difference between what the child can accomplish independently and what he or she can achieve in conjunction with another, more competent person. The zone is thus created in the course of social interaction” (Vyogtsky FIND PAGE NUMBER). SEE MIND IN SOCIETY IN LIBRARY The zone of proximal development, known as the ZPD, is the place in which a child benefits the most from exposure to an activity or task. This is because “...children’s cognitive abilities increase through exposure of information that is new enough to be intriguing, but not too difficult for the child to contend with” (Feldman 228-229). Within this zone, children are able to perform some of, but not all of, the task independently. With the help of someone with more capable, they are able to complete the task. In this way, children are able to increase understanding and learn new tasks while avoiding frustration and defeat, meanwhile building confidence.

After some time, there has been an extension in our insight into the routes in which people create and learn. It is currently realized that children are starting to learn even before they are conceived. I frequently discover myself wishing I had known these things when my kids were creating. We all need our kids to be as well as can be expected be; with some information of how youngsters learn and the consecutive steps they must experience in numerous ranges of advancement, we can give numerous encounters at home to help them achieve their potential. At the point when teachers examine kids ' advancement, they for the most part discuss physical, mental, social, and enthusiastic improvement.

Piaget (1969) asserts that children’s cognitive development-stage is fixed; he believes children can only understand the concept of conservation and measurable attribute (e.g. volume, capacity, mass. weight) when they reach to certain age. However, Piaget’s (1969) theory is contradicted with numerous founding from recent researches that indicates children can develop an understanding of these concept during the early childhood year. Vygotsky (1978) believes the way children developed vary. Vygotsky (1978) emphasised children’s development occurs through parental instruction and interaction with the social environment. Number of researches shows the carers or the parent of the children provides scaffolding guides children to climb higher levels

In the world of psychology, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky are considered to be very prominent figures in the area of cognitive development. Both of these men considered themselves a constructivist, which entails a viewpoint that is concerned with the nature of knowledge. In their lifetime, both of them made contributions in the area of education and even after death, their theories still influence teaching methods. The purpose of this paper is to show some similarities as well as differences in the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky and what can be gained by having a better understanding of their theories.

Based on Bandura’s social learning theory, human development is continuous. This concludes that people are constantly changing, developing, gathering skills, watching and performing. Using Ben as an example, he gradually learned certain things in the ESL classroom. As I previously mentioned, writing was very difficult for him upon arriving to the U.S. Ben first learned how to hold a pencil properly, overserving from others and pictures that we provided to him, then he learned how to write his ABC’s, next he learned how to spell his name, and lastly proceeded to form words and write out short paragraphs independently. This demonstrates a smooth process, which Ben had to perform before attempting to write short papers in class.

As opposed to Piaget’s theory, Vygotsky strongly believes that it is through social interaction that learning occurs. As per Fogarty (1999), Vygotsky’s theory believes that learning is first present through face-to-face interactions. Once the fundamentals are achieved, then only a child could go through an internalization process for deeper learning. A prime example that can be illustrated from an everyday classroom are the instructions given by an educator. This example also relates to Vygotsky’s theory of “3 types of speech” – Social; Private; and Internal.