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Showing posts with label Theories of Cognitive Development: Lev Vygotsky. Show all posts Showing posts with label Theories of Cognitive Development: Lev Vygotsky. Show all posts
SUNDAY, JANUARY 12, 2014

Theories of Cognitive Development: Lev Vygotsky

Born in Orsha, a part of the Russian Empire (now known as Belarus) on 17th November 1896, Vygotsky was a pioneer of psychology; he contributed much important research t o the field. He graduated from the Moscow State University in 1917, and went on to wor k in many research facilities and and educational establishments in Moscow, Leningrad and Kharkov. His extensive research into cognitive development has lead his theory to be one of the most important of its kind. He believed that childrens thinking is affected by their social knowledge, which are communicated by either psychological (language, number, art) or technical (books, calculator) means. He was and sometimes still is often criticised for being an idealist and his overemphasis of the role of language in thin king (more on the criticisms later). He was also a very popular author, with 6 volumes of his work being classed as major. Vygotsky rarely conducted research; he was more focused on constructing the best pos sible theory on the transfer of knowledge. Unfortunately, Vygotsky died at the very youn g age of 37 in 1934 from Tuberculosis, but once his main work was translated to English in 1962, it had a major impact on other psychological research in similar fields.

Vygotskys theory of cognitive development

As stated above, Vygotsky believed childrens thinking is affected by their knowledge of the social community (which is learnt from either technical or psychological cultural tools ). He also suggested that language is the most important tool for gaining this social kno wledge; the child can be taught this from other people via language. He defined intellige nce as the capacity to learn from instruction, which emphasises the fact there is a requ irement for a more knowledgable other person or teacher. He referred to them as just t hat: the More Knowledgable Other (MKO). MKOs can be parents, adults, teachers, co aches, experts/professionals but also things you might not first expect, such as children, friends and computers. He described something known as the zone of proximal development (ZPD), which is a key feature of his theory. There are two levels of attainment for the ZPD: Level 1 the present level of development. This describes what the child is capable of doing wit hout any help from others. Level 2 the potential level of development. This means what the child could potentially be cap able of with help from other people or teachers. The gap between level 1 and 2 (the present and potential development) is what Vygotsk y described as this zone of proximal development. He believed that through help from ot her, more knowledgable people, the child can potentially gain knowledge already held b y them. However, the knowledge must be appropriate for the childs level of comprehen sion. Anything that is too complicated for the child to learn that isnt in their ZPD cannot be learnt at all until there is a shift in the ZPD. When a child does attain their potential, t his shift occurs and the child can continue learning more complex, higher level material. Another important feature of this theory is scaffolding. When an adult provides support for a child, they will adjust the amount of help they give depending on their progress. Fo r example, a child learning to walk might at first have both their hands held and pulled u pwards. As they learn to support their own weight, the mother might hold both their han ds loosely. Then she might just hold one hand, then eventually nothing. This progressio n of different levels of help is scaffolding. It draws parallels from real scaffolding for build ings; it is used as a support for construction of new material (the skill/information to be l earnt) and then removed once the building is complete (the skill/information has been le arnt). Woods and Middleton (1975) studied the influence of instruction with their experiment. They provided 34 year olds with a puzzle which was beyond their comprehension on their own. The mot her then provided different levels of assistance for the child: L1 General verbal instruction (Very good! Now try that again.) L2 Specific verbal instruction (Get four big blocks) L3 Mother indicates material (You need this block here) L4 Mother provides material and prepares it for assembly L5 Mother demonstrates the operation

After the session, the child was assessed on whether they could construct the pyramid on their own. Results showed that when children were given varied support from mother s (low levels of support when the child was doing well, and high levels when the child str uggled) they were able to construct the pyramid on their own. However, when the mothe r consistently provided the same support, they seemed to make the child conclude the a ctivity was beyond their comprehension and the child soon lost interest in constructing t he pyramid. This shows the importance of providing the correct level of scaffolding whe n teaching a learner. As a final point, Vygotsky looked at the role of egocentric/private speech. This is, for exa mple, when a child will sit on their own and speak their thoughts out loud as they play. H e suggested a child is regulating and planning their behaviour at this point: Where is th e block? I cant find it. Oh well, Ill use this block. He called these monologues. By 7 years, these monologues become internalized and the child becomes a verbal thi nker, which is what most adults can do with no problem. When we are faced with a pro blem, and were alone, we quite often think through the problem but in our heads. Children before 7 will do this out loud. This verbal thinking forms the b asis for higher level, more abstract thinking (planning, reasoning, memorizing, evaluatin g). Quick summary the role of a teacher in cognitive development, and the need to have support from a More Knowledgable Other, or MKO. The zone of proximal development, or ZPD, differentiates between a learners current dev elopment and their potential development when being taught from a MKO. Scaffolding provides an effective way to reach potential levels of development, but only w hen different levels of assistance are given when required. Social and cultural tools are an important means of gaining intelligence. There is a close link between the acquisition of language and the development of thinking. Internalising monologues, and therefore becoming a verbal thinker, is a stepping stone to higher levels of thinking.
Emphasised

Vygotsky provided a very influential theory which provided a meaningful social context i n the development of learning. The emphasis of cultural knowledge was something uns een in Piagets theory. In the next post, I will be evaluating both of the cognitive theories (that of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky) and then comparing and evaluating them again st each other.
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