Sociocultural Theory

Rosa Maria Bernal Carvajal

Teacher's Diploma Course

Explain how the function of our mind is related
to the cultural, history and institutional
context, and the way the roles and interaction
we have with them influence our psicological
development
What is the role of culture in cognitive
development?

✔ Society

✔ Culture

● The structures and processes of the development of

and individual can be traced to interactions with
others
 Lev S Vigotsky focused on how
children learn:
“Learning awakens a variety of
internal developmental processes
able to operate only when the
child is interacting with people in
his environment and with his
peers”
 6 Assumptions of Vigotsky
Theory
1.Adults convey their knowledge of their social and cultural
enviroment to children by interacting with them

● Formal and Informal

conversations

● Share the meanings

of objects, events,
experiences etc...
2. Though and languaje become independent
in the first 2 years of life

3. Complex mental processes begin as social

interactions
➢ As children develop they internalize processes they use in social
processes and that allows them to internalize them and make their
own
Appropriation : process of internalization

Leontiev; the adequate use of a tool in their cultural

environment
John-Steiner and Mahn(1996) tell us that knowledge could
never be internalized directly but must be internalized through
psychologycal tools

Wertsch and Stone (1985)

affirm that connect the external
and the internal, the social and
the individual, is better done
through semiotic mechanisms,
including psychological tools
like “language; various
systems of counting;
mnemonic techniques;
algebraic symbol systems;
works of art; writing; schemes;
diagrams; maps and
mechanical drawing; all sorts
of conventional signs”
 4.Children can perform more challenging task when
they have assistance of more advanced and competent
individuals

Level of
Potential
Actual Development
development
level
leve

It is important to asses the level of actual development of a

child by evaluating their ability to perform tasks alone and
with the help of a more competent individual
5.Challenging tasks promote maximum
cognitive grow
ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT

ACTUAL Z HIGHER
DEVELOPMENT P
LEVEL DEVELOPMENT
D LEVEL
 Tasks that are out
the capacities of the child

The
Thechild
childcan
canwork
work
on
onmore
morecomplicated
complicatedtasks
tasks
with
withassistance
assistance

The child
can work
unassisted
 Scaffolding
Bruner (1975)
Instructionally supported interactions that guide
effective learning

●
Build on previous knowledge
●
Imitation
●
Help of peers

I +1
6. Play allows children to strech themselves
cognitively

Children create imaginary situations with the

acquired knowledge and reinforce the roles that
their environment has teached them by taking part
of those roles they could not take in real life.
Languaje Development

A tool of
socializing thinking
communicattion

For Vigotsky languaje is central in his theory of development

after all this is the medium that allows children to learn
 4 STAGES OF SPEECH DEVELOPMENT

1. Preintellectual Speech

➢ Cry
➢ Babble Social contac for Basic
➢ Gesturing needs
➢ laugh

2. Autonomous Speech
12 months
Invent words for easier communication
with adults
 Mom up
Wanna milk
Doggy
Ball mine

3. Naive Psychology
18-24 months
Connections are made between words and
objects
Simple request and short sentences
4.Communicative and Egocentric Speech (3-7
years old)

● Communicative or External: for others

● Egocentric: For oneself

➢ Self talk
➢ Active in children that are involved in the same activities
➢ Guide or directions the child uses for his activities
➢ Monologue
➢ Abbreviatted in preschool
 Egocentric Speech
transforms in to Inner
Speech
around 12 years old
 Approach to Learning and Teaching
From the beginning children are born with the basic abilities
to learn and develop
Vigotsky identifies them as 4 elementary mental functions

Attention
Sensation
Perception
Memory

Interacting within our sociocultural environment these functions

develops in to higher mental functions

Interrelationship of individual and

social processes in learning and
development.
Even when biologically limited (age)
cognitive functions are able to develop, but
they are socio-culturally determined. The
tools of intellectual adaptation, therefore,
vary from culture to culture
Freund (1990) conducted a study in which children had to
decide which items of furniture should be placed in
particular areas of a dolls house
Some children were allowed to play with their mother in a
similar situation before they attempted it alone (zone of
proximal development) while others were allowed to work
on this by themselves
Freund found that those who had previously worked with
their mother (ZPD) showed the greatest improvement
compared with their first attempt at the task. The
conclusion being that guided learning within the ZPD led
to greater understanding/performance than working alone
(discovery learning).
 Learning
● cooperative or
collaborative dialogue
social interactions with
a tutor where the addult
will model behaviours
and/or provide
instruction
Teaching
"reciprocal teaching,"
Summarizing
Questioning
Clarifying
predicting
The teacher's role in the process is reduced over time.

"scaffolding"
"apprenticeship,"

in which a teacher or more advanced peer helps to structure or

arrange a task so that a novice can work on it succesfully
.

Vygotsky's theories also feed into the current

interest in collaborative learning, suggesting
that group members should have different
levels of ability so more advanced peers can
help less advanced members operate within
their ZPD.
Thank you