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The child and learning principles Module 6

Bachelor of Secondary Education (President Ramon Magsaysay State University)

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INTRODUCTION____________________________________________________________
The complexity of human development invites the creation of multiple
perspectives and theories, some global and grand in nature addressing
principles that apply to every domain of development where others are more
domain specific.
Child development theories focus on explaining how children change
and grow over the course of childhood. Such theories center on various
aspects of development including social, emotional, and cognitive growth.
This module will briefly describe the three theories on human
development: Lawrence Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development, Le
Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory and Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory.
Each theories can serve as a lens through which to view human development
and to guide practice decisions. It is useful to consider the implication that
each theory presents to further understand our learners and aid future
teachers in doing intervention and prevention programs.

INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES____________________________________________

At the end of the module the students are expected to:
1. Explain the Stages of Moral Development
2. Explain why Vygotsky’s theory is called “Socio-cultural” theory
3. Describe each the layers of Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Model.
4. Analyze a person’s level of moral reasoning based on his responses to
moral dilemmas.
5. Cite how the theory of moral development can be applied to your work
as a future teacher/educator.
6. Differentiate Piaget and Vygotsky views on cognitive development.
7. Explain how scaffolding is useful in teaching skill.
8. Identify factors in one’s own life that exerted influence on one’s
development.
9. Use the bioecological theory as a framework to describe the factors that
affect a child and adolescent development

DISCUSSION_______________________________________________________________

LAWRENCE KOHLBERG’S STAGES OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT

“Right action tends to be defined in terms of general individual rights and

standards that have been critically examined and agreed upon by the whole
society.”

Module 6: DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES ( Lawrence Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development,

Lev Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory, Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory)
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Individuals, when confronted by situations where they need to make

moral decisions, exercise their own ability to use moral reasoning.
Lawrence Kohlberg was interested in studying the development of
moral reasoning. He based his theory on the findings of Piaget in studying
cognitive development. Our ability to choose right from wrong is tied with our
ability to understand and reason logically.
Lawrence Kohlberg adopted and built on Piaget’s work, and set the
groundwork for the present debate within psychology on moral development.
Like Piaget, he believed that children form ways of thinking through their
experiences which include understandings of moral concepts such as justice,
rights, equality and human welfare. Kohlberg followed the development of
moral judgment and extended the ages covered by Piaget, and found out
that the process of attaining moral maturity took longer and occurred slower
than Piaget had thought.
Kohlberg (1963) built on the work of Piaget and was interested in finding
out how our moral reasoning changes as we get older. He wanted to find out
how people decide what is right and what is wrong. Just as Piaget believed
that children’s cognitive development follows specific patterns, Kohlberg
(1984) argued that we learn our moral values through active thinking and
reasoning, and that moral development follows a series of stages. Kohlberg's
six stages are generally organized into three levels of moral reasons. To study
moral development, Kohlberg posed moral dilemmas to children, teenagers,
and adults, such as the following:
A man’s wife is dying of cancer and there is only one drug that can save her.
The only place to get the drug is at the store of a pharmacist who is known to
overcharge people for drugs. The man can only pay $1,000, but the
pharmacist wants $2,000, and refuses to sell it to him for less, or to let him pay
later. Desperate, the man later breaks into the pharmacy and steals the
medicine. Should he have done that? Was it right or wrong? Why? (Kohlberg,
1984)
 Level One- Preconventional Morality: In stage one, moral reasoning is
based on concepts of punishment. The child believes that if the
consequence for an action is punishment, then the action was wrong.
In the second stage, the child bases his or her thinking on self-interest
and reward. "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours." The youngest
subjects seemed to answer based on what would happen to the man
as a result of the act. For example, they might say the man should not
break into the pharmacy because the pharmacist might find him and
beat him. Or they might say that the man should break in and steal the
drug and his wife will give him a big kiss. Right or wrong, both decisions

Module 6: DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES ( Lawrence Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development,

Lev Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory, Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory)
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were based on what would physically happen to the man as a result of

the act. This is a self-centered approach to moral decision-making. He
called this most superficial understanding of right and
wrong preconventional morality. Preconventional morality focuses on
self-interest. Punishment is avoided and rewards are sought. Adults can
also fall into these stages, particularly when they are under pressure.
 Level Two-Conventional Morality: Those tested who based their answers
on what other people would think of the man as a result of his act, were
placed in Level Two. For instance, they might say he should break into
the store, and then everyone would think he was a good husband, or he
should not because it is against the law. In either case, right and wrong
is determined by what other people think. In stage three, the person
wants to please others. At stage four, the person acknowledges the
importance of social norms or laws and wants to be a good member of
the group or society. A good decision is one that gains the approval of
others or one that complies with the law. This he called conventional
morality, people care about the effect of their actions on others. Some
older children, adolescents, and adults use this reasoning.
 Level Three-Post-conventional Morality: Right and wrong are based on
social contracts established for the good of everyone and that can
transcend the self and social convention. For example, the man should
break into the store because, even if it is against the law, the wife needs
the drug and her life is more important than the consequences the man
might face for breaking the law. Alternatively, the man should not
violate the principle of the right of property because this rule is essential
for social order. In either case, the person's judgment goes beyond what
happens to the self. It is based on a concern for others; for society as a
whole, or for an ethical standard rather than a legal standard. This level
is called post-conventional moral development because it goes
beyond convention or what other people think to a higher, universal
ethical principle of conduct that may or may not be reflected in the
law. Notice that such thinking is the kind Supreme Court justices do all
day when deliberating whether a law is moral or ethical, which requires
being able to think abstractly. Often this is not accomplished until a
person reaches adolescence or adulthood. In the fifth stage, laws are
recognized as social contracts. The reasons for the laws, like justice,
equality, and dignity, are used to evaluate decisions and interpret laws.
In the sixth stage, individually determined universal ethical principles are
weighed to make moral decisions. Kohlberg said that few people ever
reach this stage. The six stages can be reviewed in the table below.

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Lev Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory, Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory)
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Age Moral Level Description

Stage 1: Focus is on self-interest, and punishment
is avoided. The man shouldn't steal the drug, as
Young
he may get caught and go to jail.
children- Preconventional
Stage 2: Rewards are sought. A person at this
usually prior morality
level will argue that the man should steal the drug
to age 9
because he does not want to lose his wife who
takes care of him.
Stage 3: Focus is on how situational outcomes
Older impact others and wanting to please and be
children, accepted. The man should steal the drug
Conventional
adolescents, because that is what good husbands do.
morality
and most Stage 4: People make decisions based on laws or
adults formalized rules. The man should obey the law
because stealing is a crime.
Stage 5: Individuals employ abstract reasoning to
justify behaviors. The man should steal the drug
Rare with
because laws can be unjust, and you have to
adolescents Postconventional
consider the whole situation.
and few morality
Stage 6: Moral behavior is based on self-chosen
adults
ethical principles. The man should steal the drug
because life is more important than property.

Although research has supported Kohlberg’s idea that moral reasoning

changes from an early emphasis on punishment and social rules and
regulations to an emphasis on more general ethical principles, as with Piaget’s
approach, Kohlberg’s stage model is probably too simple. For one, people
may use higher levels of reasoning for some types of problems, but revert to
lower levels in situations where doing so is more consistent with their goals or
beliefs (Rest, 1979). Second, it has been argued that the stage model is
particularly appropriate for Western, rather than non-Western, samples in
which allegiance to social norms, such as respect for authority, may be
particularly important (Haidt, 2001). In addition, there is frequently little
correlation between how we score on the moral stages and how we behave
in real life.
Perhaps the most important critique of Kohlberg’s theory is that it may
describe the moral development of males better than it describes that of
females. Gilligan (1982) has argued that, because of differences in their

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Lev Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory, Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory)
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socialization, males tend to value principles of justice and rights, whereas

females value caring for and helping others. Although there is little evidence
for a gender difference in Kohlberg’s stages of moral development (Turiel,
1998), it is true that girls and women tend to focus more on issues of caring,
helping, and connecting with others than do boys and men (Jaffee & Hyde,
2000).

LEV VYGOTSKY’S SOCIO-CULTURAL THEORY

The work of Lev Vygotsky (1934) has become the foundation of much
research and theory in cognitive development over the past several decades,
particularly of what has become known as sociocultural theory. Sociocultural
theory views human development as a socially mediated process in which
children acquire their cultural values, beliefs, and problem-solving strategies
through collaborative dialogues with more knowledgeable members of
society.
Vygotsky's theories stress the fundamental role of social interaction in the
development of cognition (Vygotsky, 1978), as he believed strongly that
community plays a central role in the process of "making meaning."
Unlike Piaget's notion that childrens' development must necessarily
precede their learning, Vygotsky argued, "learning is a necessary and universal
aspect of the process of developing culturally organized, specifically human
psychological function" (1978, p. 90). In other words, social learning tends to
precede (i.e., come before) development.
Vygotsky has developed a sociocultural approach to cognitive
development. He developed his theories at around the same time as Jean
Piaget was starting to develop his ideas (1920's and 30's), but he died at the
age of 38, and so his theories are incomplete - although some of his writings
are still being translated from Russian.

VYGOTSKY’S THEORY VS. PIAGET’S THEORY

Vygotsky's theory differs from that of Piaget in a number of important ways:

1. Vygotsky places more emphasis on culture affecting cognitive
development.
This contradicts Piaget's view of universal stages and content of
development (Vygotsky does not refer to stages in the way that Piaget
does). Hence Vygotsky assumes cognitive development varies across
cultures, whereas Piaget states cognitive development is mostly universal
across cultures

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Lev Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory, Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory)
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.
2. Vygotsky places considerably more emphasis on social factors
contributing to cognitive development
Vygotsky states the importance of cultural and social context for
learning. Cognitive development stems from social interactions from
guided learning within the zone of proximal development as children
and their partner's co-construct knowledge. In contrast, Piaget
maintains that cognitive development stems largely from independent
explorations in which children construct knowledge of their own. For
Vygotsky, the environment in which children grow up will influence how
they think and what they think about.

3. Vygotsky places more (and different) emphasis on the role of language

in cognitive development
According to Piaget, language depends on thought for its
development (i.e., thought comes before language). For Vygotsky, thought
and language are initially separate systems from the beginning of life,
merging at around three years of age, producing verbal thought (inner
speech).
For Vygotsky, cognitive development results from an internalization of
language.
4. According to Vygotsky adults are important source of cognitive
development.
Adults transmit their culture's tools of intellectual adaptation that
children internalize. In contrast, Piaget emphasizes the importance of peers,
as peer interaction promotes social perspective taking.

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Lev Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory, Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory)
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EFFECTS OF CULTURE- TOOLS OF INTELLECTUAL ADAPTATION

Vygotsky claimed that infants are born with the basic abilities for
intellectual development called 'elementary mental functions' (Piaget focuses
on motor reflexes and sensory abilities).
Elementary mental functions includes: Attention, Sensation, Perception,
Memory. Eventually, through interaction within the sociocultural environment,
these are developed into more sophisticated and effective mental processes
which Vygotsky refers to as 'higher mental functions.'
Each culture provides its children tools of intellectual adaptation that
allow them to use the basic mental functions more effectively/adaptively.
Tools of intellectual adaptation is Vygotsky’s term for methods of thinking and
problem-solving strategies that children internalize through social interactions
with the more knowledgeable members of society.
For example, memory in young children this is limited by biological
factors. However, culture determines the type of memory strategy we
develop. For example, in western culture, children learn note-taking to aid
memory, but in pre-literate societies, other strategies must be developed, such
as tying knots in a string to remember, or carrying pebbles, or repetition of the
names of ancestors until large numbers can be repeated.
Vygotsky, therefore, sees cognitive functions, even those carried out
alone, as affected by the beliefs, values, and tools of intellectual adaptation
of the culture in which a person develops and therefore socio-culturally
determined. The tools of intellectual adaptation, therefore, vary from culture
to culture - as in the memory example.

SOCIAL INFLUENCES ON COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Like Piaget, Vygotsky believes that young children are curious and
actively involved in their own learning and the discovery and development of
new understandings/schema. However, Vygotsky placed more emphasis on
social contributions to the process of development, whereas Piaget
emphasized self-initiated discovery.
According to Vygotsky much important learning by the child occurs
through social interaction with a skillful tutor. The tutor may model behaviors
and/or provide verbal instructions for the child. Vygotsky refers to this as
cooperative or collaborative dialogue. The child seeks to understand the
actions or instructions provided by the tutor (often the parent or teacher) then
internalizes the information, using it to guide or regulate their own
performance.

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Lev Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory, Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory)
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Shaffer (1996) gives the example of a young girl who is given her first
jigsaw. Alone, she performs poorly in attempting to solve the puzzle. The father
then sits with her and describes or demonstrates some basic strategies, such as
finding all the corner/edge pieces and provides a couple of pieces for the
child to put together herself and offers encouragement when she does so.
As the child becomes more competent, the father allows the child to
work more independently. According to Vygotsky, this type of social
interaction involving cooperative or collaborative dialogue promotes
cognitive development.
In order to gain an understanding of Vygotsky's theories on cognitive
development, one must understand two of the main principles of Vygotsky's
work: the More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) and the Zone of Proximal
Development (ZPD).

MORE KNOWLEDGEABLE OTHER (MKO)

The more knowledgeable other (MKO) is somewhat self-explanatory; it

refers to someone who has a better understanding or a higher ability level than
the learner, with respect to a particular task, process, or concept.
Although the implication is that the MKO is a teacher or an older adult,
this is not necessarily the case. Many times, a child's peers or an adult's children
may be the individuals with more knowledge or experience.
For example, who is more likely to know more about the newest teenage
music groups, how to win at the most recent PlayStation game, or how to
correctly perform the newest dance craze - a child or their parents?
In fact, the MKO need not be a person at all. Some companies, to
support employees in their learning process, are now using electronic
performance support systems.
Electronic tutors have also been used in educational settings to facilitate
and guide students through the learning process. The key to MKOs is that they
must have (or be programmed with) more knowledge about the topic being
learned than the learner does.

ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT

The ZPD refers to the difference between what a learner can do without
help and what he or she can achieve with guidance and encouragement
from a skilled partner. Thus, the term “proximal” refers those skills that the
learner is “close” to mastering. The zone of proximal development (ZPD) has
been defined as: "the distance between the actual developmental level as
determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential

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Lev Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory, Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory)
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development as determined through problem-solving under adult guidance,

or in collaboration with more capable peers" (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 86). Vygotsky
believed that when a student is in the ZPD for a particular task, providing the
appropriate assistance will give the student enough of a "boost" to achieve
the task.

ZPD Example

Maria just entered college this semester and decided to take an

introductory tennis course. Her class spends each week learning and
practicing a different shot. Weeks go by, and they learn how to properly serve
and hit a backhand. During the week of learning the forehand, the instructor
notices that Maria is very frustrated because she keeps hitting her forehand
shots either into the net or far past the baseline. He examines her preparation
and swing. He notices that her stance is perfect, she prepares early, she turns
her torso appropriately, and she hits the ball at precisely the right height.
However, he notices that she is still gripping her racquet the same way
she hits her backhand, so he goes over to her and shows her how to reposition
her hand to hit a proper forehand, stressing that she should keep her index
finger parallel to the racquet. He models a good forehand for her, and then
assists her in changing her grip. With a little practice, Maria's forehand turns
into a formidable weapon for her!
In this case, Maria was in the zone of proximal development for

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Lev Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory, Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory)
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successfully hitting a forehand shot. She was doing everything else correctly,
but just needed a little coaching and scaffolding from a "More
Knowledgeable Other" to help her succeed in this task.
When that assistance was given, she became able to achieve her goal.
Provided with appropriate support at the right moments, so too will students
in classrooms be able to achieve tasks that would otherwise be too difficult
for them.

THEORY OF SCAFFOLDING?
The ZPD has become synonymous in the literature with the term
scaffolding. However, it is important to note that Vygotsky never used this term
in his writing, and it was introduced by Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976).
Scaffolding consists of the activities provided by the educator, or more
competent peer, to support the student as he or she is led through the zone
of proximal development.
Support is tappered off (i.e. withdrawn) as it becomes unnecessary,
much as a scaffold is removed from a building during construction. The
student will then be able to complete the task again on his own.
Wood et al. (1976, p. 90) define scaffolding as a process "that enables a
child or novice to solve a task or achieve a goal that would be beyond his
unassisted efforts." As they note, scaffolds require the adult's "controlling those
elements of the task that are initially beyond the learner's capability, thus
permitting him to concentrate upon and complete only those elements that
are within his range of competence" (p. 90).
It is important to note that the terms cooperative learning, scaffolding
and guided learning all have the same meaning within the literature.
The following study provides empirical support both the concept of
scaffolding and the ZPD. Wood and Middleton (1975)
Procedure: 4-year-old children had to use a set of blocks and pegs to build a
3D model shown in a picture. Building the model was too difficult a task for a
4-year-old child to complete alone.
Wood and Middleton (1975) observed how mothers interacted with their
children to build the 3D model. The type of support included:
1. General encouragement e.g., ‘now you have a go.’
2. Specific instructions e.g., ‘get four big blocks.’
3. Direct demonstration, e.g., showing the child how to place one block on
another.

The results of the study showed that no single strategy was best for helping
the child to progress. Mothers whose assistance was most effective were those

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Lev Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory, Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory)
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who varied their strategy according to how the child was doing. When the
child was doing well, they became less specific with their help. When the child
started to struggle, they gave increasingly specific instructions until the child
started to make progress again.
The study illustrates scaffolding and Vygotsky's concept of the ZPD.
Scaffolding (i.e., assistance) is most effective when the support is matched to
the needs of the learner. This puts them in a position to achieve success in an
activity that they would previously not have been able to do alone.
Wood et al. (1976) named certain processes that aid effective scaffolding:

SCAFFOLDING VS. DISCOVERY LEARNING

Freund (1990) wanted to investigate if children learn more effectively via
Piaget's concept of discovery learning or by guided learning via the ZPD.
She asked a group of children between the ages of three and five years
to help a puppet to decide which furniture should be placed in the various
rooms of a dolls house. First Freund assessed what each child already
understood about the placement of furniture (as a baseline measure). Next,
each child worked on a similar task, either alone (re: discovery based
learning) or with their mother (re: scaffolding / guided learning). To assess
what each child had learned they were each given a more complex,
furniture sorting task.
The results of the study showed that children assisted by their mother
performed better at the furniture sorting than the children who worked
independently.

VYGOTSKY AND LANGUAGE

Vygotsky believed that language develops from social interactions, for

communication purposes. Vygotsky viewed language as man’s greatest
tool, a means for communicating with the outside world.
According to Vygotsky (1962) language plays two critical roles in cognitive
development:
1: It is the main means by which adults transmit information to children.
2: Language itself becomes a very powerful tool of intellectual adaptation.

Vygotsky differentiates between three forms of language: social speech

which is external communication used to talk to others (typical from the age
of two); private speech (typical from the age of three) which is directed to the
self and serves an intellectual function; and finally private speech goes

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Lev Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory, Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory)
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underground, diminishing in audibility as it takes on a self-regulating function

and is transformed into silent inner speech (typical from the age of seven).
For Vygotsky, thought and language are initially separate systems
from the beginning of life, merging at around three years of age. At this point
speech and thought become interdependent: thought becomes verbal,
speech becomes representational. When this happens, children's
monologues internalized to become inner speech. The internalization of
language is important as it drives cognitive development.
'Inner speech is not the interior aspect of external speech - it is a
function in itself. It still remains speech, i.e., thought connected with words. But
while in external speech thought is embodied in words, in inner speech words
dies as they bring forth thought. Inner speech is to a large extent thinking in
pure meanings.'(Vygotsky, 1962: p. 149)
Vygotsky was the first psychologist to document the importance of
private speech. He considered private speech as the transition point
between social and inner speech, the moment in development where
language and thought unite to constitute verbal thinking.
Thus private speech, in Vygotsky's view, was the earliest manifestation of
inner speech. Indeed, private speech is more similar (in its form and function)
to inner speech than social speech. Private speech is 'typically defined, in
contrast to social speech, as speech addressed to the self (not to others) for
the purpose of self-regulation (rather than communication).' (Diaz, 1992, p.62)
Unlike inner speech which is covert (i.e., hidden), private speech is overt.
In contrast to Piaget’s (1959) notion of private speech representing a
developmental dead-end, Vygotsky (1934, 1987) viewed private speech as: 'A
revolution in development which is triggered when preverbal thought and
preintellectual language come together to create fundamentally new forms
of mental functioning. '(Fernyhough & Fradley, 2005: p. 1).

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Lev Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory, Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory)
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In addition to disagreeing on the functional significance of private

speech, Vygotsky and Piaget also offered opposing views on the
developmental course of private speech and the environmental
circumstances in which it occurs most often (Berk & Garvin, 1984).

Through private speech, children begin to collaborate with themselves

in the same way a more knowledgeable other (e.g., adults) collaborate with
them in the achievement of a given function.
Vygotsky sees "private speech" as a means for children to plan activities and
strategies and therefore aid their development. Private speech is the use of
language for self-regulation of behaviour. Language is, therefore, an
accelerator to thinking/understanding (Jerome Bruner also views language in
this way). Vygotsky believed that children who engaged in large amounts of
private speech are more socially competent than children who do not use it
extensively.
Vygotsky (1987) notes that private speech does not merely
accompany a child’s activity but acts as a tool used by the developing child
to facilitate cognitive processes, such as overcoming task obstacles,
enhancing imagination, thinking, and conscious awareness. Children use
private speech most often during intermediate difficulty tasks because they
are attempting to self-regulate by verbally planning and organizing their
thoughts (Winsler et al., 2007).

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Lev Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory, Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory)
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The frequency and content of private speech are then correlated with
behaviour or performance. For example, private speech appears to be
functionally related to cognitive performance: It appears at times of
difficulty with a task.
For example, tasks related to executive function (Fernyhough &
Fradley, 2005), problem- solving tasks (Behrend et al., 1992), schoolwork in
both language (Berk & Landau, 1993), and mathematics (Ostad & Sorensen,
2007). Berk (1986) provided empirical support for the notion of private
speech. She found that most private speech exhibited by children serves to
describe or guide the child's actions.
Berk also discovered than child engaged in private speech more
often when working alone on challenging tasks and also when their teacher
was not immediately available to help them. Furthermore, Berk also found
that private speech develops similarly in all children regardless of cultural
background.
Vygotsky (1987) proposed that private speech is a product of an
individual’s social environment. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that
there exist high positive correlations between rates of social interaction and
private speech in children.
Children raised in cognitively and linguistically stimulating
environments (situations more frequently observed in higher socioeconomic
status families) start using and internalizing private speech faster than
children from less privileged backgrounds. Indeed, children raised in
environments characterized by low verbal and social exchanges exhibit
delays in private speech development.
Childrens’ use of private speech diminishes as they grow older and
follows a curvilinear trend. This is due to changes in ontogenetic
development whereby children are able to internalize language (through
inner speech) in order to self-regulate their behaviour (Vygotsky, 1987).
For example, research has shown that childrens’ private speech usually
peaks at 3–4 years of age, decreases at 6–7 years of age, and gradually fades
out to be mostly internalized by age 10 (Diaz, 1992).
Vygotsky proposed that private speech diminishes and disappears
with age not because it becomes socialized, as Piaget suggested, but rather
because it goes underground to constitute inner speech or verbal thought”
(Frauenglass & Diaz, 1985).

EDUCATIONAL APPLICATIONS
Vygotsky believes the role of education to provide children with
experiences which are in their ZPD, thereby encouraging and advancing their

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Lev Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory, Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory)
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individual learnin. (Berk, & Winsler, (1995).

'From a Vygotskian perspective, the teacher's role is mediating the
child's learning activity as they share knowledge through social interaction'
(Dixon-Krauss, 1996, p. 18).
Lev Vygotsky views interaction with peers as an effective way of
developing skills and strategies. He suggests that teachers use cooperative
learning exercises where less competent children develop with help from
more skillful peers - within the zone of proximal development.
Scaffolding is a key feature of effective teaching, where the adult
continually adjusts the level of his or her help in response to the learner's level
of performance. In the classroom, scaffolding can include modeling a skill,
providing hints or cues, and adapting material or activity (Copple &
Bredekamp, 2009).
Consider these guidelines for scaffolding instruction (Silver, 2011).
1. Scaffolding not only produces immediate results, but also instills the skills
necessary for independent problem solving in the future.
2. A contemporary application of Vygotsky's theories is "reciprocal
teaching," used to improve students' ability to learn from text. In this
method, teacher and students collaborate in learning and practicing
four key skills: summarizing, questioning, clarifying, and predicting. The
teacher's role in the process is reduced over time.
3. Vygotsky's theories also feed into 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 zone of proximal development.

URIE BRONFENBRENNER ECOLOGICAL THEORY

“ Children need people in order to become a human”

Urie Bronfenbrenner was a Russian born American developmental

psychologist who is known for his ecological systems theory of child
development. Bronfenbrenner’s model is also known as Bioecological
System. This theory presents the child development within the context of
relationship system that comprise the child environment.

BRONFENBRENNER’S BIOECOLOGICAL MODEL:STRUCTURE OF ENVIRONMENT

Module 6: DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES ( Lawrence Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development,

Lev Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory, Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory)
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1. The Microsystem. Is the layer nearest the child. It comprises structure

which the child directly interacts with. They are called immediate
environment
The theory states that we are not mere recipients of the experiences we
have when socializing with these people in the micro system
environment, but we are contributing to the construction of such
environment.
Example: Your family, friends, classmates, teachers, neighbors and other
people who have a direct contact with you
Question: Does the child have strong and nurturing relationships with the
parents and the family?
Question: Are his/her needs met?

2. The Mesosystem. This layer serve as the relationships between two or

more microsystems such as what is learned at home culturally. They are
called connections.
Example: Interactions between the parents and teachers.
The parents and health services, the community and the church

3. The Exosystem. Environment that effect how one develops that is out of
their control. They are called indirect environment.

Module 6: DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES ( Lawrence Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development,

Lev Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory, Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory)
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Example: workplace, mass media, city government

Suppose a child is more attached to his father than his mother. If the
father goes abroad to work for several months, there may be a conflict
between the mother and the child's social relationship, or on the other
hand, this event may result to a tighter bond between the mother and
the child.

4. The Macrosystem. Refers to a large cultural and social structural

elements of the environment that shape human development. They are
called social and cultural values. The cultural contexts involve the
socioeconomic status of the person and/or his family, his ethnicity or
race and living in a still developing or a third world country.
Example: marriage ceremonies, the actual culture of an individual,
being born to a poor family makes a person work harder every day.

5. The Chronosystem. Big events in the world that help psychologist

understand the affect it will impact in a person’s development through
time. They are called Changes Over Time.
Example: A family through a divorce, a nation going to war

THE ROLE OF SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS

“The instability and unpredictability of family life is the most destructive
force to a child’s development”
Researchers tell us that the absence or lack of children constant mutual
interaction with important adults has negative effects on their development.
Bronfenbrenner’s Theory reminds the school and teachers of their very
important role.
This theory helps teacher look into a very child’s environmental systems
in order to understand more about the characteristics and needs of each
child, each learner. The school and the teachers can contribute stability and
long term relationships in the home.

Module 6: DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES ( Lawrence Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development,

Lev Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory, Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory)
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Module 6: Developmental Theories ( Lawrence Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development, Lev

Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory, Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory)
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