SOCIO-CULTURAL THEORY

Lev Vygotsky

Questions to Answer

1. Explain the zone of actual development and zone of proximal development.

When a child attempts to perform a skill alone, s/he may not be immediately proficient at it. So,
alone s/he may perform at a certain level of competency. We refer to this as the zone of actual
development. However, with the guidance of a competent adult or more advanced peer, the child
can perform at a higher level of competency. The difference between what the child can
accomplish alone and what she can accomplish with the guidance of another is what Vygotsky
referred to as the zone of proximal development.

2. State and demonstrate appreciation for the use of scaffolding to facilitate learning.

The term ‘scaffolding’ comes from the works of Wood, Bruner, and Ross (1976). The term
‘scaffolding’ was developed as a metaphor to describe the type of assistance offered by a teacher
or peer to support learning. In the process of scaffolding, the teacher helps the student master a
task or concept that the student is initially unable to grasp independently. The teacher helps with
only those skills that are beyond the student’s capability. Of great importance is allowing the
student to complete as much of the task as possible, unassisted. The teacher only attempts to help
the student with tasks that are just beyond his current capability. Student errors are expected, but,
with teacher feedback and prompting, the student can achieve the task or goal. When the student
takes responsibility for or masters the task, the teacher begins the process of “fading”, or the
gradual removal of the scaffolding, which allows the student to work independently.
“Scaffolding is a bridge used to build upon what students already know to arrive at something
they do not know. If scaffolding is properly administered, it will act as an enabler, not as a
disabler” (Benson, 1997).
(https://granite.pressbooks.pub/teachingdiverselearners/chapter/scaffolding-2/)

3. Why did Vygotsky recognize social interaction and language are the two central
factors in cognitive development?

Language is the basis of Vygotsky’s ideas on social interaction. The development of speech
occurs in three stages: external, egocentric, and inner speech. External or social speech occurs
from birth until the age of three. Babies use language to communicate their feelings, express
their emotions, and share simple words. They use language to state their needs and respond to
their parent’s speech. You can begin to see the social influence on behavior as early as this stage
based on the reactions to their demands. Even though babies use language to control their needs,
the people around them express approval or disapproval based on their behavior. This leads to
cognitive development within the individual. The next stage, egocentric speech, occurs between
the ages of three and seven. As they begin to rationalize internally their actions or behavior,
children begin to talk to them. This inner speech helps them control their reasoning and organize
their thoughts. They continue to interpret meaning from the reactions of others, further
integrating the cultural beliefs into their own cognitive development. Without language,
Vygotsky believed that we would be limited to a more primitive function. Language is ultimately
the tool by which we communicate the desired behaviors and therefore enable the development
of a society and its culture. (https://educationaltechnology.net/lev-vygotsky-sociocultural-
theory-of-cognitive-development/)

4. What’s the theory all about?

Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of human learning describes learning as a social process and the
origin of human intelligence in society or culture. The major theme of Vygotsky’s theoretical
framework is that social interaction plays a fundamental role in the development of cognition.
Vygotsky believed everything is learned on two levels. First, through interaction with others, and
then integrated into the individual’s mental structure.
Every function in the child’s cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and
later, on the individual level; first, between people (inter-psychological) and then inside the child
(intra-psychological). This applies equally to voluntary attention, to logical memory, and to the
formation of concepts. All the higher functions originate as actual relationships between
individuals. (Vygotsky, 1978, p.57) A second aspect of Vygotsky’s theory is the idea that the
potential for cognitive development is limited to a "zone of proximal development" (ZPD). This
"zone" is the area of exploration for which the student is cognitively prepared but requires help
and social interaction to fully develop (Briner, 1999). A teacher or more experienced peer can
provide the learner with "scaffolding" to support the student’s evolving understanding of
knowledge domains or development of complex skills. Collaborative learning, discourse,
modelling, and scaffolding are strategies for supporting the intellectual knowledge and skills of
learners and facilitating intentional learning.
(http://www.ceebl.manchester.ac.uk/events/archive/aligningcollaborativelearning/
Vygotsky.pdf)

Do the exercise below.

An Exercise in Scaffolding:

1. Choose a skill you are good at.

Word play- we can call this as a pre-teach vocabulary. Before beginning a new lesson, unlock
the difficulties of words that the learners will encounter before starting a new topic.

2. Identify an individual to whom you can teach this skill. Somebody who will benefit
from scaffolding.
Learners in school that have difficulties in understanding the meaning of some words,
especially those words that are unfamiliar to them. When organizing a talk, those individuals
participating can also benefit from this because allowing them to know the meaning of some
terminologies can greatly help them as they listen along the way.

3. Break down the steps you will take in teaching the skill.
School: Learners
Pre-teaching vocabulary doesn’t mean pulling a dozen words from the chapter and having kids
look up definitions and write them out—we all know how that will go. Instead, introduce the
words to kids in photos or in context with things they know and are interested in. Use analogies
and metaphors and invite students to create a symbol or drawing for each word. Give time for
small-group and whole-class discussion of the words. Not until they’ve done all this should the
dictionaries come out. And the dictionaries will be used only to compare with those definitions
they’ve already discovered on their own. (https://www.edutopia.org/blog/scaffolding-lessons-
six-strategies-rebecca-alber)
Talk: Participants
The participants already know the topic of the talk or seminar. Just list the unfamiliar
terminologies and initially introduce those words to them. We are not sure that they all brought
their individual dictionary, so better give meaning to those words as a preliminary input of what
the topic is all about.
4. Determine how you will use scaffolding. Describe the specific actions you will do to
scaffold.
For learners in school the use of words together with the meaning and picture if possible. For the
talk participants, words and meaning is enough. Present to them the words or terminologies that
will be used to the topic, make sure that these words are unfamiliar or new to them and essential
for the understanding of the topic. School learners prefer word meaning presentation through text
and image presentation using picture cards or image projection. Participants of a talk just prefer
word meaning reading or word meaning projection.

5. Teach the skill to the individual.

Learners in school: Allow them to watch and listen as you present the words, let them ask
questions or add insights if they have.
Talk participant: Allow them to read the word meaning projected, this is just an overview of the
topic, so questions will be entertained after the talk.

6. Describe how the learning activity went.

Most of the learners in school prefer the word meaning presentation through image and word
text presentation; they like image projection because there are some images that are moving (the
use of GIF image files).
Participants of the talk, on the other hand, like the word meaning presentation because they
listen to the talk carefully, thanks to the preliminary terminologies meaning unlocking. They also
have minor questions about the topic because they initially know some difficult words prior to
the talk.

7. From the module on Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory, I learned that…

Learners regardless of age can learn anything. The only advantage of adult learners compared to
child learners is that the adult can learn on their own, not like a child that should be accompanied
by anyone when they need to learn something. There are also instances that a child can learn
alone allowing them to be independent, but not all things can be learned by just oneself, therefore
the need of assistance from the others is recommended. The assistance given is like a lever that
lifts the child’s knowledge so that the child can learn more things and new things along the way.
Meaning, the help from anyone for a child to learn is essential to the child to become more
productive and aware of anything ahead.

God bless and Stay Safe everyone.