Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory

For
CTET Examination 2018

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Contents
1 Pre-Intro ................................................................................................................................................ 3
2 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 3
3 Effect of Culture on Development ........................................................................................................ 3
4 Effect of Social Interactions on Development ...................................................................................... 4
4.1 Social Learning Precedes Development ....................................................................................... 5
4.2 More Knowledgeable Other .......................................................................................................... 7
4.3 Zone of Proximal Development .................................................................................................... 8
4.4 Scaffolding .................................................................................................................................... 9
4.4.1 Strategies for Scaffolding .................................................................................................... 10
4.4.2 Combined view of MKO, ZPD and Scaffolding .................................................................... 10
5 Make believe Play ............................................................................................................................... 11
6 Vygotsky and Language....................................................................................................................... 11
7 Classroom Applications of Vygotsky ................................................................................................... 12
7.1 Reciprocal Teaching .................................................................................................................... 13
7.2 Collaborative Learning ................................................................................................................ 13
7.3 Guided or Motivated Learning .................................................................................................... 13

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1 Pre-Intro
Following are theories of Child Development we need to study. The theories have been
grouped in the respective categories. In this chapter we will study about Vygotsky’s Socio-
cultural theory of Cognitive Development

2 Introduction
This theory is related to Cognitive Development of child. Lev Vygotsky stressed the
importance of Social Interactions and Culture in development.
• He believed that the way children think would also depend on their culture. Hence
Cognitive development will vary according to the Culture
• He also believed that Children can learn more through social interactions when
more intelligent person helps them in learning

3 Effect of Culture on Development

Every Child by birth has some basic abilities to think. But when he interacts with the
outside world these basic abilities grow into some effective mental abilities. The culture in
which he is brought up does have an influence on the cognitive development

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 Example 1:

• In some cultures, mnemonics are used to remember something. Mnemonics are

techniques to remember something like we use VIBGYOR to remember the colors of
rainbow.
• In other cultures, mind maps are used to remember something. A mind map is
a diagram used to visually organize information. The figure below shows the mind map

Figure 1

• These memorization techniques are called tools of intellectual adaptation. Now

depending upon the culture, a person would use the memorization technique which
would affect the cognitive development

Example 2
• In some cultures, eating non-veg is a bad thing.
• Children developing under this culture would surely be influenced by such beliefs like
they might not support that eating non-veg can cure certain diseases

Thus, intellectual tools of adaption, beliefs etc. in the culture affects the cognitive
development

4 Effect of Social Interactions on Development

• Vygotsky believes that young children are curious and actively involved in their own
learning and the discovery of things. However, Vygotsky placed more emphasis on social
contributions to the process of development whereas Piaget emphasized self-initiated
discovery.

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 • 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 internalize the information, using it to guide or
regulate their own performance
• Internalization means an individual's acceptance of a set of norms and values
(established by others) through socialization. Internalization is in which something (i.e.
an idea, concept, action) moves from outside the mind or personality to a place inside of
it. For example, a teacher would teach student not to throw the food on floor. With
time, the student would accept this as a norm and would always abide by it whenever
he/she is eating food

For Example: 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.

4.1 Social Learning Precedes Development

1. Children are unable to learn and develop if they are removed from society, or are
forbidden to interact with it.
2. Look at the typical development of a child: his first teachers were his parents, who
taught him his first words and guided him as he took his first steps, or as he went
“potty”.
3. On play dates, he learned how to play with other kids his age, and slowly built a
bond with one or two kids that he ended up being the closest to him

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4. On the first day of school, he met his teacher, and several other teachers in the
following years.

So, all his learning eventually takes place when he works with other people such as his
parents, teachers and classmates

Does this mean that all People are born with zero Abilities?
However, that does not mean that people are born with absolutely zero abilities.
Vygotsky is quick to point out that everyone is born with basic or elementary functions
or abilities that will be present by birth. Such functions are called lower elementary
functions.

Examples of elementary or lower mental functions (LMFs) are:

1. Sensation: A child does not need to be taught that something is hot, cold, sweet, or
bitter. His senses are will automatically deliver those messages to his brain, so he can
react accordingly.

2. Hunger: There are bodily processes that are beyond a person’s control, and one of them
is hunger. When an infant is hungry, he is hungry, and so he will show it by crying or
acting restless. He does not need to be told that he is hungry since his body will manifest
the fact.

3. Memory: Young children can immediately commit things to memory in a natural manner.
A baby will instantly recognize the sound of his mother’s voice, or the taste of baby food

As the child grows older, and as his social learning is increased through more social
interactions, his elementary mental functions gets evolved into his “higher mental
functions” or HMF. Unlike elementary mental functions, they are stimulated. They are
taught, and they are learned in social settings or environments, and they often come
with social meanings

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4.2 More Knowledgeable Other

More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) is the person who has better understanding of the
concept, idea or knowledge. MKO can be a teacher, peer, parents etc.

Example 1
• If a teacher who has better understanding of the concept and helps the children to
solve problems, then teacher is the MKO here
• If a peer has better understanding of the PlayStation game and helps the friend to
play better, then peer is the MKO
• In fact, the More Knowledgeable Other need not be a person at all. Some
companies, to support employees in their learning process, are now using electronic
performance support systems

Example 2
• Take, for example, a father and his little boy headed to their backyard to play catch.
He happens to know how to play baseball, and he plans to teach his boy the basics
while he is still young. In this case, the MKO is the father, by his adult status and his
knowledge and skills in the sport.

• Twenty years later, the son is now a professional baseball player, and his father has
just retired. Before a major game, the son hands his father the latest, most advanced
camcorder model, so he can film the game from his VIP seat. He sits down with his
father and teaches him how to operate the camcorder. This time, the MKO is the
son, since he is more knowledgeable about the device.

• To prepare for the game, the son had to leave, but before doing so, he downloaded
an app on his father’s cell phone that will guide him further on how to work the
camcorder. The father was then left exploring the features of the camcorder, using
the voice prompts from the app on his phone. The MKO is now the electronic
device, his cell phone.

• While learning and discovery that is self-initiated is effective, learning becomes

more productive and contributory to cognitive development when acquired from an
MKO.

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4.3 Zone of Proximal Development

• This is an important concept that relates to the difference between what a child can
achieve independently and what a child can achieve with guidance and
encouragement from a skilled partner

• It is also called ZPD

1. The inner circle or ring represents what the child already knows, while the third,
outermost circle or rings represents what he still does not know and is too
difficult to learn
2. The middle circle is an empty area between the inner and outer circles, is the
Zone of Proximal Development. That is where the learning will take place with
the assistance of MKO

Example 1

• The example we discussed above where child was not able to solve the jigsaw
puzzles but was able to do with the help of father is an example of ZPD

• In this case child knew that blocks need to be connected but he did not know how to
connect them. The difference between them is called ZPD

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 • MKO helps the child cross the ZPD and achieve something which cannot be
achieved alone. Father is the MKO here

• ZPD is the area where guidance or instruction should be given with care as child
would need direction and encouragement

• Vygotsky believed that teachers should engage children in collaborative leaning as

children can learn from each other and cross the ZPD

This concept is important for teachers because it helps them understand the need to
provide guidance so that children can learn more

Example 2

• Let us go back to the father and son example. The first few times, the father taught
his son how to catch and throw the ball, holding his hand, teaching how to grip, pull
back, and throw. After showing how it’s done several times, he will step back and let
his son do it on his own. From time to time, he will give pointers and corrections but,
for the most part, he let his son practice on his own. Soon, the son learned how to
figure things out on his own, so he starts practicing how to play ball by himself, not
asking for help from his father unless necessary.

• When the son gave his father the camcorder, he showed him how to turn it on, and
what buttons to push to record, zoom in, zoom out, pause, and other key features.
Then he handed it over to his father, who practiced what he was just taught.

4.4 Scaffolding

• The assistance which is given by the MKO to the child to cross the ZPD is called
Scaffolding
• Scaffolding helps learners complete the task which were not possible to complete
individually
• Scaffolding should be decreased gradually when the child starts to learn the
concepts

Example
• In the jigsaw puzzle example, the help provided by father to the child is an example
of Scaffolding. Father decreased the help after some time when the child herself
started to put the puzzles in place

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• Similarly, in the Father/Son example where father taught the son as in how to play
basketball, after some time father will decrease the help provided and son would
learn on his own

4.4.1 Strategies for Scaffolding

Scaffolding is not meant that instructor should complete the child’s work but instead
it means that teacher/peer should assist the child in such a way that child learns to
perform this task individually over a period. Scaffolding strategies will contain

4.4.2 Combined view of MKO, ZPD and Scaffolding

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5 Make believe Play
Vygotsky saw make-believe play as an important part of child development. In this child take up
distinct roles of adults such as doctor, Mom, Dad, Inspector etc.

Make-believe play allows children to practice how they would act in the real world. It provides
them with a way to gain the basic skills needed to function in their society before they become
adults. However, learning these roles and skills is only done with help from others in their culture.

6 Vygotsky and Language

• Vygotsky believed development of language as a complex interaction between the
child and the environment
• Vygotsky viewed language as developing thought. A child's external speech is the first
step in the development of thinking. Vygotsky's theory stresses the importance of
communication with others as a major factor in the development of a child's language,
which stimulates the development of thought
• In other words, Vygotsky believed that the language is learned first which stimulates
the thought development
• 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 rational.

Vygotsky (1987) differentiates between three forms of language:

1. Social speech which is external communication used to talk to others (typical from the
age of two). His thoughts are simple, and his emotions basic, and there is no intellectual
or thinking exercise involved. Therefore, he makes use of his limited speech to express

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 simple thoughts of hunger, pleasure, displeasure, satisfaction and dissatisfaction
through crying, laughing, shouting, and gurgling

2. Private speech or Egocentric Speech (typical from the age of three) which is directed to
the self and is the child to direct his own behavior. During this child speaks with himself
in a louder tone while doing activities.

a. Children use private speech most often during intermediate difficulty tasks because
they are attempting to self-regulate by verbally planning and organizing their
thoughts
b. It acts as a tool used by the developing child to facilitate cognitive processes, such as
overcoming task obstacles, enhancing imagination, thinking, and conscious
awareness.
c. Vygotsky believed that children who are engaged in enormous amounts of private
speech are the one’s who are socially more competent than children who do not use
it extensively. Vygotsky proposed that private speech is a product of an individual’s
social environment

3. Inner Speech: Finally, private speech goes underground, diminishing in audibility and is
transformed into silent inner speech.

This does not require his thoughts to be voiced out loud, with all thinking processes done in
his head. He can do mental calculations in his head, analyze a situation from all angles
without saying a single word, and form an opinion without verbalizing his arguments.

Language can dictate the way people look at things, and how they process information.
It is powerful enough to have an impact on the rate or speed of cognitive
development, given how it is connected or related to the other cognitive functions. For
example, an individual is more motivated to memorize something that is in a language
he understands, and ignore one that is expressed in a language that is completely
foreign to him

7 Classroom Applications of Vygotsky

The two important applications of Vygotsky theory are

1. Reciprocal Teaching
2. Collaborative Learning
3. Guided Learning

We will discuss them one by one

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7.1 Reciprocal Teaching
Reciprocal teaching is used to improve children’s ability to learn from the text. In this method,
teachers and students collaborate in learning and practicing four key skills

1. Predicting: The prediction phase involves readers in actively combining their own
background knowledge with what they have gathered from the text. With a narrative
text student imagine what might happen next.
2. Questioning: When using the questioning strategy, readers monitor and assess their
own understanding of the text by asking themselves questions. The teacher will also ask
questions about the Unclear parts and puzzling information
3. Clarifying: Clarifying involves the identification and clarification of unclear, difficult, or
unfamiliar aspects of a text. These aspects may include awkward sentence or passage
structure, unfamiliar vocabulary, unclear references, or obscure concepts
4. Summarizing: Summarizing is the process of identifying the valuable information,
themes, and ideas within a text and integrating these into a clear and concise statement
that communicates the essential meaning of the text

7.2 Collaborative Learning

Vygotsky propagated group learning in which members have various levels of ability so that
people with advanced knowledge can help people with lesser knowledge with in their ZPD.
Here people with more knowledge will act as MKO

7.3 Guided or Motivated Learning

In guided learning, teacher would provide help in form of scaffolding to the children so that
children are able to complete the tasks and feel motivated. Here scaffolding would be provided
with in children’s ZPD and teacher would act as MKO

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