General Psychology:

Lev Vygotskys Sociocultural Theory

What a child can do today with assistance, she will be able

to do by herself tomorrow
- Lev Vygotsky

Prof. Christian O. De Dios, M.A., RPm

Psychology Department
 Introduction
The major theme of Vygotskys theoretical framework is that social
interaction plays a fundamental role in the development of cognition.

Sociocultural theory focuses not only how adults and peers influence
individual learning, but also on how cultural beliefs and attitudes
impact how instruction and learning take place.

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 collaboration dialogue.

In Piagets theory, he emphasized self-initiated discovery or self-

exploration or play, while in Vygotskys theory, he focuses on social
contributions to learning and development.
 Piaget vs. Vygotsky: Key Differences
1. Vygotsky placed greater emphasis on how social
factors influences, while Piagets theory stressed
how a childs interactions and independent
explorations influenced development.
2. Piagets theory suggested that the development
is largely universal among children in the world
despite of the culture. Vygotsky, on the other
hand, suggested that cognitive development can
differ between different cultures.
(1) More Knowledgeable Other (MKO)
MKO 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.
MKO can be a teacher or an old adult, but this
is not necessarily the case.
The key with MKO is that they must have (or
programmed with)more knowledge about the
topic being learned that the learner does.
 (2) Zone of Proximal Development
(ZPD)
Vygotsky sees the Zone of Proximal Development as the area where
the most sensitive instruction or guidance should be given allowing
the child to develop skills they will then use on their own.

In ZPD, skills that are too difficult for a child to master on his/her own,
can be done with guidance and encouragement from a knowledgeable
person.

He suggested that teachers use cooperative learning exercises where

less competent children developed with help from more skillful peers.

For example (Shaffer, 1996), A child could not solve jigsaw puzzle by
itself and would have been taken a long time to do so, but was able to
solve it following interaction with the father, and has developed
competence at this skills that will be applied to future jigsaws.
 (1) Vygotskys Principle of Language
He believes that language develops from social
interactions, for communication processes. He
viewed language as mans greatest tool, a means
of communicating with the outside world.
According to Vygotsky (1962), Language plays 2
critical important roles in cognitive development
1. It is the main means by with adults transmits
information to children.
2. Language itself becomes a very powerful tool
of intellectual adaptation.
Evidence of Vygotsky and the ZPD
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 them attempted it alone (ZPD), whilst others
were allowed to work on his by themselves (Piagets
discovery theory).
Freund found out that those who had preiously worked
with their mother (ZPD) showed greatest improvement
compared with their first attempt at the task.
The conclusion being that guided learning within the
concept of ZPD led to greater
understanding/performance than working alone
(discovery learning)
 Critical Evaluation
Vygotskys work has not received the same level of intense scrutiny
that Piagets has, partly due to the time consuming process of
translating Vygotskys work from Russian.

Perhaps, the main criticism of Vygotskys work concerns the

assumption that it is relevant to all culture. A research of Roggoff
(1990) dismisses that Vygotskys ideas are culturally universal, and
instead states that the concept of scaffolding which is heavily
dependent on verbal instruction may not be equally useful in all
cultures of all types of learning, in some instances observation and
practice may be more effective ways of learning certain skills.

Scaffolding is the support given during the learning process which is

tailored to the needs of the student with the intention of helping the
student achieve his/ her learning goals (Sawyer, 2006) Examples are
feedback, giving hints, explaining, instructing, modeling, questioning.