VYGOTSKY’S SOCIOCULTURAL

THEORY
 VYGOTSKY

THE PERSON
 Born in Belarus in the Russian Empire in
1896
 Studied Law at the University of Moscow
 Although he was trained as a lawyer, he
developed an interest in Language and
worked as a school teacher.
 Started working as a psychologist in 1917
 Died in 1934 of Tuberculosis at the age of 38
 At the time of his death he had written 270
articles and 10 books
 Learning can be understood as: “ internal
developmental processes that are able to
operate only when the child is interacting
with people in his environment and in co- 2

operation with peers”.

VYGOTSKY BELIEVED THAT…
 Learning & Development including mental (cognitive)
development is significantly influenced by
 Social interaction
 Cultural contexts

 Humans can alter the environment for

their own purposes – they have adaptive
capacity- unlike lower forms of life.
 Vygotsky defined development as: the transformation
of socially shared activities into internal processes
MAJOR ASPECTS OF VYGOTSKY’S
THEORY
 Interaction of interpersonal (social), cultural-historical
(contexts &individual factors (mental , physical)are key
to human development
 The social sources of individual thinking
 Individual mental functioning (e.g. voluntary attention,
logical memory, etc.) is developed through social
interactions
 Interpsychological intrapsychological
 Higher mental processes (e.g. problem solving) are therefore
co-constructed during shared activities with other people and
then internalized by the child – forming part of his/her
cognitive development)
 This has implications for classroom teaching and learning
2. CULTURAL TOOLS &
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
 Cultural tools play an important role in cognitive
development
 They consist of

i. – material tools (e.g. books, stationary, internet, etc)

ii. Psychological tools – e.g. signs and systems of symbols
such as the different mathematical and number systems,
artworks and language.
2. CULTURAL TOOLS & COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT…….
• Higher order mental processes (e.g. reasoning and problem
solving) are mediated. This means that they are achieved
through the use of psychological tools like language.
 Children’s knowledge, ideas, attitudes and values
develop through appropriating or ‘taking for themselves’
the ways of acting and thinking provided by their culture
and other members of their group
 In this way children develop a cultural tool kit to make
sense of and learn about their world
3 THEROLE OF LANGUAGE AND
PRIVATE SPEECH
 Vygotsky placed a strong emphasis on the role of
learning and language on cognitive development
 Language is critical for cognitive development
because:
 It provides a way to express ideas and ask questions
 The categories and concepts of thinking (link with Piaget’s schemes)

 Links past with the future

 Helps us reflect on what happened in the past and how we could do things

differently in similar future situations

3 THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE AND
PRIVATE SPEECH…..
 Thinking depends on speech, on the means of thinking
and on the child’s socio-cultural experience
 Private speech (child talking himself) guides cognitive
development. Piaget called this egocentric speech
indicating that the child cannot see the world from other
people’s viewpoints (and needs) - & as children mature
and experience disagreements with their peers, the
develop socialized speech – they learn to listen and
exchange (or argue ideas)
3 THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE AND
PRIVATE SPEECH…..
 To Vygotsky – private speech played a major role in cognitive
development by moving children towards stages of self
regulation – the ability to plan, monitor, and guide one’s own
thinking and problem-solving
 Stages of self regulation
i. Child’s behaviour is regulated by others (e.g. parent) using
language and other signs such as gestures
ii. Child regulates behaviour of others using language and other signs
iii. Child used private speech to regulate her own behaviour – speaks
softly to herself
iv. Finally regulates own behaviour by using silent inner speech
Research supports Vygotsky’s view on the use of private speech in
cognitive processes by both children and adults especially when
they are confused or are making mistakes or find a task very
difficult to do.
KEY CONCEPTS

Mediation
The role of language is crucial
The role of culture and social
relationships
Zone of proximal development

10
MEDIATION

 Mediation is the act of intervening

 A mediator comes between a child and the
environment in order to assist thought and
action
 Types of mediators:
Signs and symbols like language
Physical or material tools
Human beings
11
THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE
 Thought without language is vague
 Language enables thinking to be precise and
effective
 Social then individual, spoken then internalised

 A vehicle to produce, test and refine our

thoughts about the world
 Facilitates social interaction

 Provides us with means through which to reflect

and regulate our own thinking
12
THE ROLE OF CULTURE AND SOCIAL
RELATIONSHIPS

 Higher level cognitive processing takes place in

social context
 We learn what we need to learn, that which is
valued in our culture
 Collaboration is key

 Learning is a social activity

 Activity first…then understanding

13
KEY CONCEPTS
 ZPD
 Meaning
 Relevance to learning and teaching

 Scaffolding
 Reciprocal teaching

 Peer collaboration

 Apprenticeships
ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT

“The gap between actual development,

what a child can do unaided, and potential
development, that is what a child can do
under guidance of adult / capable peer”

15
ZPD
 Learning occurs in the ZPD and pulls
development along
 ZPD gradually shifts as more is learned
 As many ZPDs as there are developmental
tasks to master
 Cognitive development involves
continuous learning of new skills and
knowledge, rather than arriving at a
particular stage 16
17
SCAFFOLDING
 Role of teachers and others in supporting a
learner’s development
 Providing support structures to get to the next
level
 Teacher models the desired learning strategy or
tasks then gradually shifts responsibility to the
child

18
SCAFFOLDING

What does scaffolding do? What purpose does it serve?

Now apply this to the classroom setting:

Provide an example of how a teacher could scaffold a
lesson?

19
LEARNING OF CONCEPTS
 Respect – children may say they understand and behave
accordingly but may not fully understand
 they develop their understanding as they interact with
the environment (different situations)
 There remains an internal conflict between what they do
and what they know
 Each conflict results in a synthesis – and they make
progress through this interaction

20
ZPD AND EDUCATION
 Development is slowed if learners do too much work on
their own
 Co-operation and collaboration is emphasised

 Learners with different ZPDs need different tasks and

assignments
 Learners’ performance is determined by level of
development, intellectual potential and the form of
instruction received
 Present performance cannot always be used as a good
predictor of future performance
21
VYGOTSKY IN THE CLASSROOM

What does Vygotsky’s notion of the ZPD imply about

what should be happening in classrooms?

22