Vygotsky 's Theory Of Cognitive Development

In current educational psychology, both the works of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky have become prominent in an understanding of developmental cognition in childhood (Duchesne, McMaugh, Bochner & Karuse, 2013, p. 56). Their theories are complimentary and provide a more rigorous comprehension of childhood development (Shayer, M., 2003, p. 465). Their varying principles are applicable to many situations concerning the development of children. The focuses of Piaget and Vygotsky on the ways of childhood development differ. Piaget was focused on the four developmental stages of cognitive growth in his Theory of Cognitive Development, whilst Vygotsky’s principles were based on development in a societal manner with his

In the “Study of the Child: Theories of Development I” (Learning Seed, 1997), according to Vygotsky, the cognitive development in children is in direct relationship, and dependent on interaction with others. (Feldman 2010, pg. 20). Vygotsky believed to truly understand cognitive development; a child’s social and cultural experiences must be considered.

Vygotsky proposed that children’s development is affected by their culture and social interaction. He also suggested that children are not born with knowledge but they gain it through their social interactions with peers and adults; he does not rule out the importance of biological processes but proposes an interdependent relationship between biological development alongside social activity and cultural interaction.

Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development centered on the ideas that social interaction and imaginative play are large contributors to the process of cognitive development in children. He believed that the social interactions that children engaged in helped them to both discover and create meaning from the things that they discover. He specifically believed that some of the most important learning a child could experience is in the social interactions they had with a skilled tutor that is often an adult. The child will observe the behaviors of the tutor as well as follow the verbal instructions the tutor provides. The child will then follow what they observe in their tutor. The child tries to understand what they observe and the instructions they receive by copying and internalizing, while

I interviewed my best friend’s younger brother Ryan who is 11 years old and attends Log College Middle School. During the interview I asked Ryan what his favorite subject was in school to which he replied that it was between English or Social Studies. Ryan also is a “student athlete” and plays in 6th grade basketball. Following Vygotsky’s theory for development, I believe that it fits best within studying in school. I agree with Vygotsky that sociocultural influences do not really have a lot impact on learning skills, it is all internal, not external. For instance, the cognitive abilities needed to excel in these two subjects in school is crucial. Ryan was telling me how much he loved to write freely on his own and creative story writing during English class was his favorite part of the class. Using Vygotsky’s theory, specifically the zone of proximal development, I can easily explain how he was able to acquire this creative writing skill. Whenever he was first introduced to writing or creative writing most likely in elementary school, it was provided by a teacher or some outside source. This support of others, called scaffolding, would be very helpful during this time to make sure he is writing correctly. In stage two in the zone of proximal development he would then learn to assist himself. Vygotsky claimed that private speech is very important to cognitive development. So, for example Ryan talking to himself before writing or typing down a story would help this internalization of developing and bettering this skill. The third stage in the zone of proximal development is internalization and automatic habit formation. Around this stage, Ryan would start to make writing more of a habit, for example maybe he is keeping a journal of creative writing prompts that he writes in every week or so. In stage four, the last stage, of the zone of proximal development is evasiveness as the acquired skill becomes adapted to new situations. As I previously mentioned, his other favorite subject he was torn between was Social Studies. If Ryan successfully uses his creative writing skill to help boost his essays or creative writings that relate to history. Since Ryan has successfully gone through and completed all four of

Lev Vygotsky believed that social and cognitive development work simultaneously to build and evolve on one another. He believed that social, cultural and personal experience cannot be detached from each other and many things influence the way children learn and develop, not just their own experiences, thus Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory. Vygotsky’s ideas were and remain controversial as he had no specific training in psychology or children’s development. His preeminent contribution to children’s development is his recognition of the value of progressing knowledge by means of interaction with educators, peers and family (Mooney, 2000, p. 83). The major ideas of Vygotsky’s theory are scaffolding and the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). Scaffolding is a process Vygotsky described as the framework or temporary support for children’s learning. In order for scaffolding to be beneficial, it must be responsive to the child’s needs (Coon & Mitterer, 2013, pp. 106-107).

Learning, according to De Houwer, Barnes-Holmes, & Moors (2013), “has been defined functionally as changes in behavior that result from experience or mechanistically as changes in the organism that result from experience”. Throughout the years, a number of psychologists have come up with different theories to try and explain how young children develop and learn. Lev Vygotsky, a Russian theorist and psychologist that was born in 1896, constructed his own child development and learning theory that has strongly influenced the world of education (Nordlof, 2014; Dahms, Geonnotti, Passalacqua, Schilk, Wetzel, & Zulkoqsky, n.d.). His theory is created from concepts of both behaviorist and constructivist. Vygotsky’s theory suggests that learning and development occurs through social function as well as intentional teaching (DeVries, 2000; Nordlof, 2014; Slavin, 2015).

Cognitive Development is discussed in our lesson plan through Vygotsky’s theory. Vygotsky’s theory stresses the importance of social

Piaget (1969) asserts that children’s cognitive development-stage is fixed; he believes children can only understand the concept of conservation and measurable attribute (e.g. volume, capacity, mass. weight) when they reach to certain age. However, Piaget’s (1969) theory is contradicted with numerous founding from recent researches that indicates children can develop an understanding of these concept during the early childhood year. Vygotsky (1978) believes the way children developed vary. Vygotsky (1978) emphasised children’s development occurs through parental instruction and interaction with the social environment. Number of researches shows the carers or the parent of the children provides scaffolding guides children to climb higher levels

The three adaptive processes for cognitive development are assimilation, accommodation, and equilibrium. These are three agents

In order to help children’s cognitive development, the application of Piaget and Vygotsky theories are highly positive and critical. As Woolfolk and Margetts (2010) mentioned, teachers can extend children’s knowlegde by using children’s disequilibration as the motivation. The use of cultural tools in classroom can also benefit children, because they

With the passing of time, the development of thought and language has been the object of study for psychologists such as Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. The former drastically influenced the study of thought and speech with his theory of cognitive development and his clinical method. The latter also made his contribution with his sociocultural theory. Although language and thought may be analysed as associate one to the other, both of them may be considered as independent and dynamic processes which belong to different roots. Considering the book Thought and Language by Lev Vygotsky, it might be possible to debunk the fundamental concepts of Piaget and Vygotsky’s theories and to expand on their main differences.

Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of development suggested that to develop cognitively, children must have social interaction. He also “believed that this lifelong process of development was dependent of social interaction and that social learning actually leads to cognitive development” (Riddle, 1999). Vygotsky believed that children 's social learning must come before social development. Vygotsky also believed that "human activities take place in cultural settings and cannot be understood apart from these settings" (Woolfolk, 2004). Therefore, our culture helps shape our cognition.

Vygotsky (1978) states: "Every function in the child's cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the individual level; first, between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological). 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." (p57). Vygotsky, unlike Piaget believed that cognitive development is not limited just to children, which is where it begins but continues at all age ranges and that social interaction is required for full cognitive development. Vygotsky believed that social learning tends to precede development and that cognitive development stems from social interactions and that the environment in which a child is largely exposed to growing up will influence how the child will think and what they will think about. Furthermore, he emphasized the influence that different cultures will have on cognitive development and how they should be considered, rather than placing cognitive development in a universal category across all cultures. My research will be focusing on the two main principles of Vygotsky’s work which include the More Knowledge Other (MKO) and the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), which helps with the learning process of children and the important

Unlike Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory, which stresses that cognitive development was expected to mature through self initiated discovery, Lev Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory places greater emphasis on the influence a child’s culture, social factor, and language. Meaning, Vygotsky believed a child learns more from personal interaction with in his/her culture, rather than through individual experiences of chance and random. Social interaction with one’s culture plays a tremendous role in the cognitive development of an individual. Culturally specific tools and language, taught and passes from generation to generation, are perceived practice for one’s survival in social