Vygotsky’s Socio-cultural Perspective on Cognitive Development

Sociocultural Theory

Vygotsky’s perspective on cognitive

development, in which children
acquire their culture’s values, beliefs,
and problem-solving strategies
through collaborative dialogues with
more knowledgeable members of
society.
The work of Lev Vygotsky (1934) has
become the foundation of much
research and theory in cognitive
development over the past several
decades specially in Social
Development Theory.
Vygotsky's theories stress the fundamental role of social
interaction in the development of cognition , as he believed
strongly that community plays a central role in the process of
"making meaning”.

Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory emphasizes social and cultural

influences on intellectual growth.
 He argued, "learning is necessary and universal aspect of the
process of developing culturally organized, specifically human psychological
function”

Vygotsky has developed a socio cultural approach to cognitive development.

His theories are incomplete due to death at an early age of 38.
Some of his writings are still being translated from Russian. No single
principle (such as Piaget's equilibration) can account for development.
 VYGOTSKY'S THEORY
1. Vygotsky places more emphasis on culture
affecting cognitive development.
– This contradicts Piaget's view of universal
stages and content of development
– (Vygotsky does not refer to stages in the
way that Piaget does).
– Hence Vygotsky assumes cognitive
development varies across cultures,
• whereas Piaget states cognitive
development is mostly universal across
cultures.
 VYGOTSKY'S THEORY
2. Vygotsky places considerably more emphasis
on social factors contributing to cognitive
development.
• Vygotsky states cognitive development stems from
social interactions from guided learning within the
zone of proximal development as children and their
partner's co-construct knowledge.
• the environment in which children grow up will
influence how they think and what they think
about.
VYGOTSKY'S THEORY
3. Vygotsky places more emphasis on the
role of language in cognitive
development.
• thought and language are initially separate systems
from the beginning of life, merging at around three
years of age, producing verbal thought cognitive
development results from an internalization of
language
 Vygotsky claimed that a child’s private speech
becomes a cognitive self-guidance system that
regulates problem-solving activities and is eventually
internalized to become covert, verbal thought. Recent
research favors Vygotsky’s position over
Piaget’s, suggesting that language plays a most
important role in children’s intellectual development
 VYGOTSKY'S THEORY
4. According to Vygotsky adults are an
important source of cognitive development

• Adults transmit their culture's tools

of intellectual adaptation that
children internalize
 The Role of Culture in Intellectual
Development

He proposed that we should evaluate development from the

perspective of four interrelated levels in interaction with
children’s environments—
a) Microgenetic - changes that occur over relatively brief
periods of time, in seconds, minutes, or days, as
opposed to larger-scale changes, as conventionally
studied in ontogenetic development.
b) Ontogenetic - refers to development of the individual over his
or her lifetime, and is the topic of this book and the level of
analysis for nearly all developmental psychologists

c) Phylogenetic - refers to changes over evolutionary time,

measured in thousands and even millions of years. Here,
Vygotsky anticipated the current evolutionary psychology
perspective, believing that an understanding of the species’
history can provide insight into child development
d) sociohistorical development - refers to the changes that
have occurred in one’s culture and the values, norms, and
technologies such a history has generated. It is this
sociohistorical perspective that modern-day researchers
have emphasized most about Vygotsky’s ideas.
 Siblings as Creators of the Zone of
Proximal Development and Scaffolding

• Children acquire cultural as the area where the most sensitive

beliefs, values, and
problems solving
strategies in the context of
collaborative dialogues
with more skilful partners
as they gradually
internalize their tutor’s
instructions to master
tasks within their zone of
proximal development.
instruction or guidance should be given
allowing the child to develop skills they
will then use on their own – developing
higher mental functions
Vygotsky also views interaction
with peers as an effective way of
developing skills and strategies
 Siblings as Creators of the Zone of
Proximal Development and Scaffolding

Scaffolding process by which an expert, One feature of social

when instructing a novice, responds
contingently to the novice’s behavior in a
learning situation, so that the novice
gradually increases his or her
understanding of a problem
• Learning occurs best when more skilful
associates properly scaffold their
intervention.
collaboration that fosters
cognitive growth is scaffolding,
the tendency of more expert
participants to carefully tailor the
support they provide to the
novice learner’s current situation
so that he can profit from that
support and increase his
understanding of a problem
 Applying Developmental Themes to
Piaget and Vygotsky’s Theories

Now that we’ve learned about the cognitive developmental theories of Piaget and Vygotsky,
let’s consider how these theories address our four developmental themes: the active child, nature
and nurture interactions, quantitative and qualitative developmental changes, and the holistic
nature of development. Consider first the theme of the active child. This theme is particularly
important in Piaget’s theory. In fact, it was Piaget who brought to developmental psychologists’
attention the fact that infants and children are active, hands-on creatures—in many ways the
sculptors of their own development. Unlike the views that were fashionable in psychology in the
early decades of the 20th century, Piaget did not see the child as molded by Environmental
pressures and his or her parents, nor as the inevitable product of the unfolding of a genetic plan.
Rather, Piaget viewed the child as playing a primary role in development. It is because of Piaget
that we can no longer give serious consideration to either the environmentalist view of children
shaped by external forces or the maturationalist view of children as products of their heredity.
Vygotsky also advocated the idea of an active child, although his emphasis on the role that
significant others in a child’s world play in cognitive development contrasts sharply with Piaget’s
views.
 Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories also emphasize the
interaction of nature and nurture in development. Piaget’s
“active child” follows a species-typical course of cognitive
development, influenced by the common biological
inheritance shared by all human beings. But this course is
also influenced by the child’s surroundings. The experiences
children have as they explore their environment and their
social and educational worlds especially affect the rate of
their development.
 Vygotsky placed greater weight on the influence that adults and other
cultural agents have on children’s thinking, believing that nurture plays a
greater role in cognitive development than that proposed by Piaget. But in
addition to emphasizing the sociocultural influences on children’s
development, Vygotsky also made it clear that one must consider the
evolutionary past in explaining contemporary behavior and development.
This focus on the ancient origins of behavior illustrates Vygotsky’s
recognition that one cannot account for children’s cognitive development by
sociocultural factors alone; one must also take “human nature” into
consideration.
 With respect to the issue of qualitative versus quantitative changes, Piaget’s theory
heavily emphasizes qualitative changes. For Piaget, children’s thinking is different in type or
kind at each major stage in development, with smaller changes within a stage also occurring
in a step-by-step fashion (recall Piaget’s description of sensorimotor development). In fact,
this is one area. For which Piaget has been criticized. Although Piaget’s account of children’s
thinking is valuable, it tends to overstate how stage like cognitive development truly is.
Contemporary developmentalists generally believe that cognitive development consists of
both qualitative and quantitative changes. Piaget’s description of qualitative changes is
generally accurate, but it is also limited because he basically ignored more quantitative types
of changes. Vygotsky’s theory was less concerned with the qualitative or quantitative nature
of developmental changes and focused more on the source of the change (mainly from the
social environment). Nevertheless, it is fair to say that Vygotsky was more apt to see changes
as less stagelike than Piaget.