Vygotsky’s Theory of Learning
Table of Contents
Cognitive Development : Brief Definition
Cognitive Development pertains to the development of intellectual knowledge, skills and abilities in children. It involves levels of learning based on increasing levels of complexity. These are knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.
Vygotsky's Socio-Cultural Prespective
Vygotsky provided a socio-cultural prespective to cognitive development. He attempted to establish the relationship between the child’s development and the socio-cultural context in which the child was situated.
His theory of child development focussed on the relationship between “the line of natural development which is closely bound up with the processes of general organic growth and the maturation of the child…the line of cultural improvement of the psychological functions, the working out of new methods of reasoning, the mastering of the cultural methods of behaviour”.
Vygotsky’s theories stresses the fundamental role of social interactions in the development of cognition, as he believed strongly that community plays a central role in the process of “making meaning”.
Characteristics of Vygotsky's Theory
- Vygotsky’s Theory places more emphasis on culture affecting cognitive.
- Vygotsky places considerably more emphasis on social factors contributing to cognitive development.
- Vygotsky places more emphasis on the role of language in cognitive development.
- According to Vygotsky adults are an important source of cognitive development.
Vygotsky's Theory of Child Development
Vygotsky provided a socio-cultural prespective to cognitive development. He attempted to establish the relationship between the child’s development and the socio-cultural context in which the child was situated.
Vygotsky's Flowchart
Vygotsky's Elementary Mental Functions
Vygotsky claimed that infants are born with the basic mental/abilities for intellectual development.
Vygotsky refers Elementary Mental Functions as —
- Attention
- Sensation
- Perception
- Memory
Through interaction within the socio-cultural environment, these are developed into a more sophisticated and effective mental processes/strategies which Vygotsky refers to as “Higher Mental Functions”.
Social Influence on Cognitive Development
Vygotsky emphasises on social contributions to the process of development.
According to Vygotsky, children’s Elementary Mental Functions attains Higher Mental Functions through interaction within the socio-cultural environment, having a more sophisticated and effective mental processes and strategies during the “Times of Crisis” in child’s life which he termed as “Critical Periods”
Critical Periods
Vygotsky’s theory of child development is centered on “Times of Crisis” in a child’s life which he termed as “Critical Periods”.
According to Vygotsky’s theory of child development, the following are the developmental junctions of rapid, profound transformations in mental and social functioning of the child —
- when the child begin to walk
- when the child begin to talk
- when the child starts school
- when the child begin to use conceptual thinking
- when the child gains self-awareness during adolescence
The Development Process
Vygotsky examined the critical periods from the point of view of children’s Meaning-Making Processes, Individual’s Internal Processes, External Social Processes and Development of Language and the overall development of their social relations.
The critical periods characterized by abrupt and major shifts and displacements, changes and discontinuities in the child’s personality are connected in a relatively short time, period in which, the child changes completely in the basic traits of his personality.
# The onset, duration, and impact of critical periods may vary in different children but all children are effected by them.
# During each critical period, new mental structures like language, verbal thinking and conceptual thinking are formed that result in the transition from one level to the other and determine the character of the next level of development.
# Changes in the mental formations, constitutes the transforamtions from one stage to another and the whole structure of the age is reconstructed.
# Each age has a unique and singular structure specific to it.
# The new structures formed during the critical periods are basically determines the consciousness of the child, his relation to the environment, his internal and external life, the whole course of development during the given period.
# The new mental formations propel the reconstruction of the whole personality on a new base.
Analysis of the Word "Meaning"
Vygotsky analyses the word “Meaning” and the ways it develops in human social interactions.
According to Vygotsky,” Meaning is not the sum of all the psychological operations which stands behind the word. Meaning is something specific. It is what is lying between thought and the word. Meaning is not equal to the word, nor equal to the thought. This disparity is revealed by the fact that their lines of development do not coincide”.
Meaning Making Process
Vygotsky studies infants to analyse the “Meaning-Making Process”. He observed that children develops a new formation – autonomous speech – near the end of their first year. According to Vygotsky, that this new formations of autonomous speech is the beginning of a new relationship between speech and thinking which is central to the understanding of all other changes. This unity of speech and thinking of a child is termed as “Verbal Thinking”.
According to Vygotsky, ” Since all meaning of a word is a generalisation, it is a product of the intellectual acivity of the child. The Meaning of the word is unity of speech and thinking that cannot be broken down further”.
This meaning-making process takes place through social interactions. Vygotsky call this relation- the “social Situation of Development”.
Interdependence of Individual's Internal Processes and External Social Processes
Vygotsky termed the interdependence of Individual’s Internal Process and External Social process as “Social Situation of Development”
Vygotsky considered this interdependence as a process that is characterised by a unity of material and mental aspects, unity of the social and the personal. This relation between the social and personal is completely original, exclusive, single and unique relation.
Vygotsky described the whole process as – When a child passes through the time of crisis which is called ” Critical Periods”, the meaning-making processes of the child starts. This meaning-making processes starts in social situation and the child is a part of the social situation and the relation of the child to the environment and the environment to the child occurs through the experiences and activity of the child himself ; the forces of the environment acquire a controlling significance because the child experiences them. Children reconstruct their conscious personality specific to the given age, which they do within their social existence, meaning where they are influenced by the social situation of development.
This reconstruction changes the structure of his personality. Now he is a different and a new child having a modified characteristics and thinking process.
This meaning-making process of a child during their critical periods, he reconstruct internal experiences with the help of social situation continues through out the life.
Zone of Proximal Development
Zone of Proximal Development is the zone where a child just attains a stage after passing through vaarious critical periods, reconstruct their conscious personality within their social existence that causes new mental formations and now are capable of solving problems independently at given ages i.e. they reaches the Zone of Actual Development.
It is important that children are given opportunity to learn so that they reach the level of zone of proximal development.
Language Development
Vygotsky believed that language develops from social interactions for communication purposes. Vygotsky viewed language as man’s greatest tool, a means for communicating with the outer world.
Role of Language
According to Vygotsky, Language plays two critical roles in Cognitive Developments : –
- It is the main means by which adults transmit information to children.
- Language itself becomes a very powerful tool of intellectual adaption.
Forms of Language
Vygotsky differentiates between three forms of Language :-
- Social Speech which is external communication used to talk to others, from the age of two.
- Private Speech which is directed to the self and serves an intellectual function, from the age of three.
- Silent Inner Speech develops when private speech goes underground, diminishing in audibility as it takes on a self-regulating function and is transformed from private speech, typically from the age of seven.
Development Process of Language
According to 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 and verbal speech becomes representational. When this happens, children’s monologues internalized to become inner speech. This internalization of language drives cognitive development.
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