Social%20Cognition%20-%20Vygotsky

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Childrens Cognitive Development Alternatives
to Piaget

• Outline
• Brief review of Piagets theory
• The role of culture - implications for Piagets
  theory
• The theory of Vygotsky
• The theory of Bruner (see intranet)

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Summary of Piaget

• Stage theory of development - older children
  think qualitatively differently to younger
  children. In other words, at each successive
  stage, it's not just a matter of doing something
  better, but of doing a different thing
  altogether.
• 4 stages
• Stage 1 Sensorimoter Period (0-2 years)
• Stage 2 Pre-operational stage (2-7 years)
• Stage 3 Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 years)
• Stage 4 Formal Operational Stage (11 years)
• Development is the combined result of
• maturation of the brain and nervous system
• experiences that help children adapt to new
  environments - adaptation an organisms ability
  to fit in with its environment (through the
  process of assimilation and accommodation).

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Assimilation and Accomodation

• Example of Assimilation
• A 2 year old child sees a man who is bald on top
  of his head and has long frizzy hair on the
  sides. To his fathers horror, the toddler shouts
  Clown, clown (Sigler et al., 2003).
• Example of Accommodation
• In the clown incident, the boys father
  explained to his son that the man was not a clown
  and that even though his hair was like a clowns,
  he wasnt wearing a funny costume and wasnt
  doing silly things to make people laugh
• With this new knowledge, the boy was able to
  change his schema of clown and make this idea
  fit better to a standard concept of clown.
• According to Piaget, teaching can support these
  developmental processes by

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Criticisms of Piaget

• Underestimated the ability of children
• Tasks were methodologically flawed. As several
  studies have shown Piaget underestimated the
  abilities of children because his tests were
  sometimes confusing or difficult to understand.
• Underestimated the impact of CULTURE
• Piagets tasks are culturally biased
• Schooling and literacy affect rates of
  development
• e.g. Greenfields study of the Wolof
• Formal operational thinking is not universal
• e.g. Gladwins study of the Polynesian islanders

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Criticisms of Piaget

• Methodological issues
• Piaget used naturalistic observations of his own
  children when they were only a few weeks old.
• The tendency for observers to be biased can be
  counteracted by using two or more observers (re
  inter-observer reliability), but Piaget observed
  and made notes alone.
• Generalisations should not be made from research
  such as this, but Piaget did generalise and many
  of his ideas on sensori-motor and pre-operational
  stages are based on these observations.

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Lev Vygotsky

• Because Piaget concentrated on the individual
  child, he failed to consider the effect that the
  social setting may have on cognitive development.
  
• The way that adults use language and gestures
  and the child's experience through social
  interactions are very influential on cognitive
  development (re Vygotsky).

• Lev Vygotsky
• 1896 - 1934
• Work remained little known because it was banned
  by Stalin after Vygotskys death
• Collapse of the Soviet Union meant
• greater dialogue between the West and Russia
• Vygotskys work translated into English

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Vygotskys Main Ideas

• Vygotsky is credited with developing the concept
  of Social Cognition
• (aka Social Development Theory of Learning),
  which proposes that
• Social Interaction and culture has a dramatic
  impact on cognitive development.
• Cognitive processes (language, thought,
  reasoning) develop through social interaction.
• Learning is largely mediated by social
  interaction of students and "More Knowledgeable
  Others" (e.g. teachers, parents, coaches, peers,
  experts, etc.)

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Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

• Vygotsky centred much of his research on a
  phenomenon he coined as "the Zone of Proximal
  Development," or ZPD.
• Vygotsky stated
• The zone of proximal development defines those
  functions that have not yet matured, but are in
  the process (of doing so)
• what is the zone of proximal development today
  will be the actual development level tomorrow
  that is, what a child can do with assistance
  toady she will be able to do by herself
  tomorrow.

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Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

• In this case proximal means what comes next.
• The idea is that a child is only able to take the
  next step in their cognitive development if
  another person typically an adult supports
  and prompts them to do so.
• This sort of assistance has been called
  scaffolding.

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Scaffolding

• Wood, Bruner, and Ross (1976) developed
  Vygotskys notion of a zone of proximal
  development.
• They introduced the concept of scaffolding, which
  refers to the context provided by knowledgeable
  people such as adults to help children to develop
  their cognitive skills.
• An important aspect of scaffolding is that there
  is a gradual withdrawal of support as the childs
  knowledge and confidence increase.

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Scaffolding Example
Left to his own devices, could this boy make his
sister a birthday cake? His mother uses
scaffolding to create a situation in which he can
begin to move into a zone of proximal development.
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Differences between Piaget and Vygotsky

• Source of cognitive development
• Piaget believed that the most important source of
  cognition is the children themselves. Piaget
  emphasised the role of an inbuilt (biological)
  tendency to adapt to the environment, by a
  process of self-discovery and play.
• Vygotsky emphasised the role of culture and
  experience. Vygotsky believed that what drives
  cognitive development is social interaction a
  childs experience with other people. Culture
  shapes cognition.

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Differences between Piaget and Vygotsky

• Language and Thought
• For Piaget, language is a product of cognitive
  development. In other words, cognitive
  development (IV) determines language use (DV).
• Vygotsky believed that language develops from
  social interactions, for communication purposes.
  Later language ability becomes internalised as
  thought and inner speech. Thought is the result
  of language.
• In other words, social interactions (IV)
  determines language use (DV).

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Differences between Piaget and Vygotsky

• Stage Theory
• Piaget emphasised universal cognitive change.
• Vygotskys theory can be applied to all ages (not
  a stage theory) and emphasised individual
  development.
• Discovery Learning (Education)
• Piaget advocated for discovery learning with
  little teacher intervention.
• Vygotsky promoted guided discovery in the
  classroom with the help of a MKO.