Sociocultural Theory

Abstract

Sociocultural Theory is based on the lifelong work of Russian educator Lev S. Vygotsky, who lived in the first half of the twentieth century. His work did not transcend the borders of the Soviet Union until after his death and the end of the Cold War. Vygotsky’s theories have had a profound impact on teaching and education. Vygotsky argued that the higher order functions built during a child’s development must be understood in terms of the social interactions and the culture in which he or she is immersed. Sociocultural theory views cognitive and cultural development as mediated by a series of factors, such as tools, scaffolds, and signs. These elements are foundational to sociocultural theory.

Overview

Sociocultural theory examines the extent and depth to which culture and society influence the cognitive development of children. It also aims to understand the complex cognitive processes involved in the collaborative interactions between adults and children as pertains to learning and education. Its main focus is the participation of children in the world around them and how their cognitive development is a result of this collaborative process. It is important to note that although most of his writings were published posthumously, Vygotsky’s views have transcended his time—and the learning environment. Contemporary sociocultural theory is widespread in other disciplines of the social sciences. For example, Vygotsky argued that only human beings can transform their environment to suit their own ends, a capacity that distinguishes them from lesser creatures. Thus, sociocultural theory can be used in a wide variety of sociological fields that examine the ways in which individuals engage with the world around them.

Sociocultural theories, then, have proven foundational for modern education and the evaluation of cognitive development. Tests based on sociocultural methods serve to calculate a child’s potential. Thus, they serve as an invaluable alternative to standardized intelligence tests, which usually place great weight on past knowledge already acquired by the child.

The most renowned contributions of sociocultural theory are those that shed light on how children learn. Vygotsky argued that children learn through social interaction with adults or more knowledgeable others. They build upon what they have learned, progressively acquiring new and higher-level cognitive skills. Shared activities allow children to internalize and appropriate the structures of thought and behavior of the society in which they live. According to sociocultural theory, adults or more advanced playmates provide support and direction, modeling the learning process for the child. The child learns through a series of steps, which begin with the internalization of the behavioral and cognitive structures demanded by the activity to be learned. This orientation is used by the child to progress to the proximal development zone (DPZ), that is, the gap between what they are capable of doing now and what they cannot yet do on their own.

Sociocultural theory departs from traditional theories that viewed children as passive recipients of learning and information. Vygotsky argued that children are small explorers who participate actively in the learning process and in discovery of new principles and information. However, Vygotsky was less interested in self-starter discoveries; instead, he focused on the social contributions to human cognitive growth. He believed social contributions to be more relevant, because the most important discoveries children make occur within social contexts. These contexts include collaborative dialogues between a tutor, who provides instructions and models activities for the pupil, and the child, who tries to understand the instructions and—in time—internalizes the information, using it to manage his or her own performance.

Adults also provide support. For instance, when a child emulates successfully the behavior modeled by the more experienced adult, the adult celebrates it and provides encouragement. In time, the pupil becomes more independent and able to work it out on his or her own. In short, interactions with others, usually parents, teachers, and more knowledgeable children, help children develop cognitively.

Language is a crucial factor in sociocultural theories. It is necessary for cognitive development to occur; the medium used to explain concepts, share ideas, and ask questions. It also serves to organize thoughts and build links between the past and the present, and as such, necessary for learning and memory. For example, when individuals think, they usually do so in words and sentences; that is, in a language. Vygotsky highlighted the important role of private speech in cognitive development. In essence, private speech refers to talking to oneself and functions as a way to guide development. Private speech helps pupils regulate thoughts and feelings. Vygotsky argued that it should be encouraged, because it supports and guides the learning process. For example, students may ask themselves questions such as, "What should I do now?" to organize their actions when working out a problem. Therefore, Vygotsky suggested that educators offer opportunities for pupils to work quietly at problem solving in order to better develop such skills.

Further Insights

Sociocultural theory is highly contextual. It asserts that what is considered to be the normal development of children in a culture or a group may not necessarily be adequate as a norm for others; that is, it might not be possible to extrapolate it to children of other cultures or societies.

Learning Models

Vygotsky’s work emphasizes the role of culture, in the understanding that a wide variety of cultures exist in the world, so that the development of cognition and intelligence will not give the same results across different cultures. It is important to note that no set of cognitive skills, however, should be considered as better or more advanced than others. People develop specific tool kits in order to adapt to their environment. Therefore, differences in cognitive skills across groups and cultures represent alternatives with specific adaptation tools that evolved because in order to allow children to adapt successfully to specific cultural values and expectations. The basic infrastructure of how children learn, however, shares commonalities across societies and is contemplated in the sociocultural learning model.

The sociocultural learning model maintains that the processes of development and learning are not independent of each other. These two activities interact with each other, with learning as an element of development. Moreover, learning is a form of socialization, that is, of adapting the behaviors and thought-processes of the child to those of the society in which he or she lives. In the Nature versus Nurture debate, then, Vygotsky can be categorized with those thinkers who consider human cognition as more of a social than a biological construct. Although the brain, for example, has biological foundations, all higher functions of the intellect owe more to cultural than to biological processes. To achieve this level of development, however, human beings develop the use of mediators.

Mediators: Tools, Signs and Symbols

The tight relationship between learning and development is linked to Vygotsky’s theory of ZPD. This refers to, to paraphrase Vygotsky, the gap between the child’s level of development—determined by the ability of the child to solve a problem independently—and the level of development potential, as determined by the child’s capacity to solve a problem under the guidance of an adult or in collaboration with a more advanced companion. The ZPD, then, refers to the functions that have not yet matured entirely but are, instead, in the process of doing so.

The ZPD makes clear that learning is an ongoing activity. In turn, learning is conditioned by two mediators: tools and symbols. Tools and symbols are incorporated through social interactions, such as through language. Tools are the previous knowledge of the child and the expectations, which in turn serve to process the information received from the social context. Symbols, on the other hand, are sets of signs used by the subject in order to appropriate and internalize the information or stimuli received. Tools are oriented externally and guide the person towards the world around him or her, seeking to control it. Symbols, however, are oriented internally and a way to regulate or self-control. Both of these areas are interwoven and influence each other. Moreover, they are both social and artificial constructs, rather than biological and inherent. In time, what is internalized becomes a sort of internal language used to organize information and a mental process as well.

Of course, physiological mental functions exist. What divides basic physiological functions and higher level functions is that superior processes use mediators in order to control the social context, rather than the other way around. Therefore, people anticipate and create plans of action, for example, and choose one type of behavior over another. This is what Vygotsky referred to when he referred to using signs as mediators. He believed that knowledge is acquired through this tool-enabled process and restructured internally by way of symbols. This knowledge allows the individual to create the potential to acquire new knowledge, so that it builds upon the previous knowledge acquired.

Appropriation and Scaffolding

Vygotsky contributed important other concepts to sociocultural theory, such as "appropriation" and "scaffolding." Individuals appropriate the cultural tools to use for mental processes, that is, they make them their own for instrumental purposes. The appropriation of tools, however, helps the pupil master subjects. Scaffolding is a temporary mental structure or framework that a learner uses while he or she learns to master a subject, and that is withdrawn once the subject is mastered. In that sense, a teacher might provide students with helpful cue cards to take home and use while doing homework, to be discarded or taken away once students can solve those specific problems on their own. Later theorists developed further the concept of scaffolding, so that it is very prevalent in contemporary learning theories.

In short, all human activity is mediated by myriad tools and signs. This area is studied in further depth in a field known as semiotics. For Vygotsky, as well as in semiotics, many things besides language and conventional signs worked as tools and signs; these could include algebraic symbols, non-verbal gestures, art works, and many other forms that humans use to communicate, represent, and convey meaning.

Viewpoints

There have been divisions and overlaps in the theoretical perspectives that seek to understand how children develop cognition and construct their social worlds. Sociocultural theories advocate for the importance of culture and social context, while regarding children as beings with intentionality agency and active participants in social processes. Vygotsky is one of the most important theorists in the area of childhood development, which he sees as a process that builds up from the social interactions of the child.

Vygotsky is often compared with other child development experts, of whom one of the most important is Jean Piaget.

Vygotsky vs Piaget

Piaget is one of the foremost theorists of constructivism, a theory that arose as a response to the prevalent behaviorist theoretical models of the time. Constructivism shares some similarities with sociocultural theory, yet both theories present some key differences.

Piaget, for example, posits that knowledge is a process of interaction between the subject and a physical or material medium. For Vygotsky, on the other hand, knowledge is a process of interaction between the subject and the social and cultural, much of which is intangible. In other words, for Piaget humans are basically biological beings who, in the developmental system, include a process of socialization. Furthermore, Piaget believed that the cognitive potential of the subject is dependent upon the development stage. Development, for Piaget, is akin to saying that human beings are born in a disorganized state and will become gradually organized in a process that occurs through all development stages.

Vygotsky, on the other hand, posited that human development is a process of social differentiation, that is, of creating a social identity, role, and ways of understanding the world. Moreover, the cognitive potential of the subject depends upon the quality of his or her social interactions and ZPD. As opposed to Piaget, Vygotsky argued that individuals are born with organized perceptions, capable from birth of focusing these on human stimuli and engaging in social interactions.

Some similarities exist between Piaget and Vygotsky, however. Traditional behaviorists such as B. F. Skinner argued that individuals learned by way of operating in the physical world and a system of stimuli and rewards. Skinner posited that learning was a passive behavior, and that children operated by way of a stimulus and response system. The theories of Piaget and Vygotsky disagreed with Skinner’s conductivist model; both argued that development was based on psychological processes. Vygotsky, however, took it further by adding that it also included social interaction, mediated by language, and that learning antecedes development. For Piaget, language is a genetic and evolutionary process, which progresses according to biological imperatives.

Sociocultural Theory and Constructivism

Sociocultural theory is considered as more ample and encompassing than constructivist theory. Constructivism, for example, has a narrower view of the learning process, viewing it as a series of individual mental representations. In short, constructivism is more concerned with the individual and how he or she makes sense of the world. Sociocultural theory is more interested with the ways in which learning is an act of internalizing culture or a process of acculturation. In other words, sociocultural theory is concerned with the wider social context in which learning occurs and the extent to which people participate in the learning process.

Many newer theoretical models, however, integrate elements from both theories, so that rather than be competing theories, they can be considered as complementary. This has resulted in some mixed theories that might incorporate an interest in the innate, biological functions involved in the learning process, for example, and the role of social experience in development process.

Beyond the Traditional Setting

Sociocultural theory has been used often to conduct research in higher education and academic settings. Traditionally, sociocultural research focused on the interactions of individuals and society and this standpoint was applied to research in education settings. However, sociocultural theory has been applied to research in organizational settings and national contexts. Technology has also raised some challenges. While sociocultural theory research projects used to take place in physical classroom settings, the spread of Internet-based and online education settings include virtual classrooms with students spread far and wide across a continent or the world. This creates interaction difficulties among learners and instructors. Furthermore, researchers do not have their research participants all in a same classroom at the same time.

Terms & Concepts:

Cognition: Mental awareness and processes pertaining to understanding, knowledge, memory, reasoning and others mental capacities.

Development: The study, usually in psychology, of how human beings develop throughout their life. Often used as pertaining to children and youth.

Private Speech: A cornerstone of sociocultural theory, private speech refers to talking to oneself in order to regulate and guide thoughts.

Scaffold: The scaffold consists in the temporal support of adults, such as teachers, parents, tutors, who provide the child with the object of performing a task until the child is capable of doing it without external help.

Signs: A sign is used to inform, direct, warn, or advise.

Symbols: Although often used interchangeably with the concept of sign, symbols are signs that stand for something else. For example, chemistry elements have symbols, which are usually a letter or a set of letters that represent the element.

Zone of Proximal Development: The distance between the actual developmental level and the level of potential development, as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development, determined through problem solving under adult guidance (Vygotsky, 1978).

Bibliography

Berk, L. E. (1995). Scaffolding children’s learning: Vygotsky and early childhood education. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Dang, T. K., & Marginson, S. (2013). Global learning through the lens of Vygotskian sociocultural theory. Critical Studies in Education 54(2), 143–159. Retrieved December 5, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=87666295&site=ehost-live

Karpov, Y. (2014). Vygotsky for educators. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Quantz, R.A. (2015). Sociocultural studies in education: Critical thinking for democracy. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.

Moll, L. C. (2013). L. S. Vygotsky and education. London, UK: Routledge.

Mooney, C. G. (2013). Theories of childhood: An introduction to Dewey, Montessori, Erikson, Piaget, and Vygotsky. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.

Petrova, Z. (2013). On the relevancy of using Vygotsky’s theoretical framework to legitimize dialogic teaching/learning. Journal of Pedagogy, 4(2), 237–252. Retrieved December 5, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=100858723&site=ehost-live

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Vygotsky, L. S. (2012). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Whaley, A. L., & Noel, L. T. (2013). Sociocultural theories, academic achievement, and African American Adolescents in a multicultural context: A review of cultural compatibility perspective. Journal of Negro Education, 81(1), 25–38. Retrieved December 5, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database SocINDEX Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=60133057&site=ehost-live

Suggested Reading

Gordana, J. (2015). Vygotsky in his, our, and future times. History of the Human Sciences, 28(2), 3–7. Retrieved December 5, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database SocIndex Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=103005038&site=ehost-live

Lim, L., & Renshaw, P. (2001). The relevance of sociocultural theory to culturally diverse partnerships and communities. Journal of Child and Family Statistics, 10(1), 9–21. Retrieved December 5, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database SocIndex Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=4858572&site=ehost-live

Ma, J. (2014). The synergy of Pierce and Vygotsky as an analytical approach to the multimodality of semiotic mediation. Mind, Culture & Activity, 21(4), 374–389. Retrieved December 5, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database SocIndex Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=98838269&site=ehost-live