Social Development Theory (Vygotsky)
Social Development Theory, also known as Sociocultural Theory, is a framework developed by Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky that emphasizes the role of social interaction and cultural context in cognitive development. Vygotsky proposed that children learn and develop their thinking through the guidance of more knowledgeable individuals, highlighting the importance of socialization in the learning process. Central to his theory is the concept of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), which refers to the range of tasks a child can perform with assistance but not yet independently.
Vygotsky identified three primary methods through which learning occurs: imitation, instruction, and collaboration. These methods illustrate how knowledge is scaffolded, meaning that learners build on existing skills with support from others. He also noted that play and self-directed speech are critical for learning, allowing children to practice skills and rehearse tasks in context. While Vygotsky's ideas were initially overlooked, they gained recognition post-World War II and have since been influential in educational psychology, stressing the interplay between individual learning and the social environment in shaping cognitive abilities.
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Social Development Theory (Vygotsky)
Social development theory is a model explaining how children develop their ways of thinking and behaving. It originated in the work of Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky, a Russian teacher with a deep interest in how education occurs. The theory proposes that children learn by exposure to a more experienced and knowledgeable person. In other words, much of learning and cognitive development follows and is dependent upon socialization. His theory centered on the concept of a zone of proximal development, or ZPD. This zone included the tasks that a child was able to accomplish through the assistance of or because of the example of someone else. According to the social development theory, the amount a child is capable of learning is dependent on how much an individual child relies on the ZPD for learning. Vygotsky's theory has found applications in how people of all ages learn and attain knowledge.
Background
Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky was born in Belorussia in 1896 and pursued a degree in law from the University of Moscow. He graduated in 1917 and started his career as a teacher; this triggered an interest in how education occurs. Although Vygotsky had no formal training in psychology, he developed several theories related to how children learn new tasks and gain information.
The year Vygotsky graduated was also the year of the Russian Revolution that put Vladimir Lenin in power. The Communists who were in control rejected Vygotsky's theories, and he died of tuberculosis in 1934 without receiving any significant recognition for his ideas. However, students and others who accepted his theories continued to perpetuate them throughout the period after World War II (1939–1945) when political tensions were high between Russia and many of the world's other large countries, a time known as the Cold War.
When these tensions eased, Vygotsky's theories were finally shared with the rest of the world. Many articles and several books written during his lifetime, including Thought and Language, which is often considered his most significant work, were translated and published. Vygotsky's theories became influential among those interested in the psychology of education, even in his native Russia where his concepts were originally rejected.
Overview
Vygotsky believed that a child's learning occurs in incremental steps that are affected by the culture in which the child is raised and the extent to which the child interacts with others. He proposed that a person's social environment has a great deal to do with how and how well a person learns. According to Vygotsky, children—and people of all ages—learn in three ways. First, learning can happen by imitating someone who already knows how to complete a task or skill. Second, a skill or task can be learned by hearing instructions on how to do it and then completing the task from the instructions. Third, new skills, tasks, or behaviors can be learned by working collaboratively with others.
In each of these cases, the learner has three levels of skills. One group consists of the skills the child or learner already knows, and another is made up of skills the child will never know. The third group of skills are those that the person will learn with some level of assistance from others. This assistance can be in the form of observation, instruction, or collaboration as noted in the three ways Vygotsky believed learning occurs. This was the zone of proximal development, or ZPD, and it was dependent on the social environment in which the learning took place.
According to Vygotsky, there are two key factors in determining the success of ZPD. The first is subjectivity, which means that two people start the same task at different levels of knowledge about the task and eventually end up at the same or a similar level. The second factor is scaffolding, which refers to the way the knowledge and example of the more experienced person provides a framework for the cognitive growth of the less experienced person.
For example, a child who is placed in front of a pan of water will experiment with that water, perhaps dipping his fingers or a hand, noticing that the water can be moved, and then splashing one or both hands in the water. If a bar of soap is nearby, the soap may be dropped in, picked up, and dropped in again. However, the behavior of rubbing the hands on the soap to remove dirt and then rinsing the soap off will likely only occur if the child sees another child or an adult do this, or if someone does it with and to the child. The child and adult demonstrate subjectivity by starting with different levels of understanding; over time, the child will develop a similar level of understanding because the example of the adult helps the child learn the individual steps and combine them to complete learning the behavior.
Vygotsky further believed that the play and private talk that children engage in are important steps in their learning. It helps children rehearse learning in context; for instance, a child who is trying to master the steps of handwashing might "talk to himself" using words and gestures he has observed in the past, saying something like, "Rub rub rub, now rinse off the soap. Let's dry our hands and then we're all clean and can have lunch!" Play and mimicry such as this help the child work through the steps and start to understand not just what to do but also how to put it into the context of when and why the task is performed.
Vygotsky believed that because talking to oneself is not considered socially acceptable behavior, learners past young childhood stop vocalizing their private talk but continue to mentally work through various steps to mastering a new task. He also believed that people continue to use the concept of ZPD to learn new tasks, although those beyond childhood may find other ways to be exposed to learning, such as reading a book, rather than direct social exposure to a new task. He also believed that when assessing learning, it is important to take ZPD into account. For instance, if three people are learning a new task and one learns by watching, one reads a manual, and one works side by side with an experienced worker, these differing zones of development should be taken into account when assessing each person's proficiency at accomplishing the task.
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