Lev Vygotsky’s theory of Socio Cultural Development

Vygotsky was called “The Mozart of Psychology“. He was born in 1896- same year as Piaget – in the small Russian town of Orsha.

The sociocultural theory:

• Did NOT focus on the individual child but on the child as a product of social interaction, especially with adults (parents, teachers).
• Focus on DYADIC INTERACTIONS (e.g., child being taught by a parent how to perform some culturally specific action), rather than child by himself.
• Social world mediates children’s cognitive development. Cognitive development occurs as child’s thinking is molded by society in the form of parents, teachers, and peers. This leads to peer tutoring as a strategy in classrooms.
• People’s thinking differs dramatically between cultures because different cultures stress different things.

Theory’s Principles and Concepts:

Children construct their knowledge.
Knowledge is not transferred passively, but is personally constructed.

The learning is mediated.
Cognitive development is not a direct result of activity, but it is indirect; other people must interact with the learner, use mediatory tools to facilitate the learning process, and then cognitive development may occur.

Language plays a central role in mental development.
The most significant sociocultural tool is language, as it is used to teach tool use and is vital in the process of developing higher psychological functions.

Learning appears twice.
First on the social level, and later, on the individual level; first between people (interpsychology), and then inside the child (intrapsychology).

Development cannot be separated from its social context.
The context needed for learning is that where the learners can interact with each other and use the new tools. This means that the learning environment must be authentic, that is, it must contain the type of people who would use these types of tools such as concepts, language, symbols in a natural way.

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).
The difference between what a child can do independently and what the child needs help from a more knowledgeable person to do is the Zone of Proximal Development.

Scaffolding
“role of teachers and others in supporting the learner’s development and providing support structures to get to the next stage or level” Vygotsky.

a knowledgeable participant can create by means of speech and supportive conditions in which the student (novice) can participate in and extend current skills and knowledge to a high level of competence.

In an educational context, however, scaffolding is an instructional structure whereby the teacher models the desired learning strategy or task then gradually shifts responsibility to the students.

Scaffolding:
Provides support
Extends the range of what a learner can do.
Allows the learner to accomplish tasks otherwise impossible
Used only when needed

Almost every CTET and State TET ( UPTET, HTET etc) question paper has questions from this topic. Refer

Previous Year Questions: