Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory

1. SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY AND SECOND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT James P. Lantolf, Steven L. Thorne, and Matthew E. Poehner BY: Zahra Farajnezhad ■

2.  History Lev S. Vygotsky, a psychologist in Russia who is most closely identified with sociocultural theory. ■ ■ He was known as the father of sociocultural thinking. Interested in understanding how higher-order mental processes developed during a time when behaviorists dominated psychology. He stressed the importance of reconstructing the social, environmental, and cultural forms and conditions surrounding the emergence of behavior and consciousness, and its subsequent development. Also, he believed people are eager to help children learn new skills that are needed to live in their culture.

3. Four Basic Principles Underlying the Vygotskian Framework Language plays a Language plays a central role in mental central role in mental development development   Consider private speech, where children speak to themselves to plan or guide their own behavior. This is most common among preschoolers, who haven’t yet learned proper social skills but rather explore the idea of it. Children often use private speech when the task becomes too difficult and the child doesn’t know how to proceed. Private speech helps the child accomplish a task. Vygotsky believed private speech changes with age, by becoming softer or being just a whisper.

4. Four Basic Principles Underlying the Vygotskian Framework Development can not be Development can not be separated from its social separated from its social context context  This interaction leads to continuous step-by- step changes in children’s thought and behavior that can vary greatly from culture to culture. theory suggests that social  Development depends on interaction with people and the tools that the culture provides to help form their own view of the world. There are three ways a cultural tool can be passed from one Individual to another: imitative learning, instructed learning, and self-regulated learning.

5. Four Basic Principles Underlying the Vygotskian Framework   Vygotsky believed that any pedagogy creates learning processes that lead to development and this sequence results in zones of proximal development. It's the concept that a child accomplishes a task that he/she cannot do alone, with the help from a more skilled person. He also described the ZPD as the difference between the actual development level as determined by individual problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or collaboration with more knowledgeable peers. The result of this process is children become more socialized in the dominant culture and it induces cognitive development. Learning can lead Learning can lead development development

6. Four Basic Principles Underlying the Vygotskian Framework Children construct their Children construct their knowledge knowledge   Human behavior results from the integration of socially and culturally constructed forms of mediation into human activity.

7. An Introduction to Sociocultural Theory ■ Sociocultural theory grew from the work of a psychologist Lev Vygotsky, who believed that parents, caregivers, peers, and the culture at large were responsible for developing higher order functions. ■ Sociocultural theory focuses not only how adults and peers influence individual learning, but also on how cultural beliefs and attitudes impact how instruction and learning take place. ■ This theory stresses the interaction between developing people and the culture in which they live. ■ also suggests that human learning is largely a social process.

8. An Introduction to Sociocultural Theory  According to Vygotsky, children are born with basic biological constraints on their minds. Each culture provides what he referred to as 'tools of intellectual adaptation.' These tools allow children to use their basic mental abilities in a way that is adaptive to the culture in which they live. For example, while one culture might emphasize memory strategies such as note-taking, other cultures might utilize tools like reminders or rote memorization.

9.  How Sociocultural theory differs from Constructivism ■ Both constructivism and sociocultural theory, when applied to learning, are concerned with the activities that children engage in to learn. However, constructivist theory suggests one should attend to the learning and mental representations of the individual while the sociocultural theory is more concerned with the ways in which learning is an act of enculturation.

10. Educational Implications of Sociocultural Theory  Given the comprehensive nature of sociocultural theory, its educational implications for assessment, curriculum, and instruction are broad-ranging.  Informed by a sociocultural perspective, learning is thought to occur through interaction, negotiation, and collaboration. While these features are characteristic of “cooperative learning,” what sets instruction that is informed by sociocultural theory apart is that there is also attention to the discourse, norms, and practices associated with particular discourse and practice communities. The goal of instruction is to support students to engage in the activities, talk, and use tools in a manner that is consistent with the practices of the community to which students are being introduced.  With the proliferation of information and communication technologies in educational and everyday settings, scholars, working from a sociocultural perspective, are working to expand concepts, such as distributed cognition, to include not only people and artifacts but also digital technologies.

11.  Sociocultural Theory Themes 1.) Cognitive Development occurs in Social Interaction. – Vygotsky believed the outside environment shapes development – Interaction with others has a profound effect on how children develop. – Influenced by Caregivers, siblings, extended family members, teachers, and peers. 2.) Psychological functioning is mediated by language and other cultural tools.  Technical tools are directed outward they change an external situation where psychological tools are directed inward they change the mind and the process of thinking. Psychological Functioning - is the ability to achieve his or her goals within themselves and the external environment. Includes an individual’s behavior, emotion, social skills, and overall health. ■ Examples: – Technical Tools - tools for acting on the environment. Examples: Silverware, tractors, hammers – Psychological Tools - tools that influence the way we organize and remember information. Examples: Language, Maps, Diagrams

12. 3.) Cultural norms and other people influence opportunities for learning. Cultural norms are what are considered normal or typical within a group/country/ etc. Example: Tipping waitress in America • Availability of education. • Expectations about work, study or play. • Sharing of values. 4.) Social and Cultural Learning requires particular cognitive abilities. Cognitive abilities - are skills we need to carry out any task from simple to most complex. They have more to do with the mechanisms of how we learn, remember, problem-solve, and pay attention rather than with any actual knowledge.   Inter-subjectivity – Shared understanding between people that emerges through the process of mutual attention and communication.  Three forms of Cultural Learning – Imitative Learning - Reproducing another individual's behavior in order to achieve the same goal. – Instructional Learning - Involves direct, intentional transmission of information from one individual to another with the learner attempting to understand the task or material. – Collaborative Learning - Learning that occurs when multiple individuals engage in cooperative, goal-directed problem-solving.

13. Piaget vs. Vygotsky: Key Differences So how does Vygotsky's sociocultural theory differ from Piaget's theory of cognitive development?  First, Vygotsky placed a greater emphasis on how social factors influence development. While Piaget's theory stressed how a child's interactions and explorations influenced development, Vygotsky stressed the essential role that social interactions play in cognitive development.  Another important difference between the two theories was that while Piaget's theory suggests that development is largely universal, Vygotsky cognitive development can differ between different cultures. development in a Western culture, for example, might be different than it is in an Eastern culture. suggested that The course of

14. Piaget vs. Vygotsky: Key Differences So how does Vygotsky's sociocultural theory differ from Piaget's theory of cognitive development?  According to Vygotsky, children need opportunities to develop skills in various things. For this, scaffolding is important.  Vygotsky and Piaget, according to both, children construct knowledge by learning. But there are many differences between the two psychologists’ concept of the theory.  Vygotsky says that language and culture are more important than according to Piaget, there are stages of thinking based on natural maturation. Role of teachers is central according to Vygotsky and the opposite in Piaget.  He states that language is a means to achieve cognitive development while Piaget regards language as a measure of cognitive development. maturation. But,

16.  The concept of mediation: Human relations with the world are not direct but “mediated” by physical and symbolic tools.   The central and distinguishing concept of sociocultural theory is that higher forms of human mental activity are mediated. Vygotsky argued that just as humans do not act directly on the physical world but rely, instead, on tools and labor activity, we also use symbolic tools, or signs, to mediate and regulate our relationships with others and with ourselves. Physical and symbolic tools are artifacts created by human cultures over time and are made available to succeeding generations, which often modify these artifacts before passing them on to future generations. Included among symbolic tools are numbers and arithmetic systems, music, art, and, above all, language. As with physical tools, humans use symbolic artifacts to establish an indirect, or mediated, relationship between ourselves and the world. The task for psychology, in Vygotsky’s view, is to understand how human social and mental activity is organized through culturally constructed artifacts and social relationships.

17.  The Zone of Proximal Development Vygotsky's Definition of ZPD Vygotsky's Definition of ZPD  Zone of proximal development is a concept that was created by influential psychologist Lev Vygotsky. According to Vygotsky:   An important component of the social learning process  "the distance between the actual development level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers." (Vygotsky, 1978)  development (ZPD) is the range of abilities that an individual can perform with cannot yet perform independently. The zone of proximal assistance, but

18.  The Zone of Proximal Development ■ The ZPD draws attention to three important issues. First, it focuses attention on children's mental functions that are currently going on, but are not yet complete. Second, it recognized help from peers or adults as a method of learning. Third, it helped to separate between actual and potential learning ability. The actual ability of a child is what they can do without any help from others, while potential learning ability is when a child needs help in order to complete a task. Three assumptions are often discussed in relation to the ZPD. They include generality assumption, assistance assumption and potential assumption. ■ Assistance assumption shows how someone helping a child should interact with them. ■ Potential assumption centers around the ability and readiness of a child to learn.

19. Applications of ZPD in the Classroom  The zone of proximal development is a moving target. As a learner gains new skills and abilities, this zone moves progressively forward. Teachers and parents can take advantage of this by continually providing educational opportunities that are a slight stretch of a child's existing knowledge and skills. By giving children tasks that they cannot quite do easily on their own and providing the guidance they need to accomplish it, educators can progressively advance the learning process.  For example, a teacher in an experimental psychology course might initially provide scaffolding for students by coaching them step-by-step through their experiments. Next, the teacher might slowly remove the scaffolding by only providing outlines or brief descriptions of how to proceed. Finally, students would be expected to develop and carry out their experiments independently.

20.  The Importance of the "More Knowledgeable Other"  The concept of the "more knowledgeable other" is quite simple and fairly self- explanatory. The more knowledgeable other is someone who has a higher level of knowledge than the learner. It is the more knowledgeable other who provides the critical guidance and instruction during the sensitive learning period. While a child might not yet be capable of doing something on her own, she is able to perform the task with the assistance of a skilled instructor.  The more knowledgeable other (MKO) is refers to someone who has a better understanding or a higher ability level than the learner, with respect to a particular task, process, or concept.  Although the implication is that the MKO is a teacher or an older adult, this is not necessarily the case. Many times, a child's peers or an adult's children may be the individuals with more knowledge or experience.

23.  The Importance of Social Interaction  This more knowledgeable other is often a parent, teacher, or another adult, but this is not always the case. In many instances, peers provide valuable assistance and instruction. During certain periods of a child's life, they may even look to peers more than they look to adults. The teen years, when forming an identity and fitting in is so critical, is just one example. Kids at this age often look to their peers for information about how to act and how to dress.  Vygotsky believed that peer interaction was an essential part of the learning process. In order for children to learn new skills, he suggested pairing more competent students with less skilled ones.

24.  Scaffolding  In the 1970s, Bruner, Wood and Ross created the term "scaffolding" to add to sociocultural theory. Scaffolding describes the interaction between a child and an adult who helps them finish a task that they could not do alone. Scaffolding relates to Vygotsky's sociocultural theory because it recognizes the role of social interaction on learning and how other people affect the development of children. It involves changing the way a more skilled person helps a child in doing a task based on their available learning ability. scaffolding in sociocultural theory helps support a child as their mental processes develop. When children are in ZPD, providing them with the appropriate assistance and tools, which he referred to as scaffolding, gives students what they need to accomplish the new task or skill. Eventually, the scaffolding can be removed and the student will be able to complete the task independently.

25. Scaffolding  There are three essential features of scaffolding that facilitate learning. The first feature has to do with the interaction between the learner and the expert. This interaction should be collaborative for it to be effective. The second, learning should take place in the learner's Zone of Proximal Development. To do that the expert needs to be aware of the learner's current level of knowledge and then work to a certain extent beyond that level. The third feature of scaffolding is that the scaffold, the support, and guidance provided by the expert, is gradually removed as the learner becomes more proficient. The support and guidance provided to the learner is compared to the scaffolds in building construction where the scaffolds provide both "adjustable and temporal" support to the building under construction. The support and guidance provided to learners facilitate internalization of the knowledge needed to complete the task. This support is removed gradually until the learner is independent.

26. Scaffolding ■ Over the course of a teaching session, one can adjust the amount of guidance to fit the child's potential level of performance. More support is offered when a child is having difficulty with a particular task and, over time, less support is provided as the child makes gains on the task. Ideally, scaffolding works to maintain the child's potential level of development in the ZPD. An essential element to the ZPD and scaffolding is the acquisition of language. ■ Examples of Scaffolding: – Providing a rubric for a student paper – Asking a student leading questions – Providing sample work for students to look at

27. Summary: Vygotsky Scaffolding and the Zone of Proximal Development   Scaffolding is a teaching method that uses instructors and more advanced peers to help students learn. It states that students will learn more when they receive guidance from someone with more skills in the subject they’re learning than they would if they were tackling the subject on their own.   Scaffolding is part of the education theory the zone of proximal development. The ZPD states that each student has three levels of learning: things the student can accomplish on her own, things she can accomplish with help from someone else (ZPD) and things she can’t accomplish no matter how much help she has. The ZPD and scaffolding theory is that students learn the most when they’re in their ZPD.   Vygotsky developed the ZPD, while Jerome Bruner developed scaffolding psychology several decades later. Studies have shown that scaffolding can be a very effective teaching method, as long as the teacher understands the concepts behind it and doesn’t provide too much guidance.

28.  Private speech  Private speech takes place when children talk to themselves. Vygotsky saw this as the starting point for all mental developments. According to Lantolf, Vygotsky believed "it is the process of privatizing speech that higher forms of consciousness arise on the inner plane and in this way our biological capacities are organized into a culturally mediated mind."  Vygotsky thought that by using private speech that a child's biological instincts were made into culturally acceptable ways of acting. Children spoke to themselves as a way of guiding themselves through an action. Private speech changes as children age, beginning as external (out loud) speech when they are younger but then becoming more internal (within themselves) as they age. Through relationships with more capable people, children get information and use that understanding in their private speech. Private speech showed how children use the support given to them by others to assist their own way of thinking and how they act.

29.  Make-believe play  Vygotsky saw make-believe play as an important part of child development. It is one of the main ways of developing during the preschool years. Children use make-believe play to test multiple skills and achieve important cultural abilities. Vygotsky suggested that as children take part in made up situations they learn how to act in agreement with their internal ideas, not just external ideas.  During play children put themselves into the adult roles of their culture and practice how they will act in the future. Play takes place before development so children can start to gain the motivation, abilities and attitudes needed for social participation, which can be done only with the help of peers and adults. Make-believe play allows children to practice how they would act in the real world. It provides them with a way to gain the basic skills needed to function in their society before they become adults. However, learning these roles and skills is only done with help from others in their culture.

30.  Observations About Social Learning Theory  "Social and Personality Development," author David R. Shaffer explains that while Piaget believed that cognitive development was fairly universal, Vygotsky believed that each culture presents unique differences. Because cultures can vary so dramatically, Vygotsky's sociocultural theory suggests that both the course and content of intellectual development are not as universal as Piaget believed.

31.  Principles of Sociocultural Theory Children construct their own knowledge: Knowledge is not transferable; it needs learning. Acquiring knowledge is an individual ability. However, children might need help to do so. ■ Learning needs mediation: Other people interact with the child to use tools and facilitate the learning process. ■ Language is used for mental development: People use language to develop higher psychological functions. ■ Two levels of learning: It happens on social level at first and then on individual level. ■ Social context is important: If a person does not get the proper social environment to develop, cognition does not develop. ■ Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): It is how much a child develops with help from society. It differs from that of the development that happens without help. ■

32.  Examples of Sociocultural Theory ■ A child can’t learn many things without society like language skills. They need to be with people to learn how to use language. ■ People develop their own cognition by reading, interacting, using various tools. So, a person’s cognitive level and another person can be different. ■ One child can be curious, exploring, eager to learn and hardworking, while another child might not be. Someone might be better at indoor games while someone at outdoor games. People differ according to their cognitive development and their interests. ■ Individual persistence can help the person acquire new skills and knowledge. The child has never seen anyone play a Chinese game called Mahjong, the child will not be able to know how to play it. But if someone shows him/her, the child will develop a skill to play the game. He/she can even surpass the skills of the person who taught him/her with practice and cognitive development. When a child is first taught to write, he/she might not be able to do it right away but can write well after several days’ practice.

33. ■ Sociocultural is concerned with how individual, social, and contextual issues impact human activity, especially learning and behavior. ■ The socioculturally mediated process affected by the physical and psychological tools and artifacts construction of knowledge is a ■ Sociocultural Theory also takes into account how learners are impacted by their peers, and how social scenarios impact their ability to acquire information. As such, instructors who apply the Sociocultural Theory in their instructional design can also become aware of how learners may directly impact one another, as well as how cultural “norms” can influence a learner's learning behavior. 1) Learning precedes development 2) Language is the main vehicle (tool) of thought 3) Mediation is central to learning. 4) Social interaction is the basis of learning and development. Learning is a process of apprenticeship and internalization in which skills and knowledge are transformed from the social into the cognitive plane.