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Lev Vygotsky
(“the
Mozart of Psychology”)
Vygotsky's Theory and Evaluation of Vygotsky with Applying Vygotsky to Education
For most of his
adult life Vygotsky lived in Communist Russia, as a result his work
shows definite Marxist
Vygotsky believed
that a child's cognitive development cannot be seen as occurring in a
social vacuum. In Vygotsky's view, our ability to think and reason by
ourselves and for ourselves (what he terms inner speech or verbal
thought) is the result of a fundamentally social process. At birth, we
are social beings who are capable of interacting with others, but able
to do little either practically or intellectually by or for ourselves.
Gradually, however, we move towards self-sufficiency and independence,
and by participating in social activities, our capabilities become
transformed. For Vygotsky, cognitive development involves an active
internalisation of problem-solving processes that takes place as a
result of mutual interaction between children and those with whom they
have regular social contact (initially the parents, but later friends
and classmates).
Vygotsky's process
of internalisation is the reverse of how Piaget (at least initially) saw
things. As Rogoff (1990) has noted, Piaget's idea of 'the child as a
scientist' is replaced by the idea of 'the child as an apprentice', who
acquires the knowledge and skills of a culture through graded
collaboration with those who already possess such knowledge and skills.
According to Vygotsky (1981):
'Any function in
the child's cultural development appears twice, or on two planes. First
it appears on the social plane, and then on the psychological plane.'
Tools, functions mediated activity and
internalisation
Elementary mental functions.
These are present at birth and
include sensation and attention. They only show minor development by
experience. Elementary mental functions are present in all animals.
Higher mental functions.
These include problem solving,
mathematical ability, language and thinking.
Cultural influence.
This is required to take us from
Elementary to Higher functions. By cultural influence Vygotsky meant
books, teachers, parents, experts or anything capable of passing on the
knowledge of previous generations.
If, as Vygotsky suggests, higher mental
functions are shaped by culture then different cultures should develop
different higher mental functions; Gredler (1992) studied children in
Papua New Guinea who learn a counting system of 1 to 29 based on
different parts of the body. Clearly this is not going to be good for
dealing with large numbers and as a result adults in the culture
struggle with problems involving larger numbers.
Vygotsky regarded higher mental
functions such as thought, language, mathematical ability and problem
solving as the “tools” of the culture in which the child lives. Tools
are passed down from the older generations so are culturally mediated.
There is some
confusion in the texts as to the difference between a ‘tool’ and a
‘sign.’ According to most texts a ‘tool’ is something that causes a
physical change in the World, whereas a ‘sign’ creates an internal,
psychological change. However, generally the word ‘tool’ is used now to
represent both. Imagine me emailing you to complete a piece of
homework. Is that a tool (it causes you to do something physical) or is
it a sign (since it creates a psychological state of unhappiness)?
Once passed on these concepts become
internalised by the child so essentially become part of the child’s
cognitive repertoire. The child can then bring about change itself, not
directly but through use of these tools, hence the term mediated
activity. The change has been mediated via a tool.
Getting to the point!
The simple example Vygotsky himself
provides is how the child learns to acquire to tool of pointing.
Initially this begins as an attempt to grasp something out of reach and
is directed at the desired object. A parent or local friendly person
seeing the child’s attempts will kindly put the object of its desire
closer so it can be reached. Gradually the child internalises this
grasping behaviour realising it can get results so that it quickly
becomes a deliberate action in its own right. The grasp is now weakened
so it will have no chance of reaching the object and is instead directed
at a local person rather than the object. It has become the tool of
pointing.
Language
Language is essential for the
communication of knowledge and ideas and as a result is crucial to
Vygotsky’s theory.
To understand the theory it is
important to understand the role language plays in thinking. In fact
the two are closely linked. Try to imagine thinking without the use of
words. Vygotsky believed that thought and language develop through a
number of stages:
Ages 0 to 2 years
Language and thought develop
independently of one another. Children have pre-verbal thought and
pre-intellectual speech.
Ages 2 to 7 years
Language has two functions:
1.
Monitor and direct internal
thoughts (inner voice we talk to ourselves with).
2.
Communicate thoughts to
others (talk out loud).
When children at this age talk out loud
to themselves, Vygotsky saw this as a sign that the child is unable to
distinguish between the two.
Age 7 onwards
The child distinguishes between the two
functions of language. Private language is used for thinking and
becomes central to cognitive development. Vygotsky believed that
language and thinking developed in parallel to each other. As our
ability to use language improves this increase our ability to think and
vice versa.
Language is crucial both for thinking
and communication. A child that has developed language is better able
to understand that other children think differently (intersubjectivity).
RESEARCH STUDY: Inner speech (Berk, 1994)
Convincing evidence of the important role played by inner speech was reported by Berk (1994). She found that 6-year-olds spent an average of 60% of the time talking to themselves while solving problems in mathematics. Those whose speech contained numerous comments about what needed to be done on the current problem did better at mathematics over the following year. This confirmed Vygotsky's view that self-guiding speech can make it easier for children to direct their actions. Presumably this self-guiding speech made it easier for the children to focus their attention on the task in hand.Vygotsky argued that private speech diminishes and becomes more internal as children's level of performance improves. Berk (1994) discussed a study in which 4- and 5-year-old children made Lego models in each of three sessions. As predicted by Vygotsky, the children's speech become increasingly internalised from session to session as their model-making performance improved. Thus, as Vygotsky assumed, private speech is of most value to children when they are confronted by novel tasks that they do not fully understand.
Evaluation
The usefulness of Vygotsky's theory of diminishing speech depends on what is meant by “speech”. For example, some children with learning difficulties are unable to speak but can perform quite well on many types of tasks. Children who are born profoundly deaf and whose families are hearing often find speech difficult or impossible to acquire but their intelligence is sometimes unimpaired. It is interesting to speculate whether deaf children of deaf parents who grow up using sign language can use signs as their own private “speech” in the way intended by Vygotsky.
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).
‘…what is the zone of proximal
development today will be the actual zone of development tomorrow. That
is, what a child can do with some assistance today she will be able to
do by herself tomorrow.’ (Vygotsky 1978).
The ZPD is the difference between what
the child can achieve on its own and what it can achieve with help from
others. For learning to occur the adult must provide a challenge that
is beyond what the child is capable of, but within its capabilities with
help, i.e. within its ZPD. Therefore the child can only reach its full
potential with help from others. The help given by adults is referred
to as scaffolding. It is important that the child is challenged
without experiencing failure.
Goodman and Goodman (1990), writing about how teachers teach in the ZPD,
offer five guidelines. They say that teachers should:
1.
Interfere as little as possible.
2. Ask
a question.
3.
Offer a useful hint.
4.
Direct attention at an anomaly.
5.
Direct attention at an overlooked bit of information.
Research evidence
Moss (1992) found that parents,
particularly mothers, provide scaffolding. Moss observed three
strategies:
1.
Mother instructs the child
with strategies it would not otherwise know.
2.
Mother encourages child to
keep using useful strategies.
3.
Mother persuades the child to
drop inappropriate strategies.
Conner
et al (1997) found that fathers are as good at scaffolding. They also
found that children that have received scaffolding show longer-term
improvements in skills as well as immediate improvements. Freund (1990) conducted a study in which children had to decide which items of furniture should be placed in particular houses of a dolls house. Some children were allowed to play with their mother in a similar situation before they attempted it alone (zone of proximal development) whilst others were allowed to work on this by themselves (Piaget's discovery learning). Freund found that those who had previously worked with their mother (ZPD) showed greatest improvement compared with their first attempt at the task. The conclusion being that guided learning within the ZPD led to greater understanding/performance than working alone (discovery learning).
Greenfield and Lave (1982; see PIP p.540) found that experts teaching
Mexican girls to weave structured their assistance so that girls stayed
within their ZPD, with successful outcomes.
Moss
and Strayer (1990) also suggest that mothers of gifted children tend to
encourage the use of metacognitive strategies more than mothers of
children within the normal range of
Development. What is more, Bouffard-Bouchard and Gagne´ -Dupuis (1994)
say that the educational practices of mothers with low social status are
less directed towards stimulating their children’s zone of proximal
development than those displayed by mothers with high social status, and
that this influences pre-school children’s cognitive development.
Many
researchers e.g. Wertsch (1985) show that more successful adult
scaffolders adapt their scaffolding strategies to both their children’s
development and the difficulty of the task. Wertsch (1985) reported that
adults adjust their speech to children’s language skills, and that when
they use demanding cognitive expressions that are beyond the child’s
current skills they tend to be ineffective.
Learning through play
(courtesy of Wikipedia)
Through play the child develops abstract meaning separate from the
objects in the world which is a critical feature in the development of
higher mental functions.The famous example Vygotsky gives is of a child who wants to ride a horse but can’t. As a child under three, the child would show outward signs of frustration, but around the age of three the child's relationship with the world changes:
"Henceforth play is such that the explanation for it must always be that it is the imaginary, illusory realization of unrealizable desires. Imagination is a new formation that is not present in the consciousness of the very young child, is totally absent in animals, and represents a specifically human form of conscious activity. Like all functions of consciousness, it originally arises from action." (Vygotsky, 1978)
We have all seen children stand astride a stick and pretend they are riding a horse. For Vygotsky the stick is acting as a ‘pivot.’ A pivot is a way a child learns to separate words from the objects they represent. A young child thinks ‘horse’ and can’t imagine anything other than a real horse. Through play sticks can also represent ‘horse.’
As children get older, their reliance on pivots such as sticks, dolls and other toys diminishes. They have internalized these pivots as imagination and abstract concepts through which they can understand the world.
Another aspect of play that Vygotsky referred to was the development of social rules that develop, for example, when children play house and adopt the roles of different family members. Vygotsky cites an example of two sisters playing at being sisters. The rules of behavior between them that go unnoticed in daily life are consciously acquired through play.
Evaluation of Vygotsky
Vygotsky’s greatest contribution was in
recognising the importance of social interaction in the cognitive
development of children. Whereas Piaget predicts that all children,
regardless of culture, should make the same progression through his
stages, Vygotsky believed there would be significant cultural
differences. In fact both get some support from later research. Some
features of development appear universal whereas others show distinct
cultural variations.
Given his relatively short life
Vygotsky himself was unable to adopt and adapt his theory in the way
that Piaget was. However, other Russian psychologists did pick up the
baton and through the
Kharkov School of Psychology*
continued his research.
Vygotsky’s work was not
translated into English until 1962 but quickly became very influential
in the West with other developmental psychologists, most notably Jerome
Bruner building on his work.
As we
shall see in the next section, Vygotsky’s work has been widely applied
in education around the World with methods such as
reciprocal teaching and
dynamic assessment being widely adopted and used.
Although Vygotsky carried out little in
the way of scientific or empirical research himself, his detailed
writings on specific topics has made it possible for others to check his
work and test it on practical settings such as education. As a result
there is now a substantial amount of research on topics such as peer
tutoring and scaffolding.
Criticisms
Unlike Piaget, there is no mention of
stages but instead an underlying assumption that children function and
think in similar ways throughout their life. For example there is no
mention of how brain maturation during the early years may alter the
ability of children to think in more advanced ways. As we shall see
with education, young children seem unable to grasp abstract or
hypothetical ideas regardless of the amount of scaffolding provided.
This suggests that there are qualitative differences between the
thinking of young children and older ones. This provides support for
Piaget but questions Vygotsky’s views.
Motivation
Vygotsky does not consider the
importance of the child’s desire to learn. Schaffer (2004) believes
emotional factors such as struggles, frustrations caused by failure and
the joys of success are all important factors in the level of motivation
experienced by the child.
Vague
Vygotsky did not say what types of
social interaction are best for encouraging learning.
Social interactions
These can sometimes be
counter-productive. Not all criticisms are useful or well received!
Durkin (1995) points out that often advice from parents can serve to
make the child even more determined to do things its own way. You’re
teenagers… you understand!
Individual differences
Some children, regardless of help given
by others, still develop at a slower rate, suggesting that other
factors, including genetic must be involved. (Genetic explanations
would not have sat comfortably in Soviet Russia!).
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Stages?
Some children can still take years to
learn some skills despite plenty of social support. In some cases
children seem unable to grasp certain concepts until they reach a
certain level of maturity. This would seem to lend support more to
Piaget’s view of cognitive development occurring in stages and the child
being unable to learn some concepts, for example abtract, until a
certain age.
Again it is always credit-worthy to
note the contribution Vygotsky made to our understanding of child
development, how it has filled some of the gaps left by Piaget, and how
it has been used in educational policy in the West.
Note although Vygotsky died in 1934 his
work wasn’t translated into English until 1962.
*following his
death his theory became questioned by the ruling Communists who outlawed
his work. As a result Luria (top Russian psychologist) and
others moved to neighbouring Ukraine where they set up the Kharkov
school.
An example of ZPD and scaffolding
Maria just entered college this semester and decided to
take an introductory tennis course. Her class spends each week learning
and practicing a different shot. Weeks go by and they learn how to
properly serve and hit a backhand.
During the week of learning the forehand, the instructor
notices that Maria is very frustrated because she keeps hitting her
forehand shots either into the net or far past the baseline.
He examines her preparation and swing. He notices that
her stance is perfect, she prepares early, she turns her torso
appropriately, and she hits the ball at precisely the right height.
However, he notices that she is still gripping her
racquet the same way she hits her backhand, so he goes over to her and
shows her how to reposition her hand to hit a proper forehand, stressing
that she should keep her index finger parallel to the racquet. He models
a good forehand for her, and then assists her in changing her grip. With
a little practice, Maria's forehand turns into a formidable weapon for
her!
In this case, Maria was in the Zone of Proximal
Development for successfully hitting a forehand shot. She was doing
everything else correctly, but just needed a little coaching and
scaffolding from a "More Knowledgeable Other" to help her succeed in
this task. When that assistance was given, she became able to achieve
her goal.
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Applying Vygotsky to the classroom
Vygotsky's stresses the importance of looking at each child as an
individual who learns distinctively. Consequently, the knowledge and
skills that are worthwhile learning varies with the individual.
The overall goal of education according to Vygotsky is to "generate and lead development which is the result of social learning through internalisation of culture and social relationships." He repeatedly stressed the importance of past experiences and prior knowledge in making sense of new situations or present experiences. Therefore, all new knowledge and newly introduced skills are greatly influenced by each student's culture, especially their family environment.
Language skills are particularly critical for creating meaning and linking new ideas to past experiences and prior knowledge. According to Vygotsky, internalized skills or psychological tools "are used to gain mastery over one's own behavior and cognition." Primary among these tools is the "development of speech and its relation to thought."
ZPD and Scaffolding
Tasks that are set for the child need
to be pitched at the right level. Tasks that are too difficult are
outside the child’s ZPD, and regardless of the amount of help in the
form of scaffolding, the gap can not be bridged. If the task is too
easy the child will not be motivated.
During
scaffolding the first step is to build interest and engage the learner.
Once the learner is actively participating, the given task should be
simplified by breaking it into smaller subtasks. During this task, the
teacher needs to keep the learner focused, while concentrating on the
most important ideas of the assignment. One of the most integral steps
in scaffolding consists of keeping the learner from becoming frustrated.
The final task associated with scaffolding involves the teacher modeling
possible ways of completing tasks, which the learner can then imitate
and eventually internalize.
As Wood et al (1976) put it; if a child
is succeeding at a task then adult assistance can be reduced. Similarly
if the child is struggling then greater assistance needs to be
provided. Wood (1988) studied primary school classes and concluded that
it is not possible for teachers to recognise the ZPD of 30 different
students. Instead, he argues, scaffolding is more appropriate for one
on one situations.
Bliss et al (1996) looked at the ways
scaffolding was being used in the science classes of 13 London Junior
schools (ages 7-11). The results showed that scaffolding was not being
used effectively and reported what they described as
‘pseudo-scaffolding.
Crossing the ZPD is
essential to Vygotsk’s theory.
This can only be accomplished with help from MKOs (more knowledgeable
others)
MKOs provide the scaffolding or support needed.
I picture teachers and
other MKOs as a ‘ferrymen’ transporting the child from one bank to the
next.
Role of the teacher
In Vygotsky's view, the teacher has the "task of guiding and directing the child's activity." Children can then solve novel problems "on the basis of a model they has been shown in class." In other words, children learn by solving problems with the help of the teacher, who models processes for them in a classroom environment that is directed by the teacher. In essence, "the child imitates the teacher through a process of re-creating previous classroom collaboration."
Peer tutoring and the MKO
Vygotsky defined those who are to teach as the "More Knowledgeable
Other." The MKO is anyone who has a better understanding or a higher
ability level than the learner, particularly in regards to a specific
task, concept or process. Traditionally the MKO is thought of as a
teacher or an older adult. However, this is not always the case. Other
possibilities for the MKO could be a peer, sibling, a younger person, or
even a computer. The key to MKO is that they must have more knowledge
about the topic being learned than the learner does. Teachers or more
capable peers can raise the student's competence through the zone of
proximal development (ZPD).
Mixed ability groupings are essential.
In the classroom situation the more advanced child can act as tutor and
since he/she is of similar age they should have a good understanding of
the tutees situation and should also be working in the same ZPD.
Tudge (1993) found that the best peer
tutors are those who are significantly ahead of their tutees. However,
if the tutor lacks confidence or fails to provide the necessary
scaffolding then the tutoring is ineffective.
Barnier (1989) found that the
performance of 6 to 7 year olds on various spatial tasks was
significantly improved when they were tutored by 7 to 8 year olds.
Ellis and Gauvain (1992) found cross cultural support for peer tutoring
when they compared native North American Navahos with ‘Euro-American’
children. Both benefited from peer tutoring even though the methods
used by the two cultures were very different. The ‘Euro-Americans’
tended to give more spoken instructions and were generally less patient
with their tutees.
Peer tutoring is a vital element in
Shayer and Adey’s CASE project. After being introduced to a task and
provided with cognitive dissonance (disequilibrium), the students are
asked to work in groups. The idea being that the more able will be able
to encourage the less able.
Schools and Society
Not only does Vygotsky see the role of
the teacher as being vital he also views schools in a similar way. For
Vygotsky, society (and therefore social interaction) happens in schools.
"Schools are
incorporated into the larger society and have that as their context, so
that some of their activity settings are determined by this larger
contextuality."
For Vygotsky the classroom is also a
social organization that is representative of the larger social
community ... it is the social organisation ... that is the agent for
change in the individual
Schools are mini-societies!
Does cooperative group work improve motivation?
Nichols wanted to find out if children working in a group (Vygotsky) would learn more effectively than if they were working alone in a more traditional way.
81 American high school children were randomly allocated to one of three groups (27 in each group) for the duration of an eighteen week term (sorry semester!).
Group 1:
9 weeks of cooperative group work followed by 9 weeks of traditional
teaching
Group 2:
9 weeks of traditional teaching followed by 9 weeks of cooperative group
work
Group 3:
18 weeks of traditional teaching
Note: the
cooperative group work involved students being split into small groups
and being asked to complete problem solving activities as a team.
Motivation was assessed using a number of measures including patience,
persistence and desire to please teachers and parents.
It was
found that groups 1 and 2 showed significantly higher levels of
motivation than group 3. Additionally the motivation levels of groups 1
and 2 were higher when they were in the 9 week phase of group work than
in the more traditional teaching environment.
This is
an interesting study since it supports Vygotsky’s view on the importance
of group work, social interaction and peer tutoring. However, it also
seems to answer some of the critics of Vygotsky who claim he didn’t
consider the child’s motivation to learn as a variable in determining
its performance. Getting children to work in groups, as Vygotsky
suggested, seems to improve their level of motivation anyway.
Several instructional programs were developed on the basis of the notion of ZPD including reciprocal teaching and dynamic assessment.
ZPD has been implemented as a measurable concept in the reading software “Accelerated Reader.” The developers of Accelerated Reader describe it as "the level of difficulty [of a book] that is neither too hard nor too easy, and is the level at which optimal learning takes place" (Renaissance Learning, 2007). The STAR Reading software suggests a ZPD level, or it can be determined from other standardized tests. The company claims that students need to read books that are not too easy, so as to avoid boredom, and not too hard, so as to avoid frustration. This range of book difficulty, so claimed, helps to improve vocabulary and other reading skills.
Cognitive apprenticeship
Is a system of cognitive modelling
where the tutor will explain step by step and thought by thought what
they are doing whilst completing a task. The apprentice then imitates
this behaviour and thinking process whilst being observed by the tutor.
At crucial stages the tutor may intervene to provide additional support
or assistance (scaffolding). As the tutee becomes more expert at
completing the task the level of support provided can be reduced.
Special needs
Vygotsky was well ahead of
his time in recognising the importance of educating children with
various learning impairments. He distinguished between ‘primary
defects’ (genetic or organic) and ‘secondary defects’ (due to
distortions of higher mental functions caused by social factors). When
dealing with these special needs the teacher needs to be aware that it
is the social consequences that are the most important. For example
when dealing with a child that is blind, recognise that their condition
is genetic but address how this condition is affecting their ability to
interact with others since this ultimately determines what the child is
able to learn.
To this end he believed that
even severely handicapped children should be educated in the mainstream
(i.e. attend ‘normal’ schools). In the 1920s and 1930s this was almost
unheard of but is far more likely to be practised today. Again signs of
how ahead of his time Vygotsky was.
He noted that "a child whose
development is impeded by a disability is not simply a child less
developed than his peers; rather, he has developed differently.
In fact it has been suggested that he was so far ahead of his time the
rest of psychology still hasn’t caught up. For example Vygotsky
believed that social and cognitive development were so interwoven that
they were essentially one and the same thing.
Moral development
Recently there have been
attempts to use Vygotsky’s theory to help in our understanding of moral
development. In his book ‘Educational Psychology’ not translated into
English until 1997, Vygotsky does include one chapter on moral
development. Again, as we’ll see later, Piaget came up with a more
detailed theory of moral development himself.
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