In the following essay I will analyse and critique three theories of learning and development and their application to teaching infants or toddlers in Aotearoa. The three theories that I have chosen are the Social Cultural theory by Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky, the Cognitive development theory by Swish developmental psychologist Jean Piaget and lastly the attachment theory by American developmental psychologist Mary Ainsworth. These three theories are important on helping to understand how children learn and develop in Early Childhood Education as well as in family and homes.
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In Vygotsky’s theory of socio cultural, he highlights the importance of a child’s exposure to specific social interaction with their peers as well as different cultures. “emphasizes that children live in rich social and cultural context”. Pg97 Children will learn to do more with the help of anyone who is more knowledgeable than them. For example a child would not know how to pronounce the alphabet by their own as they don’t know what the letters stand for, with the guidance of their teacher or caregiver they will know what sound each letter makes. “Through joint activities with more mature members of their society, children master activities and think in ways that have meaning in their society”pg97.
Vygotsky had a number of key concepts to support his theory. The main ones included the Zone of Proximal Development ZPD, scaffolding and Culture tools. ZPD was described as the difference in what a child can do with and without help. Scaffolding is providing support for what the child cannot do on their own. Scaffolding is used in different stages of ZPD. (Dockett & Fleer, 1999, p188). Culture tool are items developed from culture suc...
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...o micro systems reacting with each other such as the relationship between school and Early Childhood. Exosystems is the micro system where children are not directly included in, such as the school board or their parent’s work place. The Macrosystem are the dominant beliefs and ideologies. Pg125,126 The child as an “individual select, modify and create many of their own experiences. Te Whariki affirms Bronfenbrenner’s theory stating that “a childs environment extends far beyond the immediate setting of the home or early childhood programmes outside the home”pg 19.
Bronfenbrenner’s theory gives us a perspective on how families, national government as well as the economy have a tremendous effect on a child’s development. Bronfenbrenner’s idea and research “have provided very important guidance for the whole field of work on culture and human development”pg127.
This reading reminded me about how Vygotsky’s theory is mostly based on the interactions and influences help children to learn. I really do believe this theory is very accurate, because students can learn from each other. If a teacher is having trouble explaining a complex topic to a student, another student can explain it in more relatable way. Also, I was fascinated when I read about what cultural tools, were and how they related to Vygotsky’s beliefs. Learning about what cultural tools were, helped me to broaden my understanding of how crucial cultural tools are to student’s learning process. Also, the chapter did a great job of elaborating on how these tools can help to advance and grow in the understanding of student’s thinking process. Another aspect of this reading that interested me was the elaboration on private speech and the Zone of Proximal Development. Each of the definitions displayed help me to advance my own thinking on what it was and how it is used in regards to the education of students. The description of what private speech and how it is basically the inner narration of their thinking process helped me to understand how this aspect can help with students learning. Also, the Zone of Proximal Development helped me to make a connection to both what is and how it relates to private speech as well. The Zone of proximal development plays a crucial role in the
Lev Vygotsky’s theory of learning begins with the idea that cognitive development occurs from sociocultural origins, that through social interaction children learn how to think (Duchesne, McMaugh, Bochner & Krause pp. 84) and how to use and access language and communication skills specifically as members of their culture and society.
In the ecological systems theory, Brofenbrenner postulated that in order to completely understand development, the entire ecological system must be taken into account. Each level of the system offers a diverse range of options and sources for growth. The microsystem level - which is what we will be focusing on – contains structures with which the child has direct contact. It embodies the relationships and interactions the child has with their immediate surrounding such as family, school, neighbors, and childcare environments. Relationships that are bi-directional tend to have the strongest influence, meaning the interactions have impact in two directions, both toward the individual and away. The microsystem provides the initial set of interrelations a child has and provides the basis for developing trust with their significant people. For this reason, adopting at the earliest age po...
Furthermore, Vygotsky declares that knowledge is constructed by social interactions with people who surround the child. The author also presents the concept of “zone of proximal development” as the distance between what children do without any supervision and what they are not able to achieve unless a more knowledgeable person guides them through it. In other words, the zone of proximal development refers to activities children cannot do, though they manage to fulfill with certain level of difficulty by following their better skilled fellows' suitable guidance. In the educational field, teachers play an essential role on their learners’ developmental process. Educators serve as models and provide a vast range of learning opportunities that enable their students reach their next level of development and become more autonomous each
Lev Vygotsky stages of development were not defined by age or biology. Social and cultural experiences were the basis for his theory. Consciousness was an end product of social interactions (Kearsley, 1994-2010). The history of the child’s society and his own personal history determine how the child thinks. Language is crucial for development as it is with words that a child conceptualizes and makes sense of the world (Schütz, 2004). A precept of Vygotsky’s theory wa...
Vygotsky placed much more emphasis on language that Piaget (book). Vygotsky’s theory focuses on the role of interpersonal processes and the role of the child’s community and culture which provide a framework from which the child’s construction of meaning develops (book). Although Vygotsky stressed that the process must be in in the context of the child’s culture and the tools available within that culture. Vygotsky was always especially interested in cognitive processes which underline understanding which has led to the concept of shared understandings that occur when people communicate with each other. Vygotsky argued that through the use of language formed through social interaction a child can develop as a thinker and a learner (book). As a conscious individual people could not accomplish very much without the aids and tools within their culture such as language (book). Piaget argued that language was strongly influenced by the underlying cognitive structures within the individual child (book). They also disagreed on the egocentric speech of children. When observing children Piaget concluded that half of the mistakes children made was down to egocentric speech which he argued showed that children have not tried to communicate with another or adapted so others can understand them he also argued that young children did not seem to care if anyone else could understand them and
Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory was his main focus and it helped him make sense of a person’s cognitive development through the way they interaced with others and emphasised on one’s social interaction (blabla). Vygotsky focused on how learning consisted of gathering knowledge and skills from the social community and the different attractions a person observes (v2); a process known as internationalization. His theory was based on two key concepts, first that knowledge can be developed through the experiences a child lives (v1), and an example would be a child seeing his parents arguing over their beliefs; he’d learn how he should have his own belief...
Microsystem: this tier is the closest one to the child and consists of the things the child has direct interactions with. It includes all the relationships and contacts the child has with their immediate surroundings, such as family, neighborhood, school, and childcare settings. There are two directions in which these relationships within this tier impacts the child, towards and away from the child. For instance: a child’s parents influence their actions and beliefs; then again, the child likewise influences the beliefs and actions of the pare...
It stated that, "Sociocultural approaches to learning and development were first systematized and applied by Vygotsky and his collaborators in Russia in the 1920s and 1930s. They are based on the concept that human activities take in cultural contexts, are mediated by language and other symbol systems, and can be best understood when investigated in their historical development (John-Steiner & Mahn, 1996). " At the core of this theory, "Vygotsky focused on the way that a child co-constructs meaning through social interaction, and the role word meaning plays in the development of thinking(Mahn, 1999). " It seems as though Vygotsky's socio-cultural theory is continuous. This theory is continuous due to the emphasis it places on the need for social interaction in the growth of humans mentally, linguistically, and socially.
For Vygotsky, children are seen as active beings on their development through social interactions with parents, teachers, and other adults, as well as by participating in their cultural activities. The interactions they have with other individuals and their culture opens their minds to new information and helps develop skills not previously attained. To further understand cognitive development in Piaget and Vygotsky’s theory, we must first look at the processes involved.
“Once a child is born we begin helping them with tasks that are too difficult to master alone but that can be learned with guidance and assistance which is the (ZPD) zone of proximal development.”(Morrison, 2009 sec 14.6.1) this is the major concept of Lev Vygotsky theory. As our children grow we will interact with them throughout their lives. We may feel that a child should be at a certain stage in life; which would fit perfectly into Piagets theory that a child develops in stages. However we have always helped them with task; we sit back, observe the child trying the task, and when they c...
Vygotsky believed that learning and cognitive development were significantly influenced by social interactions that occur with in a particular sociocultural environment. There are four major influences on cognitive development.
Bronfenbrenner’s ecological, system’s theory describes how the child and their immediate surroundings are in an innermost layer surrounded, embedded and influenced by layers from the larger environment all impacting upon the child (Ministry of Education, 1996; Paquette, & Ryan, 2001). Of particular interest are the effects to the child of two way relationships towards and away from the child, as defined by Bronfenbrenner as bi-directional influences, these are particularly influential in the child’s inner layer. For instance: the impact to the child of attentive or non-attentive parents affects how the child reacts to a given situation, which in turn affects how the parent behaves. Notwithstanding, the impact of bi-directional influences on the child’s world continues into the outer layers, as in the example of a parent’s workplace demanding more input into the workplace, which means...
Vygotsky theory has provided educators with the ability to better understand the importance of scaffolding, which allows educators to be able to diagnose children’s learning needs and develop teaching techniques to meet them. To conclude, although Vygotsky’s theory isn’t as complete as other theories, his theory is one that is important for educators to adopt. . Reference List: Berk, L. (2013). Child development.
By using Vygotsky’s theory, educators are able to realize what a child is able to do with assistance and they can help a child develop the skills on their own. They are engaged in the discovery process, but they are receiving guidance from a more knowledgeable source.