People always say that children are the future, and they are right. That is what makes understanding how children develop so crucial. Understanding how children develop has many important implications; it can help parents raise their children more efficiently, assist society in making informed decisions about policies regarding children’s welfare, and to help us to understand human nature (Siegler, DeLoache, & Eisenberg, 2011).
An important part of understanding how children develop is understand the ways in which they learn. Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory emphasizes that the main tools of development are observation and imitation, rather than reinforcement. Bandura states that children learn most efficiently by watching and imitating others. Bandura was different from other learning theorists, because he believed that children played an active role in their own learning, a concept that he called reciprocal determinism (Siegler, DeLoache, & Eisenberg, 2011). Social Learning Theory is very important for understanding how children develop because parents and educators have to be aware of what they are modeling, as well as the types of TV, movies, video games, books, etc. that children are viewing to ensure that children are learning appropriate behaviors.
Albert Bandura found that preschool children can acquire new behaviors through observing others, so specifically in the preschool classroom I hypothesized that I would see some of the children learning new behaviors, by watching the instructors or other children in the classroom, or even from a TV show or movie they saw at home.
Another psychologist who viewed children as social beings was Lev Vygotsky. Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory is a cognitive development t...
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...lly the opposite, during the activities that I saw them do they were supposed to work alone and not talk to other students. Perhaps this was an example of children being a product of their culture. Being independent is valued in the individualistic culture of the United States and perhaps working alone is an example of this. This concept was not discussed specifically by Vygotsky, but was introduced by some other sociocultural theorists. So, I believe that Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory could be improved by including that the concept that children are products of their own specific culture.
References
McLeod, Saul. (2010). Zone of Proximal Development. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/Zone-of-Proximal-Development.html
Siegler, R., DeLoache, J., & Eisenberg, N. (Eds.). (2011). How children develop (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.
... (2009) The science of development. In R.V. Kail & A. Barnfield (Eds.), Children and their development (pp. 8 – 22). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Levine, L. E., & Munsch, J. (2011). Theories of development. In M. Masson & L. Gleason (Eds.),Child Deveopment (4th ed., pp. 33-34). London, England: Sage.
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...
Lev Vygotsky and Jean Piaget are the two most influential developmental psychologists in history so one might think they would have very similar theories but this could not be more wrong. Piaget (1896-1980) Piaget 's theory stems from the idea that children develop in mostly solitary and are unable to see others perspective and progress through four stages of development(book). A major challenge to Piaget’s theory is Lev Vygotsky’s (1896-1934) sociohoristic theory which suggests that children acquire the tools of thinking and learning through social interacrtion with family and peers (seans book). Both of these psychologists’ theories are very similar in a number of ways but have a few crucial differences which separate them. (BOOK)
Chapter one provided a brief overview on child development, which included debated topics, theories and the various stages of development. The chapter was an introduction to readers that outlined the basic notions of child development and how they can be implemented while working with children. The field of development includes factors such as nature, nurture, existing conditions for the child and the child’s own traits. In order to understand and effectively work with children, the chapter emphasizes the importance of each factor and how they relate. Child development has been divided into three categories: physical development, cognitive development and social-emotional development. Although different, these domains are interconnected and
Lev Vygotsky(1896-1934) was a Russian psychologist who created the Social Development Theory/ Sociocultural Theory. Vygotsky believed that children's mental, language, and social development is supported and enhanced through social interaction. Vygotsky also believed that beginning at birth, children seek out adults for social interactions and that development occurs through these interactions. The belief that social development sets a precedent for development(appeals to the nurture side of development). The general idea from this theory is that being aware, consciousness, and cognition are the end results of socialization and social interaction. 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)."
Bandura discusses the importance of observational learning. Bandura focuses mostly on how kids develop their habits based of their role models. Bandura shows this in the Bobo Doll Experiment. The Bobo Doll experiment consisted of 36 boys and 36 girls. They were then separated again into watching a video of a plastic doll called Bobo. Some children were separated by some adults aggressively beating up Bobo and the other half were calm adults. After they were showed the video, the kids were then shown to Bobo and the results matched the Social Learning Theory to the max. The kids that were show the aggressive videos were aggressive towards Bobo. Another Social Learning Theory can be told in my shoes because I have done something similar. I remember in fifth grade my older cousin would always ride his bike down the biggest hill without a helmet. I figured if he did and was okay, why can’t I? I learned the hard way and sliced my arm on a rock. Luckily I did not need stitches however, I did go to the doctors and got ointment for it. I still have the scar today. I feel like the Social Learning Theory has made an impact on my life because I have had the opportunity of having a role model. This role model has made a positive change to my life. Similar to Bobo, I have seen what negative role models have done for a person and how much it affects
As we have been learning this semester in class, the experiences and ecological settings in which a child grows up in are important in giving each child their uniqueness. According to Bronfenbrenner, the degree to which individuals realize their potentials and develop their abilities is determined by interactions and experiences (Berns, 2016). It is evident that these interactions and experiences can come from different sources. In order to understand how a child’s development is influenced by their environment, it is important to know how their biological, social, and psychological characteristics are shaped
Psychology is one of the newest sciences. Because it is the science of the mind and behavior, it is also less concrete than some of the other sciences. Over the years, social scientists have developed theories or perspectives based off of their observations, research, and the perspectives of other scientists. Although there is some overlap, each of the major perspectives of psychology is unique. As a result, they each have strengths and weaknesses and explain psychology in a different way. One theory, the sociocultural perspective, is exactly what its name suggests. It’s the idea that the society and groups that an individual belongs to are what influences development, thoughts, and behavior. The sociocultural perspective was pioneered by a Russian psychologist, Lev Vygotsky, in the 1920’s (John-Steiner, 1998). Vygotsky stressed the idea that children learn through what he called guided participation (Sigelman, 2009). His theory was that children develop through interactions with parents, teachers, and other knowledgeable members of the culture and are given tools to adopt the group’s way of thinking.
Smith, P. K., Cowie, H., & Blades, M. (1998). Understanding children’s development, third edition. Malden: Blackwell Publishers Inc.
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.
Siegler, R., DeLoache, J., & Eisenberg, N. (2011). How children develop (Third ed.). New York, New York: Worth Publisher.
The sociocultural theory was developed by a theorist named Lev Vygotsky. Vygotsky was born in 1896 and was from the former Soviet Union. He was a psychologist who had an abundance of ideas and put them into many theories and writings. Although Vygotsky died from tuberculosis at the young age of thirty-eight, his most prominent work was done in a short period of ten years. When he died in 1934, the Soviet Union held most of his work and it was not until about 1960 that his work was translated into English. Currently in the education field, Vygotsky’s main work on the sociocultural theory is getting a lot of attention.
Wertlieb, Donald. "Child." World Book Advanced. World Book, 2011. Web. 16 Aug. 2011.Retrieved from http://www.worldbookonline.com/advanced/article?id=ar110700&st=middle+childhood+development&sc=1#h4
Vygotsky believed that children learn through social interaction with adults. He also believed that dialogue with others help a child in promoting cognitive development. Adults, teachers and peers have major impact on the child development of mental processes.