Vygotsky

Tools of the Mind and Proximal Development

Key Terms to be Defined

♦Psychological Tools♦Socially Meaningful Activity♦Signs♦Concept Development♦Zone of Proximal Development♦Amplification ♦Scaffolding

Background to the Theories♦ Vygotsky was a

Marxist♦ Vygotsky also

influenced by other thinkers like Piaget

♦ Result: Vygotsky seeks a middle of the road theory

Nature Vs. Nurture

Nature Nurture

Psychological Tools and Social Learning

♦Psychological tools (give us control over our mental behavior)

♦Social learning (we get the tools through our social interactions)

♦Socially Meaningful Activity

♦Higher vs. Lower Mental Behavior

Role of Social Education♦ Behavior must exist socially before it can become internal

within the child

♦ Psychological tools are mediated to child through signs

♦ Signs are things that represents some other object, idea, etc… with a specific meaning that has evolved in a certain history or culture

♦ “Instruction is one of the principle sources of the schoolchild’s concepts and is also a powerful force in directing their evolution; it determines the fate of his total mental development”

The Zone of Proximal Development

♦ It is “the distance between the actual developmental 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”

♦ “what a child can do with assistance today, she will be able to do by herself tomorrow”

Potential Level (child can do with help but not by himself)

Level of Independent Performance (Actual Level)

Level of Assisted Performance

ZPD 1

ZPD 2

ZPD 3

Child in ZPD 1 can do with assistance what child in ZPD 2 can do by himself. Even with assistance, ZPD 1 cannot do what child in ZPD 2 can do with assistance until he becomes ZPD 2.

and the child in ZPD 3 can do by himself what ZPD 2 can do only with assistance.

Amplification

♦Children should be exposed to what is termed amplification, that is the teacher should heavily assist (amplify) behaviors within the ZPD, and not worry so much about the behaviors that are outside the ZPD as teaching them is useless.

Scaffolding

♦ the teacher provides some sort of cue, dialogue, set of directions, or environment, which enhances the ZPD. (In other words, the amount of assistance provided varies until the child responds and the child is able to go from a lot of assistance, to little assistance, to no assistance.)

Finally… The Project

♦Original Aim– see if children would utilize a memory strategy

(psychological tool)

– see if the children could be taught the memory strategy

♦ New Aim– explain children’s prior ability to complete the memory task

without my aid in terms of Vygotsky.

John

Hypothesis ♦ Children in kindergarten would initially not

employ a psychological tool when asked to complete a memory task, and that they would not employ them even after being shown a memory aid and given the chance to practice it. The children in the 2nd grade would mostly be able to complete the memory tasks, and just about all would be able to use it after being shown the strategy and how to use it. The 4th graders will all utilize the memory strategy without help.

Method

♦Participants– Kindergarten, 2nd, and 4th graders from Holy

Family School (Ages 5 to 10)

Method

♦Procedure – Building

– Data Collection / Analysis

Initial Observations♦ 4th Grade

– “Too easy!!!”

♦ 2nd Grade– “Too easy!” “You used too easy of a pattern”

“It’s just ABC, ABC ABC”– Three boys were not able to complete memory task

♦ Kindergarten– “This is easy!”– Five boys unable to complete memory task

Me

Specific Results

02468

101214161820

Total Children W/O Assistance W/ Assistance

Kindergarten2nd Grade4th Grade

Too Easy! But wait…♦ Easy for everyone, but less automatic for the

younger children– Fourth graders did it more or less “automatically” like

you and I would.– Second graders mostly did it almost “automatically”

though some reminded themselves once or twice about the ABC pattern

– Kindergartners seemed to almost always remind themselves of ABC. Even after they had already filled in most of the poster, they continued to count ABC for all of them.

What’s going on with that?

I would explain this observation by pointing out my theory that children often have the psychological tools necessary to complete a memory task once they have been given them, but often cannot utilize control over it. Furthermore, the behavior must exist socially before it can become internal within the child, and there is always a progressive transfer from external society to internal control of the child

Can you teach the psychological tool?

♦Though most children got pattern without assistance, the other eight gave me a chance to see if they could be taught it.

Conclusion

♦Limitations– Memory task may have been too easy.– No second meeting.

♦Note on Vygotsky’s Social Theory

Future Questions

♦How does Vygotsky’s ZPD apply to adults?– Is there a final point where development stops for the adult and

something is either permanently within the ZPD or forever outside it, or can one keep on developing psychological tools and keep increasing their ZPD?

Discussion