Vygotsky's Theory (AQA A Level Psychology): Revision Note

The zone of proximal development

• Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development focuses on the social world of the child, with adults playing a key role in the process

• Where Piaget saw cognitive development as an innate maturation-based process Vygotsky placed social interaction at the centre of cognitive development

• One of the key features of Vygotsky’s theory is that of the zone of proximal development (ZPD), ‘proximal’ meaning ‘in the vicinity/region of'

• The ZPD conceptualises where a child currently stands in terms of their cognitive development and the ‘zones’ they must cross to reach the limits of their potential, i.e., the ZPD presents an aspirational model of what a child could achieve given the right conditions

• Vygotsky argued that a child is only able to go beyond their current level of achievement with the help of a More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) in the form of an adult (parent, teacher, etc.) who can guide and assist them on their learning journey

• Vygotsky (unlike Piaget) believed that children cannot progress intellectually without the help of a MKO i.e., they need to harness more than just discovery learning in order to be able to progress and deepen their understanding

• The importance of social interaction and the guidance of a MKO led Vygotsky to claim that children are ‘little apprentices’ (as opposed to Piaget’s view, that they are ‘little scientists’)

Scaffolding

• Scaffolding is a term coined by other researchers (Wood, Bruner, and Ross, 1976) to explain the ways in which Vygotsky saw children’s learning being, literally, like scaffolding from which support is given then gradually taken away as the structure underneath gets stronger

• Scaffolding is the process by which the MKO offers constructive help and guidance to the child in order for a particular task or skill to be completed or practised

• Scaffolding is designed to be specific to the needs of each individual child, giving them the opportunity to achieve success in ways that might have not been possible without it

• Scaffolding includes strategies such as maintaining the child’s interest in a task, simplifying complex ideas or actions, giving specific verbal instructions, and demonstrating the task

• The MKO begins the scaffolding process by offering a clear guiding hand in the child’s learning, which the child may depend on heavily at first, but gradually, as the child becomes more skilled and confident, the scaffolding is withdrawn, bit by bit, until the child is able to complete the task independently

Research which investigates Vygotsky’s theory

• Conner & Cross (2003) - 45 mother-and-child pairs (the children were 16 months at the start and 54 months at the end of the research period) were observed engaging in informal problem-solving tasks over a period of three years: the findings showed that successful scaffolding can enable a child to develop expertise at a task and a degree of independence

• Shvarts & Bakker (2019) – a review article which concluded that scaffolding within a child’s ZPD may trigger further developmental milestones and lead to qualitative change far beyond the initial scaffolding period, i.e., the skills learnt via scaffolding have long-term, deeply embedded positive effects 

Evaluation of Vygotsky’s theory

Strengths

• Vygotsky’s theory has had far-reaching influence on the ways in which children learn in schools, as evidenced by the role of teaching assistants and personalised learning programmes which are designed to both scaffold the child’s learning and help them navigate their individual ZPDs

• Vygotsky placed the child squarely within social and cultural contexts, which means that his theory has good external validity 

Weaknesses

• Scaffolding is difficult to operationalise and measure, as its very nature tends to be subjective, i.e., what will work for one child may not work for another; thus, it lacks reliability

• Although Vygotsky emphasised the importance of culture, some researchers have claimed that this is a universal view, lacking cultural relativism, e.g. Rogoff (1990) points out that scaffolding is largely dependent on verbal instruction, which may not be applicable/relevant to all cultures

Issues & Debates

• Vygotsky strongly exemplifies the nurture side of the nature vs nurture debate, arguing that cognitive development is shaped primarily by social interaction and culture, not innate biological maturation

  • The concepts of the More Knowledgeable Other and the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) both rely on external guidance and support, showing how learning is dependent on environmental input

• Vygotsky’s theory reflects a nomothetic approach, as it aims to establish universal principles of learning, such as the Zone of Proximal Development and the role of a More Knowledgeable Other in guiding cognitive development

  • However, the individual nature of scaffolding introduces an idiographic element, as support is tailored to each child’s needs