Social-Influences-on-Cognitive-Development.pptx

Cognitive development pn society

1. Social Influences on Cognitive Development

2. Lev Vygotsky Seminal Russian psychologist best known for his sociocultural theory Social interaction plays a critical role in children's learning Imitation, guided learning, and collaborative learning

3. Early Life Born November 17, 1896, in Orsha, a city in the western Russian Empire. Earned a law degree at Moscow State University (1917) Completed a dissertation in 1925 on the psychology of art but was awarded his degree in absentia due to an acute tuberculosis relapse that left him incapacitated for a year.

4. Theories much of important learning by the child occurs through social interaction with a skillful tutor (1978) referred to this as cooperative or collaborative dialogue the learner/child seeks to understand the actions or instructions provided by the tutor then internalizes the information, using it to guide or regulate their own performance.

5. Cooperative/Collaborative Dialogue

6. Shaffer (1996) The example of a young girl who is given her first jigsaw. The girl performs poorly in attempting to solve the puzzle. The father then sits with her and describes or demonstrates some basic strategies,

7. such as finding all the corner/edge pieces and provides a couple of pieces for the child to put together herself and offers encouragement when she does so. As the child becomes more competent, the father allows the child to work more independently.

8. The More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) and the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).

9. More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) refers to someone who has a better understanding or a higher ability level than the learner the MKO is not necessarily a teacher or an older adult a child's peers or an adult's children with more knowledge or experience

10. More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) the use of electronic performance support system must have (or be programmed with) more knowledge about the topic being learned than the learner does.

11. Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) the difference between what a child can achieve independently and what a child can achieve with guidance and encouragement from a skilled partner the area where the most sensitive instruction or guidance should be given

12. Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) interaction with peers as an effective way of developing skills and strategies teachers use cooperative learning exercises where less competent children develop with help from more skillful peers within the zone of proximal development

13. Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

14. Theory of Scaffolding Became synonymous with ZPD in literature I ntroduced by Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976 ) consists of the activities/guidance/teaching provided by the educator, MKO or more competent peer, to support the student as he or she is led through the zone of proximal development.

15. Theory of Scaffolding Support is tapered off (i.e. withdrawn) as it becomes unnecessary, much as a scaffold is removed from a building during construction .

16. Evidence for Vygotsky and the ZPD Freund (1990) a study in which children had to decide which items of furniture should be placed in particular areas of a doll’s house. Some children were allowed to play with their mother in a similar situation before they attempted it alone (zone of proximal development) while others were allowed to work on this by themselves (Piaget's discovery learning) .

17. Evidence for Vygotsky and the ZPD those who had previously worked with their mother (ZPD) showed the greatest improvement compared with their first attempt at the task . Conclusion Guided learning within the ZPD led to greater understanding/ performance than working alone ( discovery learning)

18. Pedagogical Applications A contemporary educational application of Vygotsky's theories is "reciprocal teaching," used to improve students' ability to learn from text. In this method, teachers and students collaborate in learning and practicing four key skills: summarizing, questioning, clarifying, and predicting. The teacher's role in the process is reduced over time.

19. Pedagogical Applications Also, Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development is relevant to instructional concepts such as "scaffolding" and "apprenticeship," in which a teacher or more advanced peer helps to structure or arrange a task so that a novice can work on it successfully.

20. Pedagogical Applications Vygotsky's theory also feed into the current interest in collaborative learning, suggesting that group members should have different levels of ability so more advanced peers can help less advanced members operate within their ZPD. In this case, when grouping students, mix them up according to their abilities. It is not wise to let students choose their groupmates, as they tend to go with those of their own level.

21. Pedagogical Applications In relation to Curriculum: Since children learn much through interaction, curricula should be designed to emphasize interaction between learners and learning tasks.

22. Pedagogical Applications In relation to Instruction: With appropriate adult help, children can often perform tasks that they are incapable of completing on their own. With this in mind, scaffolding–where the adult continually adjusts the level of his or her help in response to the child’s level of performance–is an effective form of teaching.

23. Pedagogical Applications Scaffolding not only produces immediate results, but also instills the skills necessary for independent problem solving in the future. The scaffolds should be gradually removed as the learner progresses.

24. Pedagogical Applications In relation to Assessment: Assessment methods must take into account the zone of proximal development. What children can do on their own is their level of actual development and what they can do with help is their level of potential development. Two children might have the same level of actual development, but given the appropriate help from an adult, one might be able to solve many more problems than the other.

25. Pedagogical Applications Assessment methods must target both the level of actual development and the level of potential development. In other words, comparing learners with each other is not advantageous... it is best to compare one from his/her earlier performance and find how s/he is progressing.

26. Critical Evaluation Vygotsky's work has not received the same level of intense scrutiny that Piaget's has, partly due to the time-consuming process of translating Vygotsky's work from Russian language. Sociocultural perspective does not provide as many specific hypotheses to test as did Piaget's theory

27. Critical Evaluation Perhaps the main criticism concerns the assumption that it is relevant to all cultures . Rogoff (1990) dismisses the idea that Vygotsky's ideas are culturally universal and instead states the concept of scaffolding - which is heavily dependent on verbal instruction – may not be equally useful in all cultures for all types of learning.

28. Some instances, observation and practice may be more effective ways of learning certain skills.