Semyonovich

Vygotski
Sociocultural
Theory

Ariana M.
Velazquez
842-02-8597
Biography
 He was born in 1896 in Orsha,
Belarus ( Russian Empire)
 Grew up in Homel in a
prosperous Jewish family.
 He attended Moscow University,
majoring in law.
 He graduated in 1918 and
returned to Homel where he
worked as a school teacher and
studied.
Cont.
 In 1924 he moved to Moscow, working
on a diverse set of projects.
 In 1934 he died of tuberculosis.
 He left a wealth of work that is still
being explored.
 His writings emphasized the roles of
historical, cultural, and social factors
in cognition and argued that language
was the most important symbolic tool
provided by society.
 His thought and language is a classic
Sociocultural
Theory
 Culture is the prime
determinant of individual
development.
 Every function in the child’s
cultural development appears
twice.
 Development depends on
interaction with people and the
tools that the culture provides
Cont.
 Cognitive skills and patterns of
thinking are not primarily
determined by innate factors, but
are the products of the activities
practiced in the social institutions of
the culture in which the individual
grows up.
 In this process of cognitive
development, language is crucial
tool for determining how the child
will learn how to think because
advanced modes of though are
Cont.
 Cognitive development results
from a dialectical process where
by a child learns through
problem – solving experiences
shared with someone else.
 As learning progresses, the
child’s own language comes to
serve as her primary tool of
intellectual adaptation.
Eventually, children can use
internal language to direct their
Three underlying
themes that unify
Vygotsky’s complex
and far-reaching theory
 The importance of culture

 The central role of language

 The Zone of Proximal

Development
The importance
of culture
Our culture grow and
change as we develop,
and employ extremely
powerful influences on all
of us. They dictate what
he calls “Elementary
mental functions” and
“higher mental
Three ways that
culture tool can pass
from one individual
to another
 Imitative learning

 Instructed learning

 Collaborative learning
The central role
of language
Language is made possible
because of our culture. The
learning of language is brought
about by social processes, and
language ultimately make
thought possible.
Therefore, when a child is an
infant, at the preverbal stage
development, his intelligence is
a purely natural, useful
Cont.
As a child begins to develop so does
his language. As a child begins to
speak, his thought processes also
begins to develop. In essence, it is
language which direct behavior.

Vygotsky describes three stages in

the development of speech. Each of
these three stages of speech has its
own function.
Stages
 Social Speech (external speech)

 Egocentric Speech

 Inner Speech
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 as determined through
problem solving under adult
guidance or in collaboration with
more capable peers.
 It represents the amount of
learning possible by a student
Cont.
 Refers to what children can do
in their own as the level of
actual development that a
standard IQ test measure.
 Vygotsky says that two children
might have the same level of
actual development, in the
sense of being able to solve the
same number of problems on
some standardized test.
Cont.
 Give an appropriate help from
an adult, still, one child might
be able to solve an additional
dozen problems while the other
child might be able to solve
only two or three.
Website…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lev_vygotsky
Thanks For Your
Attention.