Vygotsky's Theory of Cognitive Development

Gap between a child's current level of development, and what they could do with help from a more educated other

• Level 1 = present level of development
• Level 2 = potential level of development
• The gap between level 1 and level 2 = ZPD
• Knowledge must be appropriate for the child's level
• Anything that is too complicated/beyond their ZPD cannot be learnt
• Acquire more advanced reasoning through social interaction

The help provided by a MKO to help the learner to cross the ZPD

• A.K.A. the Vygotsky-Bruner model
• The level of help provided decreases as the learner progresses across the ZPD

Five aspects of scaffolding:

• Recruitment - engaging interest
• Reduction of degrees of freedom - focusing child on task and how to start solving it
• Direct maintenance - encouraging child so they stay motivated
• Marking crucial features - highlighting most important aspects of task
• Demonstration - showing them how to do aspects of task

• Group work, peer tutoring and individual assisstance from teachers/teaching assisstants is now widely used in classrooms

• The idea that children can learn more and faster with appropriate scaffolding has increased expectations of what they can achieve

• Study found that 7 year olds who were tutored by 10 year olds progressed further in reading than control groups, thus supporting use of social interaction

• Other studies have supported the effectiveness of teaching assisstants

Conner & Cross:

• Longitudinal study - sees how patterns change over time so more valid
• Participants = Children aged 16, 26, 44 and 54 months old
• Found that Ps needed less help when completing problem solving tasks from their mothers over time
• This was as the children gained experience and when help was offered rather than given constantly
• Supports scaffolding - shows that children need less help as they become more experienced at something