Discuss and Evaluate Vygotsky's Theory of Cognitive Development

Vygotsky is a Russian psychologist. Vygotsky is a theorist also he has a different outlook on cognitive development, which he agrees with Piaget about the transition happen from adolescence to adulthood. It gives Vygotsky opinion. Another theorist is Kohlberg theory and outlook on cognitive development is a skill theory which tools are provided for developmental. Kohlerg theory of cognitive development has skill structure which is call levels, it describes what the level consists of. These three theorists share a common idea on cognitive development. Even know the three theorists share a common idea about cognitive development, but they also have a different perspective that affects the cognitive development. It will describe the stages of cognitive development. Piaget is known as one of the most popular theorist he is famous for cognitive development. Piaget was a theorist who study for cognitive development. Piaget develops four stages of growth dealing with cognitive development. Piaget develops the ground work of cognitive development. Cognitive development has four stages and it is known as the formal stage. It will introduce the main elements that will occur in the adolescence and in early adulthood. It will describe three elements that have or will occur in the formal stage.

In Vygotsky’s concept, zone of proximal development he explains that it is the distance between a child’s developmental level, which is determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance (Vygotsky, 1978, p174). This concept is highly used in education and in classrooms. For example, I work with a student who is eighteen years of age and has intellectual disabilities. During our morning routine he enjoys working on puzzles. He has a difficult time putting the puzzle together so I help him with clues and or prompt him to the puzzle piece that fits. He moves onto a new puzzle once I no longer have to give him clues or prompts. As I have tracked his progress he has needed less prompt than he did three months ago. The goal of this concept is that, as an adult collaborates with a child to help them move from where they are to where they should be with help by accomplishing the exercise through prompts, clues, modeling, and etc.

The work of Lev Vygotsky (1934) has become the foundation of much research and theory in cognitive development over the past several decades, particularly of what has become known as Social Development Theory. Vygotsky 's theories stress the fundamental role of social interaction in the development of cognition (Vygotsky, 1978), as he believed

Vygotsky's Social Developement theory focused on the connections between people and the social and cultural context, in which they act and interact with others. According to Vygotsky, humans use tools that develop from a culture, such as speech and writing, to mediate their social environments. Intinitally children develop these tools to serve solely to communcate needs. Vygotsky believed that the internatlization of these tools led to higher thinking skills.

Vygotsky and Piaget scrutinize language and thought and how their development is interrelated as well. They agree language consists of cognitive and social development. This paper attempts to describe their theorization concerning speech and thought. Vygotsky (1986) revealed thought and speech are closely connected due to intellectual development is necessary for language development. However, thought and language are processes which originate independly one from another. Once children absorb meaning of the words they are told by adults, thought and speech merge.

Vygotsky's theory was based off of the thought of what can I do? What can I do with help? And also what I can’t do? The full zone of proximal development depends on a child’s social interaction. “The range of skill that can be developed with adult guidance or peer collaboration exceeds what can be attained alone” (Wertsch, 1985, p.1).

Moreover, Vygotsky suggested that before cognitive development can be internalized, learning should be an interactive process between the child and society. On the contrary, Vygotsky (Beckett & Taylor, 2016) suggested that the role of language and

Both had differences in opinion on the origin of development. There were also differences in the importance of relationships between peers and authorities and how it determines cognitive development and learning. Vygotsky places more emphasis on how culture and social factors affect cognitive development. Vygotsky further stated that children learn based on instruction and guidance from within their environment which also largely influences what and how they think. While on the contrary, Piaget states that children acquire knowledge through explorations on their own.

According to the text, Vygotsky’s concepts on cognitive development is based on two ideas (Pg. 33). Vygotsky believed that development occurred through “sign systems”. Sign systems are

Creating a positive change started to get ingrained in my head since I became of school age. Growing up in a place where drugs, gangs, and crime was all too common, I decided to push back against this by educating myself. Not having the available community resources and watching friends and family members end up in jail or dead shook me to the core. I remember being told of some neighborhood friends who had died, one of an overdose of heroine and another (who was involved in gangs) had gotten shot and killed in a drive by shooting. Both happened just steps from our house! I remember thinking, even back then, that I did want to end up like them. I also remember thinking that if I had any children that I would do my best not to expose them to the same environment I was exposed to when I was growing up. According to Vygotsky’s concepts of cognitive development theory, my interactions with others in my neighborhood caused me to alter my environment which guided me, regulate me and redefined who I am now.

In researching various development theories, one of those that stand out is cognitive development theory. Cognitive development theory studies “how people think and how thinking changes over time” (Kail & Cavanaugh, 14). One of the leading theorists in this area was Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky. He was one of the first theorists to consider the sociocultural influences on a child’s development. His research allowed the development of key concepts that have been proven useful to educators as they have incorporated them within their teaching methods. Not only have these concepts helped children develop new skills, but also have made teachers more effective in the classroom. In considering the sociocultural influences on development, Vygotsky emphasized the importance of social interaction and imaginative play. He determined that these two factors made sizeable contributions in cognitive development in children.

Vygotsky emphasized more on social factors contributing to cognitive development. He defined “Every function in the child's cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the individual level; first, between people, and then inside the child” (Vygotsky, 1978, p-57). Example: When I taught my students regarding the basic electronics devices then we discussed in class the general devices that are used in their social life like mobile charger, traffic lights, and water level indicators and then they easily understood the types of devices and their uses.

In other hand, Vygotsky suggest that language is the fundamental basis for the children cognitive development (Gross, 2010). Also, language is one the factors that influence children to use inner speech when learning new objects or words (Gross, 2010). But there is problem with this theory because other psychologists do not support this theory. Instead, Piaget argued and suggested that children at that stage are egocentric and have some form vocabulary limitation. Further, this might explain the children self talk (Gross, 2010).

This part of the essay will analyse two theories on how children learn within a classroom. Cognitive Psychology is the ‘study of the processes and structures under structures underlying knowledge’. In other words Cognitive Psychology analyses ‘how a person thinks, perceives, remembers and learns’ (Murtagh, 2017, Lecture 2). This essay will make reference to Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development and Vygotsky’s Social Constructivism Theory. Both theories have an immense influence on practice and educational theory today.

Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of development suggested that to develop cognitively, children must have social interaction. He also “believed that this lifelong process of development was dependent of social interaction and that social learning actually leads to cognitive development” (Riddle, 1999). Vygotsky believed that children 's social learning must come before social development. Vygotsky also believed that "human activities take place in cultural settings and cannot be understood apart from these settings" (Woolfolk, 2004). Therefore, our culture helps shape our cognition.