Unit 2Learning in the Wider Social Context

KML6033Social and Cultural Dimensions in Learning and Instructions

Group 1: The Presenters

Lev Semenovich Vygotsky● 1896–1934● Jewish Russian● Moscow University; Shaniavsky

University● Social Development Theory - ZPD, MKO● Died of tuberculosis at the age of 37

The Sociocultural Theory of Development● learning as a social process and

the origination of human intelligence in society or culture

● social interaction plays a fundamental role in the development of cognition

● the importance of cultural tools to the sociocultural approach

Chapter 1: Tool and Symbol in Child Development

Chapter 2: The Development of Perception and Attention

Chapter 3: Mastery of Memory and Thinking

Chapter 4: Internalization of Higher Psychological Functions

What are tools and signs?

In Chapter 4 Vygotsky explains how tools and signs are different and how they are related to create a psychological link.

● Tool= something that is external in the physical world (wheel, pulley, lever, etc.). Vygotsky states “ it must lead to changes in objects” (pg 55).

● Sign= something that is internal or inside of the mind (gestures, language, memory)

*When tools and signs are combined it’s called higher psychological function*

Internalization“The internal reconstruction of an external operation” (pg. 56)

2. If a parent/adult sees child reaching for the object but the child is unable to reach they understand the child wants it and will give the object.

3. This develops an internal representation in the child through the act of reaching or pointing.

1. Child sees object beyond their reach and attempts to grasp it.

What does this mean?1. Activities begin as an external event then develop

internally.

2. A child’s cultural development is something that is both social and an individual process.

3. The transformation of interpersonal processes (social) into an intrapersonal (individual) occurs during many “developmental events” (pg. 57).

Chapter 5: Problems of Method

Previously Held View by Psychologists

Stimulus-Response Framework

Vygotsky’s New View

-Based on Dialectical Approach

-Analysis of Higher Psychological Functions called the Analysis

Process

“Any psychological process, whether the development of thought or voluntary behavior, is a process undergoing changes right before one’s eyes” (pg. 60).

Explanation versus Description

Describe the whale phenotypically (explanatory).

Describe the whale genotypically (descriptive).

Vygotsky uses K. Lewin’s work when he compares phenomenological analysis (external features), and genotypic analysis (origins of phenomena) in establishing the importance of having scientific analysis to distinguish between the external and internal.

The Problem of Fossilized Behavior● Fossilized behavior is behavior that has been repeated

over and over that it has become mechanized (reflexes).● “We need to concentrate not on the product of development but on the

very process by which higher forms are established” (pg. 64). ● In the past researchers viewed historical events of something in the past,

not as a process that is continuously going on before our eyes. ● Vygotsky’s Casual-Dynamic Study of Choice Reactions

Chapter 6: Interaction Between Learning and Development1. Learning and Development are totally independent (Piaget)

2. Learning and Development are equal (James)

3. Learning and Development influence each other (Koffka)

Vygotsky states that learning is needed for a person to develop. Or, that development occurs because a person learns.

Vygotsky disagrees with these assumptions

Zone of Proximal Development

Things that an individual can do independently

Things that an individual can do with help-scaffolding

Things that an individual cannot do, even with assistance

Actual Development

Level

Potential Development

LevelZone of Proximal

Development

Take note that each child has a different ZPD...but what does this mean for instruction?

Voices of MindJames V.Wertsch, Chapter 2-4

Chapter 2: A Sociocultural Approach to Mind● action is mediated, carried out within the environment● linked with specific cultural, historical and institutional factors

Themes in Vygotskian Sociocultural Approaches

to Mediated ActionGenetic Analysis

Social Origins of Higher Mental Functioning

Mediation

● Genetic Analysis○ foundation of the study of mind

○ understand the origin and transition to understand mental functioning

● Social origins of Mental Functioning ○ to understand the individual, understand their social relation

○ general genetic law of cultural development

■ function in child development appears twice

● Mediation○ Higher mental functioning and human action are mediated by tools and signs.

○ the study of thought and language - speech and thinking in individual

Chapter 3: Beyond Vygotsky: Bakhtin’s Contribution● Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin, Russian philosopher

● Focus on dialogicality○ multiple authorship

● The role of utterance○ the real unit of speech communication

● Voice○ utterance can exist only by being produced by a voice

● Dialogicality and Multivoicedness○ to understand another person's utterance, we must adapt with respect to it

● Social Language○ discourse peculiar to a specific stratum of society

○ a speaker invokes a social language to produce an utterance

● Speech Genre○ not a form of language but a type of utterance

Chapter 4: Multivoicedness of Meaning● Meaning is central to sociocultural approach to mediated action

○ shaped human action

○ master the dialogic speech on the intermental plane thereby shaping the intramental plane of functioning

○ Function of text; convey the meaning and generate new meaning

● Authority ○ fixed utterance and their meaning○ only transmitted○ reported speech

● Literal Meaning○ Bakhtinian perspective the notion of the literal meaning is problematic

Sociocultural Approaches to Learning and Development: A Vygotskian FrameworkJohn-Steiner & Mahn, 1996

Overview● Sociocultural approach to learning and development - first applied by

Vygotsky in Russia.● Concept - human activities occur in cultural context, mediated by

language and other symbol systems● Main key idea - the nature of interdependence between individual and

social process in cognitive development.

Social Source Development● Human development starts with dependence on caregiver.● The novice depends on the expert.● Over time, the novice will take responsibility for own learning and

participate in activity.

Semiotic Mediation● key to all aspect of knowledge construction● Means language,symbol system, art, writing● Mediate social and individual functioning and connect the external and

the internal, the social and individual.● Knowledge is not internalized directly but through the use of

psychological tools.● Representational activities and the sociocultural theory of semiotic

mediation - fundamental to Vygotsky’s concept of internalization and the transformation of interpersonal processes into intrapersonal one.

Genetic Analysis● Genetic analysis - examines the origins and history of phenomena,

focusing on their interconnectedness● Understand many aspects of mental functioning only if one understands

their origin and the transition they went through - development of the individual, sociocultural history, and the development of the species

● Focus on the process whereby higher forms are established● Learning and development take place in society and in culturally shaped

contexts

Sociocultural Methodological Approach

Spontaneous and Scientific Concepts

The Ecological Theory of Development by Urie Bronfenbrenner

Santrock, 2004

Summary

Microsystem

•System closest to the person-direct contact.

•Would be at home, school, daycare, or work.

•Family, peers, or caregivers

Mesosystem

•Involve relationships between the microsystems in one's life.

•Family experience may be related to your school experience.

•For example, if a child is neglected by his parents, he may have a low chance of developing positive attitude towards his teachers. Also, this child may feel awkward in the presence of peers and may resort to withdrawal from a group of classmates.

Exosystem

•Refers to a setting that does not involve the person as an active participant, but still affects them.

•Decisions that have bearing on the person, but in which they have no participation in the decision-making process.

•Example: a child would being affected by a parent receiving a promotion at work or losing their job.

Macrosystem

•Actual culture of an individual.

•The cultural contexts involve the socioeconomic status of the person and/or his family, his ethnicity, race and living in a still developing or a third world country.

•For example, being born to a poor family makes a person work harder every day.

Chronosystem

•Includes the transitions and shifts in one's lifespan. This may also involve the socio-historical contexts that may influence a person.

•Example - divorce, may affect not only the couple's relationship but also their children's behavior.

Treasure Hunting1. There are 4 clues hidden all across FCSHD. You

must find and collect ALL of them.2. Each clue will lead you to the next. Figure out

what each clue could mean. It could refer to an item, a person or a place. It could also mean something big or small, or of any colour.

3. A prize awaits you at the end of the game.

Summary● Learning is a process that can not just be simply

observed in controlled and isolated conditions.● Learning should be observed as it develops.● Each student brings to the table a variety of skills,

previous knowledge, influences, and a unique history.

● Daily experiences between various people, places, groups and society facilitates a process in which the development of an individual occurs through a variety of external and internal means.

“Through others we become ourselves.” ― Lev S. Vygotsky

Thank You