SOCIO-CULTURAL THEORY

 

SOCIO- CULTURAL THEORY

Meaning

        Sociocultural theory looks at the important contributions that society makes to individual development. This theory stresses the interaction between developing people and the culture in which they live. According to this theory human learning is largely a social process.

         Sociocultural theory grew from the work of psychologist Lev Vygotsky, who believed that parents, caregivers, peers, friends, teachers and the culture at large were responsible for developing higher order functions. According to Vygotsky, learning has its basis in interacting with other people. Once this has occurred, the information is then integrated on the individual level.

Ø  Vygotsky emphasized the influence of culture, peers, and adults on the developing child.

Ø  He believed that children will acquire ways of thinking and behaving that make up a culture by interacting with more knowledgeable person.

Ø  Theory suggests that social interaction leads to continuous step by step changes in a child’s thought and behaviour that can vary greatly from culture to culture.

Socio-culturalism

          According to sociocultural thought, human activity like learning and behaviour are impacted by individual, social and contextual issues. Humans are considered to be social and reflexive in nature and this causes human thought and behaviour to be altered by the complexities of that social world.         

          Therefore, when studying any phenomenon, it is important to keep in mind the context in which it took place. The focus on the role of social dynamics ensures that a holistic view of the phenomenon is obtained. At times, the interplay of social dynamics affects the outcome of a phenomenon.

Sociocultural Theory

        According to the sociocultural theory, knowledge does not exist inside the head of a human being. Meanings are negotiated where individuals, culture and activity intersect. It tries to explain how social mediation plays a role in the construction, reconstruction and transformation of culturally and historically situated meanings.

       According to Vygotsky, when it comes to development, children use collaborative dialogues with the more knowledgeable members of the society to learn various aspects of their culture. This includes values, beliefs, norms and ways to solve different problems. These knowledgeable members may be parents, teachers or more competent peers. The various social interactions of a child influence his/her personal characteristics and social skills. Therefore, the sociocultural environment in which development takes place also influences its form.

Culture and Intellectual Development

          Culture plays a role in transforming the elementary functions like perception, sensation, attention and memory that a child is born with into sophisticated mental processes called ‘higher mental functions.’ Cultures provide their children with distinctive ‘tools of intellectual adoption.’ These tools help enhance their mental processes that are normally limited by biological constraints

Social Contribution to Personal Growth

         According to Vygotsky, when a child is faced with a range of tasks that seem too complex for him to learn/accomplish alone, he is in a ‘zone of proximal development.’ In such a scenario, collaborative (guided) learning works best. Here, a more skillful tutor helps the child learn or acquire new skills through cooperative or collaborative dialogues. The child will first try to understand the instructions, then internalizes the information and finally regulates his performance. In some situations, the tutor on observing the development of the child, may customise his instructions and support to meet the needs of the child. This helps the child improve his abilities to grasp and understand the problem better. This willingness to tailor instructions based on need is called ‘scaffolding.’

        Therefore, guided learning is a socialization process where a child acquires culturally relevant skills and activities by participating hands-on in various tasks. These tasks can range from farming, learning to play tennis, hunting prey, cooking, etc.

SOCIO-CULTURAL THEORY ACCORDING TO VYGOTSKY

“Through others we become ourselves” -Vygotsky

        Lev SemenovichVygotsky, a Russian psychologist who lived during the Russian Revolution, developed a theory of development known as the Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Development in the early twentieth century. Vygotsky’s main assertion was that children are entrenched in different sociocultural contexts and their cognitive development is advanced through social interaction with more skilled individuals. The Vygotsky theory of cognitive development is mainly concerned with the more complex cognitive activities of children that are governed and influenced by several principles. Believing that children construct knowledge actively, Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory is also one of those responsible for laying the groundwork for constructivism.

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

        Vygotsky is most recognized for his concept of Zone of Proximal Development or ZPD pertaining to the learning of children. Children who are in the zone of proximal development for a specific task can almost perform the task independently, but not quite there yet. However, with an appropriate amount of assistance, these children can accomplish the task successfully.

          The lower limit of a child’s zone of proximal development is the level of analysis and problem-solving reached by a child without any help. The upper limit, on the other hand, is the level of additional responsibility that a child can receive with the support of a skilled instructor.

       As children are verbally given instructions or shown how to perform certain tasks, they organize the new information received in their existing mental schemas in order to assist them in the ultimate goal of performing the task independently. This emphasis on the concept of Zone of Proximal Development made by Vygotsky underscores his conviction that social influences, particularly instruction, are of immense importance on the cognitive development of children.

           Children are entrenched in a sociocultural backdrop (e.g. at home) in which social interaction with significant adults, such as the parents, plays a crucial factor that affects their learning. These adults need to direct and organize the learning experiences to ensure that the children can master and internalize the learning.

          According to the Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, any person who possesses a higher skill level than the learner with regard to a particular task or concept is called a More Knowledgeable Other or MKO. This person may be a teacher, parent, an older adult, a coach or even a peer.

More Knowledgeable Other (MKO)

      The more knowledgeable other (MKO) is somewhat self-explanatory; it refers to someone who has a better understanding or a higher ability level than the learner, with respect to a particular task, process, or concept.

       Although the implication is that the MKO is a teacher or an older adult, this is not necessarily the case. Many times, a child's peers or an adult's children may be the individuals with more knowledge or experience.

       For example, who is more likely to know more about the newest teenage music groups, how to win at the most recent PlayStation game, or how to correctly perform the newest dance craze - a child or their parents?

       In fact, the MKO need not be a person at all. Some companies, to support employees in their learning process, are now using electronic performance support systems.

        Electronic tutors have also been used in educational settings to facilitate and guide students through the learning process. The key to MKOs is that they must have (or be programmed with) more knowledge about the topic being learned than the learner does.

Scaffolding

         Vygotsky’s concept of scaffolding is closely related to the concept of the zone of proximal development. Scaffolding refers to the temporary support given to a child by More Knowledgeable Others, usually parents or teachers, that enable the child to perform a task until such time that the child can already perform the task independently.

        Scaffolding entails changing the quality and quantity of support provided to a child in the course of a teaching session. The more-skilled instructor adjusts the level of guidance needed in order to fit the student’s current level of performance. For novel tasks, the instructor may utilize direct instruction. As the child gains more familiarity with the task and becomes more skilled at it, the instructor may then provide less guidance.

       Children who experience more difficulty in task performance are in need of greater assistance and guidance from an adult. When the child has learned to complete the task independently, the scaffolds are removed by the adult, as they are no longer needed.

       A major contribution of Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development is the acknowledgement of the social component in both cognitive and psychosocial development. Due to his proffered ideas, research attention has been shifted from the individual onto larger interactional units such as parent and child, teacher and child, or brother and sister.

       Vygotsky’s theory likewise called attention to the variability of cultural realities, stating that the development of children who are in one culture or subculture, such as middle class Asian Americans, may be totally different from children who hail from other societies or subcultures. It would not be fitting, therefore, to utilize the developmental experiences of children from one culture as a norm for children from other cultures.

         Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of cognitive development has significant ramifications in education and cognitive testing. Vygotsky was a strong advocate of non-standard assessment procedures for the assessment of what and how much a child has learned and in the formulation of approaches that could enhance the child’s learning. His ideas have effected changes in educational systems through the increased importance given to the active role of students in their own learning process and the encouragement of teacher-student collaboration in a reciprocal learning experience

Importance of socio-cultural theory in teaching and learning

          The Sociocultural Learning Theory also takes into account how learners are impacted by their peers, and how social scenarios impact their ability to acquire information. As such, instructors who apply the Sociocultural Learning Theory in their instructional design can also become aware of how learners may directly impact one another, as well as how cultural “norms” can influence a learner's learning behavior.

      Vygotsky’s concept of the zone of proximal development is based on the idea that development is defined both by what a child can do independently and by what the child can do when assisted by an adult or more competent peer (Daniels, 1995; Wertsch, 1991). Knowing both levels of Vygotsky’s zone is useful for teachers, for these levels indicate where the child is at a given moment as well as where the child is going. The zone of proximal development has several implications for teaching in the classroom.

         According to Vygotsky, for the curriculum to be developmentally appropriate, the teacher must plan activities that encompass not only what children are capable of doing on their own but what they can learn with the help of others (Karpov& Haywood, 1998).

Vygotsky’s theory does not mean that anything can be taught to any child. Only instruction and activities that fall within the zone promote development. For example, if a child cannot identify the sounds in a word even after many prompts, the child may not benefit immediately from instruction in this skill. Practice of previously known skills and introduction of concepts that are too difficult and complex have little positive impact. Teachers can use information about both levels of Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development in organizing classroom activities in the following ways:

 Instruction can be planned (proper lesson plans) to provide practice in the zone of proximal development for individual children or for groups of children. For example, hints and prompts that helped children during the assessment could form the basis of instructional activities.

 Cooperative learning activities can be planned with groups of children at different levels who can help each other learn.

 Scaffolding (Wood, Bruner, & Ross, 1976) is a tactic for helping the child in his or her zone of proximal development in which the adult provides hints and prompts at different levels. In scaffolding, the adult does not simplify the task, but the role of the learner is simplified “through the graduated intervention of the teacher” (Greenfield, 1984, p. 119).

 

    For example, a child might be shown pennies to represent each sound in a word (e.g., three pennies for the three sounds in “man”). To master this word, the child might be asked to place a penny on the table to show each sound in a word, and finally the child might identify the sounds without the pennies. When the adult provides the child with pennies, the adult provides a scaffold to help the child move from assisted to unassisted success at the task (Spector, 1992). In a high school laboratory science class, a teacher might provide scaffolding by first giving students detailed guides to carrying out experiments, then giving them brief outlines that they might use to structure experiments, and finally asking them to set up experiments entirely on their own.

       The most important application of Vygotsky's theory to education is in his concept of a zone of proximal development. This concept is important because teachers can use it as a guide to a child's development. It allows a teacher to know what a student is able to achieve through the use of a mediator and thus enables the teacher to help the child attain that level by themselves.

        A second important aspect of Vygotsky's theory is the role of play in his theory. According to this perspective teachers need to provide children, especially young children, many opportunities to play. Through play, and imagination a child's conceptual abilities are stretched. Vygotsky argued that play leads to development. "While imitating their elders in culturally patterned activities, children generate opportunities for intellectual development. Initially, their games are recollections and reenactments of real situations; but through the dynamics of their imagination and recognition of implicit rules governing the activities they have reproduced in their games, children achieve an elementary mastery of abstract thought." (Cole, 1978).

         Since language holds a central role in Vygotsky's theory, and is essential to the development of thinking, the school needs to provide many opportunities that allow children to reach the third stage of speech, which is inner speech, since it is this stage which is responsible for all higher levels of functioning.

         There are many aspects of Vygtosky’s sociocultural learning theory that are applicable to classrooms. His basic theory is that “communications that a child experiences are critical in stimulating the development of his or her thinking skills” (Pressley & McCormick, 2007, p.153). The key to the communications is using instructional conversations in interacting with a child.

     One aspect that can be used in the classroom is in how we communicate with children. Vygotsky explains that before a child can have an internal conversation with themselves, they need to be able to dialogue with others (Pressley & McCormick, 2007). This shows the importance of encouraging conversations with students, especially at the preschool age. Interacting with the students about what they are doing, seeing and thinking helps them develop external conversations which then lead to internal ones later on.

       Another aspect useful in the classroom is scaffolding, which is the ability to help a child with a task and then gradually lessen that help so they can do it more themselves (Pressley & McCormick, 2007). I liked the explanation that Pressley and McCormick gave that “cognitive development moves forward largely because the child is in a world that provides aid when the child needs it, and can benefit from

it “(2007, p.156). This can be guiding and coaching in such a way that the teacher does not give too much help, but just enough to encourage the student to find the answer or complete the skill.

           A final aspect that is helpful is reciprocal teaching, which is teaching children comprehension strategies in reading groups (Pressley & McCormick, 2007). In these reading groups children are taught to predict things pertaining to what they are reading, question what they are reading, search for clearer meaning in what they do not understand, and to summarize (Pressley & McCormick, 2007). This could be done by the teacher or by student tutors who are taught the skills needed to encourage this type of communication. Instead of a teacher just asking a question and a student answering, there is back and forth dialogue from everyone and learning about the topic on many different levels.

What is the importance of Vygotsky's sociocultural theory?

         Vygotsky's sociocultural theory asserts that learning is an essentially social process in which the support of parents, caregivers, peers and the wider society and culture plays a crucial role in the development of higher psychological functions.

What is sociocultural theory of learning?

        Vygotsky's sociocultural theory of human learning describes learning as a social process and the origination of human intelligence in society or culture. The major theme of Vygotsky's theoretical framework is that social interaction plays a fundamental role in the development of cognition.

How do the socio-cultural aspects influence learning?

        The sociocultural perspective views learning taking place through interaction, negotiation, and collaboration in solving authentic problems while emphasizing learning from experience and discourse, which is more than cooperative learning.

What are the socio-cultural factors affecting learning?

          The findings reveal that parents' low level of education; lack of parental involvement in the education of their children, the low-economic status of parents are some of the socio-cultural factors that affect the reading acquisition of learners.

How does culture impact special education and how students learn?

        Cultural differences can also affect how students understand content, because students from different cultures may not have in common the cultural experiences needed to comprehend many texts. The same holds true for language. Language is imbedded in culture, and culture influences how people think and use language.