Social cultural theory

1. Sociocultural Theory

2. Introduction
• Definition of terms: Sociocultural Theory
• Background: Historical background of sociocultural theory
• Theory: The role of Culture and Social Relationships
Language and Private Speech
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
Scaffolding
• Educational Implications: Applying sociocultural theory to education.
• Critique
• Conclusion

3. Definition of Sociocultural Theory
• Sociocultural theory is a cognitive theory by Vygotsky which describes learning as a social process
and the origination of human intelligence in society or culture.
• The theory focuses on how mentors and peers influence individual learning, but also on how
cultural beliefs and attitudes affect how learning takes place
• It stresses the pivotal role that social interaction plays in the development of cognition.
• It is a an emerging field of psychology that looks at the contributions of society to individual
development.

4. Background
• Lev Vygotsky was a Russian teacher who is considereed a pioneer in learning social
contexts.
• He is counted as the first to examine how our social interactions influence our
cognitive growth.
• For him, learning occured through interactions with others in our communities
• Culture is important in acquisation of knowledge
• Teachers do have abilities to control many factors in educational settings

5. Sociocultural Theory
• According to Vygotsky (1978), Human cognitive development can only be
understood in relation to social and cultural context in which it is found
• The social world in which a child’s life has developmen is to be studied
inorder to understand one’s development.
• Instructions which awaken certain function in child development pave way in
the process of maturation.
• Social and cultural mediators are prominent in cognitive development.

6. The role of Culture and Social
Relationships
• In reality, children converse and interact with a number of people at their
place of residance and in educational institutes.
• Through interaction, they comprehend knowldge in relation to their culture
and history in different ways: concepts, skills, ideas and attitudes
• In trying to understand their culture, cognitive development becomes the
central position of their culture which inturns to make it a vibrant source of
cognition