Vygotsky's sociocultural theory posits that cognitive development occurs through social interaction and is mediated by language and culture. It emphasizes how learning occurs in the Zone of Proximal Development through collaboration with more knowledgeable others. According to the theory, higher order thinking develops first on a social level through interaction, then on an individual level. The implications for education include using strategies like scaffolding that support student learning within their ZPD.

1. Vygotsky Socio Cultural Theory
Proffered By
Gurkirat Kaur
Asst. Prof. Chitkara University

2. What separates humans from animals?
What separates advanced societies from primitive
societies?
What separates advanced cognition from basic
cognition? That is, what makes us smart?

3. Vygotsky awakes our eyes to
the powerful role of culture
and community in learning.
His theory presents the radical
idea that our very thought and
intelligence is really not our
own. It’s the product of history
and culture.

4. Lev Semonovich Vygotsky Background
 Vygotsky was called "The Mozart of Psychology“.
 He was born in 1896- same year
as Piaget - in the small Russian town of Orsha.
 Middle-class Jewish family.
 He entered into a private all boys secondary school
known as a gymnasium—a secondary school that
prepared students for the university.
 In 1913 entered Moscow University through lottery.
 In December of 1917, he graduated from Moscow
University with a degree in law.

5. Lev Semonovich Vygotsky Background
 Vygotsky completed 270 scientific articles, numerous
lectures, and ten books based on a wide range of
Marxist-based psychological and teaching theories.
 He died on June 10, 1934, at the young age of thirty-
seven after long battle with TB.
 Vygotsky’s work did not become known in the West
until 1958, and was not published there until 1962.

6. Lev Semonovich Vygotsky Background
 Vygotsky completed 270 scientific articles, numerous
lectures, and ten books based on a wide range of
Marxist-based psychological and teaching theories.
 He died on June 10, 1934, at the young age of thirty-
seven after long battle with TB.
 Vygotsky’s work did not become known in the West
until 1958, and was not published there until 1962.

7. The sociocultural theory:
 Did NOT focus on the individual child but on the child as a
product of social interaction, especially with adults (parents,
teachers).
 Focus on DYADIC INTERACTIONS (e.g., child being taught by
a parent how to perform some culturally specific action), rather
than child by himself.
 Social world mediates children's cognitive development.
Cognitive development occurs as child's thinking is molded by
society in the form of parents, teachers, and peers. This leads to
peer tutoring as a strategy in classrooms.
 People's thinking differs dramatically between cultures because
different cultures stress different things.

8. Theory’s Principles and Concepts
 Children construct their knowledge.
Knowledge is not transferred passively, but is personally
constructed.
 The learning is mediated.
Cognitive development is not a direct result of activity, but it is
indirect; other people must interact with the learner, use
mediatory tools to facilitate the learning process, and then
cognitive development may occur.
 Language plays a central role in mental development.
The most significant sociocultural tool is language, as it is
used to teach tool use and is vital in the process of developing
higher psychological functions.

9. Theory’s Principles and Concepts
 Learning appears twice.
First on the social level, and later, on the individual level; first
between people (interpsychology), and then inside the child
(intrapsychology).
 Development cannot be separated from its social
context.
The context needed for learning is that where the learners
can interact with each other and use the new tools. This means
that the learning environment must be authentic, that is, it must
contain the type of people who would use these types of tools
such as concepts, language, symbols in a natural way.

10. Theory’s Principles and Concepts
 Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).
The difference between what a child can do
independently and what the child needs help from a
more knowledgeable person to do is the

11. Theory’s Principles and Concepts
 Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
Distance Between Actual and Potential
Knowledge
Two children with the same actual knowledge travel
different distances to their potential knowledge; therefore
different ZPDs

12. This is an example of how ZPD can work in the
life of a child
 Like all children, John
is constantly learning
and exploring the
world around him.

13. This is an example of how ZPD can work in the
life of a child
For our example, we will look at John love of games.
Over the years, Mo’men has developed skills and knowledge
that enable him to play a variety of games.
For each game, he is able to successfully strategize and solve
problems independently.

14. This is an example of how ZPD can work in the life
of a child
There is one game, however, that John has never learned. It’s
the card game Yu-Gi-Oh. John knows his brother plays it very
well.
John would like to learn, but is unsure where to start.

15. This is an example of how ZPD can work in the life
of a child
John finally asks his brother Harry for help. Harry
agrees, and begins working with John in learning the
game of Yu-Gi-Oh.
John is learning in the region Vygotsky would call ZPD.

16. This is an example of how ZPD can work in the life
of a child
In ZPD, John is doing something requiring the help of someone
more capable. Without Harry’s help, John would be unable to
play the game.
Eventually, John will learn the game well enough to play the
game by himself.

17. This is an example of how ZPD can work in the life
of a child
Once John learns Yu-Gi-Oh, the skill moves out of the ZPD
region and is added to all the other games John plays
independently.
In time, John becomes the more capable player, and begins to
teach his sister .

18. Zone of Proximal Development Stages
Stage 1: Assistance from “more
knowledgeable other” (capable peer
or adult)
Stage 2: Assistance from self (prior
knowledge and research)
Stage 3: Automatization (practice,
trial-and-error)
Stage 4: De-automatization (provide
explanation to others)

19. Zone of Proximal Development Stages

20. What do the symbols mean?
&
#
& #

21. What do the symbols mean? 2
#
$
% #

22. What do the symbols mean? 3
#~
%/
#^ %~

23. Four Stages
 Four
stages in the development of
concepts
 Based on experiments with wooden
blocks – nonsense labels put on blocks
and their meaning has to be worked out
 Language is a central concept

24. Four Stages (2)
 1. Vague Syncretic Stage – children failed to
use any strategies and show little understanding
of the concepts
 2. Complex Stage – some strategies used but
not successful
 3. Potential Concept Stage – systematic but
tendency to focus on only one quality at a time
 4. Mature Concept – systematic and successful;
concepts formed

25. Theory’s Principles and Concepts
 Scaffolding
“role of teachers and others in supporting the learner’s
development and providing support structures to get to the
next stage or level” Vygotsky.
a knowledgeable participant can create by means of
speech and supportive conditions in which the student
(novice) can participate in and extend current skills and
knowledge to a high level of competence.
In an educational context, however, scaffolding is an
instructional structure whereby the teacher models the
desired learning strategy or task then gradually shifts
responsibility to the students.

26.  Scaffolding:
– Provides support
– Extends the range of what a learner can do.
– Allows the learner to accomplish tasks otherwise
impossible
– Used only when needed
 Example :
An example of scaffolding in the classroom setting could
include a teacher first instructing her children on how to
write a sentence using commas and conjunctions. As the
week goes on, she has her students practice writing these
sentences with peers, gives students feedback and
eventually has the kids to complete this skill without her
guidance.

27. Principles of the Theory
 The More Knowledgeable
Other (MKO)
 Refers to any person that
has a more advanced
ability level or a better
understanding, with
respect to a particular
task, process, or concept
 Can be a teacher, coach,
older adult, peers,
younger person,
computers, etc.

28. Principles of the Theory
 The Zone of Proximal
Development
 Considered to be the
difference between
what a child is able to
do with guidance and
what they are able to do
without guidance
 Example: Children
learn specific models of
communication,
explanation, and
expression by playing
or interacting with
others while at home or
school.

29. Vygotsky’s theory
combines social
environment and cognition.
Children will acquire the
ways of thinking and
behaving that make up a
culture by interacting with
a more knowledgeable
person. Vygotsky believed
that social interaction will
lead to ongoing changes in
a child's thought and
behavior. These thoughts
and behaviors would vary
between cultures.

30. Vygotsky and Piaget
Piaget Vygotsky
Both agree children are active learners who actively construct
knowledge
Thinking develops in Development of thinking is
recognisable stages which dependent upon language and
depend on natural maturation culture
Role of teacher important but Use of “more-expert other”
use of “more-expert other” not seen as fundamental part of
central cognitive development
Readiness is a central concept Children should be actively
in education – children need to encouraged to move through
be ready to progress in their ZPD – do not need to be ready
learning but should be given opportunity
to engage in problems which
are beyond current level of
ability but within ZPD

31. Vygotsky and Piaget
Piaget Vygotsky
Scaffolding not a key concept Scaffolding is a central
concept
Language reflects level of Language helps to develop
cognitive development cognitive abilities.
This theory was very This theory is still very
influential in education but has influential in education
need revising and
underestimation of children’s
abilities still a problem

33. Note:
Formal thought is internalized language;
language comes from society; hence the
mind is a product of society.
[Back to Vygotsky’s basic concepts.]

34. Implications for Students

35. Implications for Students
Instead of a teacher dictating her meaning to students
for future recitation, the social development theory has
the teacher working in partnership with her students in
order for students to create their own meaning.
The physical classroom, based on Vygotsky's theory,
would provide clustered desks or tables and work
space for peer instruction, collaboration, and small
group instruction.
In this environment, the material to be learned would be
structured to advance and encourage student
interaction and collaboration. With this, the classroom
becomes a community of learning.

36. Implications for Teachers

37. Implications for Teachers
Typically, schools have been organized around recitation &
memorization teaching. The teacher disseminates
knowledge to be memorized by the students, who in turn
recite the information back to the teacher. Vygotsky's social
development theory challenges this traditional teaching
method and studies have shown that strategies based on
the social development theory are far more effective than
other instructional strategies.
Scaffolding, reciprocal teaching, and guided instruction are
effective strategies that implement Vygotsky’s theory.
Scaffolding is a temporary supportive structure that the
teacher creates to assist a student to accomplish a task that
they could not complete alone.
Reciprocal teaching is an instructional strategy used to
teach reading where students take turns being the teacher
for a pair or small group. The teacher’s role may simply be
as a moderator.
Guided instruction involves the teacher and students
exploring problems and then sharing their different problem
solving strategies in an open dialogue.

38. Conclusion
 Sociocultural theory considers learning as a semiotic
process where participation in socially-mediated
activities is essential.
 The theory regards instruction as crucial to cognitive
development in the classroom. Instruction should be
geared to the ZPD that is beyond the learner’s actual
development level.
 Social instruction actually produces new, elaborate,
advanced psychological processes that are
unavailable to the organism working in isolation