2.

1 Introduction of Vygotsky Theory of Social Learning

Vygotsky (1896-1934) is one of the Russian psychologists whose ideas have

influenced the field of educational psychology and the field of education as whole. For
him, although biological factors constitute the necessary pre-requisite for elementary
processes to emerge, sociocultural factors are indispensable for elementary natural
processes to develop. He argues for the uniqueness of the social milieu and regards
sociocultural settings as the primary and determining factor in the development of higher
forms of human mental activity such as voluntary attention, intentional memory, logical
thought, planning, and problem solving.

Social constructivism is a variety of cognitive constructivism that emphasizes the

collaborative nature of much learning. Social constructivism was developed by post-
revolutionary Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky. Vygotsky was a cognitivist, but
rejected the assumption made by cognitivists such as Piaget and Perry that it was
possible to separate learning from its social context. He argued that all cognitive
functions originate in, and must therefore be explained as products of social interactions
and that learning was not simply the assimilation and accommodation of new knowledge
by learners; it was the process by which learners were integrated into a knowledge
community. According to Vygotsky (1978),

Every function in the child’s cultural development appears twice: first, on the
social level and, later on, on the individual level; first, between people
(interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological). This applies equally
to voluntary attention, to logical memory, and to the formation of concepts. All the
higher functions originate as actual relationships between individuals.Vygotsky’s theory
of social learning has been expanded upon by numerous later theorists and researchers.
2.2 The Basic Concepts in Social Learning Theory

One of the fundamental concepts of social learning theory, according to Lantolf

(2000), is its claim that the human mind is mediated. Lantolf claims that Vygotsky finds
a significant role for what he calls tools "in humans" understanding of the world and of
themselves. According to him, Vygotsky advocates that humans do not act directly on
the physical world without the intermediary of tools. Whether symbolic or signs, tools
according to Vygotsky are artefacts created by humans under specific cultural (culture
specific) and historical conditions, and as such they carry with them the characteristics
of the culture in question. They are used as aids in solving problems that cannot be
solved in the same way in their absence. In turn, they also exert an influence on the
individuals who use them in that they give rise to previously unknown activities and
previously unknown ways of conceptualising phenomena in the world. Therefore, they
are subject to modification as they are passed from one generation to the next, and each
generation reworks them in order to meet the needs and aspirations of its individuals and
communities. Vygotsky advocates that the role of a psychologist should be to understand
how human social and mental activity is organised through culturally constructed
artefacts.

According to Vygotsky (1978 cited Lantolf 2000), the social learning

environment presents the child with a variety of tasks and demands, and engages the
child in his world through the tools. In the early stages, Vygotsky claims that the child is
completely dependent on other people, usually the parents, who initiate the child's
actions by instructing him/her as to what to do, how to do it, as well as what not to do.
Parents, as representatives of the culture and the conduit through which the culture
passes into the child, actualise these instructions primarily through language. On the
question of how do children then appropriate these cultural and social heritages,
Vygotsky (1978 cited Wertsch 1985) states that the child acquires knowledge through
contacts and interactions with people as the first step (interpsychological plane), then
later assimilates and internalises this knowledge adding his personal value to it
(intrapsychological plane). This transition from social to personal property according to
Vygotsky is not a mere copy, but a transformation of what had been learnt through
interaction, into personal values. Vygotsky claims that this is what also happens in
schools. Students do not merely copy teacher's capabilities; rather they transform what
teachers offer them during the processes of appropriation.

Social learning theory has a holistic view about the act of learning. Williams &
Burden (1997) claim that the theory opposes the idea of the discrete teaching of skills
and argues that meaning should constitute the central aspects of any unit of study. Any
unit of study should be presented in all its complexity rather than skills and knowledge
presented in isolation. The theory emphasizes the importance of what the learner brings
to any learning situation as an active meaning-maker and problem-solver. It
acknowledges the dynamic nature of the interplay between teachers, learners and tasks
and provides a view of learning as arising from interactions with others. According to
Ellis (2000), sociocultural theory assumes that learning arises not through interaction but
in interaction. Learners first succeed in performing a new task with the help of another
person and then internalise this task so that they can perform it on their own. In this way,
social interaction is advocated to mediate learning.

2.2.1 View of Knowledge

Cognitivists such as Piaget and Perry see knowledge as actively constructed by

learners in response to interactions with environmental stimuli. Vygotsky emphasized
the role of language and culture in cognitive development. According to Vygotsky,
language and culture play essential roles both in human intellectual development and in
how humans perceive the world. Humans’ linguistic abilities enable them to overcome
the natural limitations of their perceptual field by imposing culturally defined sense and
meaning on the world. Language and culture are the frameworks through which humans
experience, communicate, and understand reality. Vygotsky states (1968) that:
 A special feature of human perception … is the perception of real objects … I do
not see the world simply in color and shape but also as a world with sense and
meaning. I do not merely see something round and black with two hands; I see a
clock …
(Vygotsky, 1968)

Language and the conceptual schemes that are transmitted by means of language
are essentially social phenomena. As a result, human cognitive structures are, Vygotsky
believed, essentially socially constructed. Knowledge is not simply constructed, it is co-
constructed.

2.2.2 View of Learning

Vygotsky accepted Piaget’s claim that learners respond not to external stimuli
but to their interpretation of those stimuli. However, he argued that cognitivists such as
Piaget had overlooked the essentially social nature of language. As a result, he claimed
they had failed to understand that learning is a collaborative process. Vygotsky
distinguished between two developmental levels:

1. The level of actual development is the level of development that the learner has
already reached, and is the level at which the learner is capable of solving
problems independently.
2. The level of potential development (the “zone of proximal development”) is the
level of development that the learner is capable of reaching under the guidance of
teachers or in collaboration with peers.

The learner is capable of solving problems and understanding material at this

level that they are not capable of solving or understanding at their level of actual
development; the level of potential development is the level at which learning takes
place. It comprises cognitive structures that are still in the process of maturing, but
which can only mature under the guidance of or in collaboration with others.
2.2.3 View of Motivation

Whereas behavioral motivation is essentially extrinsic, a reaction to positive and

negative reinforcements, cognitive motivation is essentially intrinsic — based on the
learner’s internal drive. Social constructivists see motivation as both extrinsic and
intrinsic. Because learning is essentially a social phenomenon, learners are partially
motivated by rewards provided by the knowledge community. However, because
knowledge is actively constructed by the learner, learning also depends to a significant
extent on the learner’s internal drive to understand and promote the learning process.

2.3 Classroom Applications of Vygotsky's Theory

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 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.

2.4 Implications for Teaching

Collaborative learning methods require learners to develop teamwork skills and

to see individual learning as essentially related to the success of group learning. The
optimal size for group learning is four or five people. Since the average section size is
ten to fifteen people, collaborative learning methods often require teachers to break
students into smaller groups, although discussion sections are essentially collaborative
learning environments. For instance, in group investigations, students may be split into
groups that are then required to choose and research a topic from a limited area. They
are then held responsible for researching the topic and presenting their findings to the
class. More generally, collaborative learning should be seen as a process of peer
interaction that is mediated and structured by the teacher. Discussion can be promoted
by the presentation of specific concepts, problems, or scenarios; it is guided by means of
effectively directed questions, the introduction and clarification of concepts and
information, and references to previously learned material. In term of curriculum, since
children learn much through interaction, curricula should be designed to emphasize
interaction between learners and learning tasks.

While in term of instruction, with appropriate adult help, children can often
perform tasks that they are incapable of completing on their own. With this in mind,
scaffolding–where the adult continually adjusts the level of his or her help in response to
the child’s level of performance–is an effective form of teaching. Scaffolding not only
produces immediate results, but also instills the skills necessary for independent problem
solving in the future.

In term of assessment, the assessment methods must take into account the zone
of proximal development. What children can do on their own is their level of actual
development and what they can do with help is their level of potential development.
Two children might have the same level of actual development, but given the
appropriate help from an adult, one might be able to solve many more problems than the
other. Assessment methods must target both the level of actual development and the
level of potential development.

2.5 Conclusion

In the social development theory, Leo Vygotsky primarily explains that

socialization affects the learning process in an individual. It tries to explain
consciousness or awareness as the result of socialization. There is a great deal of overlap
between cognitive constructivism and Vygotsky's social constructivist theory. However,
Vygotsky's constructivist theory, which is often called social constructivism, has much
more room for an active, involved teacher. For Vygotsky the culture gives the child the
cognitive tools needed for development. The type and quality of those tools determines,
to a much greater extent than they do in Piaget's theory, the pattern and rate of
development. Adults such as parents and teachers are conduits for the tools of the
culture, including language. The tools the culture provides a child include cultural
history, social context, and language. Today they also include electronic forms of
information access.

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