Now we talk about
Vygotsky. Vygotsky is a theorist
not counter to Piaget but from a different point of view.
Piaget's looking really at the individual
and the individual's cognitive abilities progressing
through their maturation. The ability for them to think.
Vygotsky's looking at the child
as developing in a context particularly
a social context the kid is not an island
and we all now well know hopefully in this class you know everybody has a
world view
that depends very greatly on where they happen to have been born in the world
and what time
in the world's history they happen to have been born. What information is available?
What information is valued? What information is taught becomes the
for dominate world view any individual unless is challenged
it kind of remains that way by default. So
where's that coming from what's coming from society. Society matters
kids try to construe meaning from society. They will do that
with directive interaction they get meaning originally because I say "don't touch
that!" "Yes touch that."
"Put on your shoes." I tell you what to do, I reinforce and reward you for certain
things that you should do
and punish you or try to inhibit you from doing things you shouldn't do
you get a lot of directed interaction. Parents telling kids what's okay, what's
not okay
smile camera, smile! "Oh
okay" that's a directive action you did it because I told you to do it not
because you spontaneously did it necessarily. So then we got kids
starting to move away and to their own world as they develop cognitively
they start being able to represent the world internally and then you see them
playing around and what do they play? They play like adults. They got their
dolls and their action figures.
They might have a mommy or daddy or a teacher
or friend or whomever is in there actual social world
playing out little roles where their trying to work out meaning for
themselves. At that point they engage in private speech
so the sneak up on a kid and you watch them around the corner you often times hear them
talking to themselves. They don't just sit there silently going "HMMM..."
They say "Hi, how are you doing?" "Oh, I'm fine how are you?"
and their actually acting it out for Vygotsky that means they're actively
making meaning
understanding relationships and they're speaking out loud
because they've learned to speak. But then as they progress and get older
that outward speech moves to enter speech.
Everybody talks to themselves. If fact if you think about
how you think its largely
language-based right it's not necessary some people think
in images but if I said "how to go how do you get to Pals?"
most people would run through a script in their mind I got actual verbal script.
Well you get up
and then go out the back door and then you make a right any go down to the
first road you come to and you make a right now those are all words.
I could visualize it but I'm likely to just say it.
Now one of my greatest fears is that I one day I'll get to where I forget
to monitor my private speech. You ever
just be talking out loud people are like what are you talking about? You're like "oh, I was talking to
myself."
Maybe, maybe I'll forget to monitor that
because the thoughts that go through people's minds are amazing.
Not always appropriate, right? So we learn to do what? Censor our speech,
we say things under our breath if we think that that's something that's not
appropriate to say
but we say it either out loud or
mentally, always thinking the same thing when you said that.
What do you mean? I'm thinking in speech. The speech that you just admitted
was very similar to the speech based thought I was having
at that moment. Now speech and activity merge and we got advance cognition.
Now I have the ability to conceptualize possibilities
and then act upon those conceptualizations and try them out
and see whether or not my hypotheses about the
world are correct or incorrect or need to be modified or et cetera, et cetera.
Here, cultural context gives you the world meaning
you got the self the self is in a way a world unto itself
but the self develops initially and that embedded in a family
and their families embedded in a community and has friends, or other
family, extended family,
school, work, employment, which happens within the context of a culture
which then happens within context the world. We have more information about the world
as a whole now than we
ever have in the history of humanity.
But we're still embedded in our own cultures. We still grow up
within a subculture and that gives us perspective.
There's nothing wrong with that that's normal its natural
but it does lead one to a rather limited view of
all the possible interpretations of reality, all the possible interpretations
the politics, all the possible interpretations of religon, all the possible
interpretations of things like sex,
or race or gender or socioeconomic status
cetera et cetera et cetera. So you have a position you come from
and now you have the ability to make meaning happen for yourself.
His system really advocates
and here's the term--thanks you all for coming today--scaffolding that you might wanna
know for your test.
Interdependent learning, guided learning,
much learning occurs in our current school systems where
kids sit in a set of rows facing the front
and the person upright tells them things that they passively receive
and you hope that they remember but that only matters
if they're paying attention. What do they learn how to do?
Just like you they learn how to look like they're paying attention.
Everybody paying attention! No everybody's not paying attention. They are now, by God.
That's called a startle reflex and you don't have to learn it
we'll see in Pavlov that's a inborn reflex but guess what
attention goes up attention goes down so active system you actually working with
the kid
one on one particularly with things that they're already interested in so you
want to capitalize it. Maybe you heard of
Montessori School System right Maria Montessori who developed than
I active means a teaching young children particularly
where you're working with them on activities but scaffolding says that
you don't do the activities for the kid you give them the basic principles
allow them to try them out. You don't necessarily go no, no, no that's wrong that's wrong
you don't give immediate corrective feedback you allow them to work through
issues
where they they are engaging in their own meaning making
and if they ask you for help you're right there to support them like a
scaffold.
So you're supporting them as they get to the next level
and then when they achieve the next level you let them be.
And then move to the next set of learning that you want to accomplish so the idea of
scaffolding
isn't that you do everything for them or that you withhold everything from them
but somewhere in the middle where each individual child would be looked at
individually
as to their own interest their own abilities versus what the society or the
school wants them to learn
and the best means for them to achieve that learning in a way that really
is active and very much in line with Vygotsky's socio-cultural theory
of development.