Social Development Theory By Lev Vygotsky

For my research paper topic, I picked Social Development Theory. What is Social Development Theory? From 1896 to 1934, there lived a Russian psychologist named Lev Vygotsky. Vygotsky’s theory was all about social interactions and how they affect development, the learning process. I picked this topic for no particular reason, maybe it was because it seemed the easiest to apply to sites.

Who came up with the social development theory? A Russian psychologist by the name of Lev Vygotsky came up with Social Development Theory. Vygotsky was born in 1896. According to Mcleod’s article, Vygotsky's Theory wasn't quite complete when he died in 1934. 3 main elements of this Social Development Theory include social interactions, the knowledgeable other, the zone of proximal development.

How do social interactions affect learning? At school when you don't have any friends or just a few, you begin to feel lonely and it will lead a child to dread going to school. Positive social interactions include making friends, playing games, and just fitting in. Negative social interaction will make a child want to avoid School. For an example of positive social interaction, Maxwell is a little boy who has never been to school before and knows little to no English. The school provides a translator which helped some but it isn't until Maxwell makes friends with another little boy named Brian. Brian knows English because he has been in school longer but speaks Spanish also. Maxwell identifies with Brian because they both speak Spanish. By identifying with Brian, Maxwell feels as though he is not alone and he is accepted. 7 months have gone by and Maxwell has made tremendous progress in English. I would like to point out the social interaction is extremely important.

When I was younger, I spoke more Mien than English. I knew how to speak English not very well. At my school, I struggled With the whole language thing. All the friends I made spoke English really well, but it wasn't the same as having someone who could also speak Mein with me. And I remember feeling really alone perhaps even isolated. There were times that I would get frustrated because I wouldn't know how to say something in English and it just comes out in Mien. I remember teachers getting frustrated with me because they didn't understand what I was saying. It kind of makes a little kid feel like an alien.

Bullying is another Type of social interaction, the negative, that tends to make a child feel like they don't belong. I didn't understand what it meant to be bullied until I hit Junior High. Being the new kid when you don't know anybody sucks. But anyways I was bullied from 6th grade all the way up to 11th grade. And sometimes the bullying would get so bad that I wouldn't want to go to school. I would purposely miss school or ditch a class to avoid it. And all the missing causas began to affect my grades. I miss so much class that I wasn't understanding the material. every time I worked up enough courage to tell someone about what was happening, I'd pretty much had gotten brushed off. Kind of felt hopeless, alone, and out of place. So I would just stop and go quiet for a while. I developed a really unhealthy habit of internalizing everything until I exploded. Social interaction works both ways negative and positive.

What is the zone of proximal development? The zone of proximal development is what the child can do on their own compared to what the child can do with guidance. At work., I work with kindergarteners. So we practice our letters and sounds. Most understand their letters and sounds better when we're in a group versus one on one. When a child does something on their own without help their eyes light up. “ Look, I did my numbers without help.”

At sites, we are outside and they have things like bikes, balls, and make-believe toys. With the bikes they have helmets and a child will try to put the helmet on themselves. If they find they are unable to they ask for help. They also have this hoop thing and love shooting baskets. The zone of proximal development ties in with social interaction. They also love when they can do something and are you “can’t”. For example, we were shooting baskets and I accidentally missed. Maxwell smiles and goes, “ Try again, it’s okay”. Oh yeah, little kids are automatically a confidence booster, because when I finally made the basket he goes YAY.

The knowledgeable other is the last component of the Social Development Theory. Knowledgeable other ties into the zone of proximal development. The knowledgeable other tends to be someone who offers guidance and is usually an adult. Without someone to offer guidance, We'd all just be little balls of frustration. Having someone who offers guidance helps with learning and without someone who offers guidance We don't learn as well. At work, we did this activity where there were three groups. Two of the groups got more guidance past the instructions. Groups A and B had a better understanding of the activity and finished first. Group C took twice as long to complete the same activity.