Vygotsky’s Emphasis On Schooling In The Development Of The Child’s Thinking

Lev Semenovich Vygotsky, born in Russia (1896-1934) was an influential theorist who dedicated much of his life’s work to both developmental and environmental concepts in the realm of cognitive development (Crain, 2011). To this day his ideas and theories continue to be studied by many who are often referred to as “Vygotskians”. He believed that to understand humans we need to examine them in the context of their social-historical background. He studied the relationship between two lines of development namely the natural line which looks at influences that come from within the child such as their intrinsic developments as well as the social-historical line which are influences on the child from their surrounding environments and cultures (Crain, 2011). Vygotsky became widely known for his ideas which became formally known as the social-historical theory. Vygotsky’s theories were based on the theme that children’s minds develop as a result of acquisition from social experiences (Karpov & Bransford, 1995) which are presented in the form of psychological tools such as language, mnemonic techniques, concepts, and symbols which are used as a means of mastering their own thinking and behavior (Crain, 2011; Karpov & Bransford, 1995). Vygotsky referred to these psychological tools as “signs” and he stated that we cannot understand the minds and thought processes of humans without taking into consideration the signs that their cultures and environments provide (Crain, 2011). These psychological tools are often presented to the child at first by an adult or more capable peer. They are used in the beginning by the child at an external level, and then these tools become internalized and form part of the child’s internal possession (Karpov & Bransford, 1995) which ultimately change their mental functions. It can be said that the development of a child’s mind, therefore, depends on the acquisition of psychological tools (Karpov & Bransford, 1995).

The most important sign or psychological tool according to Vygotsky is speech, which is said to set us apart from other species. The development of speech is important for the growth of a child. It enables them to participate intellectually in their social groups or environments as well as facilitate their own individual thinking (Crain, 2011), as these social experiences influence the development of the child's mind. An interpersonal process first occurs between a parent and child, such as a mother telling her 2-year-old child to get a hat for a walk to the park, directing the child's attention to an object she had not been previously looking for. The interpersonal process eventually becomes an intrapsychic process that occurs within the child. At the age of 3 the child will engage in a self-guided speech to help them solve problems, usually seen when children talk out loud to solve problems “where’s my hat?” or “I need to find my hat to go to the park”. As children grow older their self-guided speech becomes more silent and less obvious to us. By the age of 8 this self-directed speech becomes completely silent, not to say that it has disappeared but simply become internalized and gone underground, it becomes a silent dialogue within the child (Crain, 2011). They instruct themselves through inner speech. This general progression shows the development of “higher mental processes”. Vygotsky said, “the child learns the social forms of behavior and applies them to himself” (Crain, 2011). Therefore the child acquires psychological tools under the guidance of adults or more capable peers (Karpov & Bransford, 1995).

There is a lot of controversies that exist in the academic world of educational psychology, one of the most well-known contradictions of ideas exists between Vygotsky and Piaget based on their theories of cognitive development. Jean Piaget another influential theorist believed that egocentric speech, the phase children go through in which they spend large amounts of time talking to themselves out loud reflects the child's general egocentrism and is essentially useless. On the other hand, Vygotsky held great value to this type of speech and described its positive attributes in helping the child solve problems (Crain, 2011). Piaget stated that egocentric speech dies out as children mature and overcome it (Crain, 2011), whereas Vygotsky implied that egocentric speech goes underground evolving into inner speech that is used by the child as a silent dialogue to solve problems (Crain, 2011). It is something that regularly occurs within adults too, often we find ourselves battling problems in our head, which can be understood as talking to ourselves. Piaget’s views on the issue are not to be considered incorrect as there is evidence that some egocentric speech might reflect the child's inability to acknowledge their social environment but many theorists agree that egocentric speech serves the purpose of solving problems in young children (Crain, 2011). With regards to schooling Piaget believed that children can be considered little explorers as they make their own spontaneous discoveries and conclusions, he stated that others in fact encourage development by stimulating the children's own thinking (Crain, 2011). However, Vygotsky viewed spontaneous discovery as a barrier to the advancement of the mind. According to Vygotsky children benefit immensely from knowledge and tools handed to them from their cultures (Crain, 2011). These tools are usually presented through the process of schooling.

Schooling towards cognitive development is important because the acquisition of cultural signs such as mathematics and writing doesn’t come naturally, they need to be taught and practiced during school (Crain, 2011). Vygotsky dedicated much of his work to the impact of school instruction towards cognitive development within the child. The essence of education towards a child's development provides the necessary psychological tools and intellectual operations (Ivic, 2000). Vygotsky paid particular attention to abstract concepts that are taught in school such as mathematics, he referred to these as scientific concepts. He also discussed spontaneous concepts or everyday concepts that children learn on their own (Crain, 2011). Spontaneous concepts are important for transition into higher learning which takes place at school (Karpov & Bransford, 1995). The instructions taught through scientific concepts are important because they provide children with a wider spectrum to place their spontaneous concepts that eventually become structured or conscious in the child's mind and are raised to a higher level (Karpov & Bransford, 1995). Instruction is said to bring consciousness to the children thinking and push the mind forward and awakens it. Vygotsky allocated a lot of his work to something called the zone of proximal development. This is a term used to describe the distance between a child's actual developmental level determined by their independent problem-solving skills and the level of potential development determined through problem-solving under the guidance of an adult or in collaboration with more capable peers (Crain, 2011). The proximal zone of development focuses on tasks that children can accomplish with assistance and reveals the abilities that are beginning to develop. For example, infants may only have the ability to walk when they have a hand to hold. In this instance, adults help children solve problems that are beyond the child’s independent abilities (Crain, 2011). Another term used to describe this phenomenon is scaffolding, in which adults provide assistance at first and then begin to reduce it as the child gets the hang of the activity. Teachers often engage in scaffolding during their teaching strategies as they guide learners through certain activities but gradually shift responsibility to the children (Crain, 2011). Vygotsky’s proximal zone of development illustrates that it is virtually impossible to analyze developmental abilities or education without considering social ties, as these ties from other people form a part of their developmental nature (Ivic, 2000). Adults assist learners through methods such as showing them examples, conducting activities to be imitated as well as shared activities. This can be seen when teachers consistently illustrate and work through examples with their pupils to assist them until they eventually instruct them to work on their own.

According to Vygotskys’ work, the acquisition of spontaneous and scientific concepts are the results of different types of learning namely empirical learning and theoretical learning. Empirical learning results in spontaneous concepts and theoretical learning results in scientific concepts (Karpov & Bransford, 1995). According to Karpov and Bransford (1995), empirical learning can be described as the type of learning based on comparing several different objects centered on their common observable characteristics and formulating a general concept about the group of objects. For example, a child observed a needle, a pin, and a coin sinking and concluded that “all small objects sink”. Theoretical learning is the type of learning that occurs when students are supplied with psychological tools (methods for dealing with certain classes of problems by directing student’s attention towards the main characteristics of the problems of each class). The psychological tools are used for solving concrete problems and the processes that underlie the tools are internalized by the student (Karpov & Bransford, 1995). Theoretical learning is based on the student’s acquisition of methods for scientific analysis of objects or events in different subject domains (Kozulin, Gindis, Ageyev & Miller, 2003). These methods then serve as cognitive tools that facilitate the students’ further problem solving (Kozulin et al., 2003). Issues have been presented with empirical learning; in that generalizing the common characteristics of some classes of objects don’t always result in conscious and correct concepts. It is considered to be the lowest form of learning as it is used by students without properly organized instruction. Therefore theorists have emphasized that instruction at school should be organized to promote theoretical learning (Karpov & Bransford, 1995). Theoretical learning has proven to be much more effective than empirical learning as it relies less on memorization and drilling of information. It focuses on providing learners with tools to enable them to solve problems through instruction; this stimulates cognitive development by equipping learners with problem-solving skills to be used throughout their lives as well as an ability to engage in formal-logical thinking (Kozulin et al., 2003). For example, through mathematics and science, students learn problem-solving strategies, skills, and techniques through instruction from teachers, these skills become embedded within the students and they continue to use these skills in the future. The main characteristics of knowledge acquired through theoretical learning are its complete mastery, high level of maintenance, and conscious use by students (Karpov & Bransford, 1995). Many studies, therefore, indicate that theoretical learning leads to the cognitive development of students. Karpov and Bransford (1995) state that instruction facilitates cognitive development depending on what type of learning is being used rather than what subject is being taught. Scientific concepts are important because they mediate a child’s thinking and problem-solving (Kozulin et al., 2003).

Moll and colleagues (2010) stipulate that school learning develops thinking through four major contributions. Firstly rules or instructions presented at school enable learners to see everyday situations as examples of these instructions and their thinking becomes systematic. The language taught at schools enables learners to approach problems as language-based theoretical tasks passing the limitations of everyday life. Schooling and instruction are organized to teach specific habits of learning, learners internalize these habits and develop concepts that adjust the way they approach the world. Lastly, the school teaches children to read and write which gives them access to systematic ideas and knowledge that go beyond their immediate experience allowing them to become more aware of their own thinking (Moll et al., 2010). An example can be seen in how children categorize concepts in their everyday lives. Instead of categorizing a group of toys for example into toys, they like most or least they may as a result of school learning categorize the toys according to their colors or sizes, a form of systematic thinking.

To this day, Vygotskys’ theories continue to be studied and contribute to modern educational psychology. He recognized that for a child’s mind to grow fully they need intellectual tools that are provided from their cultures, such as language, memory aids, numerical systems, writing, and most important scientific concepts (Crain, 2011). Vygotsky was a dialectical theorist because he tried to understand how both intrinsic development and cultural forces interact and produce new developments (Crain, 2011). Something many theorists are still studying to this day. Instruction according to Vygotsky gives cognitive development a thrust forward. Daily, teachers move children forward by working within the zone of proximal development (Crain, 2011). Many developmentalists warn that we must take caution in this approach as too much assistance from adults can cause children to become too reliant on others and it begins to undermine their ability to think for themselves. Teachers must also take caution not to present tasks that are far beyond the child's abilities and may only be completed with the teacher's assistance. The activities or instructions are meant to stimulate, challenge, and engage the child and then drive them to solve it on their own (Crain, 2011). All in all, it can be seen that society has a responsibility to provide children with certain intellectual tools through instruction and assistance to develop their minds as they simply cannot discover everything on their own (Crain, 2011).