1. Private speech: self-talk that guides thinking and action. Language is not only
important in our social interactions, but it helps us to accomplish tasks. This is why
most people talk to themselves.
Vygotsky
Social Cognitive
Development Language
Interactions
Cultural Context
Sociocultural theory of development: emphasizes the crucial influence that social
interactions and language, embedded within a cultural context, have on cognitive
development. Remember: the word “sociocultural” has two words in it: “social” and
“cultural.” These are the important influences on development that Vygotsky identified.

2. Co-construction of cognition
 Higher mental processes are co-
constructed during shared activities
between the child and another person.
 This means that a child and an older
person (another child, a teacher, a parent)
work together to solve a problem. During
the process, they often talk and negotiate
the solution.

3. Co-construction of cognition
This child is learning to Soon, this child will be able
walk with the help of a to walk and run by herself.
parent. The parent holds
both hands so the child
doesn’t have to focus on
both balance and moving
her feet.
As you might imagine, it takes a lot of brain power to walk. Children
develop this skill with the help of other people. This is what Vygotsky is
talking about with the idea of the co-construction of cognition.

4. Co-construction of cognition
What are you
writing?
I’m writing a
letter
Father’s knowledge of
letters: Child’s knowledge of
Structure (date, letters:
salutation, body, etc.) Mom and dad write and
Purpose (friendly, formal, receive letters.
etc.)
Conventional spelling
and grammar
In a conversation like this, the child can draw on the father’s experience to help
her to construct her letter. The father can ask questions to make sure he is helping
his daughter reach the goals she has set for herself. She may not be able to write
the letter on her own, but through talking with her dad, she will be able to
construct something satisfactory. At the same time, she is learning so she will be
more able to write a letter by herself the next time.

5. Cultural tools
 Higher order thinking is mediated through
material tools and language

6. Mediation
We speak language but
This means that while we are spoken by it.
use language, the language
we use limits our thoughts.
If a language is not able to
express a concept, we are
not able to think that
Users of Roman numerals
concept.
had no concept of zero and
were not able to think about
or do mathematics we use in
everyday life (multiplication
and division of large
numbers).
English, which includes
Jacques Lacan
aspects of German, French,
(French
and Greek, is a rich language
psychoanalyst)
that can express many
concepts—yet Greek has
more ways of defining types
of love than English.

7. Language and Cultural Diversity
 Every culture has the words it needs for
its lifestyle.
 But many words cannot be translated into
other cultures, because they do not have
corresponding words for these functions.

8. Language and cultural diversity
Western cultures organize color by the spectrum. We have many different names
for colors (think: avocado, puce, burnt sienna, and remember the 64 crayolas).
But other cultures don’t organize colors in this way. They may think of two broad
categories (warm and cold colors) or they may organize colors in relation to
texture.

9. Language and cultural diversity
People who make their living on ice need lots of words to describe types of ice (various
forms of safe and unsafe ice). These concepts are foreign to anyone who has lived in
Florida all his or her life. Floridians don’t have the language available to think about ice.

10. Language and Private Speech
Let’s see… I need to
click on this link and
Private speech: then type in the
Children’s self-talk, name of the file I
which guides their want…
thinking and actions.
Eventually, these
verbalizations are
internalized as silent
inner speech.
You are not crazy if you talk to yourself. According to Vygotsky, this is an
important way we learn.

11. Vygotsky vs. Piaget on private
speech
 Piaget called children’s talking to themselves
“egocentric speech.” It is evidence of their
immaturity (inability to see another’s perspective).
 Vygotsky sees private speech as a way of children
learning to regulate themselves. They are
controlled initially by parents’ speech (“NO!!”) and
then they use that tactic to control themselves.
 Eventually, the speech becomes silent inner
speech, mostly, although adults still talk to
themselves when they are trying to solve a
problem.

12. Private speech in the classroom
I gotta go S is like a
down, then up, sssssssnake.
then down.
There. N.
Not only should you allow private speech in the classroom, but you can also model
the type of private speech that is helpful for doing a task. This is called a “think
aloud.” As a teacher, you demonstrate to students not only how to do something
but the things you say to yourself as you are doing it.

13. A range of tasks that an individual cannot yet do alone but can accomplish when
assisted by a more skilled partner.
Zone of Proximal Development
Zone of Proximal Development:
The Known: The Unknown:
What I can do with the help
What I can do by myself What I cannot do at all
of someone else.
THE LEARNING SPACE
How to remember the words: A WHEN YOU TEACH—you will want to use
zone is an area. Proximal activities that are in students’ ZPD. Activities
describes something that is next in the area of the known are too easy and
to something. those in the area of the unknown are too
hard.

14. The role of learning and
development
 Piaget: development is the active
construction of knowledge and learning is
the passive formation of associations.
 Vygotsky: learning is an active process
that does not have to wait for “readiness.”
Learning is a tool in development—it
drives development.

15. What???
Development Piaget Learning
Piaget: development precedes learning. Development is creating the
schemes through adaptation and accommodation while learning is
creating the associations within the schemes..

16. What???, continued
Social Vygotsky Individual
Vygotsky believed that development begins at the social level and moves
towards individual internalization. Egocentric speech is seen as a transition
between the child's learning language in a social communicative context,
and attempting to internalize it as "private" or "inner speech" (i.e.,
thoughts). For Vygotsky, learning precedes development.
http://www.gse.buffalo.edu/fas/shuell/CEP564/Lectures/CogDev.htm

17. What???, continued
They both agree: development is driven by cognitive conflict—the
inability to do something by oneself.
http://www.gse.buffalo.edu/fas/shuell/CEP564/Lectures/CogDev.htm

18. Limitations of Vygotsky’s theory
 Maybe he went too far with the socio-cultural
part of his theory
 Maybe people are “hardwired” for much of what
we learn early on—that we are not always just
learning from peers, teachers, or parents.
 Vygotsky never got to explore the details of his
theory and much of the research of his students
was repressed by the regime in Soviet Russia.

19. Implications for teachers: Piaget
 We need to understand and build on
student thinking.
 Students need opportunities to construct
their knowledge—to try things out for
themselves.
 “Play is children’s work” (Montessori).
Play helps children to develop their
cognitive abilities.

20. Implications for teachers: Vygotsky
 Adults and peers are critical to the learning
process through scaffolding (support for learning
and problem solving. The support could be
clues, reminders, encouragement, breaking the
problem down into steps, proiding and example,
or anything else that allows the student to grow
in independence as a learner).
 Assisted learning: providing strategic help in the
initial stages of learning, gradually diminishing
as students gain independence.
 Teaching in the Zone—not too hard, not too
easy, but JUST RIGHT.

21. Assistance that allows students to complete tasks they cannot complete independently.
Scaffolding
Teacher
Activity
Level
For a
Task
Child
Time
As a child develops skills and confidence, he or she “takes over” the activity. The teacher
does less and less.

22. Examples of scaffolds
 Modeling—students watch teacher do a task
 Think-alouds—teacher models helpful thinking
and strategies while accomplishing a task (e.g.,
what to think while trying to read an unfamiliar
word)
 Adapting—use simplified version of something
 Instructional materials—manipulatives help
students to learn math
 Prompts and cues— “i before e except after c”
or other ways of remembering information and
processes.

23. Examples of scaffolds
 Math: manipulatives, graphing calculators
 Music: simplified notation, “ta and ti ti,” teacher bows
violin while student notes fingerboard
 Reading: repetitive language books (child memorizes
repeated phrase and can “read” it); these reading guides
are scaffolds for understanding and applying difficult
concepts in educational psychology
 Writing: teacher helps student to form alphabet letters;
teacher provides forms for poems until students feel
more confident about developing their own poetic forms
 Science: lab book guides students as they learn to write
up experiments in scientific form

24. Funds of Knowledge
 There used to be an egocentrism about
American schools: if a student came from the
dominant culture he or she was all right. But if
a student came from a non-dominant culture, he
or she had deficits that had to be made up.
These might be deficits of knowledge (e.g.,
coming from a family that didn’t read meant
learning how to use a book on the first day of
school) or deficits in language (speaking a non-
standard dialect) or deficits in behavior that
derives from cultural experiences.

25. Funds of Knowledge
 People treat people with perceived deficits
differently from the way they treat people
they perceive of as “normal.” People with
deficits are thought of as people with
“problems,” people who need to change
something fundamental about themselves,
people who are somehow “less than” the
normal people.

26. Funds of knowledge
 Yet all children who come to school are
blessed with “funds of knowledge”—
knowledge that families and community
members have in many areas of work,
home, and religious life that can be a
basis for teaching.

27. For example…
 Children from non-dominant cultures may
have a language (a variant of English or a
foreign language) with a rich history and
poetry. For example, Appalachian English
is not “bad” English—it’s a form of
Elizabethan English (the language of
Shakespeare) that survived in the hills.
Heritage language: the language spoken in a student’s home or by older members of
the family. Students who “Americanize” or who strive to become part of the dominant
culture can lose their heritage language and therefore their family history and culture.

28. Appalachian Dialect
 Features of Elizabethan English (the language used around
Shakespeare’s time) “I reckon” for “I think.” “Ary” for “any.”
 Drop unaccented first syllables, add “r” to final syllables that
end in –o. “Tobacco” becomes “backer,” “tomato” becomes
“mater,” “potato” becomes “tater.” This is why some of those
phonics worksheets don’t work for children from Appalachia
(“tomato” begins with an “m” sound, not a “t” sound. If you
want a “t” sound, try “tater”).
 Words ending in –a are pronounced to end in –y. “Martha” is
pronounced “Marthy.”
 If a first syllable is typically unaccented but necessary, it
becomes accented: Ja- PAN becomes JA-pan, umBRELLa
becomes UMbrella, hoTEL become HOtel, poLICE becomes
POlice.
 “I don’t care to” means “I’d like to,” NOT “I’d rather not.”

29. Advantages to Appalachian dialect
“Rabbit in a log” in “Rabbit in a log” in
Appalachian dialect: “school” English
There’s a rabbit in a log There’s a rabbit in a log
and I ain’t got no dog and I don’t have any
dog.
Artistically speaking, Appalachian dialect is perfectly appropriate for important
Appalachian art forms such as songs and story telling as well as for cultural events
such as family interactions. Students should celebrate their dialectical backgrounds,
learn how to translate home dialect into school dialect, and learn how to operate
competently in both dialects. It is helpful to bring in examples of home dialects and
to translate between dialects. It is also a good idea to talk about when certain
dialects are appropriate.

30. For example…, continued
 Children from non-dominant families may know
important survival skills. If their parents are in
the construction business, they may know a lot
about tools and construction. If they don’t have
a lot of money, they may know a lot about how
to substitute one thing for another when
something has broken down. If their parents
aren’t able to read, they may know a lot about
how to get necessary information without
reading.

31. Funds of Knowledge
 The point of this idea is to start with students’
strengths and to bring the rest of their lives into
the classroom as a means of engaging them in
classroom learning.
 This means talking with students and their
families and learning about what their lives are
like. It means looking for their strengths rather
than seeing them as a collection of weaknesses.

32. Concrete Vocabulary
Accommodation operational
stage
Funds of Neo-Piagetian Preoperational Social
Adaptation Conservation
knowledge theories stage development
Adolescent Heritage Private Social
Compensation Neurons
egocentrism language speech experience
Sociocultural
Object
Assimilation Cultural tools Holophrases Reversability theory of
permanence
development
Assisted
Decentering Identity Organization Scaffolding Synapses
learning
Over-
Centration Development Lateralization generalization
Schemes Syntax
Personal Semiotic Systematic
Classification Disequilibrium Maturation
development function reasoning
Co-constructed Metalinguistic Physical Sensori-
Egocentrism Transformation
process awareness development motor stage
Cognitive Under-
Equilibrium Myelination Plasticity Seriation
development generalization
Formal Zone of
Collective Nativist Shared
operational Pragmatics proximal
monologue theory understanding
stage development