Vygotsky's Constructivism

Way back at the University of South Carolina, I was exposed to an obscure learning theorist named Lev Vygotsky. I immediately gravitated towards him as he gave words and meaning to a lot of what I was feeling at the time. Today, Vygotsky and his theories are becoming popular again, which brings me to this post. I will explain, although briefly, some of Vygotsky;s views as they are captured in his general theory of constructivism as captured in the constructivist tower pictured here.

Most of Vygotsky's theories stressed the foundational role of social interaction in the development of cognition (Vygotsky, 1978; Wertsch, 1985). He believed strongly, as I still do, that socialization plays a pivotal role in the process of "making meaning (his term)." Vygotsky argued that, "learning is a necessary and universal aspect of the process of developing culturally organized, specifically human psychological function" (1978, p. 90). To Vygotsky, social learning precedes development.

To understand what Vygotsky means by this idea of social learning preceding development, it is important to examine two of his main principles: the More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) and the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The MKO refers to someone, a teacher, parent or tutor, who has a better understanding and a higher ability level than the learner, with respect to a task, a process, an idea, a concept or content. Now, here is where I break away from current thought.

Current promoted theory regarding the MKO states that the MKO need not be a person at all (Galloway, 2001). The key to the MKO's influence is that they/it must have more knowledge about the topic being learned than the learner does. While this is an important factor it certainly is not the only factor. I believe that there are other important traits the MKO must have in order to maximize potential and connection with Vygotsky's second concept, the ZPD. For me, it is important that the MKO be someone the learner is connected with socially since the cognitive is not the only factor in full blown development. There is much more to say here, but that is another article. For our purposes today, the MKO, for me, must be a person who is actively engaged and discipling the learner in more ways than knowledge for many reasons, but one is all I will explain today.

Digressing for a moment to Bloom's Taxonomy, Bloom made it clear that there were three domains of learning: the Cognitive (thinking), the Affective (emotion and morality), and the Psycho-motor (movement). When referencing any environment where learning is taking place, one must always consider two important points. First, learning takes place in all three domains, and two, the teacher has an enormous impact on the learner. These cannot be disregarded.

Now, this concept of the MKO does not stand alone; instead, it is integrally related to the second important principle of Vygotsky's work, the ZPD. Taken together, both the MKO and the ZPD form the foundation of the scaffolding component of his cognitive apprenticeship model of instruction. Vygotsky (1978) defined the ZPD as the distance between the "actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers" (p. 86). Vygotsky (1978) believed that when a student is at the ZPD for a particular task, providing the appropriate assistance (scaffolding) will give the student enough of a "boost" to achieve the task. For me, that "boost" can really multiple if the MKO is an actual person building off of previous work and a growing relationship with the student. This scaffolding concept can take the form of many things, but, in my opinion, it all flows easier when the MKO is involved in a growing mentor relationship with the student.

To clarify,  the ZPD is the area between the things that a learner can do on her own and the things that she cannot yet do, even with assistance. As we learn, this zone moves towards the things that the learner cannot do with assistance, gradually pulling more of those things into the things the learner can do on her own until the learner begins to do more and more things on her own. There are many variations of this concept in play today, but the main ideas are fairly standard.

In closing, Vygotsky's Mind in Society is well worth the read. It is a little choppy and hard to read, in places, due to its translation, but reading it will give you some deeper insight into the two concepts above. For me, these are important concepts that everyone should understand deeply when teaching children. Teaching is one of the most important things we do as people, and in order to do it well, we must continue to learn and grow. Happy Reading!

References:

Galloway, C. M. (2001). Vygotsky's Constructionism. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, amd technology. Retrieved (2012) from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/

Wertsch, J. V. (1991). Voices of the mind: A sociocultural approach to mediated action. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.