Vygotsky's Sociocultural Development Theory Explained!

[Music] [Music] hi there i'm dr dan from genius coaching and today we're here to discuss lev vygotsky's theory of development now the main thing to remember is that all the aspects of his theory are centered around a main idea the idea that development happens through our social connections our social connections are what is driving forward all of development so let's think about this when we're born we interact with our parents and they guide us in the beginning and then we make friends and they further guide us then we go to school and we have teachers and after that we get a job where we have on-the-job training so if you think about it we really have been guided since birth through social connections so it seems very logical and now let's look at three of the main aspects of his theory which are the more knowledgeable other scaffolding and the zone of proximal development now as i said these are all centered around the idea of social connection now the more knowledgeable other or mko is a person who has skills or knowledge that you don't have and this is someone who would guide your development who would be able to teach you something and guide you to learn something new so for example this could be as i said your parents or it could be teachers or it could be your peers who have some knowledge or skill that you don't have and you would learn from them okay so then let's look at scaffolding now scaffolding is basically where you use a platform so for example if you are a worker and you're working on a building scaffolding is a platform that you would stand on in order to work on a higher level of that building in the same way we would use a more knowledgeable other as scaffolding in other words by ourselves we can only learn a certain amount according to vygotsky but then using the more knowledgeable other or person who is more knowledgeable or more skilled in some way than us we would use this person as a platform to raise our abilities to a higher level so that's scaffolding and related to this is the zone of proximal development so just imagine three circles now you have a smaller inner circle and within that circle are things that you're able to do on your own then imagine a larger circle around that inner one and this area represents the things you can learn with some help now the outer and larger circle are basically things that are just beyond your ability to learn even if you had help so basically the more knowledgeable other is gonna provide that scaffolding or or that platform in order for you to learn within that middle area of the circle within that area where you can learn with some help so you see more knowledgeable other or mko is very interconnected with the scaffolding and zone of proximal development so basically as i said you're going to use this more knowledgeable other who will provide the scaffolding or that platform to raise you up to a higher development and that learning will happen within that middle circle within that area of ideas or skills that are above your ability to learn on your own but not quite at the level where it's impossible it's that sweet spot that middle area where you are being raised up to a new level with the help of the more knowledgeable other and we should also talk about language language is something very important for vygotsky because language is the way that society communicates its values it is the way that society makes us become part of it and also language is the way through which society teaches us meaning and meaning is something that's very important to vygotsky because meaning is the thing that allows us to direct development so for example when you're a baby you you need language because you need a way to communicate that for example you're hungry or uncomfortable or even that you're happy basically initially language is a way for us to control other people to get them to fulfill our needs then after that we begin to learn more complex ways of communicating we learn more and more words and often times when this happens children will talk to themselves and when they talk to themselves this is a way of children guiding themselves basically everything they're thinking they're saying out loud as almost a way of externalizing their own thinking so they can hear it and allow and allow their own thoughts in an external way to guide themselves in that moment and then once it gets more developed then it becomes internalized and at that point language has really begun to serve as a way of us internalizing society's views and as a way of building meaning so for example let's get back to the the original idea here of the social connections uh and of learning and of meaning so basically meaning is one of the things that's guiding our development because when you're when you're very young your attention is all over the place because all you have are sensory information so for example you're hearing things you're seeing things you're tasting things it's just so much sensory stuff going on so you're bouncing back and forth oh i hear this uh i see that this tastes good you know you're bouncing around with all the sensory overload that's going on and you have a short tension span but you are over time learning what's important that's what society is doing that's what social connection is doing it's guiding you to allow you to realize what's really important what are you supposed to focus on and also whereas for example john piaget he would say that the brain develops and then you develop vygotsky is saying no he's saying that we have our social connections and through connecting with other people and learning what's important learning what things mean this is almost sending a message to the brain to develop certain skills so for example you're a baby and you're seeing everyone's talking everyone's working and this is this is sending a signal to you i also need to work i need to interact with my parents i need to get places to interact with all these people that that i need you know so this is this is almost in a way telling your brain we need to develop the ability to move and also language here you're hearing people talk and so as a kid you know people are really influencing you to talk as well so these are ways that initially these social connections are providing cues to the brain that development in certain areas as needed and of course this gets more intense as time goes on so for example your parents start telling you you need to do this you need to do that don't do this they give you all these moral teachings and tell you this is no focus on this focus on this so your parents are telling you what to focus on and this is providing cues to your brain that these are the skills that i need to develop or they're modeling ways of thinking to you and you internalize this and this guides your brain into realizing that this is how i am actually supposed to think this is how i'm supposed to organize my thoughts this is how i'm supposed to be as a person in society so society is a meaning builder and meaning is what's really guiding us to know what sort of abilities do we actually need to have and this according to vygotsky is guiding our development in reality the social connections come first then the development happens in response to those social connections so that's everything to vygotsky those social connections those are providing all those cues these are the abilities we need to develop we need to be able to talk we need to be able to move we need to be able to focus our attention on certain things rather than others and this really helps us to have a greater attention span because attention span is all about being purposeful about understanding the meaning of one activity as opposed to another activity and once we have meaning once we know that certain goals are important or desirable this is where we really start to be able to focus and that's all social connection so that's the theory thank you very much for watching and also if you have anxiety or you're suffering with stress or depression and you like somebody to talk to feel free to head over to my genius coaching facebook page and once you're there we'll talk and if you like we can set up a session thank you very much for watching and enjoy your day

Channel: Dr. Dan's Genius Coaching

Views: 13,531

Rating: 4.9896374 out of 5

Keywords: Lev Vygotsky, Vygotsky's, Sociocultural, Theory, Development, psychology, Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky's Sociocultural Development Theory

Id: PJBs_2Ng1vs

Length: 11min 29sec (689 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 28 2020