VYGOTSKY'S THEORY
Vygotsky's Cultural Historical approach or Sociocultural Theory of Development is also labelled as a co-constructivist approach. Children do not only mature in a biological sense, but individual development is connected to the child's cultural context, as well as individual and previous human history. The relationship between the child and the environment is dynamic in nature – it is different for different age periods and different cultural contexts. The child has to interact with his/her environment and modify it with internalised mental tools (Bodrova 1997:16).
Vygotsky emphasises the existence of both lower and higher mental functions in learning. Lower mental functions are culture free and stay more or less the same through ages – it is part of the biological heritage of human beings. The higher mental functions, however, develop through a specific human being's lifespan and are a result of interaction with other human beings and the mastering of cultural tools in cooperation with others. The development of these higher mental functions starts off as inter subjective where it is shared with several persons and only later does it become intra subjective where it belongs to a single individual. There is, thus, a time of 'sharing' mental functions with others before internalisation. The social context is very important in the individual's development – meaning is co-constructed. Mental tools in the development of higher mental functions are passed on by more knowledgeable members of society such as parents, teachers and older siblings or peers. Language is an important tool in the acquisition of higher mental functions (Bodrova 1997:17- 19). Vygotsky's work has influenced many disciplines, but it is especially important in sociology of learning. He sees language and dialogue between people as extremely important for human development (Lyle 2000:51-52). Vygotsky (1986) claims that children's early experiences in families and communities are the foundation for cognitive development. Development in this sense involves affective and cognitive components. The child can only reach his/her full potential with the help from others – the help from others is in the form of scaffolding where the child is challenged, but without experiencing failure, because he/she is capable of conquer ing the chal lenge (
http://psychology4a.com/develop5.htm).
Through dialogues children socially interact and communicate with others and in this way learn about the cultural values of society; in other words, culture shapes cognition. Language is an important tool in this regard. Individualised thinking develops in interaction with others when for instance solving a problem. This co- constructed process leads to internalisation leading to independent thinking. Vygotsky promotes guided discovery in the classroom where the teacher asks intriguing questions and allows the learners to discover the answer through group or peer learning (Sample 2010). “Vygotsky believed that a child's cognitive development cannot be seen as occurring in a social vacuum.
Learning Critical Thinking Skills through Philosophy for Children (P4C) 115
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