VYGOTSKY'S APPROACH TO CHILD DEVELOPMENT

VYGOTSKY'S APPROACH TO CHILD DEVELOPMENT

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THEORY OF SCAFFOLDING

Vygotsky's approach to child development is constructivist, based on the idea that cognition is the result of mental construction. His distinctive contribution to educational theory is to emphasize the social experiences that the child has in its family and school environment (Gray and MacBain, 2015).

He believed that learning is an interactive process, involving contact between the learner and other individuals, at every stage in life from birth onwards.

There are two types of developmental level of child

·         Actual Developmental Level (ADL) refers to tasks that the child can complete on their own,

·          Potential Developmental Level (PDL) refers to tasks that the child can complete with help from someone else.

Vygotsky was interested in the difference between these two stages, and he argues that this is where learning takes place. This approach implies that a child must receive guidance from more competent individuals to learn new knowledge and skills. These individuals can include parents, teachers, other adults, and even peers of the same physical age and older children.

These individuals who offer mentoring and guidance to the learner are collectively known as More Knowledgeable Others (MKO) or called as Scaffolder. because they have a better understanding or higher ability in relation to a particular task and they can impart this knowledge to the learner in order to help him or her move on from their current level of understanding and ability.

Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development

According to Vygotsky ,The development and learning take place simultaneously. So what the child knowledge in present situation that is actual development of student or child. But after assistance of teacher or anyone who can lead or take or help him/her to get more knowledge, to solve the problem then child’s knowledge is enlarged or the child get more information, more understanding over his/her actual learning. That extra, or surplus knowledge child gain due to help is called Zone Of Proximal Development.

A key dimension of this theory is the need to calibrate adult interaction with the stage of development and learning that the learner has reached. If the adult input is too simple, then the child will not be challenged and little or no growth will occur.

If the adult input is too far from what the child already knows, then the learning process may not even begin, and the child will struggle to comprehend what is being asked of her. In order to avoid these problems, interactions between adult and child need to take place very frequently. The quality of this interaction is extremely important, since the learner must engage with the process and express his or her thoughts and feelings, to let the teacher know how well he or she has understood (or not understood) the lessons that are prepared for them.

Another factor that is very important, and sometimes overlooked, is the role that context and culture play in the zone of proximal development.

 Sometimes development and learning occur within the family, and at other times in school or college, or in the wider community. Learning can be formal and structured, or informal and less obviously structured, or something in between. Countries differ in the way they prepare children for adult life. In most western countries, there is a long, compulsory period of learning in which is managed by professional teachers, but in many developing countries, children have shorter amounts of formal schooling, but much more exposure to the working world of adults in their community.

It should be clear by now that language is very important in Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development. Learners must cooperate and collaborate with the teacher and they do this, assuming they have at least basic language skills, through dialogue. Ideally, learners and teachers should co-construct knowledge, each contributing what they know so that a shared understanding is reached.

What are the strengths and limitations of this theory

The main strength of this theory is that it is very intuitive and easy to grasp

it can be applied universally to any educational context.

Its basic principle of learning from a more skilled individual underpins many formal and informal types of education.

The teacher is there to demonstrate and to guide the learner through new tasks, offering advice and encouragement, and setting sub-tasks that the learner must complete in order to achieve the larger goal that the teacher has judged appropriate for the age and level of development of the learner.

LIMITATION

This limitation means that it can be quite difficult to apply Vygotsky's theories to contemporary school settings where classes are large, and where social and cultural factors are very complex and highly relevant to the way individual children learn.