Sociocultural Perspectives of Cognitive development

Sociocultural perspectives of cognitive development hold that a child's cognition is constructed by the social environment. Contemporary sociocultural theories are based on the ideas of Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky, who proposed that development should be evaluated from the perspective of four interrelated levels in interaction with children's environments- ontogenetic, microgenetic, phylogenetic, and sociohistorical. Each culture transmits beliefs, values, and preferred methods of thinking or problem solving- its tools of intellectual adaptation- to each succesive generation. Thus, culture teaches children what to think and how to think about it.

According to Vygotsky's general genetic law of cultural development, cognitive function occurs on two planes, first on the social, between individuals, and only later is internalized by the child. Children acquire cultural beliefd and problem solving strategies in the context of collaborative dialogues with more skillful partners as they gradually internalize thier tutor's instructions to master tasks within thier zone of proximal development. Related to the concept of the zone of proximal development is scaffolding, which occurs when experts are sensitive to abilities of a novice and respond contingently to the novice's responses in a learning situation, and guided participation, which refer to adult-child interactions, not only during explicit instruction, but also during the more routine activities and communication of every day life. Children also acquire important cultural behaviors by working along side and simply observing more skilled members of the community, termed legitimate peripheral participation.

Different cultures prepare thier children for adult life differently. For example, in modern Western societies, parents talk to children extensively and prepare them for the types of tasks they will encounter in schools; in more traditional societies, adults are less likely to demonstrate certain abilities tom thier children.

Sociocultural theory has been applied to educational settings, suggesting that cooperative(or collaborative) learning results in improved learning relative to when children solve problems on their own. Research has found that cooperative often produces better performance than individual learning does, but characteristics of the participants and the schools affect how beneficial cooperative learning is.

Bjorklund D. F. (2005). Children's Thinking: Cognitive Development and individual differences. USA:Thomson learning, Inc.pp.75-76.