Vygotsky’s Theory of Social Cognitive Development

A) Description

Vygotsky's theory of social cognitive development is complementary to Bandura's social learning theory. Its major thematic thrust is that "social interaction plays a fundamental role in the development of cognition" (Kearsley 1994e). Most of the original work of this theory was done in the context of language learning in children.
An important concept in Vygotsky's theory is that "the potential for cognitive development is limited to a certain time span which he calls the 'zone of proximal development' (Kearsley 1994e). He defines the 'zone of proximal development' as having four learning stages. These stages "range between the lower limit of what the student knows and the upper limits of what the student has the potential of accomplishing" (Gillani and Relan 1997, 231). The stages can be further broken down as follows (Tharp & Gallimore 1988, 35):

• Stage 1 - assistance provided by more capable others (coaches, experts, teachers);
• Stage 2 - assistance by self;
• Stage 3 - internalization automatization (fossilization); and
• Stage 4 - de-automatization: recursiveness through prior stages.