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Constructivism Theory: Social Development Theory

Katrina Perry

Lev Vygotsky’s career was dedicated to developmental psychology, educational

philosophy, and child development (Harwood). He made major contributions in the field of child

development as he was a revolutionary psychologist. Vygotsky’s had developed the Social

Development Theory, which became the groundwork for years of research after him. In

Vygotsky’s theory, he stressed the importance of social relationships in the development of

cognition (McLeod). Vygotsky’s Constructivism theory best illustrate how students learn. With

his theory, Vygotsky led comprehensive research and depicted conclusions about the importance

of children playing together, the connections between thought and language, and a child’s

growth through behaviors and habits from their cultures and interpersonal understandings

(Harwood).

The Social Development Theory relies on one’s philosophy and comprises of what

everyone believes is most important to them, as well as their personal opinions and values.

Vygotsky believed that learning happens between people, which means that learning is an

extremely social thing. The theory concludes that people learn from one another, more

specifically, from surrounding themselves around an individual or individuals, who knows more

about a certain concept or skill. The person could be a student learning from a teacher or a

teacher from a student. The age of the individual who is teaching the person, who wishes to gain

more knowledge, does not matter in the Social Development Theory. It only states that one

person must have more knowledge to teach the other about an idea or concept. In the classroom,

the student relies on the more knowledgeable instructor to obtain information. On the other hand,

a student could be teaching the instructor about a new game they enjoy.
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During Lev Vygotsky career, he drew assumptions between a child’s thought and

language process. He believed that a child’s internal speech development was a result of being

exposed to different external languages (Horwood). According to Vygotsky, the two types of

speeches have different character and content. The inner speech allows one to control and guide

their own actions and thoughts. Furthermore, the inner speech resembles the voice is one’s head

that helps with decision making and helps to develop different perceptions. In addition, the

external speech contributes a significant part in the emotional and social development for an

individual. In addition, Vygotsky also discovered that children at play serves an important role in

their learning. As children interact, they absorbed different concepts, which are positioned

around playing make-believe. This includes pretending they have “grown up” jobs or that they

are different animals. Children play upon these made up stories and ideas with others. Vygotsky

claimed that through play, children learn their culture’s norms, what rules and behavior accepted,

and a variety of social skills (Harwood). In conclusion, play allows children to modify their

behavior based on their environment and how they interact with others around them.

In addition, Vygotsky concluded that through a child’s behavior and habits from their

culture and personal ideas, they can develop. He explored the concept of higher thinking was

developed through sociocultural interactions and defined that the sharing of knowledge in one’s

culture is referred to as internalization (Harwood.) For example, a child who knows that giving

someone thumbs up is an appropriate symbol to show someone a good job, has learned that from

the values of their own culture and the surroundings they have been exposed to. These values

could vary from another child who has learned that it is bad, which is different from the first

child and their culture.

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A term associated with The Social Development Theory is the zone of proximal

development (ZPD). The ZPD is the difference between what a learner can do with help, and

what they are unable to do. It is important to understand the student’s ZPD in the classroom

because educators can plan specific instruction for each individual student and benefit the entire

class. For the ZPD to be applicable, the teaching and concepts should be not too easy or not too

difficult, the information should focus on skills and knowledge that is right in the middle

(Knestrick). A student’s understanding and learning can continue to progress further at the

suitable rate at which each child will succeed, with the help of their instructor.

The concept of ZPD can be seen in scaffolding, which is a term within The Social

Development Theory. Scaffolding refers to the assistance or guidance that is received from an

individual with more knowledge to assist someone learning a concept or idea within their ZPD.

For example, a young child’s ZPD when learning the days of the week. The child may be able to

sing the song alone, but they might need scaffolding to achieve naming the days of the week

independently without the use of the song. The term scaffolding is defined as the support a

student receives, which is outside the students ZPD. The ZPD is demonstrated in the classroom

when the instructors can model or demonstrate how to do or solve a task, then take a step back,

offering different kinds of support as needed. Teachers should focus instruction that is right

above what the student is able to do without scaffolding. With support, students can learn the

concept or skill and practice with someone more knowledgeable, until they are comfortable by

themselves (Farr.) Once the student can achieve the concept or skill on their own, scaffolding is

taken away. Alternatively, if the student does not achieve the concept or skill with support, it is

considered outside of the students ZPD and should be worked on further.

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When the scaffolding and the zone of proximal development are used in the classroom,

the instructor can classify and organize the material and standards that are required to be taught

and met during the school year. This allows each student to gradually build upon several

mastery concepts, before moving to the next level of concept (Farr). In the classroom, students

should be learning concepts a step above the ability level in which they are able to achieve on

their own and stay within their ZPD. For practice, activities with structure provide students the

best experience and results with staying above their ability and within their ZPD. Once the

student has had sufficient practice with scaffolding, the assistance will slowly start to fade until

the student has mastered the concept or skill on their own (Farr). Scaffolding is an important

concept to use in the classroom because it helps to determine the way in which the students

develop cognitively. It also provides an organized and fit environment for the students to learn.

On the other hand, The Social Development has various limitations, one relating to the

idea of the zone of proximal development. Overall, the ZPD is a vague concept. It is difficult to

provide a precise reflection of a student’s accurate capability level, motivational influences, and

learning style by only knowing and understanding how long a child’s ZPD is (Thakur). In

addition, there is no common scale that can measure a child’s ZPD. Therefore, it becomes

difficult to determine and explain how development occurs and does not allow to elaborate on

the process of a child’s development.

The Social Development theory stresses the essential function of social interaction within

the development of cognition, which was established by Lev Vygotsky (McLeod). The theory

revolves around the idea that the community plays a vital role in the development of creating

meaning and learning. Additionally, He described connections between a child’s behavior,

thought process and language. Vygotsky revealed that child at play serves a main part in
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education and concluded that children develop through their behaviors and habits that come from

their personal ideas and the culture they are exposed to. Vygotsky’s Constructivism theory can

be used in the classroom and can best describe how students learn because instructors can teach

right above a student’s zone of proximal development. This allows the student to practice

scaffolding, and ultimately, lead to the assistance of the instructor to fade so the student can

master a new concept or skill on their own.

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Work Cited
Farr, Tom. (2015). An Introduction to Using Vygotsky Scaffolding in the Classroom. Retrieved

from https://blog.udemy.com/vygotsky-scaffolding/

Harwood, R., Miller, (2008). Lev Vygotsky 1896-1934. Retrieved from

https://www.goodtherapy.org/famous-psychologists/lev-vygotsky.html

Knestrick, Jennifer. (2012). The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and Why It Matters for

Early Childhood Learning. Retrieved from https://www.nwea.org/blog/2012/the-zone-of-

proximal-development-zpd-and-why-it-matters-for-early-childhood-learning/

McLeod, Saul. (2014). Simple Psychology Lev Vygotsky. Retrieved from

https://www.simplypsychology.org/vygotsky.html

Thakur, Autul. (2016). Limitations Vygotsky: Socio Culture Perspective. Retrieved from

https://www.slideshare.net/atulunik/limitations-vygotskysocio-cultural-perspective