This paper presents a discussion of Vygotsky's child development theory and its application to the classroom. Application of this theory to instructional planning, delivery, classroom set-up and management, and assessment are noted. This is followed by a summary and conclusions.
Vygotsky's presented a social development theory to explain child development. This theory became a basis of constructivism. Vygotsky asserted that cognitive development is a constant effort to adapt to the environment and children are active learners who contribute to their own development. Thus, according to this theorist, children build ways of comprehending knowledge and understanding their experiences through their activities. For Vygotsky, learning is socially mediated. Vygotsky referred to the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) which is the distance between the ability of a student to perform a task under the guidance of an adult or with collaboration among peers and the ability of the student to solve a problem independently. Vygotsky believed that all learning takes place in the ZPD. Vygotsky pioneered the establishment of the social development theory of learning. He stated that social interaction influences cognitive development (Vygotski, 1978).
Assumptions of Vygotski's cognitive theory of development include the notion that one cannot understand the intellectual development of each individual without considering their social environment (Vygotski, 1978). Thus, for this theorist, learning takes place within a social interactive context. Vygotski believed that instruction from an adult is an important component of a child's learning, but it is equally important to understand that children learn through self-initiated activity. Thus, a young child would learn through self-initiated activity such as play. However, this activity must be designed in order that the child must behave beyond their average ability to i...