Vygotsky's Developmental Theory

A developmental theory is a “systematic statement of principles and generalisation that provides a coherent framework for understanding how and why people change as they grow older” (Berger, 2008). During my observations, I was paying close attention to the way my appointed learner acted and spoke. I then realised that his actions and the way he spoke made me understand most theorist’s theories such as Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, Signet Freud, B.F Skinner, as well as Howard Gardner. After my observation, all the theorists’ theories I mentioned above made perfect sense, as I was able to witness it. With the theorists, I only linked a certain part of their theory with my learner that is from age 6-11, because those were the stages that related to my

In 1924, he began work at the institute of psychology in Moscow where he focused on the problems of educational practice, particularly these of handicapped children. Vygotsky’s socio cultural theory asserts that an individual’s development can only be understood in the context of his or her social and cultural experiences; there is always a dynamic interplay between one’s socio cultural context and one’s personal development (Rogoff, 2003). Vygotsky introduced the term zone of proximal development (ZPD) which is the distance between a child’s actual development and the child’s potential development. This theory also talks about scaffolding (building a child), collaborative learning (working in a group), as well as intersubjectivity which is a shared understanding or a mutually agreed upon way of approaching a

Erickson believed that in life, we go through a series of stages and each stage consisted of a psychosocial crisis or conflict that needs to be resolved. According to Erickson there are eight stages of psychosocial development which begin as birth and end in the years and adult is about to die. For this study I will only be focusing on the fourth stage of Erickson’s psychosocial development, which is industry vs. inferiority ranging from the ages 6 and 11. In this stage, Erickson states that the child either will seek independence becoming competent and productive at mastering certain tasks or will experience feelings of