The Problem of the Cultural Development of the Child.
Vygotsky, Lev. The Problem of the Cultural Development of the Child. The Vygotsky Reader (1994). (editors: van der Veer, Rene’ & Valsiner, Jan. Blackwell,
http://www.marxists.org/archive/vygotsky/works/1929/cultural_development.htm
Summary
In this paper, Vygotsky describes the development of a child’s memory and how that process is influenced by culture and maturity (natural). Vygotsky ties culture into the “mnemotechnical methods” or a “method of memorizing by signs”. A child’s behavior develops along two line, one is physical (natural) and the other is mental (psychological).
The “cultural development consists in mastering methods of behavior which are based on the use of signs as a means of accomplishing any particular psychological operation.” He equates language as a “cultural means of behavior”. Vygotsky is looking at how “logical reasoning and the formation of concepts” develops as a child acquires language. Language is an external organization of signs and symbols which become an internalized process “by creating associative or conditional reflexive connections between the stimuli and reactions.”
Vygotsky bases “cultural methods of behavior” on memorization based on the use of signs in which “a child solves an inner problem by means of external objects”. The biological and the social development are two main factors influence both memory and maturity. The complete cycle of cultural development form four stages: “natural/primitive”, “naïve psychology”, “external cultural method”, and “internal activity”.
Vygotsky stresses “how important it is to use the historical standpoint in studying the highest functions of behaviour”. “Words have a two-fold function in regard to memory”: 1)“They can either appear by themselves as memorizing material or as signs by the aid of which we memorize; 2) “memorizing of meaning is independent of the memorizing of words and of the important part played by internal speech in the process of logical memorizing, so that the genetic kinship between the mnemotechnical and logical memory should clearly appear owing to their connecting link, verbal memory.”
Vygotsky “points out that such a central problem in the history of the child’s cultural development as the development of speech and reasoning”, whose three main stages of development correspond to his model of cultural development: 1)“pre-speech = natural/primitive”, 2) “invention of tools = external cultural method”, 3) “transition of external speech into internal speech = internal activity”.
Vygotsky experiment with children help him develop a “historical-genetic method”. He ties in the western theorist and psychologists of his time: Petrova, Bacon, Köhler, Binet, Stein, Lipmann, Lehmann, Meumann, Wundt, Compayré, Bühler, Müller, Piaget, Koffka, Blonsky, Höggding.
Analysis
This paper was a scientific analysis of how children learn. Vygotsky, a psychologist, worked across academic disciplines examining how children learn. He was first educated as lawyer and a philologist (one who studies written records esp. literary texts, in order to determine their authenticity, meaning, etc.). (Webster's, 1980). He has influence education by his theories of the zone of proximal development, language and culture.
In reading Vygotsky theories, I had to recode his western terminology such as “primitive”, references to children’s cognitive thinking to chimpanzees (which supports Darwinism), and ignore what I have observed of animal behavior which relates to reasoning and signs. With that being said, Vygotsky has a sound insight and method into the ways we learn as human beings. The cultural development of memory is a prime example of how our early childhood experiences influence our identity and behavior. When he talks about Binet’s theories, I can’t help but be reminded that Binet was also interested in Special Education. Binet has also been influential in our standardized tests which he developed as a means of measuring the progress of students, not classifying them. When Vygotsky says, “Surely the author (Binet) did not mean to say that the art of simulation should be taught in schools,” he did not think that mnemonic memorizing was higher thinking. Unfortunately, our schools today promote “short term memory” or rote memory.
Vygotsky hits another key mark about human psychology, “all means of social behavior are in essence social”. He is saying that the signs, symbols and language we model in our behavior are directly related to our social experiences. “A child mastering Russian or English and a child mastering the language of some primitive tribe, masters, in connection with the environment in which he is developed, two totally different systems of thinking.” I would add that these systems are different in the way that one learns biology and another learns astronomy, each has a different language and value system. We have seen from the DVD presentations, that language shares the same physical space in the brain for all learners even those of us with learning disabilities.
I was excited about reading how a child reproduces word association with pictures. “When the child who has heard the words looks at the picture, he easily reproduces a whole series of words, since such pictures, irrespective of the child’s consciousness, will remind him of the words which he has just heard.” This process is the same for adults. In developing language software, I emphasis this “mnemotechnical method” is for vocabulary building and relief of repetitive pronunciation involved in second language acquisition. Which brings us back to the acquisition of signs and language or “tools and symbols”(Bodrova E. & Leong, 1996; Vygotsky, 1978) in the development of culture.
Sources for further readings:
Bodrova E. , & Leong, D. J. (1996). Tools of the Mind: The Vygotskian Approach to Early Childhood Education. Upper Saddle River: Pretice-Hall.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
http://www.bgcenter.com/disability.htm
http://facultyweb.cortland.edu/andersmd/VYG/VYG.HTML