Cultural Infl uences On Cognitive Development Lev Essays

Cultural Infl uences On Cognitive Development: Lev Vygotsky and Jean Piaget are cited more often by his theories on cognitive development. Piaget emphasized four stages of development that occur throughout childhood until the child cognition reaches its end around the age of 15. Vygotsky, on the other hand, proposes a socio - cultural theory of cognitive development, in which the cognitive abilities of children evolve from interactions with the culture around them, such as parents, teachers and other partners. While Piaget emphasized cognitive development as an individual and universal process, Vygotsky emphasized that cognitive development varies between cultures and is largely the result of the interaction with culture. Better Understanding The Role Of Culture : To understand the role of culture in cognitive development, Vygotsky suggests that we study the cognitive development from four interrelated perspectives: the microgenetic , ontogenetic, phylogenetic and socio - historical. Microgenetic relates to development in short time periods, minutes and seconds. The ontogenetic refers to changes throughout life, whereas phylogenetic refers to changes over evolutionary periods. The socio - historical refers to changes that have occurred in the culture over time, such as changes in values, norms, traditions and technologies throughout the history of culture. Biological Principles : Vygotsky proposed that children come equipped with some important mental functions. These functions include memory, sensation, perception and attention. These basic mental functions then take advantage of the culture of which are subject, and culture transforms these functions into new higher mental processes or cognitive abilities. Social Influence: Early cognitive competence arises from interactions with adults and other relevant partners in the child's culture. Vygotsky cites as evidence the many tasks that a child must learn and are too complicated to assimilate in isolation, such as speaking a language. He proposes that most tasks are learned through the guidance and encouragement of the culture that surrounds the child. The cognitive development so influenced and shaped as participating in cultural activities and watch adults participating in them. Cultural Diversity and cognitive development : Belonging to a particular culture influences cognitive processes of people in various ways, some so subtle that they cannot be recognized at first glance. For example, several studies indicate that people in urban European American and middle-class communities tend to have more interactions in pairs (dyads) than in groups, while people of other cultural backgrounds displayed more often multiple, simultaneous participation and group. This is easily understood if we remember that in communities where the family is usually extensive, as is the case in most communities of Peru is common for infants and toddlers are cared for by several people other than parents, which gives these children varied opportunities to observe and participate in different groups and have multiple simultaneous interactions. In contrast, in industrialized communities where usually only the mother or another adult (the nanny, etc.) is responsible for the care of these children have few opportunities to participate in daily groups, either with adults or other children. These differences affect the process of care of individuals, as prepared as appropriate to pay attention to multiple stimuli at once, or only one. Research has also shown that children of industrialized cultural communities do not learn by observation above, unlike children in industrialized communities with high school and majority of those who learn primarily through verbal explanations. The educational level of the caregivers (usually the mother) affects how these structure their interactions with children: more educated mothers play with children assuming the role of "master" (play teaching), while mothers with less education assume this role in their games. In summary, i t is worthwhile to emphasize that these cultural differences and cognitive impact on children's schooling, which often requires one-for example employer or attentional learning from cultural heritages children whose habitual ways of paying attention and learning may be different . Upon recognition of cultural differences should address the diversity of a classroom not only on the theoretical level but above approach to classroom work, methodologies and pedagogical intervention strategies that recognize and respect these differences. Work Cited http://www.ehow.com/info_10016711_cultural-influences-cognitive-development.html http://itls.usu.edu/mimi/courses/6260/develop.html http://people.hss.caltech.edu/steve/files/tomasello.pdf http://www.pitt.edu/machery/papers/CultureCognition_fessler_machery.pdf