Literature Review
Due: October 18, 2005
"Vygotsky and the Zone of Proximal Development"
What is the Zone of Proximal Development?
Regarding the definition of the Zone of Proximal Development, Driscoll (2005) quotes Vygotsky, “the zone of proximal development defines those functions that have not yet matured but are in the process of maturation.”
Who conducted this study?
This study was conducted by Morelock, M.J., Brown, P. M., and Morrissey, A. (2003) in Victoria, Australia.
Why was this study conducted?
This study came about as a result of the authors’ personal desire to research connections between children’s pretend play and their early development. As such, the authors researched “…the development of pretend play and maternal scaffolding of pretend play in children with typical development, children with a hearing impairment, and children with advanced intellectual development.”
Data was collected from two other research projects. In the first project, researchers studied pretend play and language development were compared in children with hearing loss and children whose development have been typical for their age. The project also studied links between the children’s relationships with their hearing mothers and their development. In the second project researchers are continuing to study relationships between “…early play and language development, mother-child interactions, and children’s later performance on a standardized IQ measure.” The current “exploratory study” is based on these two projects combined and provides a comparison of the development of three groups of children (hearing impaired, typical, and gifted) as it relates to their early development and also their relationship with their mothers.
How was this study conducted?
Literature written by Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky provided the inspiration for this study. Jean Piaget provided insight into the stages of cognitive development, while Lev Vygotsky provided insight into the social and cultural development.
This study was conducted in three parts: Part I conducted a group comparison of pretend play was conducted when the children were 16 and 17 months of age. Part II conducted comparisons across groups and studied the emergence of child object substitutions or transformations. Part III measured maternal scaffolding and provided.
Participants:
The participants for this study included three groups of mother-child dyads: 3 hearing impaired of normal intelligence (D), 3 normal/typical (T), and 3 gifted (A).
All children in this study were between 16 to 17 months of age. There was 1 male (D1) and 2 females (D2 and D3) in the D group (hearing impaired). There was 1 male (T1) and 2 females (T2 and T3) in the T group (normal/typical). There were 2 males (A1 and A2) and 1 female (A3) in the A group (gifted).
The A1 child began the study when he was 11 months old. The A2 child began the study when he was 10 months old. The A3 child began the study when she was 8 months old. After this study, the A2 male and the A3 female were tested when they were 4 years old using the Stanford-Binet IV. The A2 male scored 140 while the A3 scored 131 (borderline score). The A1 male was tested on the Stanford-Binet LM and scored 150. It is important to note that all of the children, at the time of this study, came from middle class families.
This study produced several findings. The most important finding involved differences in children’s development in play and also in their interactions with their mothers. For example, the children showed more developed pretend play if they scored above 130 on their IQ test at age four. Also, scaffolding behaviors of mothers whose children scored high on the IQ test was at “…a higher level of pretend transformations, verbal analogies and world links.”
After comparing the stages of pretend play behaviors for the three groups of children, the researchers found that:
Significance of Study
I’m not sure this study was very significant except that it reiterates a theme already known to those in education: Pretend play is closely linked to the development of children. This is one of the main focus of the Early Childhood Education program. The one thing that it adds is the need for more mother-child pretend play in the early years before the child enters the school setting.
What this study means to me and my current position as learner & instructor
Findings indicate that researchers and theorists (and educators) must look at the individual possibilities of each child’s development instead of “…assimilating these children to our notions of typical development.” Researchers must look at these children as “…atypical and worthy of specific study.” However, this study really does not provide me with information I did not already know. For example, the researchers found that:
“…the children with advanced intellectual development were producing higher stages of decontextualized behavior and planning. Lower stages of decentered pretend play characterized the children with hearing impairments, possibly caused by difficulties in communication and interactions arising from their deafness.”
Commentary on the case study research
The data for this research came from two separate studies. I think that this fact gives me “cause to pause” regarding the interpretation. However, as the authors note, “…the results were interesting and highlight important issues for future investigation.”
The researchers also noted that this study leaves several questions unanswered. Some of these questions include:
“Is the development of pretend play in the children with advanced development qualitatively different from more typical pretend play in terms of stages and the way these children pass through them? Might there be children who have gifted potential but fail to give cues that elicit supportive scaffolding from the environment, and if so, why? Can these findings be generalized?”
In addition, the authors themselves note that their findings “…were constrained in formulating conclusions by the fact that each group contained only three mother-child dyads. It is clear that future studies must include larger groups of children entering the research at earlier points in development.”
Morelock, M. J. et. al. (2003). Pretend play and maternal scaffolding: Comparisons of toddlers with advanced development, typical development, and hearing impaired. Roeper Review, 26(1), 41-51.