Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory and Socio Cultural Theory by Vygotsky

Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory

 Social learning theory is derived from the work of Albert Bandura and was propounded in 1977. The theory proposed that observational learning could occur in relation to three models: The first is the live model in which an actual person is demonstrating the desired behaviour. Another is verbal instruction in which an individual describes the desired behaviour in detail and instructs participants on how to engage in the behaviour. The third in which modeling occurs by means of the media include movies, television, internet, literature and radio. This type of modeling involves a real or fictional character demonstrating the behaviour.
An important factor of Bandura’s social learning theory is the emphasis on reciprocal determinism. This notion states that an individual’s behaviour is influenced by the environment and characteristics of the person. In other words, a person’s behaviour, environment and personal qualities all reciprocally influence one another. Bandura proposed that the modeling process involves several steps:
- Attention – in order for individual to learn something, they must pay attention to the features of the modeled behaviour;
- Retention – humans need to be able to remember details of the behaviour in order to learn and later reproduce the behaviour;
- Motivation – there must be an incentive or motivation driving the individual’s reproduction of the behavior. The results of Bandura’s studies provided support for the influence of modeling on learning.
In social learning theory, Bandura states that behaviour is learned from the environment through the process of observational learning. Children observe the people around them behaving in various ways. Individuals that are observed are called models. In society, children are surrounded by many influential models like teachers, parents and peer groups. These models provide examples of masculine and feminine behaviour to observe and imitate. They pay attention to some of these people (models) and encode their behaviour. At a later time, they may imitate the behaviour they observed. They may do this regardless of whether the behaviour is gender appropriate or not but there are a number of processes that make it more likely that a child will reproduce the behaviour that the society deems appropriate. This theory is relevant to this study because it helps to explain how children in child friendly schools will learn through imitation, attention and motivation from the teachers in the school. To appropriately prepare the child for future education, the teachers in pre-primary schools should endeavour to be good models to the children as the children take them as role models. 

 Socio Cultural Theory by Vygotsky 

 Vygotsky is best known for being an educational psychologist with socio cultural theory. It was propounded in 1917. This theory suggests that social interaction leads to continuous systematic changes in children’s thoughts and behaviour that can vary greatly from culture to culture. Basically, vygotsky’s theory suggests that development depends on interaction with people and the tools that the culture provides to help form their own view of the world. A cultural tool can be passed in three ways from one individual to another. The first one is imitative learning, where the person tries to imitate or copy another. The second way is by instructed learning which involves remembering the instructions of the teacher and then using these instructions to self-regulate. The final is that cultural tools are passed to others through interactive learning, which involves a group of peers.  Vygotsky’s theory combines the social environment and cognition. Children will acquire the ways of thinking and behaving that make up a culture by interacting with a more knowledgeable person. This theory states that social interaction will lead to ongoing learning which involves changes in a child’s thoughts and behaiour. The socio cultural theory consists of several elements to help implement it. The four basic principles underlying the Vygotskian theory include-children construct their knowledge, development cannot be separated from its social context; learning can lead to development and language plays a central role in mental development. Vygotsky believed that speech changes with age. He also believed that any pedagogy creates learning which lead to development.
Vygotsky’s ideas and theories are often compared to Jean Piaget, especially his cognitive development theory. They had a conflict explaining that development concepts should not be taught until children are in the appropriate developmental stage. Piaget believed that the most important source of cognition is the children themselves but Vygotsky argued that the social environment could help the child’s cognitive development. The social environment is an important factor which helps the child culturally adapt to new situations when needed. Both Vygotsky and Piaget had the common goal of finding out how children master ideas and then translate them into speech. In the present study, the Vygotsky socio cultural theory is relevant since the school environment, which includes the peers, the teacher, the classroom settings and the school physical facilities help to determine the children’s learning. In particular, the pre-primary school socio cultural environment plays vital roles in the education of the children as they interact fully with the environment. This call for the need to appraise the pre-primary schools in Enugu state to ascertain the extent to which children’s socio cultural environments are provided.