Personal Knowledge And Shared Knowledge

Does the world around us impact our ability to learn? Or do we acquire knowledge through self-will? Furthermore, what if knowledge begins at the start of our social interactions? Several theories have been conducted to explore the styles of learning. Three theorists, Bronfenbrenner, Piaget, and Vygotsky share differing views of how cognitive development is achieved.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” (Mandela). In discussions of education, Newman argues that there should be a common shared knowledge between people. According to statistics, there are 70% of Americans who do not hold a college degree. Newman’s ideas revolve around the belief that everyone should go to college and pursue a higher education. If Newman’s ideas are implemented in today’s society, there will not only be short term difficulties like a greater demand for teachers and supplies but also long term difficulties with America’s economy. Although Newman’s system sounds like it would create a better world in the surface, it would be one which is hard to apply in today’s American society.

Vygotsky proposed that children’s development is affected by their culture and social interaction. He also suggested that children are not born with knowledge but they gain it through their social interactions with peers and adults; he does not rule out the importance of biological processes but proposes an interdependent relationship between biological development alongside social activity and cultural interaction.

The first theory examined is Albert Bandura’s social cognitive/learning theory. A child does not automatically know how to interpret their environment, but they can learn about the world around them and how to manipulate their surroundings by observing people around them. According to Bandura (2002), “Viewed from the sociocognitive perspective, human nature is characterised [sic] by a vast potentiality that can be fashioned by direct and vicarious experience into a variety of forms within biological limits” (pp. 271-272). Although a large amount of learning from watching other people happens in childhood, a person can acquire new skills or knowledge at any point in their life with the help of other people.

| The study of knowledge: What constitutes knowledge, the nature of knowledge, and whether knowledge is possible

Vygotsky (1978) {cited in Maynard & Thomas, 2009} believed social interaction with others more skilled than themselves allows for development, as children are social learners. He believed social interactions promote higher mental functioning. The area of functioning beyond the child’s current level is called the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).

Society is viewed as the collective thoughts, ideals and ways of life held and maintained by a group of individuals. Often these beliefs and practices of different societies are the result of a shared perspective or shared knowledge. However, with different individual components formulating the basis for a society, there is question to whether the shared or collective cognition is able to shape the way individuals themselves process information. In understanding the impact of how a socially constructed knowledge system can shape the individual’s own knowledge, I will invoke the reasoning of two separate areas of knowledge, specifically the humans sciences and ethics, that deal heavily with the human experience.

The similarity was that Bruner’s belief is that learning is an active process and that learners need to develop their own knowledge and ideas using their current or previous knowledge. While Vygotsky belief was the necessary role of social interaction in cognitive development. Bottom line is, socialization increases the learner’s knowledge because they will have intrinsic motivation to the social

The work of Lev Vygotsky (1934) has become the foundation of much research and theory in cognitive development over the past several decades, particularly of what has become known as Social Development Theory. Vygotsky 's theories stress the fundamental role of social interaction in the development of cognition (Vygotsky, 1978), as he believed

What does it mean to be human? Why human and animals are different? Due to the book we have read, we can explain that there are biological perspectives interact in; and what make us human is contracting both biological and historical perspective.

Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of development suggested that to develop cognitively, children must have social interaction. He also “believed that this lifelong process of development was dependent of social interaction and that social learning actually leads to cognitive development” (Riddle, 1999). Vygotsky believed that children 's social learning must come before social development. Vygotsky also believed that "human activities take place in cultural settings and cannot be understood apart from these settings" (Woolfolk, 2004). Therefore, our culture helps shape our cognition.

Knowledge is defined to be facts, information, and skills acquired through experience or education. There are two categories that fall under knowledge; personal knowledge and shared knowledge. Shared knowledge refers to what “we know because.” It can also be defined as communicated and constructed knowledge; within culture, social norms, and semiotics. Personal knowledge refers to “I know because.” An expanded definition of personal knowledge refers to personal experiences, values, and perceptions. Shared knowledge changes and evolves over time because of methods that are continuously shared. It is assembled by a group of people. Personal knowledge, on the other hand, depends crucially on the experiences of a particular individual. It is gained

models for human understanding of the world are examined, many similarities can be seen. These

Lev Vygotsky is one of the earliest proponents of a constructivist learning theory. Although he only lived through the early 1930s, his work was largely unknown in the West until the 1960s (Learning Theories Knowledgebase, 2012). His significant contributions to constructivist learning theory include three important distinctions. First, he purports in Mind and Society: the development of higher mental process (1978) that “social interaction between people plays the first fundamental role in the process of cognitive development” (explained in the Learning Theories Knowledgebase, 2012). This means we first learn by watching others and discussing new information with others, only then do we attempt to use our own cognitive systems for storing that new knowledge individually. “Vygotsky focused on the connections between

We live in a strange and puzzling world. Despite the exponential growth of knowledge in the past century, we are faced by a baffling multitude of conflicting ideas. The mass of conflicting ideas causes the replacement of knowledge, as one that was previously believed to be true gets replace by new idea. This is accelerated by the rapid development of technology to allow new investigations into knowledge within the areas of human and natural sciences. Knowledge in the human sciences has been replaced for decades as new discoveries by the increased study of humans, and travel has caused the discarding of a vast array of theories. The development of