Vygotsky: How Adults Work With Children In The Classroom

In response to the varied student learning needs, differentiation will be a key component of this classroom. It is “designed to improve access to the general education curriculum by adapting instruction to each student’s diverse learning needs” (Smith, 2007). “Differentiation instruction means changing the pace, level, or kind of instruction you provide in response to individual learners’ needs, styles, or interest” (Heacox, 2012). Because each student comes to this 6th grade classroom with unique needs, differentiation will implemented frequently to ensure that each student receives the rigor needed to master the 6th grade curriculum. It will be relevant to your student and his/her needs. It will provide an appropriate level of challenge. It will be engaging and at times, it will offer choices. Delivery of differentiated instruction will frequently involve centered based learning activities and small group instruction. A list and description of some of the centers will be distributed to parents and is attached as Appendix

Unlike Piaget, Vygotsky alleged that adults play a fundamental role in the development of children as they nurtured their learning in a premeditated way (McDevitt et al, 2013), rather than entrusting it to natural processes. Vygotsky also believed that language played a primary responsibility in a child’s development, while Piaget excluded this from his theory (McDevitt et al, 2013). The social experiences a child encounter along with conversations they have with others and themselves (self-talk), greatly influences their capacity to grow and learn. One of the benefits of Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development is the Zone of Proximal development. Where children are frequently being pressed to the limit of their comfort zones within learning in order of forward progression (McDevitt et al, 2013).

Vygotsky also introduced his theory of internalisation, one of the main concepts that differentiated from that of Jean Piaget (Duchesne, S., & McMaugh, A. 2016. P.103). The theory of internalisation put forward by Vygotsky is an idea that suggests an individual is able to observe and internalise the ideas and processes of their surroundings as they partake in social interaction defined as, “new ways of thinking” (Duchesne, S., & McMaugh, A.,2016p.103). During social interaction the individuals thinking is successively transformed by interaction with others, similarly to the concept developed by Piaget, Vygotsky also characterised children as “active agents in their development”. (Duchesne, S., & McMaugh, A.,2016p.103). As explained by

Differentiation is the tool used by educators who recognize that all students come to them with different readiness levels and learning styles. It allows us to meet the needs of each individual student while meeting the standards developed by state and national education associations. Additionally, there are many different types of differentiation that can be used in a classroom: teachers can create learning centers, use differentiated assessments, and develop anchor activities, etc. Currently, I utilize differentiated assessments, but my goal for the upcoming school year is to utilize more learning centers and to incorporate anchor activities into my daily classroom routine.

The inability of the educational system to provide equitable education leads to the achievement gap between different groups of students. The most important elements of the mixed quality classroom are the need to facilitate knowledge constructions for students that have different abilities. Differentiation of learning is the only way for facilitating effective learning for all the students in a mixed-ability classroom (Paul & Elder, 2013).

Lev Vygotsky concept is showing or helping children with a task. They are taught everything through social interaction no matter what it is. They are taught by example, by getting help with the task and are expected to be able to complete it by themselves. With this concept of learning every child is able to learn and evolve into completing activities independently and progressively from what they have learned. It is important that the environment for the child be set with ideas and task that will allow them too mentally, educationally and physically develop with or without adult and peer assistant.

Vygotsky’s main idea was called zone of proximal development or ZPD this is where in order to learn a child must first see someone do something to learn. For example, 6 year olds are beginning to learn how to play games and in order to do that right they must first see a good example. Another example I had found that does not really relate to my age group but i think is a great example is this; a 2 year old is trying to put the blocks into the shapes they belong but she can not figure out why the star shaped block won't go in the round hole she must first see her dad or someone who knows better put each block in its correct slot and from there she will eventually learn what shapes go where. In this case the father is the MKO or more knowledgeable

Justification of this critique was also provided by Vygotsky theory of development .Vygotsky (1929) believes that adults and child’s peers are involved in shaping cognitive development of the

Vygotsky’s theory basically suggests that if we want to understand learning and development, we have to focus on process instead of product. According to Lantolf and Thorne (2006, s.28), Vygotsky

Vygotsky’s theory revolves around peer-mediated learning, and has three key concepts that cover various ways in which this occurs. Hoy (2012, pp. 98) argues that at any given point in development there are certain problems that a child is on the verge of being able to solve. This is known as the Zone of Proximal Development - ‘any situation in which, while participating in an activity, individuals are in the process of developing mastery of a practice or understanding a topic’ (Wells, 1999, p. 333). Mastery of the topic in the Zone of Proximal Development is advanced via ‘scaffolding’, supporting the student in some way. This may be through role modelling, providing feedback (...) direct instruction, posing questions (...) or breaking the problem down (Ey, L-A 2016). Alongside this, children have three methods

Vygotsky breaks the difficulty level of the task being performed by the child into three levels of difficulty and the amount of assistance needed. The first stage is the lowest level of difficulty where no assistance is needed from an external influence. The task that the child is trying to perform is easy enough that he or she can perform it on their own individually. In this stage, there is little intellectual development or knowledge obtained. The third stage is the highest level of difficulty where a child cannot execute a task because it is too difficult. This stage requires complete assistance from a parent or teacher to execute the task for the child. The middle stage is key to intellectual development and to Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory.

Lev Semionovich Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist and constructivist learning theorist who was known for arguing against the theories of psychologist Jean Piaget. Piaget believed that in order for any learning to occur there had to development within the individual first, but Vygotsky argued the contrary. He argued that in order for development to occur, the individual would first have to have learning take place through instruction and example in a given appropriate environment. Vygotsky’s theory on cognitive development is centralized on two key ideas known as scaffolding and the zone of proximal development which will be explored in this essay and how they contribute to the classroom.

Lev S. Vygotsky (1896 – 1934), His work focused on learning and cognitive development in children; he developed the theory of social development; his work become the foundation of much research and theory in cognitive development over the past several decades. He believed that each student operates within a range of ability and that educators would best facilitate learning by presenting students with work that challenges without overwhelming them. If work is too easy the student will be bored, while if the work is too difficult the student will not have the intellectual tools necessary to learn anything from attempting the work. What is known today as Zone of Proximal Development. His pioneer work on learning sciences

Lev Vygotsky believed that we base our knowledge on social interaction and this is called social constructivism. Vygotsky believed that when a student is in the “Zone of Proximal Development”, providing assistance and encouragement from a knowledgeable person; parent, teacher, peers, will give the student enough support to better achieve the task at hand. The presence of a support group

Many theorists believe that Vygotsky’s theory is a very effective way to develop cognitive development and I strongly agree and believe that children today will learn more effectively through this theory’s approach.