Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development Essay

Imagine that you encounter the following situations at your setting. Briefly plan an activity for each one (for staff or for children, as appropriate) that shows how you could challenge the beliefs underpinning each situation and promote change.

There are many ways to provide children with the necessary skills and understanding they need in order to grow to be respectful and accepting citizens. The most important aspect of teaching children about cultural identities is reinforcing the understanding that difference is not a bad thing. Children have simple mindsets when it comes to differences in personalities and cultures, however while they may innocently ask questions that seem bias or discriminatory, they are simply seeking an explanation of something they don’t currently understand. One strategy to ensure children understand cultures is to simply and positively explain that everyone is different and there are people that come from all over the world, have different languages, accepts,

Overcoming stereotyping is a challenge educators can encounter when it comes to ensuring that teaching strategies are appropriate for culturally diverse children. Some educators may compare one child to another child that comes from the same cultural background and use the same teaching strategy. One way to overcome this is to make sure that educators know each of the students individually instead of comparing one to another or relying on stereotyping. “To truly engage students, we must reach out to them in ways that are culturally and linguistically responsive and appropriate, and we must examine the cultural assumptions and stereotypes we bring into the classroom that may hinder interconnectedness.” (Teaching Tolerance, 1991) Once they know more about each of the students then they can avoid stereotyping and adjust their teaching strategy to meet the individual needs of the students in the classroom.

The zone of proximal development, often abbreviated as ZPD, is the difference between what a learner can do without help and what he or she cannot do. The concept was introduced, but not fully developed, by psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_of_proximal_development)

It is crucial for educators to value, understand and incorporate every child’s cultural diversity in the classroom (The Early Years Learning Framework Professional Learning Program, 2011). This means educators needs to deal with any bias beliefs they might/may hold. For example, some children might not participate in the classroom because

Teaching students with exceptional abilities requires funding, training and planning. Being in a regular classroom with children from various cultures, ethnic backgrounds and intellectual ability help students learn how to work together toward a common goal: reduce discrimination and stereotyping people with physical and mental limitations. Instructional strategies that break the work down so everyone learns better can improve education as well as reduce cost. This is achieved by including special education students in environments that will allow them to develop normal social interactions as well as receive specific attention to their learning needs. ("What is Special Education”)

The teacher can encourage this inclusion by teaching the students, parents, and other community members about negative stereotypical attitudes about students with disabilities by avoiding negative words, such as “disabled”, or “crippled”, or “handicapped” and to promote positive ideas about disabilities into class work, the student’s play time and other activities. To further ensure that the classroom is promoting equality for the child with the disability, the teacher should incorporate an inclusive curriculum mindset, by adapting the lessons, learning materials and classroom to suit the needs of all the different types of learners including the child with the disability within the classroom.

Consider talking with other professional personnel who specialize in multiculturalism (Dray & Wisneski, 2011, p. 33). Share your interpretations in a spirit of collaboration to learn from family members about their expectations and norms for behavior (Dray & Wisneski, 2011, p. 33). After teachers have considered alternative explanations and developed a different interpretation of a situation, they are able to change their behavior (Dray & Wisneski, 2011, p. 33). Educators should view

It has been shown by (Gibbons, 2002, p. 10) that a psychologist named Lev Vygotsky developed a Theory in cognitive development. In this theory it is stated that the role of culture is crucial and important as an agent of development. Through these concepts numerous theories has been form that are all useful in facilitating learning. This works of Vygotsky's is commonly known us ZPD or the Zone Proximal Development.

According to Belonging, Being & Becoming, the Educators’ Guide ‘we need to ‘think about our own values, beliefs and attitudes related to diversity and difference and acknowledge and address any bias that we may hold’. As well as critically examining our own assumptions, ‘cultural competence’ requires early childhood educators to take a strong approach to countering racism and bias when we encounter it. This will require educators to make a conscious decision to promote children’s cultural competence in order to build and maintain an inclusive Australian society.

I feel as if children today a much more aware of the multicultural and anti-bias. It also depends the child how they would react or feel about these topics. Here in Brookings we have the situation of having a college in the town as well as the Babybel Cheese factory. With these in our town, children here our exposed to many other cultures or nationality groups. With the college, we are going to have families from all over the world, and with the Babybel cheese factory, other the last couple of years the schools have been exposed to the French nationality. Young children are going notice the difference, but they aren’t going to be offended or discouraged by what they see. For many children, they have grown up in Brookings, they are

In the Special Education News article, it says that you need to help the “students in overcoming their disabilities” (“Special Education News”). The teacher needs to help them overcome their disability by not looking down on them. Teachers need to realize that some kids parents don’t care about their education (“Ferry”). Some parents think that the only way their kid will get through life, is if they are pretty enough. But that’s not true. When teachers are teaching the student, they need help to strengthen their learning (“Saint Joseph’s University”). By needing help to strengthen their learning, I mean they need to teach them to the best of their learning ability. What teachers need to understand is that a lot of kids protect themselves from pain (“Erstad”). When the kid protects themselves from pain, they are hurting themselves even more. If the teacher knows enough about the student, they will be a successful special needs teacher.

The ways knowledge or lack of thereof of diversity can affect my roles as a special education educator is comprehending learners will originate from various distinctive background. For this reason, I should obtain compassion ahead of communicating with the families about the student’s inadequacies challenges, apprehensions acquire prior to an enhance instructional learning environment. Moreover, understanding diversity in these specific areas will assist in delivering the appropriate accommodations for individuals and their families. For example, premise I cognize the family doesn’t articulate English a translator will be provided before communicating with the parents. Therefore, important to understand learner’s lifestyles

These readings help support ideas behind what we know about child development. One developmental area that this supports is social and emotional development. Derman-Sparks(2013) states, anti-bias education is an integral part of emotional well-being and social competence” (p 17). He continues to state that an anti-bias education will help the children “develop their cognitive capacities” (p 17). Children are also able to have a better sense of their selves through learning about others. These readings also support the idea of children learning to think critically. Becoming critical thinkers takes away the barriers and allows children to not think negatively about other and their own identity (Derman-Sparks, 2013, p 17). The idea of

Although vocabulary is the sub-skill of a language, it plays a very important role in language learning and teaching. In fact, vocabulary is central to language and is of paramount importance to language learners. On the other hand, words are the building blocks of a language that are used to label objects, actions, and ideas. In other words, people cannot convey the intended meaning without knowing vocabulary. It is widely accepted that vocabulary is a very important part in English language learning because no one can communicate in any meaningful way without vocabulary. As McCarthy (1990) stated, the single, biggest component of any language course is vocabulary. Nation (1990) also affirms that vocabulary can be considered as the most important element in language learning because Learners think that many of their