Vygotsky Theory of Learning
Karen Ibrahim
write about Lev Vygotsky as a social constructivist and looking at his more general ideas about social learning and about language. I will also discuss what he describes as the zone of proximal development, the relationship to the example below and how it translates into the classroom. I will also look into the concept of scaffolding and how it is closely related to the ZPD.
‘At some point in learning to use a spoon to eat with, a baby may be able to -get the spoon in the food and can put a spoonful of food in her mouth, but cannot quite manage the middle step of filling the spoon with food.
A helpful adult may assist the baby with the difficult part by putting his hand over the baby’s and guiding it in filling the spoon. In this way, adult and child together achieve what the baby was unable to do by herself, and the baby receives some useful training in turning the spoon at the angle needed to get hold of the food. Before long, the baby will master this step and can be left to do the whole feeding process by herself’ (Novalis, n.d., online).
This process seems to be a natural process; parents help their children to expand their children’s knowledge and new skills. This same process (expanding knowledge through the help of more knowledgeable others [KMO]) continues throughout life.
Lev Vygotsky as a Social Constructivist
Vygotsky was a cognitivist, Vygotsky’s theory of sociocultural learning highlights the role of social and cultural interactions play in the learning process. His theory was built upon the Piagetian idea of the child as an active learner with the emphasis on the role of social interaction in learning and development. This approach has become known as social constructivism (Krause et al, 2003; McDevitt & Ormrod, 2002). The quality of child-adult interaction is seen as crucial when scaffolding children’s learning (Bodrova & Leong, 1996; Fleer, 1992, 1995; Tharp & Gallimore, 1988).
Zone of Proximal Development
The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is the best known Vygotskian concept. To successfully apply it in a classroom, it is important to know not only where a child is functioning now and where that child will be tomorrow, but also how best to assist that child in mastering more advanced skills and concepts. This is where scaffolding comes in. Although not used by Vygotsky himself, the concept of scaffolding helps us understand how aiming instruction within a child’s ZPD can promote the child’s learning and development.
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) describes the area between a child’s level of independent performance (what he/she can do alone) and the child’s level of assisted performance (what he/she can do with support). Skills and understandings contained within a child’s ZPD are the ones that have not yet emerged but could emerge if the child engaged in interactions with knowledgeable others (peers and adults) or in other supportive contexts (such as make-believe play for preschool children). According to Vygotsky, the most effective instruction is the kind that is aimed not at the child’s level of independent performance but is instead aimed within the ZPD. This instruction does more than increase a child’s repertoire of skills and understandings; it actually produces gains in child development. To aim instruction at the child’s ZPD, the teacher needs to know not only what the child’s developmental level is at the time, but also what skills and concepts will develop next. To know these, the teacher needs to understand the developmental trajectories for these skills and concepts. Successful instruction within the child’s ZPD also involves making sure that the child will be eventually able to function independently at the same high level at which he or she was previously able to function with adult assistance. Once this is accomplished, the teacher can start aiming instruction at the new ZPD. Even when children have developed new skills and competencies sufficient to perform a task with adult assistance, it may not mean that tomorrow they will be ready to perform the task independently. For most children, the transition from assisted to independent learning is a gradual process that involves moving from using a great deal of assistance to slowly taking over until eventually no assistance is needed. To facilitate this transition, a teacher needs to scaffold student learning by first designing and then following a plan for providing and withdrawing appropriate amounts of assistance at appropriate times.
In the Vygotskian approach, instructional strategies used to scaffold include (but are not limited to) hints, prompts, and cues given and later removed by the teacher. Scaffolding can also involve orchestrating social contexts known to support children’s learning, such as make-believe play or specifically designed group activities. Scaffolding may also involve introducing children to special tools (such as an alphabet chart) and behaviors (such as private speech or self-talk) that children can use to self-assist while mastering a new skill or concept
Vygotsky himself defines the zone of proximal development (ZPD henceforth) as
‘the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the higher level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers’ (Vygotsky, 1978:86).
Scaffolding
Another part of this theory is scaffolding, The scaffolding technique ensures the transformation of assisted performance into independent performance. Vygotsky stated that testing should be based not only on the current level of a child’s achievements but also and mainly on the child’s potential development. The actual level of independent performance of a child does not sufficiently describe their development, or their potential for developement. Rather, it indicates what is already developed or achieved, it is a ‘yesterday of development’ (Vygotsky, 1978 However, it is essential to keep in mind that a literal interpretation of scaffolding instruction can lead to a narrow view of child-teacher interaction and an image of the child as a passive recipient of a teacher’s direct instruction. This falls far behind the Vygotskian idea of the ZPD and even of Piaget’s view of the child as an active self-explorer.
Overlooking the connection between the zone and the theory as a whole means that it is difficult to differentiate Vygotsky’s concept from any instructional technique that systematically leads children, with the help of an adult, through a number of steps in the process of learning some set of skills (Tudge, 1992, p. 156).
Before a concept is internalized the child first processes it as an external function in their social stage of development (Vygotsky, 1962). The process has been labelled internalization. Intersubjectivity is an essential step in the process of internalisation as the adult gradually removes the assistance and transfers responsibility to the child (Dixon- Krauss, 1996). As opposed to any behaviourist instruction, the MKO only moves on or transfers the responsibility once this shared understanding or intersubjectivity has been achieved. The term “scaffolding” was never actually used by Vygotsky, so the name for this method is actually a misnomer. It came from psychologist Jerome Bruner, who developed the scaffolding psychology based on many of the same assumptions that Vygotsky’s ideas were based on. Sometimes known as instructional scaffolding, the practice involves providing resources and guidance to students learning a new task, as well as learning objects, templates, books and guides, and so on. As the student begins to understand the concept being learned more thoroughly, these guides can be removed or reduced from use so the student’s cognitive skills build around that learned concept.
Understanding the Relationship between Scaffolding and the Zone of Proximal development.
There is a consensus that Vygotskian socio-cultural psychology and the notion of the zone of proximal development are at the heart of the concept of scaffolding (Berk, 2001; Daniels, 2001; Wells, 2001; Krause et al, 2003; McDevitt & Ormrod, 2002). However, the interpretations and explanations of the exact ways that scaffolding relates to it have been different. These range from understanding scaffolding as a direct application and operationalisation of Vygotsky’s concept of teaching in the zone of proximal development (Wells, 1999), to the view that the notion of scaffolding only partially reflects the richness of Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development (eg Daniels, 2001). In addition, the limitations of the metaphor of scaffolding in interpreting the zone of proximal development have been revealed (Stone, 1998).
Vygotskys view on language development
Language is a social concept that is developed through social interactions. According to Lev Vygotsky, a 20th-century Soviet psychologist, language acquisition involves not only a childs exposure to words but also an interdependent process of growth between thought and language. Vygotskys influential theory of the “zone of proximal development” asserts that teachers should consider a childs prospective learning power before trying to expand the childs grasp of language. Vygotskys theory of language is based on constructivist learning theory, which contends that children acquire knowledge as a result of engaging in social experiences. “Through social and language interactions, older and more experienced members of a community teach younger and less experienced members the skills, values, and knowledge needed to be productive members of that community,” says Harry Daniels, author of “An Introduction to Vygotsky.” According to Vygotsky, words are signals. Rather than engage children in a primary signal system, in which objects are referred to merely as themselves, adults engage children in a secondary signal system, in which words represent objects and ideas. A childs intellectual development is crucial to his language development. By interacting with his environment, a child develops the ability to develop private, inner speech. “Inner speech is thinking in pure meanings; it is the link between the second signal system of the social world and the thought of the individual,” Through the development of inner speech, children straddle the divide between thought and language, eventually being able to express their thoughts coherently to others. The language learning process occurs as a result of give and take. Parents and teachers usher a child through a process of guided discovery, addressing her learning potential. Eventually, children internalize language skills. As young learners experience language development, they “can reflect better on their own thinking and behaviour and reach greater levels of control and mastery over their own behavior,” according to Adam Winsler, co- editor of “Private Speech, Executive Functioning, and the Development of Verbal Self- Regulation”. Vygotskys constructivist language theory exists in opposition to Jean Piagets theory of language acquisition. According to Piaget, children construct knowledge about language through a complex process of assimilation, stressing the inherent capability of a childs brain to adapt to stimulation. By contrast, Vygotsky stresses the social nature of language learning, emphasizing the environment within which a child is raised.
Margaret Roberts (in an extract of chapter 2 of her book Learning through enquiry) refers to Vygotsky’s Thought and Language (1962) in which he talked about ‘several types of assistance that might be given when a child was engaged in a problem solving activity:
? Providing the first step in a solution
? Asking a leading question
? Explaining
? Supplying information
? Questioning
? Correcting
? Making the child explain’
I like to point out here that Vygotsky was not the one who coined the term ‘scaffolding’. Furthermore, Vygotsky worked experimentally with children, but the Zone of Proximal Development and the concept of scaffolding are not limited to children. David Wood (1988) classifies the help a more knowledgeable person (he calls that person expert) could give to a person in need (also called novice) into five levels:
Level 1 General verbal encouragement
Level 2 Specific verbal instruction
Level 3 Assists in choice of material
Level 4 Prepares material for assembly
Level 5 Demonstrates an operation
Note as we come down the list how the amount or specificity of instruction increases while, by the same token, the degree of responsibility for what happens next conferred on the child decreases’ (Wood, D. (1988:79)
Vygotskys theories in my classroom.
In this paragraph I will show how I practiced Vygotskys theories.My class are 5-7 year olds who are non native speakers. Our lesson was fact families with numbers up to 12. I introduced the lesson to the whole class. Using numbers from 0 – 12. I asked the students what they thought I meant by fact families. A few of the advanced students were able to relate that we would be grouping numbers. I used simple samples to get the lesson going. We used family members. Number of brothers and sisters plus parents. We then worked out some samples using brothers plus sisters = total in family this gave us the three factors we needed to make the fact family. Most students were able to grasp this. I then divided the class of 23 into 4 groups making sure that there was a group leader who was capable of helping the other students. This enabled me to see where scaffolding was needed. The group were then given the task of finding out how we could use any 3 numbers to form a fact family. The students who were struggling with the whole concept were then given the chance to have a one to one time either by myself or any child who had mastered the concept. After 20 minutes I decided to see where we had got in our lesson. Each group leader was invited to show the whole class what they had achieved and give feedback on their group. Some students benefited through the scaffolding and was able to show the Zone of Proximal Development of each student. They were able to achieve with the help of an adult or the group leader.. This gave me the conclusion that Vygotskys theories do work in a classroom. Some of the students were able to perform way above the level we were working on. They realized that any 3 numbers could be used to make a fact family. In this paper, I looked into the concepts of ZPD and scaffolding. I showed the relationship between both of them.
Going back to the example of the baby who needs help with feeding: The parents know that the baby would be to feed himself in the near future. This is the zone of proximal development. The parents found out why the baby is not yet feeding himself – the problem is not with holding the spoon, it is the angle the spoon needs to be turned when in the food. This is the understanding of the problem (diagnosis of the problem). The parents then demonstrated the correct angle by holding the baby’s hand and probably said encouraging word. The more experienced the baby becomes in feeding himself, the direct support of the parents (i.e. the holding of the spoon) is faded out. This is scaffolding and contingent teaching. At the end, the baby is able to feed himself.
Conclusion
I conclude this paper with another quotation from Lev Vygotsky ‘Education must be orientated not towards the yesterday of a child’s development, but towards its tomorrow’ it sums up that with the help of the concepts of the zone of proximal development, contingent teaching and scaffolding every student will expand his/her knowledge. I as a teacher should use these concepts to fully unfold the potential in every student.
References
Atherton, J. S. (2011) Learning and Teaching; Constructivism in learning [On-line: UK] http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/constructivism.htm (accessed June23, 2014)
Novalis http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=17577.0;wap2,
Roberts, M. extract on ‘scaffolding’ from ch.2 of Learning Through Enquiry, online http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~ttzelrn/pgcei/pgcei-c/understanding-learning/documents/scaffolding_roberts.pdf (accessed June 27, 2014)
Van de Pol, J. et. al (2009) Patterns of contingent teaching in teacher-student interaction, Learning ad Instruction, doi:10.1016/j.learninstruc.2009.10.004 online http://www.onderwijscentrum.vu.nl/nl/Images/Patterns%20of%20Contingent%20Teaching%20%E2%80%93%20Pol,%20Volman,%20Beishuizen_tcm90-153878.pdf
Verenikina, I. Understanding Scaffolding and the ZPD in Educational Research, online http://www.aare.edu.au/03pap/ver03682.pdf (as accessed on February 23, 2011)
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978) Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructional_scaffolding (as accessed on June 15 2014)
Wood, D. (1988) How Children Think and Learn, Oxford:Blackwell
Wood, D. & Wood, H., Vygotsky, Tutoring and Learning in Oxford Review of Education, Vol. 22, No. 1, Vygotsky and Education (May 2014), pp.5-16 online http://stud.hsh.no/home/127255/wood-scaffolding-vygotsky.pdf (accessed April, 2014)
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Vygotsky Theory of Learning
Karen Ibrahim
Introduction
In this paper, I will write about Lev Vygotsky as a social constructivist and looking at his more general ideas about social learning and about language. I will also discuss what he describes as the zone of proximal development, the relationship to the example below and how it translates into the classroom. I will also look into the concept of scaffolding and how it is closely related to the ZPD. Lead me into quote
‘At some point in learning to use a spoon to eat with, a baby may be able to -get the spoon in the food and can put a spoonful of food in her mouth, but cannot quite manage the middle step of filling the spoon with food.
A helpful adult may assist the baby with the difficult part by putting his hand over the baby’s and guiding it in filling the spoon. In this way, adult and child together achieve what the baby was unable to do by herself, and the baby receives some useful training in turning the spoon at the angle needed to get hold of the food. Before long, the baby will master this step and can be left to do the whole feeding process by herself’ (Novalis, n.d., online).
This process seems to be a natural process; parents help their children to expand their children’s knowledge and new skills. This same process (expanding knowledge through the help of more knowledgeable others [KMO]) continues throughout life.
Lev Vygotsky as a Social Constructivist
Vygotsky was a cognitivist, Vygotsky’s theory of sociocultural learning highlights the role of social and cultural interactions play in the learning process. His theory was built upon the Piagetian idea of the child as an active learner with the emphasis on the role of social interaction in learning and development. This approach has become known as social constructivism (Krause et al, 2003; McDevitt & Ormrod, 2002). The quality of child-adult interaction is seen as crucial when scaffolding children’s learning (Bodrova & Leong, 1996; Fleer, 1992, 1995; Tharp & Gallimore, 1988).
Zone of Proximal Development
The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is the best known Vygotskian concept. To successfully apply it in a classroom, it is important to know not only where a child is functioning now and where that child will be tomorrow, but also how best to assist that child in mastering more advanced skills and concepts. This is where scaffolding comes in. Although not used by Vygotsky himself, the concept of scaffolding helps us understand how aiming instruction within a child’s ZPD can promote the child’s learning and development.
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) describes the area between a child’s level of independent performance (what he/she can do alone) and the child’s level of assisted performance (what he/she can do with support). Skills and understandings contained within a child’s ZPD are the ones that have not yet emerged but could emerge if the child engaged in interactions with knowledgeable others (peers and adults) or in other supportive contexts (such as make-believe play for preschool children). According to Vygotsky, the most effective instruction is the kind that is aimed not at the child’s level of independent performance but is instead aimed within the ZPD. This instruction does more than increase a child’s repertoire of skills and understandings; it actually produces gains in child development. To aim instruction at the child’s ZPD, the teacher needs to know not only what the child’s developmental level is at the time, but also what skills and concepts will develop next. To know these, the teacher needs to understand the developmental trajectories for these skills and concepts. Successful instruction within the child’s ZPD also involves making sure that the child will be eventually able to function independently at the same high level at which he or she was previously able to function with adult assistance. Once this is accomplished, the teacher can start aiming instruction at the new ZPD. Even when children have developed new skills and competencies sufficient to perform a task with adult assistance, it may not mean that tomorrow they will be ready to perform the task independently. For most children, the transition from assisted to independent learning is a gradual process that involves moving from using a great deal of assistance to slowly taking over until eventually no assistance is needed. To facilitate this transition, a teacher needs to scaffold student learning by first designing and then following a plan for providing and withdrawing appropriate amounts of assistance at appropriate times.
In the Vygotskian approach, instructional strategies used to scaffold include (but are not limited to) hints, prompts, and cues given and later removed by the teacher. Scaffolding can also involve orchestrating social contexts known to support children’s learning, such as make-believe play or specifically designed group activities. Scaffolding may also involve introducing children to special tools (such as an alphabet chart) and behaviors (such as private speech or self-talk) that children can use to self-assist while mastering a new skill or concept
Vygotsky himself defines the zone of proximal development (ZPD henceforth) as
‘the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the higher level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers’ (Vygotsky, 1978:86).
Scaffolding
Another part of this theory is scaffolding, The scaffolding technique ensures the transformation of assisted performance into independent performance. Vygotsky stated that testing should be based not only on the current level of a child’s achievements but also and mainly on the child’s potential development. The actual level of independent performance of a child does not sufficiently describe their development, or their potential for developement. Rather, it indicates what is already developed or achieved, it is a ‘yesterday of development’ (Vygotsky, 1978 However, it is essential to keep in mind that a literal interpretation of scaffolding instruction can lead to a narrow view of child-teacher interaction and an image of the child as a passive recipient of a teacher’s direct instruction. This falls far behind the Vygotskian idea of the ZPD and even of Piaget’s view of the child as an active self-explorer .
Overlooking the connection between the zone and the theory as a whole means that it is difficult to differentiate Vygotsky’s concept from any instructional technique that systematically leads children, with the help of an adult, through a number of steps in the process of learning some set of skills (Tudge, 1992, p. 156).
Before a concept is internalized the child first processes it as an external function in their social stage of development (Vygotsky, 1962). The process has been labelled internalization. Intersubjectivity is an essential step in the process of internalisation as the adult gradually removes the assistance and transfers responsibility to the child (Dixon- Krauss, 1996). As opposed to any behaviourist instruction, the MKO only moves on or transfers the responsibility once this shared understanding or intersubjectivity has been achieved. The term “scaffolding” was never actually used by Vygotsky, so the name for this method is actually a misnomer. It came from psychologist Jerome Bruner, who developed the scaffolding psychology based on many of the same assumptions that Vygotsky’s ideas were based on. Sometimes known as instructional scaffolding, the practice involves providing resources and guidance to students learning a new task, as well as learning objects, templates, books and guides, and so on. As the student begins to understand the concept being learned more thoroughly, these guides can be removed or reduced from use so the student’s cognitive skills build around that learned concept.
Understanding the Relationship between Scaffolding and the Zone of Proximal development.
There is a consensus that Vygotskian socio-cultural psychology and the notion of the zone of proximal development are at the heart of the concept of scaffolding (Berk, 2001; Daniels, 2001; Wells, 2001; Krause et al, 2003; McDevitt & Ormrod, 2002). However, the interpretations and explanations of the exact ways that scaffolding relates to it have been different. These range from understanding scaffolding as a direct application and operationalisation of Vygotsky’s concept of teaching in the zone of proximal development (Wells, 1999), to the view that the notion of scaffolding only partially reflects the richness of Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development (eg Daniels, 2001). In addition, the limitations of the metaphor of scaffolding in interpreting the zone of proximal development have been revealed (Stone, 1998).
Vygotskys view on language development
Language is a social concept that is developed through social interactions. According to Lev Vygotsky, a 20th-century Soviet psychologist, language acquisition involves not only a child’s exposure to words but also an interdependent process of growth between thought and language. Vygotskys influential theory of the “zone of proximal development” asserts that teachers should consider a childs prospective learning power before trying to expand the childs grasp of language. Vygotsky’s theory of language is based on constructivist learning theory, which contends that children acquire knowledge as a result of engaging in social experiences. “Through social and language interactions, older and more experienced members of a community teach younger and less experienced members the skills, values, and knowledge needed to be productive members of that community,” says Harry Daniels, author of “An Introduction to Vygotsky.” According to Vygotsky, words are signals. Rather than engage children in a primary signal system, in which objects are referred to merely as themselves, adults engage children in a secondary signal system, in which words represent objects and ideas. A childs intellectual development is crucial to his language development. By interacting with his environment, a child develops the ability to develop private, inner speech. “Inner speech is thinking in pure meanings; it is the link between the second signal system of the social world and the thought of the individual,” Through the development of inner speech, children straddle the divide between thought and language, eventually being able to express their thoughts coherently to others. The language learning process occurs as a result of give and take. Parents and teachers usher a child through a process of guided discovery, addressing her learning potential. Eventually, children internalize language skills. As young learners experience language development, they “can reflect better on their own thinking and behaviour and reach greater levels of control and mastery over their own behavior,” according to Adam Winsler, co- editor of “Private Speech, Executive Functioning, and the Development of Verbal Self- Regulation”. Vygotskys constructivist language theory exists in opposition to Jean Piagets theory of language acquisition. According to Piaget, children construct knowledge about language through a complex process of assimilation, stressing the inherent capability of a childs brain to adapt to stimulation. By contrast, Vygotsky stresses the social nature of language learning, emphasizing the environment within which a child is raised.
Margaret Roberts (in an extract of chapter 2 of her book Learning through enquiry) refers to Vygotsky’s Thought and Language (1962) in which he talked about ‘several types of assistance that might be given when a child was engaged in a problem solving activity:
? Providing the first step in a solution
? Asking a leading question
? Explaining
? Supplying information
? Questioning
? Correcting
? Making the child explain’
I like to point out here that Vygotsky was not the one who coined the term ‘scaffolding ’. Furthermore, Vygotsky worked experimentally with children, but the Zone of Proximal Development and the concept of scaffolding are not limited to children. David Wood (1988) classifies the help a more knowledgeable person (he calls that person expert) could give to a person in need (also called novice) into five levels:
Level 1 General verbal encouragement
Level 2 Specific verbal instruction
Level 3 Assists in choice of material
Level 4 Prepares material for assembly
Level 5 Demonstrates an operation
Note as we come down the list how the amount or specificity of instruction increases while, by the same token, the degree of responsibility for what happens next conferred on the child decreases’ (Wood, D. (1988:79)
Vygotskys theories in my classroom .
In this paragraph I will show how I practiced Vygotskys theories.My class are 5-7 year olds who are non native speakers. Our lesson was fact families with numbers up to 12. I introduced the lesson to the whole class. Using numbers from 0 – 12. I asked the students what they thought I meant by fact families. A few of the advanced students were able to relate that we would be grouping numbers. I used simple samples to get the lesson going. We used family members. Number of brothers and sisters plus parents. We then worked out some samples using brothers plus sisters = total in family this gave us the three factors we needed to make the fact family. Most students were able to grasp this. I then divided the class of 23 into 4 groups making sure that there was a group leader who was capable of helping the other students. This enabled me to see where scaffolding was needed. The group were then given the task of finding out how we could use any 3 numbers to form a fact family. The students who were struggling with the whole concept were then given the chance to have a one to one time either by myself or any child who had mastered the concept. After 20 minutes I decided to see where we had got in our lesson. Each group leader was invited to show the whole class what they had achieved and give feedback on their group. Some students benefited through the scaffolding and was able to show the Zone of Proximal Development of each student. They were able to achieve with the help of an adult or the group leader.. This gave me the conclusion that Vygotskys theories do work in a classroom. Some of the students were able to perform way above the level we were working on. They realized that any 3 numbers could be used to make a fact family. In this paper, I looked into the concepts of ZPD and scaffolding. I showed the relationship between both of them.
Going back to the example of the baby who needs help with feeding: The parents know that the baby would be to feed himself in the near future. This is the zone of proximal development. The parents found out why the baby is not yet feeding himself – the problem is not with holding the spoon, it is the angle the spoon needs to be turned when in the food. This is the understanding of the problem (diagnosis of the problem). The parents then demonstrated the correct angle by holding the baby’s hand and probably said encouraging word. The more experienced the baby becomes in feeding himself, the direct support of the parents (i.e. the holding of the spoon) is faded out. This is scaffolding and contingent teaching. At the end, the baby is able to feed himself.
Conclusion
I conclude this paper with another quotation from Lev Vygotsky ‘Education must be orientated not towards the yesterday of a child’s development, but towards its tomorrow’ it sums up that with the help of the concepts of the zone of proximal development, contingent teaching and scaffolding every student will expand his/her knowledge. I as a teacher should use these concepts to fully unfold the potential in every student.
References
Atherton, J. S. (2011) Learning and Teaching; Constructivism in learning [On-line: UK] http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/constructivism.htm (accessed June 23, 2014)
Novalis http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=17577.0;wap2,what is this?
Roberts, M. extract on ‘scaffolding’ from ch.2 of Learning Through Enquiry, online http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~ttzelrn/pgcei/pgcei-c/understanding-learning/documents/scaffolding_roberts.pdf (accessed June 27, 2014)
Van de Pol, J. et. al (2009) Patterns of contingent teaching in teacher-student interaction, Learning ad Instruction , doi:10.1016/j.learninstruc.2009.10.004 online http://www.onderwijscentrum.vu.nl/nl/Images/Patterns%20of%20Contingent%20Teaching%20%E2%80%93%20Pol,%20Volman,%20Beishuizen_tcm90-153878.pdf
Verenikina, I. Understanding Scaffolding and the ZPD in Educational Research, online http://www.aare.edu.au/03pap/ver03682.pdf (as accessed on February 23, 2011)
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978) Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Wikipedia , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructional_scaffolding (as accessed on June 15 2014)
Wood, D. (1988) How Children Think and Learn, Oxford: Blackwell
Wood, D. & Wood, H., year Vygotsky, Tutoring and Learning in Oxford Review of Education, Vol. 22, No. 1, Vygotsky and Education pp.5-16 online http://stud.hsh.no/home/127255/wood-scaffolding-vygotsky.pdf (accessed date April, 2014)
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