Vygotsky

1
Vygotsky

• Constructivist
• Development cant be separated from its social
  context

• Learning can lead development
• Language plays a central role in mental
  development

2
Vs Goal of Education

• To equip children with mental tools
• Each culture has mental tools people use when
  performing higher mental functions

3
Think slide

• Does school specifically prepare children for the
  world they enter after graduation?

4
My Gram graduated in 1901

• School could not prepare her for about 75 of
  soon available occupations
• There were no airplanes, no cars, no TVs,
  telephones were uncommon, houses werent
  electrified
• For that matter, bras and crayolas werent
  invented yet

5
Has that changed?

• Probably not.
• When I graduated from h.s. there were no
  computers in homes, no cell phones, no c.d.s, no
  V.C.Rs, no digital cameras and airplane travel
  was still a novelty.

6
Which all means

• Vygotsky was so rightwe need to teach mental
  tools, cultural tools to find things out
• It is estimated that 50 of your students will be
  in jobs youve never heard of

7
Co-construction between Learner Teacher

• L struggles to understand
• What am I supposed to be learning?

• T struggles to assess what student understands
• Where do I go next?

8
Learning can lead Develop.

• Sure there are develop prerequisites that limit a
  childs ability to learn (cant learn logical
  thinking w/out language)
• but
• Learning can hasten and even cause
• development
• Conclusion lead em a bit

9
Dev cant be separated from social context

• Social context is childs cultural and social
  environment
• Determines how we think, what we think

10
Language plays a central role in mental
development

• Difficult to co-construct w/out it
• Language allows the child to consider future
  events, past events

11
Zone of Proximal Development

• ZPDprobably most important V concept
• ZPDrange of tasks too difficult for children to
  master alone but that can be learned with help.

12
ZPD

• Lower level independent performance
• Can do this w/out you
• Higher levelassisted performance
• Cant do this without help

13
Limits of ZPD

• ____level of assisted performance
• more assistance
• less assistance
• ____level of independent performance

14
Limits of ZPD

• At maximum assistance, child can perform the task
  with help but cant sustain it
• Some skills are beyond ZPD child cant learn
  them even w/ teacher assistance

15
ZPD reveals skills on edge of emergence

• Children at same independent level may be on very
  different levels of ZPD
• Ones ready to move on
• The other isnt

16
Scaffolding

• Tactic for helping child in his/her ZPD
• Provide more support at beginning of skill

17
Scaffolding Learning

• Task is NOT made more simple
• As skills increase, remove scaffolding

18
Ultimate goal of scaffolding

• Teach a strategy that the child can use as a tool
  later

19
Leading Activity for Preschool

• Importance of play
• the activity during which preschool children
  exert the most self-regulation

20
Mature Play

• The child must

1. Plan ahead 2. Use language to create pretend
situation 3. Coordinate multiple themes
roles 4. Recognize that roles have implicit
rules. 5. Use symbolic actions may use extended
time frame.
21
Supported by research

• Children gained more by mature play than by being
  drilled in 1st grade concepts
• Because play focused attention, deliberate
  memory, self-regulation.

22
Leading activities for School aged children

• Act of learning something
• Like what? Anythingsports, cooking, music,
  school subjects

23
What about Nintendo?

• Yes, when learning to play it
• No, when reacting and not thinking things through

24
What about TV?

• (kill your TV, kill your TV, kill your TV)
• No, TV is likely too passive
• even on educational shows no intention to learn

25
Teaching Tactics

• Dynamic assessment
• Assesses independent and assisted levels of ZPD

26
Language as a tool

• Public external speech-direct behavior of others
• Private external speech direct ones own
  behavior
• consider this allows the teacher to hear
  childs thinking

27
Private Inner Speech

• Child begins to say internally what (s)he
  formerly said aloud
• My greatest lectures are in my car, en route to
  Greeley

28
Verbal Thinking

• Speech becomes automatized
• Less mental energy
• Can do several thoughts at once

29
Vygotskys application

• Thinks step 2 (private external speech) should be
  encouraged in class
• Allow them to talk aloud
• Again, teacher can hear the thinking

30
Metro application

• Do this, do this now
• Read work aloud (except on tests)
• Helps to proofread, eliminate silly errors

31
Shared Activities

• Social context provides motivation to learn
• Clarifies and elaborates thinking
• Promotes other regulation (regulate others
  behavior, then yourself)

32
Teachers should plan

• Who to pair with whom, choice of partner is very
  important

33
Paired with

• Expert
• Equal
• Lesser

• Scaffolds lrn process
• Increases language, clarifies own understanding
• Increase in lang. Forces clarification

34
Strengths of Vygotsky

• Acknowledges teachers role in dev
• Provides practical suggestions on teaching
• Explains cultural differences

35
Lab 6

• Task for independent level should be something
  they can do
• Go through mediator card with child.
• ZPD is related incorrectly to smart upper level
  of ZPD should be something you cant do without
  help no matter how smart you are.

36
Mildred Parten (1932)

• Identified 6 stages of play
• 2. Solitary play-playing alone
• 3.Onlooker play-watches others

37
Play continued

• 4. parallel play-plays separately from others but
  uses same toys, mimics them.
• 5. associative play-involves social interaction
  but w/ little organization.
• 6. cooperative play-social interaction, organized
  activity.