1. Vygotsky and contemporary Vygotskian theorists have proposed that children’s
ID: 3456347 • Letter: 1
Question
1. Vygotsky and contemporary Vygotskian theorists have proposed that children’s and adolescents’ cognitive development is promoted when they work within their zone of proximal development and that scaffolding enables them to do this successfully. a. Explain the two concepts in italics, and give a concrete example of each one. b. Choose a topic or skill you might teach someone else, and explain how you would: (1) scaffold the learner’s efforts, and (2) modify the scaffolding over time. C. Use concepts from Vygotsky’s perspective of cognitive development to describe how you learned about Vygotsky’s theory in this class. Your response should include references to at least three of the following concepts: zone of proximal development, self-talk, inner speech, internalization, and scaffolding.
Explanation / Answer
a) The zone of proximal cevelopment( ZPD) refers to the difference between what a person can do without any training or assistance and what s/he cannot achieve at all. The concept was an important part of Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development and it focused on the role of culture in the development of higher mental functions. Although the term Zone of proximal development was not coined by Vygotsky himself, but by Wood, ZPD has come to describe Vygotsky’s ideas about child development under supportive environment where instruction is most beneficial for each student when children are motivated to grasp the new information more proactively so as to encourage and advance their individual learning such as skills and strategies. Thus for instance, giving individual instructions and attention to pre-school children to learn simple sentence construction tasks would be more helpful in improving their language development rather than putting them under group tasks as younger children require and learn better from individual attention rather and monitoring. However, adolescents may not find individual attention very conducive to their learning goals and may work more efficiently in essay and debate writing tasks in group activities where they can brainstorm the ideas with with the support of their peers.
In addition to the Zone of Proximla Development, Vygotsky’s theory highlights another important concept: scaffolding. According to Vygotsky, natural, spontaneous development is important, but it is not the sole criteria. He believed that children would not advance very far if they were left to discover everything on their own. Scaffolding is the term used to describe the process of help or guidance received from an adult or more competent peer to permit the child to work within his or her Zone of Proximal Development, within the domain of education. The guide acts like the scaffoldor support and starts at the child's level of knowledge and gradually builds from there until the child reaches point where external assistance becomes unnecessary.
The concept of ZPD shows that scaffolding is crucial for cognitive development as it ensures that they are able to interact with more knowledgeable others of their culture and learn culturally adaptive ways of solving problems, and gain important knowledge. Thus, for instance, when a mathematics teacher introduces a new method of assessment in the class, s/he may begin by giving some already solved questions to the class to show them how the questions need to be solved. S/he may additionally move across the room, observing how ecah student uses the demonstrated method of answering the problems and accordingly help those who are stuck at a stage and guide them on the spot as they are writing their solutions. Such a support would help the students grasp the mathematical knowledge in a way which is within their capacity and that will encourage them to ultimately complete the problems independently.
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