Question

Terry is in first grade. He frequently talks out loud to himself while trying to perform a building block game which most other children in the class can perform. The teacher believes Terry is too immature for first grade. The Bayley Scale test performance by Terry shows a below average performance. As a result, the teacher wants to place Terry in a remedial kindergarten class. Analyze and discuss how a teacher utilizing a Vygotsky based teaching strategy would approach this problem and provide a brief argument for a different strategy to that proposed by the teacher.

Answer 1

Lev Semenovich Vygotsky, developed a whole new perspective on learning in young individuals. He introduced the concept of Sociocultural aspect in learning. The sociocultural perspective emphasizes on the importance of the cultural background of a child that shapes his cognitive development. Kid's in Brazil who have never been to a school, who purchase and sell candy's for a living are capable of carrying out intricate and complicated mathematics to make profits. They did not have to go to a regular school to learn mathematics, but during their interaction with their society, they assimilated information which shaped their cognitive process. Vygotsky in his theory believed, the development first takes place at a social level and then on an individual level. When the child interacts with his immediate society, he internalizes the information received which contributes to the cognitive development of a child.

A child is capable of learning on his own. However, he may be in need of assisted training. Assisted training is guiding or supporting the child in the initial stages of learning, but can be decreased or diminished with time as a child begins to get independent. Helping with classroom work, providing with clues for answers, encouragement at the right time, breezing through steps of complicated problems and etcetera are a few ways of assisted training.

A child is at very point capable of learning and solving problems on their own. They just need little clues, additional information, prompting to help them recollect and solve the problem on their own. Sometimes, they may be just stuck. They are not incapable of solving any problem on their own but they need a little assistance to be able to motor through. The Zone of Proximal Development, is an area where the child cannot solve the problem alone, but does great with a little additional help from the parent, teacher or even a more advanced peer. The child can be guided and supported by a teacher or an adult when he is unable to slove a problem on his own. The teacher can make activities a lot more fun to promote learning by dividing the students in groups and assigning problems which need to be solved with the help of each other. This is fun for a child as well as learning takes place.