Learning in a socio-cultural perspective

In a socio-cultural perspective the factors of learning will be influenced by "social interaction (which) leads to continious step-by-step changes in children's thought and behaviour that can vary greatly from culture to culture"(Gallagher, May 1999). To begin, a students home culture will greatly influence learning. A student from the majority culture is already attuned to the thoughts actions and social processes present in society, therefore does not need to learn how to behave and understand what is expected within the majority culture as much as a student from a minority culture. On the other hand a student from a minority culture may have a language other than English as their mother tongue as well as coming from a culture that has different methods of interaction and social norms. For example, coming from a Sikh background and the Punjabi culture there were diferent roles for my sister and me within the family than there was for my friends from the majority culture and their sisters. A student from a minority culture may have some difficulty in the beginning when learning is taking place as what is being emphasized by the majority community (in this this case the majority community being the school) A second factor of learning in a sociocultural perspective is what is being emphasized by the school. Our school system is highly structured with objectives and goals for administrators, teachers and students alike. Students learn what is taught to them in the curriculum for a given subject and have to complete what is required to be successful in learning.