Socio-Cultural Perspective

Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory addresses the concept that an individual’s development is based upon interaction with different people from various cultures. Vygotsky notes that among the social interactions, there are three ways in which cultural tools are passed along.

1) Imitative Learning: One person tries to imitate or copy another person.
2) Instructed Learning: The individual remembers the rules outlined by the teacher and uses the rules to engage in self-regulation.
3) Collaborative Learning: A group of students work together to learn a specific skill.
(Tomasello, et al., 1993)

I think that Vygotsky’s element of Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is important. Under the ZPD, a child is able to accomplish a task – which he or she would not have been able to do on his own – by working with another child who has a higher level of skill in the specific area.

http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/vygotsky.htm

In regards to my unfolding self-contract, I have noted the importance of including cooperative learning activities (eg. Round Robin, Team Word-Web) that will support the social interaction that Vygotsky discusses. As a fairly shy and quiet introvert, I think that figuring out how to incorporate cooperative learning activities into my teaching practice may be a bit challenging. Through Gardner’s multiple intelligences (http://www.tecweb.org/styles/gardner.html), I have expanded my knowledge about how to create learning experiences that will appeal to the various learning styles of the students presented in a given classroom. Using a handout on Kagan’s Cooperative Learning strategies (1998), I have listed a couple of Cooperative Learning strategies that appeal to the multiple intelligences. My goal is to use these strategies to engage students with various learning styles in the classroom.

* Verbal/Linguistic
- Choral Response
- Find Someone Who (eg. People hunt)

* Logical/Mathematical
- Jigsaw Problem Solving (Each teammate has part of the answer, the teammates must put their clues together in order to solve the problem)
- Pairs Compare

* Visual/Spatial
- Team Mind Map
- Team Word Map

* Musical/Rhythmical
- Team Chants
- Lyrical Lessons (Students write or sing songs related to curriculum)

* Bodily/Kinesthetic
- Line Ups (eg. Value lines – students line up in range of agreement to disagreement)
- Similarity Groups (Students form groups based on a commonality)

* Interpersonal
- Think-pair-share
- Numbered Heads Together

* Intrapersonal
- Paraphrase Passport (Students can share their own ideas only after giving an accurate paraphrase of the student who spoke just before them)
- Line Ups