Lev Vygotsky was a Russian Psychologist who in his mere 38 years of life developed a new educational theory for the beginning in the first stages of the new Soviet Union. Lev changed the way Psychology was perceived, and even though he did well in the USSR his work was not recognised outside the USSR until some 28 years later in 1962, after that his theory has gone though some minor changes in the Western world.Social development means for a better word social interaction, the ability to learn from others by interacting with those others. The social development theory was based on two distinct areas:
MKO or more knowledge other
ZPD or Zone of Proximal Development
MKO is interpreted as being that of someone that has a better understanding or knowledge than that of the learner, this could be a friend, a boss, a teacher, a colleague anyone that has that knowledge that you have not got or at least not at the same level as that person.
ZPD is interpreted as the learner needs to work in a team environment to achieve the goal, the task cannot be completed solely on their own and the interaction of the fellow colleagues is essential, generally the others helping would be giving guidance to each other and learning from each person as they went along.
Lev’s theory had two outcomes to its development, besides this theory effecting the learning it also effected the teacher.
Firstly the learner was affected as they have more control on their own learning, rather than the teacher dictating the goal and expecting the learning to recite that information back, the teacher and learner will now work more in tandem with each other.
Secondly the teacher is affected in their approach to teaching, their learners would be placed in to small groups and take turns as the facilitator and gain knowledge from each person in the group and take their leads from their peers. The teacher however would only be used to point in the right direction, assist when needed and give guidance when asked.
Lev Vygotsky theory is extremely informative about the roles of learner and teacher and in this short piece cannot be fully comprehended and understood. I am going to read more about Lev and his theories and try and discover his secrets.
Paul Ashby
Two sites that I found Interesting
http://chd.gse.gmu.edu/immersion/knowledgebase/theorists/constructivism/vygotsky.htm
http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/articles/sdtheory/index.htm
5 comments:
Excellent post paul. When are you pasting it into the wiki?
Any thoughts on Vygotsky and Web in education?
Hi Dave. Do you want me to place this on the main Wiki page as we discussed last week?
The theory lends itself to the classroom environment extremely well, however as far as Web education that might be fairly different. On reflection though if we were using webcams across Broadband connections then the theory is still very sound and Lev himself would be extremely proud in how far education has come in the last 100 years.
So yes is my answer, Lev Vygotsky' theory still works well even under web education.
Paul
Wow - pretty impressive Paul.
Nice site, well laid out. Love the website.
Good piece on Vygotsky!
See you Wed.
KazG
Hi Paul,
This was interesting theorist, I have used small groups similar to this in question and answer sessions, but with the course I am currently teaching on being an NVQ and the students being scattered across the north west, getting the students together is a problem.
Using a blog and comments suppose is one way, but as it not syncronous and getting the immediate feeling of bouncing ideas off a group and therefore is not possibly the best way forward with my students
Steve W
Very attractive and professional blog. Looks like it has been constructed over a long period of time.
Lev Vygotsky theory seems to fit well in how learning in life takes place, not only in education institutions. Simple theories are in general the strongest and long lasting ones. In my opinion there is a strong if not exclusive emphasis, on teacher-learner relationship while learner-learner relationship is not often mentioned. There is nothing wrong in charging some learners to “teach” others (under supervision). This will be beneficial for both types of learners. Where did I read: “the best way to learn is to teach” ?☺
Again well done Paul
PS: Paul if you read this message before our evening class, please do not forget the PDF “key”.
Abdel
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