User:A reynolds/sandbox

Vygotsky on Education
Vygotsky provides us with a Social Cognitive Learning Theory that we can apply to education. Two critical concepts of his theory include the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), and Scaffolding. The ZPD is a range of tasks that are within a child’s cognitive ability to learn with assistance. Scaffolding is closely related to this because it is the process of adjusting the amount of support based upon the needs of the child. It was Vygotsky’s intention to suggest that learning occurs in the ZPD where instruction is not too difficult but just exceeds the learner's current independent skills. If the material is too difficult, then the child is considered to be in the Frustrational-level of instruction. If the material is too easy and the child does not require assistance, the child is considered to be at the Independent-level of learning. When learning occurs in the ZPD, it is known as the Intructional-level. Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) is a criterion-based assessment to generate data about student achievement. Typically CBM is used to measure abilities in mathematics, oral reading fluency, and writing fluency, and to monitor a student's progress throughout the school year. A child’s performance across these subjects is compared to literature-based benchmarks that indicate how the child is performing in the current curriculum. The results of CBM can be used to determine if a gap exists between expected and observed acquisition of skills.

After determining the child’s abilities within the curriculum, determining his/her ZPD, instruction should be provided just above the current ability level. As skills are acquired, the difficulty of the material can be increased, and the process repeats. This process is known as scaffolding. The scaffolding process is particularly useful when engaging children in interactions that would help them to achieve more than they could achieve independently. One method that a teacher can use to identify the emergence of higher cognitive functioning is by pairing a child with a peer who is more advanced. By doing this, the learner raises himself to a higher level of development through collaboration, to move from the current area of ZPD to the next through peer relation. Scaffolding through dialogue focuses on the dynamic quality of the personal interaction between teacher and student, and peer and student. This dialogue allows teachers to calibrate instruction for each individual child.

Teachers recognize the value of peer feedback and deliberately teach peers to give the appropriate feedback. An essential component of cognitive development is socializing with peers via high-quality discussion. For example, each student in a group must learn a specific section of information, which he/she then teaches to the other members of the group. A major influence of peer tutoring is that it allows students to become their own teachers. Previous research has shown that peer tutoring has many academic and social benefits for those who are being tutored and those who are tutoring others. In one study, there were strong positive effects on both the students who were being tutored, and the students who were tutors. To summarize, when students collaborate with their peers, learning is maximized. Those who are teaching other students can learn as much as those who are being taught.A reynolds (talk) 16:25, 23 July 2015 (UTC)