Vygotsky-style Learning

“…an essential feature of learning is that it creates the zone of proximal development; that is, learning awakens a variety of internal developmental processes that are able to operate only when the child is interacting with people in his environment and in

cooperation with his peers.”

Vygotsky, L. (1978) Mind in Society: The Development of Psychological Processes.

Lev Semenovich Vygotsky1896-1934

Zone of Proximal Development

The zone of proximal development is the distance between a

child’s “actual developmental level as determined byindependent problem solving” and the higher level of“potential development as determined through problemsolving under adult guidance or in collaboration with morecapable peers.”

Vygotsky, L. (1978) Mind in Society: The Development of Psychological

Processes.

Stages of the ZPD

Developed from R.G. Tharp and R. Gallimore (1988). Rousing minds to life (pp. 3-39).

Zone of Proximal Development

Performance is developed.Assistance is disruptive.

Performance is self-assisted

Performance is assisted by more capable peers

Vygotsky-style Classrooms

“Activity Settings”

Activity settings

Contexts in which collaborative interaction, intersubjectivity, and assisted performance occur - in which teaching occurs not random determined absolutely by restriction to the context of goal-

directed action

arise from the pressures and resources of the larger social system of which the participants are a part

can be used as a unit of analysis the who, what, when, where, and why - the small

recurrent dramas of everyday life - played on the stages of home, school, community, and workplace

Who

People who can achieve the goal of an action are determined by the goal and the setting

makes for the maximum contribution of each individual desirable to the entire group

What

a description of the things that are done

a description of how they are done operations

• Ex. Handling of the host during Communion• Ex. “metacognitive” strategy of questioning that

assists the child to retrieve from memory the bits of information needed to locate lost shoes

scripts• Ex. Care and feeding of pets• Ex. Classroom procedures

When

Activity settings are patterned in time, cannot exist without time

they are driven by productive activity, occur as often and for as long as the product requires - when the product is produced or the goal achieved, the scheduled activity should end

Where

Activity settings must have a place to exist

best placed where the tools, the materials, or the uses of the product dictate - where the production can best occur

much truth in the adage that schools teach no thing, but teach only how to talk about things

Why

Can be described in terms of motivation and meaning goal for the activity setting usually

provides the motivational impetusif not, contingency managementnot identical for all members

organizational structures in the minds of individuals and the cultural meaning of the interaction [schemata]

Vygotsky-style Teaching

Therefore the only good kind of instruction is that which marches ahead of development and leads it; it must be aimed not so much at the ripe as at the ripening functions. It remains necessary to determine the lowest threshold at which instruction in, say, arithmetic may begin, since a certain minimal ripeness of junctions is required. But we must consider the upper threshold as well; instruction must be orient toward the future, not the past.”

Vygotsky, L. (1962) Thought and Language.

Good Teaching: a new definition

“Teaching consists in assisting performance through the ZPD. Teaching can be said to occur when assistance is offered at points in the ZPD at which performance requires assistance.”

Tharp, R. & Gallimore, R. (1988) Rousing Minds to Life.

Six Means of Assistance

Modelingcontingency

managementfeeding back

Instructingquestionin

gcognitive

structuring

Modeling

The process of offering behavior for imitation

Contingency Management

The process of assisting performance by arranging for rewards or punishments to follow specific behaviors, depending on whether the behaviors are desired.

Feeding-back

This is the process of assisting performance providing performance information that compares a given performance to an established standard.

Instructing

A linguistic process for assisting performance that calls for specific action.

Effective instructions are embedded in a context: contingency management, feeding-back, and cognitive structuring.

Questioning

Most characteristic means for assisting performance in formal learning situations.

Calls for an active linguistic and cognitive response, provoking creations by the student.

Two types of questions

Questions

those that assess inquires to discover the level of the pupil’s

ability to perform without assistance

those that assist inquires in order to produce a mental

operation that the student cannot or will not produce alone.

The assistance provided by the question is the prompting of that mental operation

Cognitive Structuring

An organizing structure for thinking and acting

process of organizing the raw stuff of experience

structures that organize content and/or functions and refer to like instances

most frequently practiced

Designing school activity settings teacher participates at times in at least one activity setting with

students authority of the teacher used to organize activity settings and to

make resources of time, place, persons, and tools available activity setting has a product as a goal, a product that is

motivating for the students focus = ability of the teacher to assist the students [cooperative

learning; assisting themselves] permanent or temporary activity setting as determined by goal all members should be engaged in the joint productive activity

whose purpose is ever-increasing competence to assist performance

teacher designs activity settings, which create products, assist performance, foster intersubjectivities, promote cognitive growth of each individual, refocus accountabilities, and turn schools into a culture of learning.

Vygotsky-Style Assessment

A continuous process that includes the social context of learning and instruction

dynamic versus static

Static Assessment

Refers to measuring the student’s individual performance, what the student has already learned

Dynamic Assessment

Refers to measuring the student’s assisted performance during collaboration, the student’s potential development, or what the student is in the process of learning

process summarized

Dynamic Assessment Procedure (DAP)

Test the learner working alone (static) to provide a baseline measure (highest level without assistance) of skills on a task

provide a controlled protocol of assistance and instruction (dynamic) while child works on comparable task

posttest with an alternate form of original measure while the learner works alone (static) on a the task

compare test and retest measures to establish the learner’s zone of proximal development (ZPD) (the range from the baseline to the highest level obtained with assistance).

DAP cont.

Analyze the learner’s performance both quantitatively and qualitatively on both product and process a. Identify the upper limit of the ZPD as expressed by

mental age, grade equivalent, reading level, or test score (quantitative)

b. Investigate processing strengths and weaknesses and learning style to determine the specific kind of assistance required to obtain optimal performance (qualitative).

Classroom Assessment Techniques [Angelo & Cross]

Goals inventorySelection of techniqueModel technique in an activity

setting

Rubrics

DefinitionMeasuring Student Progress