ASSIGNMENT #4
Vygotskian Approach Activity – Make-Believe Play
There will be two lists of make-believe scenarios; one that all children should be able to recognize such as grocery-shopping, playing house, going to the playground, etc. And the other will be less common ones, such as going to a car shop, making a building, being a doctor etc., those will have instructions on how to teach the kids the scenarios so they can play it on their own. The teacher will be there each step of the way until the children no longer need the social input of the teacher and can begin to play amongst themselves like with the extremely common ones.
By doing these activities with the children, one the teacher will be able to show kids other everyday activities they might not get exposed to regularly and have better understanding of what goes on in their lives. Once the
They both agree that the child needs to be an active learner in the process in order to develop into the functioning adult it will be later in life. But on how the babies learns and when in the process of development it should be, is where they differ. For example, Vygotsky believes that learning happens before development that the babies through their social interactions with their caregivers, they are learning. He also believes that learning is a continuous and gradual process. For example with learning how to cross the street, a Vygotskian approach is the way to go. The baby takes in all the social cues their parents give them: the street is dangerous, we don’t cross when cars are going by, we have to wait for the light to show that it our turn to walk, we need to look both ways before crossing, etc. Then the baby slowly starts to cross the street with their parents (still holding their hands) and slowly but sure when the kid is old enough they can now cross the street on their own with no harm to
This reading reminded me about how Vygotsky’s theory is mostly based on the interactions and influences help children to learn. I really do believe this theory is very accurate, because students can learn from each other. If a teacher is having trouble explaining a complex topic to a student, another student can explain it in more relatable way. Also, I was fascinated when I read about what cultural tools, were and how they related to Vygotsky’s beliefs. Learning about what cultural tools were, helped me to broaden my understanding of how crucial cultural tools are to student’s learning process. Also, the chapter did a great job of elaborating on how these tools can help to advance and grow in the understanding of student’s thinking process. Another aspect of this reading that interested me was the elaboration on private speech and the Zone of Proximal Development. Each of the definitions displayed help me to advance my own thinking on what it was and how it is used in regards to the education of students. The description of what private speech and how it is basically the inner narration of their thinking process helped me to understand how this aspect can help with students learning. Also, the Zone of Proximal Development helped me to make a connection to both what is and how it relates to private speech as well. The Zone of proximal development plays a crucial role in the
Theorists help us to learn about play and help us progress in relation to approaches and future planning. Vygotsky believed that imaginative play and relationships are important in relation to a child’s learning, and his theory was called the social constructivist theory. He believed that through play a ‘zone of proximal development’ is created, in which a child’s learns at the height of their potential. He argued against Piaget’s theory. Piaget argued that children did not necessarily learn through play but play just showcases and applies what they have already learnt. Piaget’s theory stated that there was two aspects to play – sensory and movement play and imagination, pretend and symbolic play. The McMillian sisters theorised the idea that children would find it extremely difficult to learn, play and develop without good hygiene and good health. Froebel also had strong opinions on the role of play. He believed in the importance of symbolic play, and imaginative play - stating it was one of the best ways for
Due to the fact that, when she was eating the rice sitting on the dining table, but she suddenly got up from the table, started walking towards the living room, grabed her barbie dolls and started feeding them. Moreover, not only she was pretending to drink from the toy cup while playing with the kitchen set, but, also was pretending to talk on the toy phone as she saw her mother talking to someone on her cell phone. These are the example of make-believe play because according to book “Make-believe play increases in sophistication during the preschool years. Children pretend with less realistic toys [such as] in early pretending, toddlers use … toy telephone to talk into or a cup to drink from. Their earliest pretend acts usually imitate adualt 's actions” (Berk, 227). The theory that perfectly relates to these examples is Piaget 's theory because Berk in the book infer that “Make-believe play is … excellent example of the development of representation in early childhood. Piaget believed that through pretending, young children practice and strengthen newly acquired representational schemes” (Berk,
Nature versus nurture is an argument in psychology over whether a person’s innate qualities and behaviors are caused from their environment or if they’re born with it. Vygotsky places more emphasis on the social factors that contribute to cognitive development, in other words he is in favor of the nurture argument. He believes that everyone learns from their culture, environment, and social interactions. He talks about a few of his theories like the zone of proximal development, and a more knowledgeable other. He also expresses his thoughts on developmental tools and the importance of language to cognitive development. All of these factors together support his idea that children’s behavior is learned.
Lourenco’s (2012) article makes the point several times that the biggest difference is that Piaget adheres to an autonomous view while Vygotsky adheres to a heteronomous view. Piaget sees the child as constructing his/her own knowledge and that this is an internal process. Vygotsky, on the other hand, sees the child as developing through social interactions and that this is an external process.
Lev Vygotsky stages of development were not defined by age or biology. Social and cultural experiences were the basis for his theory. Consciousness was an end product of social interactions (Kearsley, 1994-2010). The history of the child’s society and his own personal history determine how the child thinks. Language is crucial for development as it is with words that a child conceptualizes and makes sense of the world (Schütz, 2004). A precept of Vygotsky’s theory wa...
The main difference one can see in their theories is that Piaget is very individualistic when it comes to learning and that Vygotsky is very group oriented. Vygotsky believes in dialogues that, “we socially interact and communicate with others to learn the cultural values of our society.” (Woolfolk, 2004, pg. 2) Vygotsky was a believer in social interaction to help learn. Vygotsky also believed in scaffolding. Scaffolding is a way of learning. Someone provides the learner with clues and hints that helps them with problem solving. This is different from Piaget because it is in that group setting. Lastly there is a zone of Proximity that Vygotsky believes in. This goes along with his group aspect of learning. He believes that one learns better through life interactions. (Woolfolk,
Imagination is the ability to draw a picture, a story or an idea in the mind. It is the ability to feel and believe of something that is not real, this term is widespread through the literature. When children use their imagination they could be anything they want and they could travel through time and space. There are different ways children’s can use to develop and express their imagination. For example, drawing, reading stories and role playing by pretending to be someone or something else, these ways allow children to express their imagination through thinking, creating and involving emotions. Imagination gives the children the opportunity to explore the world around them. Play has an important effect on children’s imaginative development, it is a common activity between children but it is not just a free time that child enjoy. For instance, imaginative play or role play encourages the children imaginative skills and this includes fantasy, pretend and symbolic play. Imaginative play also known as fantasy, symbolic, pretend and role play. This paper will focus on the imagination process and the theory of mind, children understanding of others mind and mental representations. Pretend play will be an example of showing how children use their imagination through this type of play.
For Vygotsky, children are seen as active beings on their development through social interactions with parents, teachers, and other adults, as well as by participating in their cultural activities. The interactions they have with other individuals and their culture opens their minds to new information and helps develop skills not previously attained. To further understand cognitive development in Piaget and Vygotsky’s theory, we must first look at the processes involved.
“Once a child is born we begin helping them with tasks that are too difficult to master alone but that can be learned with guidance and assistance which is the (ZPD) zone of proximal development.”(Morrison, 2009 sec 14.6.1) this is the major concept of Lev Vygotsky theory. As our children grow we will interact with them throughout their lives. We may feel that a child should be at a certain stage in life; which would fit perfectly into Piagets theory that a child develops in stages. However we have always helped them with task; we sit back, observe the child trying the task, and when they c...
Through the use of teacher directed and student initiated activities, students become more engaged in learning and therefore develop the skills necessary to become self-directed learners. By stimulating their interest and motivating a love for learning, teachers can use preschool curricula to build school- and life-related skills. There have been links between play and child development, especially in the areas of creativity, reasoning, executive function, and regulation of emotions (Bodrova, Germeroth, & Leong 2103). Active play is needed for healthy brain growth and not only strengthens muscles, but stimulates brain activity leading to higher levels of interest and curiosity. Through play children are able to try out different ways to handle and address stressful or hurtful situations and stand strong when facing challenging situations. Play enhances children’s memories and attention spans and allows children to connect their ideas into realities and realities into deeper understandings. Play supports children’s language development by improving their verbalization and receptive/expressive vocabularies. Using preschool curricula to build school- and life-related skills is a great practice as long as it is developmentally
...ng in the educational context requires teachers as the competent adults or instructors, it demonstrates the importance of teacher presence in all areas of the curriculum especially in play. Whether through Piaget’s cognitive constructivism or Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development, it is important for teachers to actively participate and interact with the children to foster their cognitive and social development. To scaffold children’s play, the teacher is important in roles such as creating the right play environment by preparing adequate materials, designing the playing space and ensuring adequate play materials, designing appropriate play experiences to structure and facilitate the children’s development and facilitating interactions among the children and between themselves and the children to facilitate and support meaning making (Module 2 & Module 3, 2012).
Thinking back on my childhood, I first remember all the times I played outside in my backyard. I would pretend to dig up dinosaur bones or create imaginary realms of ancient lands; there I would perform diplomatic services for the people in need. I was usually alone, and those are some of my fondest memories. When I first decided to become a teacher and thought about what is important to my philosophy on how children learn, I immediately knew I was a strong believer in play. Although, many decision makers such as legislators and school district leaders believe in more academic types of learning styles, my paper will discuss why play is so powerful and important to children.
Even though Piaget didn’t believe in the significance of inputs that could be acquired from the environment, but yet Vygotsky was very confident that children that children where very acknowledgeable of the inputs from their environment around them. Piaget’s cognitive development theory has four stages to it. His first stage was the sensorimotor stages which happens from birth until a child is two years old. This stages infants rely solely on their reflexes like rooting and sucking. Preoperational stage is the 2nd stage and it happen from the age of 2years old up until a child is 7 years of age, and during this stage children feel as if everyone thinks like they do. His 3rd stage is known as the concrete operational stage, that occurs when children are 7-11 years of age and during this stage children will start to feel a lot of improvement in their thinking. Piaget’s last stage was known as the formal operational stage, and at this stage children are able to understand and recognize symbols, and master abstract thinking. Children are also have the ability to solve intricate problems on their own. And even in contrast, Vygotsky assumed that there are no set of phases. And even in contrast Vygotsky thought that there was no set of phrase for children. But he felt that private speech was way more essential to the aid for children when they are thinking about an issue they are having/ going through. Private speech can be internalized sooner or later, but it’s something that never goes away. Unlike Piaget, Vygotsky didn’t think that the development could be detached from social context while children can create knowledge and lead their
Vygotsky believed that children learn through social interaction with adults. He also believed that dialogue with others help a child in promoting cognitive development. Adults, teachers and peers have major impact on the child development of mental processes.