Vygotsky Essay

Throughout the century, voluminous amounts of philosophers have developed theories that have analysed and elucidated how children learn during the course of their schooling years. There are copious amounts researchers that not only have influenced the lives children and their development but also the teaching dynamics of today’s education. Lev Vygotsky left a prime impression within society as his notions about learning swiftly became prevalent and were used to contribute to “Constructivism” as a manner of teaching to support the diversity of students within the classroom. Vygotsky believed that accurate education is not the mere learning of specific knowledge, but it is the gradual development of children’s learning aptitudes (Dolya 2009). With Vygotsky’s notion of the ‘Zone of Proximal Development, and the related concept of ‘scaffolding’, it will support today’s full range of children within the education system whether it be individual or group differences. Educational researchers have found the theory of Vygotsky to be surprisingly valuable in their understanding of the teaching and learning conception as the complex process impacts both social and cultural contexts within today’s society.

Vygotsky’s believed that the purpose of education is to introduce children to the various range of cultural tools and demonstrate how to use them to analyse reality quickly and successfully (Dolya 2009). Within past years, it is undoubted that teachers have been challenged with numerous alterations contained by educational policies, one being the inclusion of multiple diverse cultures within one classroom. While there is currently much emphasis on differentiation in schools, there is no clear consensus about what the term implies. It is li...

... middle of paper ...

...ns of socio-historical psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 3-39.

Ormrod, J. 2008. Human learning (5th ed.). Pennsylvania State University, NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall. 39.

Puntambekar, S. 2009. Scaffolding. Accessed 18th May 2014, http://www.education.com/reference/article/scaffolding/.

Smelser, N. J. & Baltes P. B. 2001. International Encyclopedia of Social & Behavioral Sciences. Florida, USA: Elsevier Ltd. P2094-2098.

Verenikina, I & Vialle, W 2013. Cultural-historical view of learning and development: Lev Vygotsky. In: Dawson, Annabel Educational Foundations. 2nd ed. Australia: Cengage Learning. 37-48.

Vygotsky, L. S. 1978. Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes . London: Harvard University Press. 57.

Warford, Mark. 2011. The zone of proximal teacher development. Teaching and teacher education. 27 (2), 252-258.