Vygotsky in Practice

reciprocal teaching
1. In this method, teachers and students collaborate in learning and practicing four key skills: summarizing, questioning, clarifying, and predicting. The teacher's role in the process is reduced over time.
social interaction
1. Vygotsky believes social interaction is key in cognitive development
2. group work is highly important as peers can be seen as more knowledgable others (not only teachers)
scaffolding
1. teachers need to scaffold the child's learning according to Vygotsky
2. If you’re using scaffolding techniques, don’t jump in right away and start offering advice. Let each student work on their own first. When they begin to struggle, first start by asking them questions about what they’ve done and what they think they should do next.
  1. As much as possible, ask open-ended questions that encourage them to find a solution on their own, as opposed to just telling them the next step.
Having students discuss their thought process is one of the best ways to figure out where their current skills are (and thus determine their ZPD) and make sure they’re actively learning.
1. When you give advice, make sure you also explain your own thought process so students can understand why you’re making the decisions you did.
Before you begin a lesson with ZPD or Vygotsky scaffolding, find their baseline knowledge by giving a short quiz or having an introductory discussion on the topic where you ask students questions to figure out what they already know.
1. If a class has widely varying ZPDs for a specific topic, it can be more effective to have them work in groups or individually while you walk around the classroom and provide guidance so that you can tailor your techniques to each student’s ZPD.

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Vygotsky in Practice

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	Created by MOLLY MARLEY over 5 years ago