The role of language was less visible in Skinner, other than as one, among many reinforcement tools. Vygotsky stressed language acquisition as a vital, constant, but again, not always predictable and sequential part of different individual's learning, and that the word could be a microcosm of a human consciousness, if the right words could render a concept uniquely comprehensible to individuals in a particular learning environment. Thus in Skinner's rubric of learning, the learner was the passive instrument of the teacher, while in Vygotsky the learner was more individually empowered, but more socially located and dependant creature. However, unlike Skinner, who saw the ability of an individual to learn as limitless provided there was proper environmental shaping on the part of the conditioning teacher, Vygotsky believed saw learning as limited unless a student had proper social contacts. He believed in the need for learning to take place in developmental stages, and saw learning as dependant upon the individual's biology and the stages of psychological development the individual was currently located in -- learning was not limitless as it was not as an outer, sequential process determined by the teacher. Works Cited

Bigge, Morris, & Samuel Shermis. Learning Theories for Teachers" Chapters 5 & 6.

Part II

Teaching nursing might not be strictly taught same manner that Vygotsky suggested. Vygotsky stressed that teachers should teach children, within the student's zones of proximal development, in the sense that developmental stages are recognized, and that the learning process is reinforced both...

Nursing is a profession and a skill imparted to adults, rather than a series of basic skills for young people that are necessary for language, mathematical, and other forms of learning acquisition later on in the child's life. But the nursing process could benefit from the social mentorship stressed by Vygotsky. This already takes place in the bonding frequently exhibited between nurses who are part of the same class in nursing school. Also, rather than proceeding traditionally from classroom to residency, there has been an effort to encourage more social interaction with mentoring, older nurses and healthcare professionals and to incorporate more hands-on elements into the nursing curriculum.
Furthermore, nursing is about dealing with people, and Vygotsky stressed the human and collective element of learning, something that must be emotionally and socially acquired, and is dependant upon the emotional capabilities and intelligences of the learner, rather than something that is purely dependant upon the expertise of the teacher and the teacher's craft at shaping the learner's behavior, step-by-step. The zones of proximal development that stress the need for collective learning are critical to the emotional and psychological coping skills demanded in the field of healing professions such as nursing. Stressing the functions and activities a learner can perform only with the assistance of someone else may seem to make dependant upon someone reinforces the fact that healing is an institution wide process, embracing nurse, patient, doctor, and the patient's family.