Vygotsky All Humans Have the

Vygotsky All humans have the capacity to learn. More than any other animals, people have evolved to be creative learners and to actively pursue new knowledge and skills. The majority of knowledge is gained through formal education, with structured and organized instruction in reading, mathematics, science, literature, and history. How students best acquire this knowledge has been of interest to psychologists since the early 20th century. Since then, a wide range of child development theories have been suggested, some more applicable in certain areas of learning than others.

One of the child development theorists was Lev Vygotsky, who suggested that learning can be enhanced by building on prior knowledge, or what he called "scaffolding." This form of learning can be beneficial when teaching mathematics, since math is a process where one step of learning builds on another. In the last three decades, research has generated new concepts of learning in five areas.

Based on these studies, effective learning processes have shifted from the advantages of drilling and practicing to the benefits of focusing on the students' understanding and application of knowledge (Bransford, Brown, and Cocking). The five areas of study are: 1) memory and structure of knowledge. Memory is now recognized as much more than simple associations. Having a better idea of how learners acquire information has provided insights into understanding comprehension and thinking; 2) analysis of problem solving and reasoning.

It has been found that expert learners acquire skills to search a problem space and then use these general strategies to solve problems. There is a definite distinction between how novice learners and those who are proficient in the subject solve problems; 3) early foundation. Infant and child analysis in controlled settings have significantly furthered knowledge on early learning acquisition. This research has provided more information on the connection between children's learning inclinations and their emergent abilities for establishing information organization and coordination, making inferences and discovering strategies for problem solving.

Educators are seeing the importance of taking advantage of the skills and abilities children bring with them to school.; 4) metacognitive processes and self-regulatory capabilities. People can learn how to regulate behavior, which enables self-monitoring and control over their performance. This includes strategies such as predicting outcomes, planning in advance, time management, self-explanation to improve understanding, recognizing lack of comprehension; and 5) Cultural experience and community participation. Participating in social practice is a basic style of learning. It involves being aware of the possible restrictions and resources.

"Learning is promoted by social norms that value the search for understanding" (Bransford, Brown, and Cocking). Early learning is furthered by the support of the family and social environment through child-adult activities, which provide toddlers with established norms, rules and processes before going to school. Lev Vygotsky's sociocultural theory fits right into these five learning essentials.

Vygotsky's theoretical underpinning is that social interaction is an integral aspect of cognitive development: "Every function in the child's cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the individual level; first, between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological)" (Chang, Sung, & Chen, 57). Vygotsky's theory also states that the potential for cognitive development depends upon the "zone of proximal development" (ZPD): a level of development that is reached when children participate socially. The greatest development of the ZPD is based on full social interaction.

The level of skill that can be developed with adult support or peer interaction maximizes that which can be attained alone. Scaffolding is based on a teaching strategy that offers personal support in relationship to the learner's ZPD (Chang, Sung, & Chen). When scaffolding is used for educational purposes, someone who has greater knowledge scaffolds or supports the student in order to build on prior knowledge and acquire new information. The scaffolding assignments are just beyond the level of what the learner can attain by him or herself.

The more knowledgeable person offers the scaffolds so the learners are able to attain, with additional support, the tasks that they could otherwise not complete, thus helping them through the ZPD (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking). According to Vygotsky, scaffolding is the "role of teachers and others in supporting the learner's development and providing support structures to get to that next stage or level" (Raymond 176). As learners gain more knowledge, the scaffolding is progressively withdrawn until they are able to independently complete the task or master the concepts.

The student evolves into an independent and self-regulating learner and decision maker with "…more sophisticated cognitive systems, related to fields of learning such as mathematics or language, the system of knowledge itself becomes part of the scaffold or social support for the new learning" (ibid). Vygotsky's theory is a process that moves from the consciousness to the end product of socialization.

For instance, in language learning, a baby's first words are primarily to communicate, but once this skill is mastered, it becomes internalized and allows "inner speech." In a classroom, scaffolding may include using models, cues, prompts, hints, partial solutions, think-aloud modeling and direct instruction (Hartman). When providing instruction in rounding numbers a math teacher may give a list of the steps required to round hundreds starting with the number one.

For example, the teacher may say, "Look at the number in the ten's position" (Olson and Platt 180), which provides hints to the students and prompts them to finish the next required steps. Asking questions is another way to help students finish an assignment.

The number of questions may be increased and offered until the student can provide the right answer, for example: If a teacher does not receive any response or a correct response after asking the question, "How do we change the singular form of baby to the plural form of babies?" It may be necessary to follow up with a verbal prompt: "What is the rule in this case?" As a reminder that a particular rule is used.

If necessary, the teacher then continues with, "What do you do when a word ends in y to make it plural?" To offer a part of the rule (Olson and Platt 186). This is done in scaffolds until the student can do the problem without any hints and is able to do the work on his or her own. Following the use of teacher-provided scaffolds, the educator may then have the students engage in cooperative learning.

In this type of environment, students help each other in small group settings but still have some teacher assistance. This can serve as a step in the process of decreasing the scaffolds provided by the educator and needed by learners (Hartman, 2002). Scaffolding is also helpful for problem-based learning, an educational approach that encourages students to "learn to learn." In such situations, the teacher determines assignments that students can complete independently and the requirements needed to finish successfully.

The teacher then designs activities that provide only enough scaffolding for students to overcome any knowledge and skills gap.

Overall, McKenzie defines several characteristics of scaffolding instruction and outcomes: 1) Offers precise directions and lessens any instructional confusion, since the teachers anticipate problems that the students may encounter and then establishes step-by-step instructions that must be done to meet those expectations; 2) Clarifies goals, because students understand why they are doing the work and its importance; 3) Keeps students on task by giving structure and choices for maximum learning; 4) States expectations with rubrics and standards of excellence and includes assessment and feedback; 5) Designates helpful sources to reduce confusion, frustration and time spent and 6) Decreases uncertainty, surprise, and disappointment, because the teachers test their lessons to determine possible problem areas and then refine lessons to eliminate difficulties.

I observed the 7th and 8th grade math classes at Central R-III Junior HIgh School, Park Hills. Most students are white, with a few Latino's and one special child (No Child Left Behind) About 23 were in each class. I hypothesized that using Vygotsky's theory would help those students who needed additional support to understand the mathematics concepts and that it should be incorporated more into the classroom structure and methodology. This would help students at all levels of learning. There was a definite differences between the classes I observed.

Some of them were very traditional. The teacher sat in the front of the classroom and the structure was lecture led or students were asked to read the information in their books. Assignments for the week were usually written on the board. While writing on the board, the students are referred to their books open in front of them. In all cases, except one, the information provided to the students was at their level and kept the students' attention.

Similarly, in most of the classes, there was an opportunity for the students to ask questions. Either the teacher walked around while the students were doing the math problems, so they could ask for help, or the students worked together in pairs or groups to discuss the math problems. Some teachers helped students more with their problems than others. Overall, the classes were uneven in their approach. In part of the class, they were very traditional and used lecture style.

In other parts of the class, they freely allowed participation among students. For example, one teacher, despite the fact that he is more disciplined with the students, uses comparisons when explaining the concepts and refers to book when giving examples on the board. The class is quiet during a short lecture. Afterwards, the notes are left on the board and the students are asked to take notes. A special student lays head on desk and asks no questions and.