Vygotsky’s philosophy

Constructivism is a learning theory about how people learn, based on the idea that humans actively construct new understandings. Vygotsky focused on how children construct their knowledge and develop language Constructivism can help engage and motivate the students by making them take a more active role in their own learning process.  Moreover, Vygotsky (1978) believes that learning is a continual movement occurs in the zone of proximal development (ZPD) as a result of social interaction. ZPD is the difference between what a student can do without help and what they can do with help.

Normally in a traditional classroom, the teacher is the center of a classroom, but with constructivism, learners would be central portion in their own learning process.

It's important to highlight that in constructivist teaching we must we must develop the curiosity in our students, creating an environment that motivate the student to go further, because nurturing this curiosity allows for them discover and build their own learning with the experience.

Examples:

v  In the reading section a student take a book about "superheroes" that is his favorite topic, and he starts to read, suddenly he finds a unknown word, the student asks his teacher for help, the teacher goes and asks the student to re-read paragraph; giving the possibility of deducing the meaning by context. If the student has not been able to grasp the meaning, then the teacher must give him ideas that approximate the true meaning, the teacher can use mimics or expressions with synonyms until the student is able to have the meaning and continue reading his book.

It is important to help them discover solutions and not just give them the answers.

v  The teacher forms groups of four people, the first student will be the model and his or her partner will be in charge of describing his or her partner who is the model, another student writes the description on a large piece of paper and finally the last member of the group read the description in front of the class. Collaborative learning is promoted through collaboration among students, and between students and teacher.

v  Involving students in interesting "real" activities in learning about, plating in, or solving problems on an environment that has rules or patterns.

David L, "Social Development Theory (Vygotsky)," in Learning Theories, July 23, 2014, https://www.learning-theories.com/vygotskys-social-learning-theory.html


Mayerly Santiago

Audio comment from a classmate:
https://vocaroo.com/i/s0tZZK1GJx8g