I think that Vygotsky would recommend extreme diverse grouping for students. In his theory, he states how important culture is to learning and how it is one of the first steps in order to drive cognitive development. The Zone of Proximal Development include all of the skills that a child can develop and perform, only with the help of someone more cognitively advanced. Within this zone, the child and the more capable peer correct the gap by engaging in the development of knowledge (intersubjectivity). This shows how diversity, especially in intelligence and prior knowledge, can help a student learn in a beneficial manner. They both understand and adjust to each other’s skills and perspectives, creating a somewhat of an interdependence. This situation is shown very well in the video clip. A group of students are forced to be together and work together in the same environment, but from different backgrounds. It takes 2 students to work together to construct knowledge, so even though they are all clearly different, they will, in time, learn from each other.
The more diverse a group is, the more chances of development of new knowledge to take place. Working with others from different backgrounds can aid learning more efficiently than students who are the same overall. Vygotsky continually believes that once the gap is decreased, students will be able to understand other perspectives and are then able to learn from each other. In this video clip, each individual is shown to be very different academically and socially, but when they all work together and learn from one another, development increases dramatically because of diversity.
You say that 'culture is one of the most important first steps to learning', but what does that mean? What is the step? What do children do with culture (or does culture do to them) to promote learning?
ReplyDeleteI do like your term of interdependence. I think it puts it very well.
You tend to use terms like 'fix' and 'correct' when describing learning (correcting the gap), but I hope you do not think of it in that way. Becoming more cognitively advanced at one specific tasks is simply a change in cognitive function. You're becoming more independent in completing certain kinds of tasks. There really isn't a state where 'the gap is closed'. You ALWAYS have a ZPD (gap) for every type of task or activity. It is always open, just shifts higher once you become more advanced. You can tie your shoes without any help from anyone (so that would be the bottom of your ZPD), but perhaps there is a speed-shoe tying champion out there somewhere, and with a few lessons from him, you could improve in speed or have a different technique. :)