Module 21 Post 2

I can see Vygotsky thinking that extreme diversity by knowledge and past experience would be greatly beneficial to the learning environment. He believed that cognitive growth occurs because students will model for each other more advanced ways of thinking, allowing the rest of the students to work up to their peers’ level. The students of lower thinking levels will look up to and start thinking in ways that they would not have done so on their own. I think that Vygotsky would like to see groupings with a variety of development as well, because this would tie in with his theory about the Zone of Proximal Development. Here, Vygotsky explains how children who are developing can perform only with the help of someone more cognitively advanced. However, this always brings up the question of how beneficial such groupings would be to people of the higher

Piaget was not fond of the concept of grouping people based on different cognitive abilities together. He believed that the effective development of cognitive abilities came from the interaction of children with their peers, and not the interaction of children with adults. Piaget believed that by working with peers, students are more likely to see and treat each other as equals. Whereas, with Vygtosky and the diversity of age/development grouped together, perhaps there would be an unequal distribution of power among the group.

I believe that diversity can be beneficial. I think that groupings of students with different past experiences and cultures can greatly benefit every child, because they will then be able to interact with others who lead very different lives. While learning may be beneficial for the younger children working with older children, I am not sure how much an older/more intelligent person may develop when working with someone of a lesser ability. If the students are of similar cognitive ability, I don’t see why groupings of age should be a problem. I’ve been in classrooms where other “students” weren’t similar to me: they were twice my age, were parents, had never had a college education, or were returning for another degree. We all had different experiences and perspectives on life based on where we were currently in our lives, but because of the diversity, it brought a lot of new insights into the classroom and allowed us to look at situations from a variety of perspectives. That sort of diversity in the classroom was very beneficial. When you place students together with different learning abilities/level of development, sometimes the more advanced students aren’t as challenged as the other students. However, I believe that it is the responsibility of the teacher and school administrations to come up with a fair way to group students so that no one is left behind. Sorry, I just rambled a bit there!