- One question that I am curious about is how Vygotsky would view the different methods explained in Module 21 of cooperation in the classroom. There seem to be many controversies about how group work in the classroom benefits each students individually. There are many different ways that students can be grouped in a classroom. The most common ways are either homogeneity or heterogeneity. Each of these will contribute to a different outcome. In the Module it said that having the classroom split up also tends to create segregation between different cultures and and socioeconomic backgrounds. This is where I feel that
Vygotsky's themes would come in and he would have a lot to say since he theorizes about how society and culture effects people.
-Vygotsky does suggest in his readings that children to learn more and develop through internalization. Internalization to him is when a student develops information from the outside world into their human mind. Sometimes when a student is given information it takes them awhile to actually understand the information, which is developed through internalization. One example that I can use is something I learned in my N103 class which is a geometry class. We learned in this class that many students these days do not really understand the concept of what an angle is, or the degrees of an angle. Because of this the new idea and definition of what an angle really is was introduced to students in the classroom. From this during discussions students were able to fully understand what an angle is. Then for the degrees part, we refered to an angle as a wedge. We were able to measure the angle with an edge that was 45 degrees. Each angle we were able to see how many wedges fit into the angle and from that we could tell the angle degrees. Through group discussion and doing these hands on activites these students were fully able to develop a good definiton of an angle and its characteristics. This would work with Vygotsky's theory of internalization because these students were taught what an angle was, but didn't fully understand the concept. Then after discussing, talking, and doing hands on activites they were able to develop and understand the correct definitions, and interalize the information.
I personally think that Vygostky would recommend cooperative learning rather than ability learning for the classroom. Putting students with other students at the same level wouldn't encourage intersubjectivity (a big part of his theory) , where students from different backgrounds work together to complete a task. However, I guess there could be students in an ability group with completely different backgrounds and personalities that could potentially learn a lot from each other, even though they're at the same ability level. I still think that Vygostky would really encourage cooperative learning, where people of different skill level work together, to raise student's ZDPs.
ReplyDeleteYou describe the two sides of grouping (homogeneity or heterogeneity), but WHAT would Vygotsky have to say about all this? Also, can a class ever be completely homogeneous?
ReplyDeleteI like the personal example that you describe here, but I'd like to hear more about how it is an example of internalization. It seems like you used the 'hands on activities' with the physical object as a collective group. The perception of the physical (and visual) size of an angle was internalized to the concept of the angle so that you could compare it to the 2 dimensional angle in the geometry book?
You use phrases like 'they were taught what an angle was' or 'they didn't fully understand the concept', and I want you to know these are loaded phrases--they could mean a variety of things. Try to be more specific in future descriptions when possible. For example, there are lots of ways to understand the concept 'angle', and the students may be taught ONE way of conceiving of angles (a 2 dimensional method presented in a textbook and papers). You explored a second method using 3 dimensional wedges. Perhaps simply multiple methods (remember multiple methods of perception helping learning from the brain section) of exploring the concept of 'angle' was beneficial.