Vygotsky

I wish I've read Vygotsky earlier, now he's my other favourite Russian writer, besides Chekov. Then again, if I've read him in secondary school like I did Chekov, there would not have been any love lost, there was nothing in children then that I would have found to be of any interest or relevance to me.

Here's one-third of my second assignment due this Friday ( which is Thursday there, thank God for the time difference).

Lev Vygotsky

1. Explain Vygotsky's key concepts: Zone of Proximal Development, Scaffolding , Play. How do such relate to educational practice?

Vygotsky defined the zone of proximal development as ' the distance between the actual development level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers.'

He gave the example of two children with the standardised mental age of an eight year old. One though can solve problems up to that a 9 year old can do while the other up to the difficulty level of a twelve year old with guidance.

He concluded that they are not of the same mental age after all and that their learning would eventually have to take on a different rate. Whatever the child can already do is learning that has already matured but those functions in their embryonic stage that are still maturing is what Vygotsky called the zone of proximal development.

Educators thus need to identify two levels of the state of a child's development: 'the actual development level and the zone of proximal development'. It is in this zone where the child can achieve his potential with the guidance of an adult or his more capable peers. The ability to cater to this part of a child's development not only ensures that he is not bogged down and turned off by things he has already internalised but allows him to reach a higher level of development.

Scaffolding is ' the gradual withdrawal of adult control and support as a function of children’s increasing mastery of a given task.' based on the ideas of Jerome Bruner. The educator is like the support that gives the children an extra boost as he finds his way to a new stage of learning. However his role is eventually diminished as ' what a child can do with assistance today she will be able to do by herself tomorrow.' ( Vygotsky 1978 p87)

Vygotsky sees the function of the educator in the process of scaffolding more as that of 'a facilitator of cognitive development'. While acting in this role he should be a collaborator in this process who together with the children work towards accomplishing joint goals.

Play creates a zone of proximal development in a child where he is capable of behaving beyond his age. It contains 'all developmental tendencies in a condensed form'. Where two sisters cannot be models of behaviour in real life, when they play sisters they strive to be what they believe is the ideal that is expected from each of them. Though it arises from their imagination, that is initially very close to real life, they subordinate their immediate impulses to the rules of the situation if it was real.

It is thus a strong tool in assisting the child in his development. Opportunities for play should be created in the learning environment to enable this process to take place. Contrary to ensuring that the child is constructively occupied all the time, time off to play can have a very positive effect on the child. Not only does he runs through his experiences, he recreates this in his own controlled environment and characters with real life rules, bridging what he is already capable of and what he can be and eventually becomes capable to function in the role he has played out

References

www.comnet.ca

www.uea.ac.uk

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Change in angle

I have decided to change this blog from a first person account of homeschooling to be dedicated instead to different educational philosophies or methods especially Montessori, although I'm not so sure now after learning about others but I shall focus still on Montessori where there is an integration of sorts, though that may be because I've only just read on the philosophers who influenced her, and a 'method'.

I'll start by sharing my short write-ups for my Montessori Foundations course that I'm currently taking from www.montessorilive.net. I love the short lectures, the interactive chats and the angle of the whole course. It has made me realise how much 'deeper' the Montessori school of thought is, so unlike the technical concentration on presentation that I'm swamped with in the course I took locally.

Here's my first write-up on the Early Reformers in Education. Do not these are the writings of a layman over a period of a few days and are thus not in depth and not necessarily right: )

Week 1 Assignment: Early Reformers in Education

Jean Jacques Rousseau

4. What did Rousseau's philosophy of education stress? What did he advise was the role of the educator of the child?

   Rousseau divided education into that which is from nature, man and things. However as

nature is beyond our control and things only partly, we can only take hold of the education of man. All three must work in harmony to produce a well-educated man who will achieve his goal in life and is at peace with himself.

This ideal is however prevented by the norms and demands of life or societal pressures such as that of authority and prejudice. From the start, Rousseau believed that we thwart the true education of children by for example not providing him with the care of his mother and the swaddling the infant that he is unable to fulfill his physical needs.

To overcome this, education should persevere ' to preserve the 'original perfect nature' of the child by means of careful control of his education and environment, based on an analysis of the different physical and physiological stages through which he passed from birth to maturity.' (Stewart and McCann 1967: 28).

Herein, come the role of the educator who is but a facilitator in the whole plan. He must not only be a model to the child but ' prepare his surroundings, so that nothing shall strike his eyes but what is fit for his sight.'

The ideal setting for this scene to Rousseau is the countryside where there is greater control over what the teacher thinks the child should learn and is far removed from the evils of urban life. Apart from providing the right environment, the teacher must also decide on the best education plan for the child which should spring from what the child is inclined to. To find this out, the teacher must ' take time to observe nature; watch your scholar well before you say a word to him; first leave the germ of his character free to show itself, do not constrain him in anything, the better to see him as he truly is.'

John Henry Pestalozzi

3.What were the elements of the human child that Pestalozzi insisted be in balance for healthy education to take place?

Pestalozzi believed that education should be holistic in that it not only imparts knowledge that already exists but to equip the students in such a way that they become autonomous beings. Central to this process was the need for the 'hand', 'heart' and 'head' to be in equilibrium.

In fact he said, 'the most fearful gift that a fiendish spirit has made to this age is knowledge without power of doing and insight without that power of exertion or of overcoming that makes it possible.'

'Head' was referred to by Pestalozzi as 'man's ability to detach himself through reflection from the world and his confused impressions thereof by developing concepts and ideas.'

In reality however, man's sensitivity is constantly challenged and 'brings him closer to his fellow men in the struggle to control nature through work' (ibid) of what he defines as the heart. Torn between the ideal and reality, man works towards the formation of his own self of what is the 'hand'.

The three elements are however not three separate faculties but one which should be integrated in every educational activity. For example Pestalozzi wrote, ' This A B C of limb exercise must, naturally, be brought into harmony with the A B C of sense exercises, and with all the mechanical practice in thinking, and with exercises in form and number-teaching.'

In his four-step course of the arts, he begins with the correct mastery of a skill and 'at the end of the development there is 'freedom and independence', i.e creative mastery.'

Friedrich Froebel

3.What were the three elements Froebel thought as necessary for the education of the whole child?

Froebel's work was based on three principles; (1) all existence originates in and with God; (2) humans possess an inherent spiritual essence that is the vitalizing life force that causes development; (3) all beings and ideas are interconnected parts of a grand, ordered, and systematic universe. There is an internal spiritual essence- a life force- in every child at birth that seeks to be externalized through self-activity.

'The purpose of education is to encourage and guide man as a conscious, thinking and perceiving being in such a way that he becomes pure and perfect representation of that divine inner law through his own personal choice; education must show him the ways and meanings of attaining that goal.' ( Friedrich Froebel 1826 Die Nenschenerziehung, pp.2)

Froebel shares the Idealist viewpoint that every child has in him from birth all that he is to become. From providing the right environment, the child will then grow into what they were meant to be which was also the basis of the Kindergarten.

We can however only know the inner child from his outer manifestations and he believed that a major part of this is seen in play for 'Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood for it alone is the free expression of what is in a child's soul.'

John Dewey

8. What did Dewey mean by his saying that 'education is life itself'?

'Education is a social process; education is growth; education is not a preparation for life but is life itself.'

In order for life to continue there needs to be a continued process of self-renewal that ensures the survival of the being. As for social life, this role is taken up by education which Dewey sees as the means through which this can be realised.

Education does this through the process of transmitting the 'ideals, hopes, expectations, stantdards, opinions, from those members of society who are passing out' to the young.' If this is not carried out it could mean the demise of the social life of that community.

Life itself too is education for the process of living together ' enlarges and enlightens experience; it stimulates and enriches imagination; it creates responsibility for accuracy and vividness of statement and thought.

This is translated in practice where students would be involved in real-life lessons and challenges such as learning math in cooking and simulations of historical events. This closed the gap between real life and abstract learning from textbooks as information and society progressed at a fast speed.

References

Rousseau, J. J(2004). The Project Gutenberg Ebook of Emile. #5427,

UNESCO (1994) Prospects: the quarterly review of comparative education, vol XXIV, no. ½,,p.297-310).

Pestalozzi, J.H (1894), How Gertrude Teaches Her Children, http://core.roehampton.ac.uk/digital/froarc/peshow/index.htm

www.heinrich-pestalozzi.de/en/documentation/fundamental_ideas/education

Dewey, J. (1997).The Project Gutenberg Ebook of Democracy and Education.#852