vygotsky

• child is an apprentice 


  product of socio-culture
• strength


  evidence for the role of MKO

  • Conner & Cross - mothers and infants - as age increases the amount of scaffolding decreased
  • longitudinal - 3 years
  • universal
• strength 


  application to teaching

  • MKO and scaffolding and modelling
• cultural differences in cognitive abilities

  • acknowledges that learning is a product of your environment incl, languages
  • cultures that don't count with numbers will struggle with maths
• zone of proximal development (ZPD)

  • receive help from more experienced through scaffolding (type of help learner receives)
  • while a child may be eager to learn there's a limit to what they can learn
• scaffolding

  • guide learners to perform what they can with the help
  • recruitment
  • marking critical features
  • direct maintenance
  • demonstration
  • reduction in degrees of freedom
• strength

  real world application

  • students who received peer tutoring from MKO progressed further than just teaching (keer)
  • teaching assistants are very effective
  • theory is very useful
• strength

  supporting evidence for ZPD

  • Bryant had 2 groups (control + experimental) estimate amount of sweets in a box
  • control worked alone and experimental with MKO
  • experimental mastered the task whilst control failed