Vygotsky TIPR

Prompt: What evidence do you see of specific teacher behaviors that are geared toward Vygotsky's theories of cognitive development? Cite specific examples and make clear connection to Vygotsky's work. Be thorough in your coverage of the theory, addressing multiple concepts to demonstrate your understanding.

In a language classroom, it is critical that students understand that knowledge is co-constructed, because there can be no communication if only one party is present and participating. The teacher makes this clear by primarily having students work in groups, some of which are chosen by the students, while others are assigned by the teacher. 

During one activity in particular, elements of Vygotsky's theory were abundant. The teacher activated the students' funds of knowledge using priming before the activity began. She listed 10 different TV shows and asked if students had watched them before; many raised their hands. She then handed out papers that listed family members in many different culturally-relevant families from books, movies, and TV shows, and asked students to choose one and practice twice to themselves listing the family members in order using the ranking system in ASL. This is taking advantage of private speech to allow students to internalize the structure they should be using before having them use it with classmates. They were then asked to sign their chosen family structure to two other students and have those students guess the family's last name. Throughout the activity, the teacher walked around the room to ensure they were on task and monitor their use of language as the more knowledgeable other. Through this means, she facilitated assisted learning.

This activity was well-structured for these students because it was in their zone of proximal development; students knew how to fingerspell, but did not yet know how to use the ranking system in ASL. They had to rely on the more knowledgeable other to guide their use of this new structure as they used their prior knowledge in a new way. It was scaffolded well, as students were first asked to look at the sheet and choose something with which they were familiar, practice it to themselves, and then show it to two other people. They were allowed to use the paper throughout the process to assist in their memory of the order and spelling of the names.