2. SOCIAL COGNITION
• Social Cognition – a learning theory based
on the idea that learning is heavily based
on social interactions.
• The social cognition theory was developed
by an educational psychologist named Lev
Vygotsky.
3. GROUP WORK
• Collaborative Learning - can be described as a teaching method
where the teacher provides temporary assistance to the learner
so that they can then complete the desired activity
independently at some point soon after that.
• Scaffolding – when a teacher figures out which level of
learning a student is at and bases their lessons around that level
and more challenging levels by encouraging collaborative
learning to take place.
• A scaffold is a temporary source of knowledge that can help a
student learn new things that they wouldn’t be able to learn
otherwise.
4. ZONE OF PROXIMAL
DEVELOPMENT
• The Zone of Proximal Development is the
level of difficulty that a child can reach and
learn at on a given topic with the assistance of
someone who is more educated on that topic.
• This zone is useful because it helps students
progress by presenting them with challenges,
but not more than they can handle.
5. THE TEACHER’S PLACE IN IT:
• A teacher can use the zone of proximal development to pull a child up to a
higher learning level that they wouldn’t have been able to reach on their
own.
Examples:
• A first grade student knows how to use Microsoft Word, but not
Powerpoint. The teacher can then introduce the child to Powerpoint and
show them how to create a simple presentation. The student had no idea
how to use Powerpoint initially, but since it was in their Zone of Proximal
Development, with help from the teacher, they could learn it.
• Most second graders can only do addition and subtraction, but when
Sammy’s older brother showed her his homework problems that included
multiplication, she was able to understand how it worked, and after a
couple examples from him, she could do it on her own because
multiplication was in her Zone of Proximal Development.
6. THE STUDENT’S PLACE IN IT:
• When a student is given a task that they have no idea how to complete,
they can listen to or observe someone with more knowledge than them so
that the student can then begin to learn to complete the task on their own.
Examples:
• When a student is learning to type, they often look at the keys at first (the
labels on the keys in this example play the role of the teacher). But then as
that student begins to understand where each key is, they can type on their
own even with a rubber opaque keyboard cover which prevents them from
seeing the letters.
• A child who is learning to sing the alphabet will sing along with their
teacher the first few times, and listen to the teacher until the teacher drops
out and they can continue to sing it on their own.
7. HOW THIS THEORY APPLIES TO
TEACHING FOR ME:
• I think this theory is an extremely useful one because it shows
that students can be challenged and learn more with the help
of others.
• Collaborative learning is great tool to use which gives the
students an opportunity to figure out the answers on their own
with the help of others. It can be used for almost any topic
that a discussion would be appropriate for.
• I will help my students learn new things based on this theory
by providing them with temporary assistance so that from that
moment forward, they can complete whatever the assignment
or objective is on their own.
