Concepts and opinions about Vygotsky’s theory

Language: It is the system through which people express their thoughts, feelings, etc. by speech, writing or other conventional symbols in order to communicate. Human language uses a complex language that expresses sound sequences and graphic signs. Animals differ in that they are expressed through sound and bodily signs, still cannot understand the man. Humans acquire language through social interaction in early childhood, and usually at the age of three children speak fluently. The first language we know in our childhood is called mother tongue. 

Learning is the process of assimilating information to acquire new knowledge, skills or abilities. Accordingly learning is to acquire, process, understand and apply information we have received through the experience of a real life situation. And when this process occurs in the earliest stages of life, involves changing behaviors, attitudes and values in relation to the society in which we live. Learning is essential for humans, allowing us to adapt and learn how to deal with the situations that we encounter in our daily lives.

Teaching: involves the development of techniques and methods aimed transmitting knowledge, information, values and attitudes from one human to another being. Education is very important for humans because it allows them to develop survival and adaptation to different situations. Teaching in Education is linked to objectives, methods, practices and resources are organized in order to achieve learning for each individual. Teaching also occurs in the family, church, etc. This type of education is essential for human growth. For learning to occur mediation of teaching must exist.

Constructivism as a School of Thought  

Constructivist model focuses on the person, their previous experiences, which makes new mental constructions. Constructivism is a position shared by different trends of psychological and educational research. These include the theories of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. Piaget focuses on how knowledge starting from the interaction with the environment is built. By contrast, Vygotsky focuses on how the social environment allows internal reconstruction.

  

Vygotsky (1978) Their contribution has meant that learning is not treated as an individual rather social activity but. It should assess the social interaction in learning. There is evidence that students learn more effectively when it does cooperatively. While also teaching must be individualized in the sense of allowing each student to work independently at their own pace, it is necessary to promote collaboration and group work, as better relations with others are established, they learn more, they feel more motivated increases their self-esteem and learn more effective social skills. 

One of the most popular concepts presented by Vygotsky was the notion of a zone of proximal development (ZPD) which is an important facet of social constructivism, since it describes the tasks "that a child cannot do alone, but could do with the help of more competent peers or adults "(Slavin, 2003 p 44; Consultation Karpov and Haywood 1993).  

The combination of the theory of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky, constructivism, promote human development both in the individual part, as on the outside, the interaction with the environment and society. These investigations are important for education because they provide tools for the development of learning. 

Apply social constructivism classroom 

To achieve apply the social constructivism in the classroom can be used several strategies such as: 

Previous organizer: which is a link between the new information that is already known or known. Offer students a structure of the new information. Encourage students to transfer and apply what they already know. Organize information that will be presented later, summarizing, organizing and sequencing the points, ideas or main aspects, in a logical way. An example of such maps organizers are processes where the steps and content to develop listed. 

The contextualization is to take into account the context. ¿What context? The context of the learners and their immediate environment, your family and your community or neighborhood. This means that the subjects addressed will relate to the environment, the ability to interact with the community environment and to learn from him shall be provided. 

Cognitive conflicts: Piaget we mentioned the importance of creating cognitive conflicts to create the need to learn. When a person is put in a difficult situation, which challenges you to think, are motivated to find solutions. To further challenge the minds and learners, they can ask for different solutions. This will be also developing creativity. Eg: For creating and managing an email account: 

what risks have to use email? What benefits does have an email account? What has social effects using e-mail? 

Work as a team, learn through projects: The Social Constructivism is characterized by social interaction to generate learning, so one way to achieve this is through school projects. Using projects as part of the curriculum is not new. Project-based learning has its roots in the theories of Vygotsky, Bruner and Piaget, as the construction of learning is the result of cooperative and collaborative work between students and the closer to reality, since its implementation should be interaction with its context and based on action learning. In addition, he is facing a series of cognitive conflicts that must be responding

Student

Johana Andrea Moreno Arias.