Peer Post for Critique by Lindsay

By the way, I really appreciate how you articulated the Vygotsky theories of cognitive growth on concept mastery in this piece. especially Vygotsky’s view of children as “apprentices” in thought. I concur that one of the most effective teaching strategies he listed was directed participation. Vygotsky’s theory states that learning can occur through active engagement with a skilled partner at the center (Mr. Hartland). In this situation, a class serves more as a forum for debate than as a “speech presentation,” and the participants gain knowledge from one another through questions and responses. However, Mr. Hartland needs to learn and understand his student’s zone of proximal development so as to adopt the most efficient approaches (Daniels, 2016).

As you have explained, a lesson such as economics contains a host of complex ideas, methods, and systems that need skilled teaching skills if the children are to understand. With each learning activity, Mr. Hartland can use different approaches that would suit each particular learning objective (Daniels, 2016). This way some lessons can make use of the “guided participation” while he can use the ”apprenticeship” approach (Daniels, 2016). This way, both Mr. Hartland and the student can benefit from the lesson: He gains a better understanding of the best teaching approach while the student can gain all the knowledge of the unit.

Overall, Mr. Hartland’s will determine how better he will impact the knowledge to his students. As the post has expounded, adopting the different styles suggested by Vygotsky can be the key to accomplishing his task. However, through all that, he needs to understand the cognitive development and the zone of proximal development to provide the best way to teach.

References

Daniels, H. (2016). Vygotsky and Pedagogy (1st ed.). London: Routledge.