Vygotsky and Social Cognition Classroom Application Essay

Vygotsky and Social Cognition Classroom Application


After reading several of the human development theories both in our text and from some of the web resources, Vygotsky’s Cognitive theory seemed to take a practical and simple application that I think can be used in the classroom today. His theory basically states that culture is major driving force and determinant of individual development. We as “man-kind” or humans are the only beings that practice created culture, and our children, through several stages, develop within the contexts of a culture. Therefore, an individual’s learning and development is molded and modified in many varying ways, both large and small, by the culture and life events in which they reside and are exposed to daily.
In other words, people around us behave, think, and act based on how they were brought up as children and what they were exposed to during their life up to any given point. All too often we feel as though the behavior that society deems as normal is the standard for all, which it is not. The simple practice of understanding the culture and surroundings of children or members of a classroom could possibly provide insight into the reasoning for their behavior. For example, a child coming from a “group-orientated” society such as Japan would behave quite differently from what our society deems as normal or acceptable in our own “individualistic-orientated” society.
It is common knowledge that children in Japan from early on are brought up to work as a team. The notion of a child being overly expressively about themselves in a classroom setting is not the norm, much different than that of the United States. Therefore, a teacher having a student with this background could understand their behavior more effectively knowing the background, environment and culture of the student origin ahead of time. This would allow the teacher to develop his/her lesson plans and teaching style accordingly to be more effective on both...