While reading chapter two, a couple of topics intrigued me and made me think. I feel I finished reading this chapter with a better understanding of how I may be an effective teacher, which is a good feeling.
A teacher is unable to effectively teach a classroom if they are unaware of how their students have developed mentally. A first grade teacher, for example, may expect her class to know how to pronounce complicated words and know their understanding. Of course this is not a realistic expectation for the majority of the classroom. If you are unaware of how far a child has come developmentally, then you may have a hard time knowing what to expect and hope for from this child. Piaget and Vygotsky’s theories gave me a sense of what to generally expect at the different age levels of a child and how to promote developmental growth in them.
I tend to agree more with Vygotsky's theory over Piaget’s theory mainly because Vygotsky recognizes that culture and social groups play an important role on the type of development a child has. Piaget neglects to acknowledge this information; his expectations for learning and development are based on western cultures. It seems that a lot of kids are put at a disadvantage in the classroom because a lot of education and expectations are based on western cultures. In my other class we spoke briefly about how cultural norms are usually set by the upper-middle class. Different priorities in school subjects exist because of differing cultures and differing socio-economic status, but these are not acknowledged. Since most education is based off of western cultures, this does put others at a disadvantage if they were not raised in this upper-middle class culture or status. I think it is important to note that the lower socio-economic class or differing cultures puts these kids at a disadvantage, it doesn’t reflect on their intellectual abilities or development. It is just a lack of society adapting education for all (which I think would potentially be difficult to do). I feel strongly about this topic because I do think it happens frequently and I think it needs to be addressed and not just overlooked; something needs to change in order to give all children the same education opportunities.
Another interesting concept is the Zone of Proximal Development. I have always heard that kids get bored in class if they are not challenged enough and that teachers need to try to find a way to enhance the learning experience for these students. The Zone of Proximal Development is located in between the point where the current level of development is and the level in which the child could achieve. In this “zone” is where real learning can occur. The text gave ideas on how to assist with this; the most interesting thing was to incorporate cooperative learning, where the students work together. There is a fine line though because if the students already know the information they may get bored and lose focus. If the information is too complicated for them they will get frustrated and the lesson will be ineffective; it is important to find this “zone”.
However, a regular classroom doesn't necessarily allow for this. If a teacher has twenty-six students, all with different learning abilities and knowledge, they will find it difficult to adapt each lesson to each and every student. Most schools (or at least the ones I have been around) do split up the classes into different learning levels. There usually is a below average class, an average class and an above average class. I am not sure how they determine which students go where, but I do think that this system is flawed (but perhaps it is the only way?). A child could be in the low math group, but he could also be the highest level student in that class. There could be a large difference in ability of the highest student in the lowest math class and the lowest student in the lowest math class. How does a teacher adapt to this? How can you make sure you meet that zone for both students, when you have twenty-four other students that may be dealing with this same problem?
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