Intergrating+Theory+and+Practice

Throughout many of the literacy lessons observed a social constructivist view of teaching and learning was evident. This view draws on the theories of Dewey and Vygotsky  who believe learning should be ‘social, collaborative and active’ (Hill 2006, p. ). Which throughout majority of the lessons students were encouraged to be active and involved in the learning process and also work together as a class or as small groups, sharing ideas thoughts and texts together.

Many of the other key ideas in social constructivist learning were apparent throughout the lessons observed as the teaching approaches were varied. The most obvious approach was that of scaffolding or as Vygotsky’s describes as the ‘ zone of proximal development ’ (Hill 2006, p. ). According to Vygotsky’s theory children have two levels of performance. One level is where children can independently reach a particular goal and the next level can be reached with assistance from a teacher though scaffolding. This area between goals is referred to as the ‘zone of proximal development’ (Hill 2006, p. ). This approach was evident throughout many of the shared and guided reading parts of the lessons observed. For example students were asked inferential questions about the text they were sharing or reading, which encouraged them to think further and beyond the story. This is an example of how through scaffolding a teacher can progress the child from one level of learning to another within the child’s zone of proximal development. Another example of this theory was observed during independent writing. A student had written a sentence yet had not included capital letters or a full stop, the teacher simply asked the child “what goes at the start and ending of a sentence?” and the child then was able to independently go back and correctly edit his writing. This in turn may lead to editing work with more attention in future.

Another key idea of Vygotsky’s is that children construct knowledge on their own  and need to be actively engaged or having a hands on approach when orgainising and exploring ideas. This idea was evident in an independent writing exercise where children passed around a paper cocktail umbrella sharing ideas of how the object could be featured in a story. By physically and actively touching and looking at the object students in turn where able to construct creative ideas that they could include in their stories. Again in this segment of the lesson the teacher guided the students through scaffolding to help them organise and reflect on their thinking through brainstorming as a group.



Another one of Vygotsky’s key ideas is that students learning occurs in a social context  and that the students fellow classmates and peers support the learning process. Vygotsky’s theory is that working collaborately in a class or small group is benefitual as it enriches learning as more than one idea, point of view, explanation and questions will be shared. Working collaborately in pairs, small groups and as a whole class was observed in every literacy lesson studied. This idea was evident even before independent writing tasks where students brainstormed about ideas prior to working independently. Throughout many of the literacy centers students were broken up into groups and were not discouraged to share answers or thoughts. Also after other independent work such as reading or computer activities students were encouraged to share their work with their peers. Students therefore can learn from one another by learning in a social context.