Sociocultural Theory Analysis

Sociocultural Theory

While constructivism has focused more on constructing new information from prior schema, Bereiter (1994, p. 22) contends the more likely contribution of the sociocultural program lies in helping us view the scholarly and scientific disciplines as social institutions—groups of people functioning together by virtue of shared cultural practices. Cobb (1994) concludes that socioculturalism has often been pitted against constructivism, yet each adds a necessary component to cooperative learning that makes it more complete in its effectiveness. In conclusion, Bereiter (1994 p.21) claims that Constructivism is about paying close attention to the mental activities of the learner whilst Socioculturalism is paying

Each member of a team is answerable not only for knowledge what is taught but also for helping other team members to learn, thus developing an environment of success. According to Kagan (1994), Cooperative Learning is a teaching arrangement that refers to small, heterogeneous groups of students working together to achieve a common goal. Students work together to learn and are responsible for their teammates’ learning as well as their own. Students work from beginning to end of the assignment until all group members successfully comprehend and complete it. They work in group to gain from each other’s efforts. Hilke (1990) defines Cooperative Learning as an organizational structure in which a group of students pursue academic goals through collaborative efforts. Specifically, students work together in small groups, draw on each other’s strengths and assist each other in completing a

(Johnson,Johnson, and Smith, 1998). Students focus their attention on the assigned task to increase his or her own learning and the learning of group members. Interaction and effective communication between students is critical during cooperative work assignments. Group members equally share the assigned task, tutor other students in the group to learn and complete the assigned task. Learning course content and team skills while working on assigned tasks is an expected outcome of cooperative learning. Johnson, Johnson, and Smith (2000) stated that in cooperative learning classrooms, the instructor assigns students to small groups, gives them a question to discuss and facilitates as students exchange ideas, explain and elaborate their views, question and respond to each other, and jointly derive an answer. Knowledge is assumed to be dynamic and socially