Theory To Practice Paper

Theory to Practice Paper (Lev Vygotsky)

Lev Vygotsky played a fundamental role in analyzing the aspect of social interaction in a classroom setting. Social interaction is critical in the process of cognitive development. In most cases, social learning precedes development (Pass, 2004). According to Vygotsky, the cultural development in a child occurs in two phases. The first phase is the social level while the second phase is on the individual level. In a classroom, a teacher is required to have a higher level of understanding about a particular subject than the learner in the sense that during their interaction, the learner

Later on, children use these tools for their social functions such as during communication. When the tools are internalized, learners can develop higher thinking skills. A teacher should ensure that there is a sufficient collaboration with the student in an effort to help the student to facilitate the meaning of ideas or opinions (Yavuz, 2014). Learning is a reciprocal experience for both the student and the teacher. The teacher should also initiate role playing programs by engaging learners in imaginative play. Role playing involves creating a story and giving various characters an opportunity to showcase what they know best. During this process, children will imitate others and develop a vocabulary that allows them to develop and navigate the world around them (Pass, 2004). In this case, the teacher will have the mandate to ensure that the roles taken by each child are in line with the objective of the learning task. Also, the teacher will be able to interact with less verbal children who will have the opportunity to talk more during the imaginative

However, most children show what is referred to as ‘inner speech’. The inner speech is an aspect of language development which enables children to talk out loudly to themselves during play. In this regard, the teacher is required to be close to the child and enhance his or her speech development in any possible way. In a classroom, the teacher can enhance the aspect of inner speech by listening to the way a child converses. A child can also be encouraged to mimic adults. As children develop, "they change from being over-regulated to being self-regulated over specific cognitive processes like memory and thought" (Duck-Joo, Choi & Hoy-Yong, 2016). When the child tries to solve a problem alone, the performance is different than when an adult assists the