According to psychologists Lev
Vygotsky and, to a lesser degree, Jean Piaget, the role of adults in the
cognitive development of children is significant. Vygotsky concluded that adults
model behavior, teach and communicate language skills and generally integrate
children into their culture. As a teacher, this is an enormous responsibility
and, of course, a privilege as well. How we interact with children can have
tremendous consequences in terms of their ability to learn new concepts and
develop socially. As Ormrod states, “Not only do adults teach children specific
ways of interpreting experience but they also pass along specific tools that
can help children tackle the various tasks and problems they’re apt to face
(315)”. According to Vygotsky, one of the more significant roles adults play is
through the Zone of Proximal Development. This is the “range of tasks that
children can’t yet perform independently but can perform with the help and
guidance of others (Ormrod, 317). Providing students with challenging tasks,
and then guiding them through completion allows for cognitive development.
Piaget also emphasized the importance of new and challenging schema in learning.
Ormrod states that, “the process of equilibration promotes progression towards
increasingly complex forms of thought” (292). Though Piaget may have contended
that children construct this learning themselves, certainly the teacher plays a
crucial role in providing challenging lessons to allow for growth. I think that finding the right level of
challenge (readiness) is a struggle, but this is where differentiation and
modification come into play; if a task is too easy there is no point in
completing it, if a task is too difficult it cannot be completed. Structuring
lessons to meet that level of readiness requires planning, assessment and
opportunities for revision along the way.
An
important element in terms of providing the right level of challenge is
scaffolding. By providing a variety of methods for learning new concepts, we
increase the students’ chances of successfully acquiring new knowledge and
skills. According to Ormrod, scaffolding can include modelling, feedback,
dividing up complex tasks, keeping learners focused and on task, asking
questions, and providing technological assistance where appropriate (324).
Our goal as
teachers is, essentially, to prepare children to be adults. We can begin that process
by allowing students opportunities to collaborate, mentor each other and learn by
doing. I teach digital citizenship, including online responsibility. One of the
ways I do that is by blogging with my students. I model the expected behavior
by introducing the blog during class and then invite them to post when they
have time. Students then interact with each other (and me) in a protected environment.
Recently I had to delete inappropriate comments from the blog. I met with the
students and talked about appropriateness and then invited them to try again. I
hoped to guide them in the right direction, but they had to construct their own
knowledge of what exactly “appropriate” means, and hopefully acquire new
knowledge and skills.
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