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Sociocultural Theory and the Mediated Learning Experience
Abstract
One of the most radical changes occurring in our approach to learning and instruction concerns the agency of learning. Only recently an individual was perceived as a 'natural' agency of learning. Now this position becomes increasingly challenged on both theoretical and prac- tical grounds. The concept of mediation plays the central role in this critical reappraisal. Two theories that have contributed most to the development of the mediational approach to learning is the Vygotskian sociocultural theory and Feuerstein's theory of Mediated Learning Experience (MLE). Both theories emphasized the importance of socio- cultural forces in shaping the situation of a child's development and learning. Both pointed to the crucial role played by parents, teachers, peers and the community in defining the type of learning interaction occurring between children and their environments. Beyond their role as tools of theoretical critique, Vygotsky's and Feuerstein's systems have generated a number of applied programs offering new techniques for the enhancement of students' cognitive functions, development of metacognition and integration of cognitive elements into instructional practice.
... By preparing a meal, learners gain more skills in preparing that particular meal. In this internalisation process from external to internal, the tools modify and transform the learners' thought processes as they begin to use these new tools to express their thinking (Hedegaard, 2004;Kozulin, 2002;Vygotsky, 1978). According to the sociocultural theory, this learning occurs in social interactions with others such as teachers or more capable pairs (Hall, 2007;Kozulin, 2002;Vygotsky, 1978). ...
... In this internalisation process from external to internal, the tools modify and transform the learners' thought processes as they begin to use these new tools to express their thinking (Hedegaard, 2004;Kozulin, 2002;Vygotsky, 1978). According to the sociocultural theory, this learning occurs in social interactions with others such as teachers or more capable pairs (Hall, 2007;Kozulin, 2002;Vygotsky, 1978). Both material and psychological tools are social by nature (Kozulin, 2002). ...
... According to the sociocultural theory, this learning occurs in social interactions with others such as teachers or more capable pairs (Hall, 2007;Kozulin, 2002;Vygotsky, 1978). Both material and psychological tools are social by nature (Kozulin, 2002). Social interaction is often emphasised in adult nonformal courses. ...
This study examines the implementation of the HE teaching at municipal and school level in Finland. It uses the framework of quality criteria for basic education as a reflective base (Ministry of Education and Culture, 2012). The study examines the factors that guide the planning of teaching, HE contents and collaboration. There were 111 responded to an electronic survey. The data was analyzed using crosstabulation, K-mean cluster and content analyses. The curriculum (national or school) is the most important factor guiding teaching (68.5%). Teachers agree to follow curriculum objectives, but contents are emphasized as desired. Teachers are collaborators with HE colleague: 1) solitary (n = 23), 2) independent (n = 19), 3) collaborators (n = 42) and 4) tandem (n = 27). In compulsory HE lessons, food is prepared every time (90.1%) and in optional HE (91.9%). During the 8th–9th grades, pupils had 2 weekly hours of teaching HE as an artistic and practical subject elective (n = 89). Optional HE was offered so that a specific content was defined, or as a short or long elective. Primary school (grades 1–6) HE teaching was club-like and teaching in high schools was minimal. Teachers have autonomy, schools and municipal have much freedom. HE teaching is flexible for local needs but there is no uniformity.
KEYWORDS: HOME ECONOMICS (HE), CONTENT, CURRICULUM, COLLABORATION
... This thesis employs an SCT stance with a particular focus on the concepts of mediation and internalisation, both of which are commonly considered together in scholarly work on SCT (see, for example, Kozulin, 2002;Lantolf, 2000Lantolf, , 2007Mercer & Howe, 2012;Thorne & Lantolf, 2007). First, regarding the concept of mediation, SCT argues that human cognition comprises low-and high-level mental processes, with the latter being fundamentally a mediated process organised by cultural artefacts, activities, and concepts (Ratner, 2002). ...
... it as a two-stage developmental process: first, it appears between people as an interpsychological category, and then within the individual as an intrapsychological category, including voluntary attention, logical memory, formation of concepts, and development of volition. Kozulin (2002) more briefly defines internalisation as the process through which cultural artefacts, including language, take on a psychological function. Leontiev (1981), a colleague of Vygotsky, opts for the term appropriation to characterise the process of internalisation. ...
... see, for example,Bonk & Kim, 2013;Johnson & Golombek, 2016;Kozulin, 2002;Thorne & Lantolf, 2007).By employing the SCT stance presented above towards concepts such as cognitive development, learning, interaction, and collaboration, the design, execution, and data analysis of one of the primary studies (i.e., the first sub-project, which will be detailed in the Methodology section) involved in this thesis (seeMacaro et al., 2016 - Appendix D; Akıncıoğlu & Lin, 2021 -Appendix E; Akıncıoğlu, 2024 -Appendix J) ...
This thesis is a compilation of eight published works on English-medium instruction (EMI) at the tertiary level, accompanied by a commentary that synthesises the findings and discussions from these works. Over the past three decades, research on EMI at the tertiary level has advanced significantly. However, much of the focus remains on problem identification, particularly in three areas: English language issues, pedagogical and professional learning challenges, and stakeholder perceptions of EMI. The increasing volume of such research suggests the field has reached a saturation point, indicating a need for a new approach focused on problem-solving (Han, 2023; Macaro & Akıncıoğlu, 2018). Notably, the existing literature lacks research and discussion on solution models that address ongoing challenges, particularly in relation to the professionalisation of EMI and improving students' learning outcomes.
To address this gap, this thesis draws on Critical EMI, grounded in critical social theory (CST) and socio-cultural theory (SCT), to present and analyse eight of my published works in response to the central research question: What does research on multidisciplinary teacher collaboration and student perception suggest for the professionalisation of EMI at the tertiary level? These works share a coherent theme related to the professionalisation of EMI, with particular emphasis on students' academic outcomes, motivation, interdisciplinary teacher collaboration, and the professional development of EMI content-teachers. The works include one report (Dearden et al., 2015), four research articles (Dearden et al., 2016; Macaro & Akıncıoğlu, 2018; Macaro et al., 2020; Akıncıoğlu, 2024), two book chapters (Akıncıoğlu & Lin, 2021; Akıncıoğlu, 2022), and one conceptual article (Akıncıoğlu, 2023), all published by internationally recognised, peer-reviewed outlets.
Five of these published works (one report and four research papers) utilise data collected from the EMI Oxford Project, a mixed-methods research initiative conducted at Oxford University between 2014 and 2017. The first sub-project was a qualitative inquiry into interdisciplinary teacher collaboration in Turkish EMI universities, using data from pre- and post-intervention semi-structured interviews (Dearden et al., 2015; Macaro et al., 2016) and audio recordings of collaborative lesson planning (Akıncıoğlu, 2024). The second sub-project employed a quantitative approach, investigating the impact of variables such as year group, gender, and university type on Turkish students’ perceptions of EMI. The third sub-project focused on EMI teacher perspectives on professional development and certification through online surveys (Dearden et al., 2015; Macaro & Akıncıoğlu, 2018; Macaro et al., 2020).
The commentary synthesises qualitative and quantitative findings from these eight published works interpretively (Noblit & Hare, 1988), applying perspectives from Critical EMI, CST, and SCT to categorise major insights and introduce a solution-oriented guiding model for addressing EMI professionalisation challenges—the EMI Professionalisation Framework (EMI ProF). To achieve this, Miles and Huberman’s (1994) coding procedures (data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing/verification) were employed to extract themes from the qualitative and quantitative data of one report and four research articles. Additionally, narrative literature review techniques (Grant & Booth, 2009) were utilised to summarise and critically interpret the findings of one conceptual article and two chapters, facilitating thematic analysis and the discussion of emerging trends.
Reflecting on these findings, this thesis advocates for the professionalisation of EMI at the tertiary level to strengthen interdisciplinary teacher collaboration, improve students' academic content learning and motivation, and certify and recognise the competencies of EMI content-teachers. As a result, two frameworks are proposed: (1) a theoretical framework for EMI professionalisation, grounded in Freidson’s (2001) definition of professionalism, Evetts’ (2009) sources of professionalism, and Solbrekke and Englund’s (2011) concepts of professional responsibility and accountability; and (2) the EMI Professionalisation Framework (EMI ProF), a quality management programme for universities, designed to be implemented through institutional innovation projects. By prioritising strategic decision-making, quality assurance, sustainability, and improved learning outcomes in EMI programmes, this thesis makes an original contribution to the field through the EMI ProF. However, it is important to note that the EMI ProF should be viewed as a guiding model to stimulate further research and inquiry into professionalisation, rather than as a complete framework offering a definitive solution.
Lastly, the thesis calls for future research to focus on the implementation and refinement of models like the EMI ProF, given the global expansion of EMI and the pressing need for standardisation and quality management to ensure its effectiveness and sustainability.
... The aim was to explore the teachers' experiences in the subject areas of craft education and home economics education in Finnish Adult Education Centres (AECs). We based our analysis on the sociocultural approach of learning and the central role of tool mediation, which is important while learning practical skills (Hedegaard, 2004;Kozulin, 2002;Vygotsky, 1978). By analysing the material, embodied and social mediation of teachers' experiences of using ICT tools in craft and home economics education, we wanted to take part in the development of new ways of using ICT in practical skills teaching and learning. ...
... The mediators in this learning process are material and psychological tools and other human beings. The psychological tools are language, signs and symbols (Hedegaard, 2004;Kozulin, 2002;Vygotsky, 1978). Both material and psychological tools are social by nature (Kozulin, 2002). ...
... The psychological tools are language, signs and symbols (Hedegaard, 2004;Kozulin, 2002;Vygotsky, 1978). Both material and psychological tools are social by nature (Kozulin, 2002). Vygotsky focused on child development and learning but recent research has revealed that the same learning processes apply to adults who are learning new skills (Rosser-Mims et al., 2017;Shah, 2017). ...
The aim of this research was to explore teachers' experiences in using ICT (information and communication technology) as a pedagogical tool in the subject areas of craft education and home economics education in Finnish AECs (Adult Education Centres). We focused on teachers' experiences of using ICT in teaching practical skills in these two subjects. Based on a sociocultural approach, teachers' experiences were examined from the perspective of embodied, material and social mediation. The data were gathered just before the COVID-19 pandemic via an open online survey. There were 34 respondents from several parts of the country. The data were analysed according to the three categories of mediation revealing the benefits and restrictions of using ICT. Some teachers had experienced that utilising ICT supported learning practical skills while the others did not find it very useful. All the teachers stressed the importance of using the senses (touch, taste, smell) in learning practical skills which the ICT did not allow. The results provide a starting point for reflecting on the situation that arose in March 2020 when the pandemic started.
... The experience of emergency remote teaching (ERT) (Hodges et al., 2020) at a residential university in South Africa highlighted a significant disjuncture between student perceptions of their performance and that of lecturer expectations. Drawing on Vygotsky's sociocultural theory of learning (Kozulin, 2002), the paper uses a particular case study in an electrical engineering department to examine student perceptions of their performance during ERT and an intervention strategy to improve evaluative judgment going forward. Drawing on this study, we illuminate student performance perception patterns and suggest an more contextually nuanced review of the Constructive Alignment framework that better enables potential graduates to develop 'evaluative judgement'. ...
... Learning happens in socio-culturally mediated settings (Kozulin, 2002), where 'social' refers to the relevant stakeholders (such as, but not limited to, students and teachers) in a particular 'community of practice' (Lave and Wenger, 1991). This community, then, refers to the 'cultural' aspect, where the culture of the community is that which constitutes the 'rules of the game' in a specific field. ...
... A common instrument in aligning the what and how is Bigg's (1996) Constructive Alignment (CA) model in which the focus is on the relationship between objectives, 'appropriate' teaching activities and assessment. The question of 'what is appropriate' is highly contextual and suggests it is necessary to consider Vygotsky's 'Zone of Proximal Development' (Kozulin, 2002). Although used to describe the distance between actual and potential development in childhood learning, Vygotsky's aim in formulating the ZPD was the development of theoretically-based pedagogical interventions, responsive to the individual needs of learners (Shabani et al., 2010). ...
... joint-writing) can transfer these skills to interactive reading. Mediated learning in this context includes encouragement of active participation on the part of the child, scaffolding at a challenging but not frustrating level, sensitivity to his/her competence and perspective, and assistance in alerting the child to his/her metacognitive processes (see Kozulin, 2002). This kind of transfer (i.e., learning principles in one domain and applying them to another) requires learning abstract principles and applying them mindfully to a new context (Haskell, 2020). ...
... The present study might reveal that mothers who were exposed to principles of high-level mediation, and who practiced them in mediating writing or visuo-motor skills, could apply these principles to storybook reading. If such transfer occurs, it would indicate a high-level learning of mediation principles (Kozulin, 2002). ...
... In the current study, participating mothers were divided into four groups: SBR intervention, writing intervention, visuo-motor intervention, and a control group. The three Intervention groups were instructed on the same beneficial mediated learning principles (Kozulin, 2002), which were applied thereafter to a different dyadic parent-child activity (SBR, joint writing and visuo-motor activities). We chose these activities because promoting children that will soon begin first grade in these skills has been found to contribute to early schooling (Aram & Levin, 2004;Ratzon, et al., 2007). ...
This study analyzes how training in dyadic activities affected the quality of Shared Book Reading (SBR) amongst mothers of preschool children from low socioeconomic status (SES). Each mother experienced one of three interventions. All interventions guided mothers in principles of mediating children’s learning in one dyadic activity: SBR, word writing, or visuo-motor skills. The mother-child activities took place 3 times a week for 7 weeks. A group with no intervention served as a control. The quality of interactive reading improved substantially from pretest to immediate and to delayed posttest, 2.5 months later, in the SBR group. Improvement was exhibited in the number of mother- and child-initiated dialogues, number of dialogues with scaffolds, elaborations, praise, and criticism, and in all types of prompts. No effect of the intervention on interactive reading emerged in any other groups, revealing no transfer of training mothers in general principles of mediated learning to SBR with their child.KeywordsLow socioeconomic statusPreschool childrenParent-child interactionInteractive shared book readingEarly literacyLiteracy interventionHome literacy activitiesHome literacy
... The teaching and learning interaction will be focusing on making a transformation rather than a mere copy of what had been learnt in social interactions (Vygotsky, 1978). Learners' appropriation of methods in a given culture (Kozulin, 1995) where symbolic tools play a critical role (Kozulin, 2002) will be the critical part where learning is mediated to help them with their cognitive development. Learners acquire crucial knowledge and practical strategies within the effects of working together (Steiner & Mahn, 1996). ...
... The role of the human mediator is based on the notion that psychological function emerges twice in development, the first time is in the form of social interaction between people, and the second time is an internalised form of this function (Kozulin, 2003). Kozulin (2002) implies that the focus on human mediators relates to answering the question "What kind of involvement on the part of the adult is effective in enhancing the learner's performance?" Learners' learning is mediated and enhanced through people when experiences are selected and shaped for them (Kao, 2010). ...
... On the other hand, symbolic mediation includes using tools used to solve a problem or reach a goal, and language is the most significant (Kao, 2010). Kozulin (2002) implies that the focus on symbolic mediation relates to answering whether introducing the symbolic tools to the learner will bring any changes in the learner's performance. Lantolf and Beckett (2009) assert that humans do not act directly to the world; instead, symbolic artefacts such as language, numeracy, literacy, forms of rationality and logic, and concepts mediate humans' cognitive and material activities. ...
This article discusses the effects of the Place-Based Process Genre Module on rural ESL learners' essay writing in persuasive and expository genres.
... The teaching and learning interaction will be focusing on making a transformation rather than a mere copy of what had been learnt in social interactions (Vygotsky, 1978). Learners' appropriation of methods in a given culture (Kozulin, 1995) where symbolic tools play a critical role (Kozulin, 2002) will be the critical part where learning is mediated to help them with their cognitive development. Learners acquire crucial knowledge and practical strategies within the effects of working together (Steiner & Mahn, 1996). ...
... The role of the human mediator is based on the notion that psychological function emerges twice in development, the first time is in the form of social interaction between people, and the second time is an internalised form of this function (Kozulin, 2003). Kozulin (2002) implies that the focus on human mediators relates to answering the question "What kind of involvement on the part of the adult is effective in enhancing the learner's performance?" Learners' learning is mediated and enhanced through people when experiences are selected and shaped for them (Kao, 2010). ...
... On the other hand, symbolic mediation includes using tools used to solve a problem or reach a goal, and language is the most significant (Kao, 2010). Kozulin (2002) implies that the focus on symbolic mediation relates to answering whether introducing the symbolic tools to the learner will bring any changes in the learner's performance. Lantolf and Beckett (2009) assert that humans do not act directly to the world; instead, symbolic artefacts such as language, numeracy, literacy, forms of rationality and logic, and concepts mediate humans' cognitive and material activities. ...
Essay writing is known to be a difficult skill among ESL learners, particularly rural students. The present study aims to measure the effects of a Place-Based Process Genre Module (PBPGM) on form four rural ESL learners' persuasive and expository essay writing from the lens of Sociocultural Theory. A mixed-methods approach adopting a pre-test post-test control group quasi-experimental is employed to determine the significant difference and the Cohen's d effect size. Purposive random sampling is used, and 30 students in control undergo the conventional teaching, and 30 students in the experimental group undergo a 16-hour intervention of the module. The results of the study indicate that there are significant differences and large effect sizes between the two groups. The experimental group outperforms the control group in both genres. The present study contributes to the field of teaching essay writing to rural ESL learners. The study recommends that process genre approach combined with place-based model texts be incorporated to strengthen and diversify scaffolding for teaching essay writing.
... The experience of emergency remote teaching (ERT) (Hodges et al., 2020) at a residential university in South Africa highlighted a significant disjuncture between student perceptions of their performance and that of lecturer expectations. Drawing on Vygotsky's sociocultural theory of learning (Kozulin, 2002), the paper uses a particular case study in an electrical engineering department to examine student perceptions of their performance during ERT and an intervention strategy to improve evaluative judgment going forward. Drawing on this study, we illuminate student performance perception patterns and suggest an more contextually nuanced review of the Constructive Alignment framework that better enables potential graduates to develop 'evaluative judgement'. ...
... Learning happens in socio-culturally mediated settings (Kozulin, 2002), where 'social' refers to the relevant stakeholders (such as, but not limited to, students and teachers) in a particular 'community of practice' (Lave and Wenger, 1991). This community, then, refers to the 'cultural' aspect, where the culture of the community is that which constitutes the 'rules of the game' in a specific field. ...
... A common instrument in aligning the what and how is Bigg's (1996) Constructive Alignment (CA) model in which the focus is on the relationship between objectives, 'appropriate' teaching activities and assessment. The question of 'what is appropriate' is highly contextual and suggests it is necessary to consider Vygotsky's 'Zone of Proximal Development' (Kozulin, 2002). Although used to describe the distance between actual and potential development in childhood learning, Vygotsky's aim in formulating the ZPD was the development of theoretically-based pedagogical interventions, responsive to the individual needs of learners (Shabani et al., 2010). ...
CONTEXT The research study was conducted at a contact-based, research-intensive university in South Africa, where the faculty of engineering has adopted a feedback-feedforward approach to improving engineering pedagogy through theoretically-supported, interdisciplinary and community-of-practice approaches. The outcomes-based curricula are designed to explicitly align teaching/learning activities, the intended learning outcomes and assessment tasks. The Covid-19 emergency remote teaching (ERT) phase has raised the question of the disjuncture between student perceptions and assessment performance during independent, remote learning.PURPOSE OR GOALA faculty-wide research initiative to determine how undergraduate engineering students were experiencing ERT revealed significant systemic challenges and heightened academic stress. Of particular concern in 2021 is the 2nd year cohort, whose entire 1st year was under ERT conditions. Poor first term assessment performance suggested the need to investigate not only how students were studying, but their perceptions of their practices and efforts in relation to their perceptions of course requirements, and consequently their performance.APPROACH OR METHODOLOGY/METHODS A mixed-method survey-based approach was used to assess second year students’ perceptions of a design-based module. The surveys were sent out when it became clear that performance was going to be substantially poorer than expected for their first in-person and closed-book assessment after ERT. The samples were taken after the assessment, after the model answers lecture, after the marks were published, and again after an intervention. The 2020 marks were compared with the last in-person assessments from 2019. Out of the 280 students, 142 responded to the survey.ACTUAL OR ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES Students overestimated their marks after writing, even after seeing the model answers. Two thirds reported the paper as difficult, which reduced to 58% after the model answers, and 74% after releasing the marks. Two thirds said online lectures prepared them sufficiently, but after the marks only 45% did. After a reflection-in-action intervention, 81% considered them sufficient and the error in estimated marks for the next assessment reduced by 41%. Despite 97% engagement with the lectures and 96% claiming to have done the tutorials and practicals on their own, only 38% used the Q&A forums, and not a single student made an appointment with the lecturer.CONCLUSIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS/SUMMARY While constructive alignment is a common pedagogical approach, it does not explicitly include alignment to student abilities or perceptions. In contact-based, socio-culturally mediated contexts, educators may tacitly be responsive to (mis)conceptions to enhance alignment between student abilities, expectations and intended course outcomes. We suggest, in this paper, that a constructive alignment model needs to include methods to overcome self-efficacy gaps, given that we need to produce critically-thinking, confident, and capable graduates.
... In a communicative classroom (Pica, 1988), such as that in the polytechnic Communications skills classroom, where interactions among learners are in abundance, learning is often accomplished through joint construction of knowledge among participants in student-centred activities and social interactions (Hamers, 2004;Kozulin, ...
... Learning a language involves a complex interplay of variables in which social roles, relationship, power relations, social and cultural identities are constantly being affected (Edwards, 2004). The importance of social interaction in shaping an individual's learning is stressed in the sociocultural and the social constructivist approach to education and psychology (Hamers, 2004;Kozulin, 2002;Lantolf, 2000;Burr, 1995). According to Edwards (2004): ...
... In collaborative learning, participants are encouraged to learn by building knowledge together through negotiations and corrections, while focusing on a given mental or linguistic task (Hamers, 2004). Collaborative group work indicates a communicative and constructivist approach (Olivares, 2002) in teaching and learning whereby learning is achieved through joint construction of knowledge among participants in student-centred activities and social interactions (Hamers, 2004;Kozulin, 2002;Lantolf, 2000;Burr, 1995). Since social interaction is the process from which knowledge is constructed (Cromdal, 2003), and social interaction is essential in a communicative classroom, it may be useful to understand the regulation of social relations among its participants, and in the findings of this study, through the alternation of codes. ...
This study examines the motivations and role of code-switching between English (both the standard and colloquial varieties) and Mandarin in a Polytechnic Communications Skills classroom. Code-switching is the use of two or more languages in alternation within a single discourse, sentence, or constituent, and it is a common phenomenon in bilingual interactions. Once seen as a sign of interference, code-switching is now recognized as an additional resource used by interlocutors to highlight the context of conversation, as well as participants' roles and relations in social interactions.
In this study, an ethnographic approach using the methods of participant-observation and interview was adopted to collect naturally-occurring data of students code-switching during collaborative activities in the classroom. The conversational analysis (CA) approach was used to evaluate the collected data in a sequential, turn-by-turn manner to capture in detail the meaning of different interactions and instances of code-switching in different contexts.
The study found that code-switching was a tool used by participants to regulate social relations while engaging in collaborative work in the classroom. Code-switching was also used by participants to achieve certain communicative goals, such as enhancing meaning-making and communication. In addition, it has been found that through code-switching, all linguistic and non-linguistic resources can be harnessed to aid knowledge construction, given the context of a constructivist classroom. Pedagogically, the study suggested the possibility of using code-switching as a resource in language teaching and learning through the use of the mother tongue as an additional language to facilitate the learning of English or other content subjects.
... Different studies in the neo-Vygotskyan vein (cf., Howe et al., 2019;Rogoff, 2003) concur in showing that this type of interaction context tends to produce solid, stable learning. The benefits of asymmetry (on the cognitive plane) and symmetry (on the social-relational plane) can be explained by the fact that human beings develop cognitively through mediated experiences, where someone guides and elaborates our experience and gives it meaning, purpose and organization (Kozulin, 2002;Wertsch, 2007). In this way, in the adult-child relationship, the adult provides structure and support and builds bridges between what the child already knows and the new knowledge they need to learn, thus facilitating the gradual transfer of responsibility towards the child when solving a problem. ...
... Howe et al., 2019;Rogoff, 2003), convergen en mostrar que este tipo de contextos de interacción tienden a producir aprendizajes sólidos y estables. Los beneficios de la asimetría (en el plano cognitivo) y la simetría (en el plano socio/relacional), pueden ser explicados porque los seres humanos se desarrollan cognitivamente a través de experiencias mediadas, donde alguien guía y elabora nuestra experiencia, dándole sentido, finalidad y organización (Kozulin, 2002;Wertsch, 2007). De este modo, en la relación adulto-niño, el adulto entrega estructuración y apoyo, establece puentes entre lo que el niño ya sabe y los nuevos saberes que necesitan ser aprendidos, facilitando la progresiva transferencia de la responsabilidad hacia el propio niño en la resolución de un problema. ...
Given that pedagogical activity is eminently discursive, this article seeks to provide conceptual elements that help to describe teachers’ pedagogical discourse when teaching curricular contents. Working from the constructivist tradition and the cultural psychology approach, which uphold the social and cultural origin of human cognition, a discursive model is proposed that involves two dimensions: the dialogic-monologic and the narrative-paradigmatic. From the dialogic pole, teaching maintains the naturalness of a spontaneous conversation, intentionally including pedagogical elements that inquire into the students’ comprehension of the information and promoting argumentation, participation and the extension of group discussion. From the narrative pole, teaching seeks to contextualize the thematic contents to help students to gain perspective and understand the course and intentionality of actions. Considering both perspectives of analysis, we propose a conceptual schema for studying the phenomenon of teaching in which we theoretically characterize the different types of pedagogical discourses that emerge when articulating these two dimensions. Finally, we point to future lines of research that could emerge from this proposal.
... Improving teaching and learning outcomes should involve an assessment of educational contexts and how children are taught (Hattie & Zierer, 2018). Education technology is arguably a key feature of the learning environment as a symbolic mediator and scaffold for teaching and learning (Kozulin, 2002; see section 3.2.2. page 26). ...
... In contrast to reinforcing the recall of content or maximising opportunities for processing and retention, the purpose of learning from this perspective is to support the learner to become a competent learner. A social constructivist approach emphasises the role of mediation through interpersonal process of discussion, modelling and negotiation between learners, parents, and teachers (Kozulin, 2002). ...
A vision for education redesigned with technology to equip pupils to succeed in the 21st century has been espoused internationally. Technology is reported to enhance learning outcomes, however, applications of technology in schools is varied and complex. This study sought to investigate how solution-oriented coaching could facilitate technology applications, with the aim of promoting teaching and learning. There were two research questions. Firstly, how can a solution-oriented coaching framework be applied with a primary school setting to facilitate change with education technology? Secondly, how can a solution-oriented coaching framework help teachers to develop their knowledge, confidence, and skills in applying education technology? An action research solution-oriented framework was employed to capture the practicalities, challenges, and solutions around technology application. The research involved ten members of staff from a single form entry mainstream primary school. The staff were invited to participate in group and individual solution-oriented coaching sessions. Self-ratings of knowledge, confidence, skills, and goals were taken before, during and after the coaching and were analysed to capture individual and group change. Data was also analysed using a SWOT framework (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats). The research suggested that solution-oriented coaching is a helpful and effective approach to facilitate change in teacher’s confidence, knowledge, and applications of education technology. Limitations of the research are considered. Further research is needed to explore the influence of coaching on teacher’s applications of technology and learning outcomes. Implications and recommendations for education technology policy, school improvement, and educational psychologists are offered. Conclusions drawn emphasise that the solution-oriented coaching framework can be successful in creating change in education technology applications because it considers individual and systemic influences, and this in turn amplifies strengths and the construction of personalised goals, implementation planning and solutions.
... If we see the mediation of self-regulated practices using Bandura's [12] four experiential influences, then an effective approach to developing student capabilities would include: i) building mastery through regular scaffolded practice; (ii) enabling vicarious experiences through peer learning and peer assessment opportunities; (iii) anchoring the social experience of engineering identity formation through broader contextual, peer and facilitator support initiatives; (iv) allowing for different emotional states which take workload and exam stress periods into account, by scaffolding self-regulated learning opportunities across the semester. This paper conceptually frames the development of self-efficacy against these principles, which can also be regarded as the design of pedagogy using sociocultural mediated learning theory [18,19]. ...
... Several students appear to have better aligned their expectations by being able to measure their own standard against both the work of their peers as well as the detailed rubric, as indicated in the following feedback (FB): [FB317] The vicarious influence on self-efficacy development extends to the social experience of engineering identity formation through peer support. In contrast to a previous initiative in which the facilitator himself led key online Q&A sessions [8], the student-led Q&A sessions in this course speak directly to the value of peer-learning as a mediated sociocultural strategy [18]. More than 80% of the electronic design students reported that the interactive online problem-solving and student-led tutorials [8] helped them to bridge the gap from theory to practice, while less than two thirds reported it for the actual scantily staffed practicals. ...
Self-regulated learning is a key attribute in tertiary engineering education, and forms the basis of engineering judgement. The experience of remote learning during the COVID-19 era revealed particular challenges in self-regulated student learning practices, but also resulted in a number of systemic, technology-based interventions to enable improved student learning. Drawing on a 3rd-year electronic design course case study at a contact-based engineering faculty in South Africa, this paper presents an approach to bridging the gap between student perceptions and their actual assessment performance during independent, remote learning. Using scaffolded reflective and peer learning strategies, the research team sought to answer the question: What is the impact on self-efficacy of frequent self-and peer-assessment opportunities across a range of project-based learning tasks? Results were analysed using Bandura's four self-efficacy 'mastery' and experiential domains, and indicate an improvement in alignment between perceptions and actual performance. We suggest that a well-designed, scaffolded set of assignments with reflective and peer-learning opportunities can contribute significantly to the development of student confidence and mastery.
... At the same time, the teaching staff members identified another essential (albeit seemingly contradictory) component of the personal relationships they established with the pupils, i.e., the need to consistently maintain clear boundaries that guide pupils' behavior in a school setting. This finding exemplifies sociocultural theory's emphasis on structured learning environments where supportive relationships and clear expectations coexist [26]. ...
This participatory action research study identified concrete responsive teaching practices that create sustainable, inclusive environments for vulnerable youth, focusing on two primary research questions: (1) How do teacher–pupil interactions shape learning experiences, and (2) What specific responsive practices create sustainable, inclusive environments? Thematic analysis of data from eight teacher candidates, eight cooperating teachers, and seven pupils revealed a clear typology of sustainable, responsive practices organized into three core categories. The first category, the socioemotional response category, encompasses crucial practices including boundary-balanced relationships (creating safe spaces with clear expectations), ability-focused trust (communicating persistent belief in pupils’ capabilities), and non-abandonment approaches (illustrating unwavering commitment to each pupil regardless of challenges). The second category, the pedagogical response category, captured two essential practices: individualized learning adaptations (tailoring instruction to specific pupil needs) and strategic instructional pausing (recognizing when emotional needs must precede academic content). The third category, the systemic response category, highlighted the importance of collaborative professional networks, where mutual support among educators creates resilient teaching environments that enhance pupil outcomes. These findings underscore how responsive teacher–pupil interactions create inclusive environments that meet pupils’ academic, social, and emotional needs while fostering sustainable educational practices. This research contributes to sustainable education by (1) operationalizing responsiveness into actionable components for practice, (2) illustrating how sustainable, responsive teaching develops through structured collaborative inquiry, and (3) providing a framework showing how responsive relationships specifically support vulnerable youth in inclusive settings. The emerging themes illuminate how empathetic, responsive relationships build sustainable, inclusive learning environments empowering all participants for long-term development.
... According to Vygotsky, the socio-cultural environment gives the learners a range of roles and demands and incorporates them into their world through mediation instruments. Mental engagement is the premise of a media process in which abstract and socio-cultural objects (technology) play an important role in the individual's life (Kozulin, 2002). "Learning as a mediated process is social in origin and then becomes individual as a result of mediated interaction between the child and teachers, making human relations to be mediated by physical and symbolic tools" (Wertsch 1991: 25). ...
Most developing countries tend to repeat the same mistakes of under-investing in school infrastructure meant to facilitate quality education. South Africa is no exception, with a significant decline in the quality of school infrastructure inevitably posing a serious risk to the quality of education provided. This study investigates the effects of poor infrastructure provision on the quality of education. The Sustainable Development Goals pioneered by UNESCO in 2016 identified the threat posed by poor school infrastructure facilities to human rights, safety, and the right to life of teachers and learners. A qualitative research approach was used to generate and analyse data. A systematic literature review was preferred as the main source of the data-gathering process to answer the critical research question. This study built a multiple-case approach by carefully selecting peer-reviewed, scholarly publications questioning the state of school infrastructure, non-governmental organisation Advocacy group ‘Section 27’ report, education policy, and the learning process, including academic articles, research reports, books, and monographs on stumbling blocks exerting a negative impact on effective education in South Africa. This painstaking process draws its discourse and conclusion from the analysis and synthesis of information, culminating in a set of propositions developed by the author. The choice of sources led to sound empirical evidence and plausible conclusions and recommendations. The study demonstrates that governments do not pay attention to basic infrastructure and amenities to promote effective education and quality of life. Infrastructure such as pit toilets in Limpopo, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal are concerning. Again, the shortage and delays in the distribution of teaching materials and books, gang violence playing out in schools and social media harassment reported in media threaten both teachers and learners and, as such, exert a negative impact on the performance of learners referred to in this study as stumbling blocks. This has serious long-term ramifications on the effective teaching and learning environment, indirectly perpetuating total neglect and lack of accountability by the Department of Basic Education (DBE).
... Hung and Nichani (2002) examined learning clubs, learning communities, and communities of practice from a Vygotskian perspective. Kozulin (2002) did a critical appraisal of the meditational approach to learning using Vygotsky's socio-cultural theory. ...
This study investigated the influence of early childhood education on enhancing learning abilities at subsequent educational levels. Specifically, it examined the contributions of cognitive and social development acquired through early childhood education. Embracing a holistic perspective, the study addressed physical, cognitive, social-emotional, and linguistic development until children entered primary school. Employing a descriptive research design using a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative and quantitative research methods, the study drew on Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory. Data collection involved the administration of questionnaires to a diverse group of respondents. The research population encompassed 71 primary schools (13 private, 58 public) and 54 nursery schools (19 private, 35 public) within Musanze district. The target population comprised 71 primary school head teachers, 71 primary school District Education Officers (DOSs), and 54 kindergarten head teachers. A sample size of 132 was determined using Yamane's formula. Data collection involved questionnaires, structured interviews, and a pilot study to ensure the reliability of the instruments. The findings revealed a positive and significant correlation between cognitive and social development and enhanced learning abilities in subsequent educational levels. The study underscored the importance of early childhood education and recommended increased governmental and non-governmental efforts to develop policies and programs that support early childhood development.
... The significance of understanding the difficulties faced by foreign language learners has led to a focus on equipping EFL students with the literacy skills necessary for success in tertiary institutions abroad (Baker, 2015;Robillos and Thongpai, 2022). However, many studies, including those by Baker (2015), Kim and Craig (2012), and Kozulin (2002), have predominantly centered on reading and writing skills. Notably, both writing skill pose challenges for EFL students, even when studying in English speaking countries (Kung, 2013). ...
The ever-growing need for fluency in written English around the world, because of the role of English as the world’s international language, has given priority to finding more effective ways to its teaching. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of using the ENGAGE Model on writing performance of EFL learners through a mixed-method study. The participants of the study were 60 advanced level female EFL learners with the age range of 20 to 30 in one of the private language institutes in Isfahan, Iran. The participants were non-randomly selected from a large pool of advanced female students. The selected participants were assigned to the two groups of the ENGAGE Model (the experimental group) and TBLT (the control group), with 30 students in each. The participants were also specified in terms of their cognitive ability as cognitively more or less active based on their answers to a validated cognitive profile questionnaire. In the quantitative phase of the study, the participants went through the processes of pre-testing, intervention, and post-testing and the data collected were fed into the SPSS software version 26. The results revealed that the ENGAGE Model had a statistically significant effect on the writing development of cognitively more and less active EFL learners. The qualitative findings of the study proved that the cognitively more active learners enjoyed the ENGAGE Model class more than the cognitively less active ones. Likewise, the cognitively more active learners could benefit from the class more than their counterparts in the cognitively less active camp and assessed themselves more positively in terms of L2 writing. The finding of the study suggested that EFL teachers and stakeholders should increase interaction and higher-order thinking, and make connections to learners’ previous learning.
... This situated, embedded relationality implies that any practice "is not ontologically separable from learning and human development, but the very substance of it" [15]. Sociocultural theory argues that learning modes, language practices, and relationships of authority will be context-dependent [16] Thus, to determine whether meaningful learning is taking place, it is necessary to account for and acknowledge the specific social and cultural contexts that an individual already inhabits. ...
Background
Besides regulatory learning skills, learning also requires students to relate to their social context and negotiate it as they transition and adjust to medical training. As such, there is a need to consider and explore the role of social and cultural aspects in student learning, particularly in problem-based learning, where the learning paradigm differs from what most students have previously experienced. In this article, we report on the findings of a study exploring first-year medical students’ experiences during the first semester of an undergraduate problem-based learning medical program at an African medical school.
Method
We employed a qualitative case study approach using in-depth interviews with 23 first-year medical students. Participants ranged in age from 18 to 25 years. All students were bi/multilingual (some spoke three to five languages), with English as the learning language. We conducted an inductive thematic analysis to systematically identify and analyze patterns in the data using the Braun and Clarke framework.
Results
Before medical school, students worked hard to compete for admission to medical school, were primarily taught using a teacher-centered approach, and preferred working alone. At the beginning of medical school, students found it challenging to understand the problem-based learning process, the role of the case, speaking and working effectively in a group, managing a heavy workload, and taking increased responsibility for their learning. By the end of the first semester, most students were handling the workload better, were more comfortable with their peers and facilitators, and appreciated the value of the problem-based learning approach.
Conclusions
Our study highlights the importance of interrogating contextual sociocultural factors that could cause tension when implementing problem-based learning in non-western medical schools. Adjustment to problem-based learning requires a conceptual and pedagogic shift towards learner-centered practice, particularly concerning self-direction, the role of the case, and collaborative learning. As such, there is a need to develop and implement research-informed learning development programs that enable students to reflect on their sociocultural beliefs and practices, and enhance their regulatory learning competence to optimize meaningful and early engagement with the problem-based learning process.
... In teaching L2 speaking, EFL teachers and course books rely on various approaches, ranging from traditional to modern ones (Eslami, Mirzaei & Dini, 2015;Kim, 2014). Likewise, some other studies (Baker, 2015;Kim & Craig, 2012;Kozulin, 2002) have rarely looked beyond reading and writing skills. Moreover, EFL learners are typically perceived as reticent in class (Sadeghi & Maleki, 2015). ...
The present study was an attempt to investigate the impact of using ENGAGE model on the speaking components of Iranian EFL learners. A thorough review of the related literature revealed poor record of practical work in the domain of ELT concerning the effect of using ENGAGE model in speaking skill of L2 learners. A quasi-experimental study was designed and 100 Iranian female EFL learners with the age range of 18 to 25 in Mofid language institute in Damghan were selected out of 150 intermediate students according to their performance in a standard Oxford Quick Placement Test (QPT). The selected participants were randomly divided into three groups, receiving instructions based on the principles of ALM (n=32), TBLT (n=33), and ENGAGE model (n=35). The study participants went through the process of pretesting, intervention, and post-testing. Then, the data collected were analyzed via SPSS software version 25 and a measure of multivariate ANOVA (MANOVA) was run to probe the null-hypotheses. The outcome of the posttest data analysis clarified that compared to TBLT and ALM; the ENGAGE model had a more significant effect on the speaking sub-skills of the participants such as fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy, and pronunciation of Iranian EFL learners in speaking. Findings of the present study could be used by ELT practitioners, program developers, and teachers of English in both EFL and ESL contexts. ALM ENGAGE Model Iranian EFL Learners Speaking Components TBLT
... 6-7). Mediated learning prioritizes the understanding that learners' cognitive development occurs through the social environment in which human mediators, for example, their teachers and advanced peers, play an important role in facilitating interactions (Kozulin, 2002). These agents are therefore crucial variables in the present study, especially given the study's aim to maximize learners' roles and their participation in group-work or collaborative learning by using mixed-ability groups (Jacobs, 2006). ...
Although student engagement with feedback has been discussed in second language writing studies, student engagement with teacher and peer feedback through a sequence of tasks (SOT) remains under-explored. The present study adopted mediated learning experience (MLE) theory to operationalize the sequence within the teacher’s intervention and peer collaboration to facilitate Vietnamese secondary students’ engagement. The study explores whether there is student
engagement with feedback, whether their engagement satisfies the criteria of MLE, and how it is mediated through the SOT. The analysis of data from audio recordings and correcting texts indicated that there was student engagement with feedback that addressed MLE’s criteria and was mediated by the teacher’s mediational strategies, peer collaboration, first language, and the learning tasks. Although responding to teacher and peer feedback showed an indication of understanding, indirect feedback caused uncertainties in some cases, and responses to the rewriting task were somewhat transcendent. The findings validate a mediated view of language learning from which implications for research and L2 writing are drawn
... At each stage of the epistemic chain there are artefacts that mediate learning, such as texts, tools and stakeholders. Learning across these epistemic transitions, therefore, is accomplished through adopting the Vygotskian [14] concept of mediated constructivist learning. It is important to differentiate between 'knowledge building' from scratch, as it were, (which is often how constructivism is interpreted) and building understanding by recognising different forms of knowledge at different levels of complexity. ...
... Importantly, rigorous mathematical thinking through two underlying psychological theoretical approaches, namely Vygotsky's theory and Feuerstein's concept, allows for active construction of conceptual knowledge and reasoning (Kinard, 2006;Kinard & Kozulin, 2008). This is because those two experts emphasize learning to improve students' cognitive function (Kozulin ,2002). Principally, it is in accordance with a principle of learning mathematics that students must be able to build conceptual knowledge and interpret reasoning in solving problems so that their cognitive function is well developed. ...
This study aims to analyze in-depth students' conceptual knowledge and reasoning when solving problems using mathematical proof as a rigorous mathematical thinking paradigm. The research uses a qualitative method with a case study approach that analyzes the mathematical proof ability of nine students who represent different cognitive functions from each level of rigorous mathematical thinking. The results showed that each level of rigorous mathematical thinking meant other indicators according to their ability to master conceptual knowledge and implement mathematical ideas through reasoning. This research has an impact on the treatment that the teacher must give in determining the learning model and evaluation instrument that can raise students' conceptual knowledge and reasoning.Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis secara mendalam pengetahuan konseptual dan penalaran siswa ketika memecahkan masalah menggunakan pembuktian matematis sebagai paradigma berpikir matematis yang ketat. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode kualitatif dengan pendekatan studi kasus yang menganalisis kemampuan pembuktian matematis sembilan siswa yang mewakili fungsi kognitif yang berbeda dari setiap tingkat pemikiran matematis yang teliti. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa setiap tingkat berpikir matematis yang teliti berarti indikator lain sesuai dengan kemampuannya untuk menguasai pengetahuan konseptual dan mengimplementasikan ide-ide matematika melalui penalaran. Penelitian ini berdampak pada perlakuan yang harus diberikan guru dalam menentukan model pembelajaran dan instrumen evaluasi yang dapat meningkatkan pengetahuan konseptual dan penalaran siswa.
... Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative evidence of student performance and course feedback, the IPS group posed the following question: What kind of learning could/should happen when using different kinds of technology to bridge the theory-practice divide in different engineering knowledge areas? Working collaboratively, and drawing on the principles of sociocultural mediated learning (Kozulin 2002), the group reflected on their previous and current practices in their respective courses, and collectively analysed the nature of learning in their contexts using the semantic plane as a 'translation device' (Figure 2). The following sections describe and analyse each of the case studies in relation to the particular concepts and forms of technology-supported application as implemented at different stages in the respective courses. ...
Enabling theory-practice bridging in engineering education is essential for developing twenty-first century graduate capabilities. Massification, resource constraints, and technological development have resulted in significant shifts to alternative forms of practical engagement, such as the use of online laboratories, but how do these contribute to learning? Based on three illustrative case studies at a research-intensive institution in the Global South, this paper offers a conceptualisation of the degrees of complexity entailed in multimodal approaches to teaching Fluid Mechanics, Finite Element Analysis and Control Systems at different stages of their respective programmes The paper examines the different levels of abstract-concrete learning when students engage with verbal, symbolic, graphic and physical representational artefacts designed to enable cumulative learning. The conceptual instruments are theoretically and methodologically drawn from Legitimation Code Theory dimensions, which lend themselves to the graphic analysis of knowledge practices. It is suggested that the explicit integration of and shifting between levels of abstraction and complexity with different kinds of technologies enables the kind of cumulative learning necessary to prepare technically-equipped graduates for complex twenty-first century engineering contexts.
... The brain not only decodes the information but also stores it for retrieval, later. Based on previously available, as well as new, information, the brain can encode or formulate a new message, which is sent to the areas of motor planning and motor execution (Kozulin 2002). We hear an individual convey that message to a person or persons using his speech mechanism in perfect synchrony. ...
Speech therapy, administered after surgical repair of a cleft palate (with or without cleft lip), involves the identification of speech errors, followed by their correction. It also more importantly involves the prevention of the acquisition of speech errors in the child’s expressive repertoire through early intervention within the first 3–6 years of the child’s life. The speech therapist must work in close collaboration with the surgeon when there are obligatory speech errors that require surgical intervention. The prosthodontist and orthodontist may also be required to intervene along with the speech therapist to optimize the size and shape of the oral cavity, with or without surgical correction, for the production of intelligible connected speech. The speech therapist performs an in-depth and dynamic instrumental and noninstrumental assessment of speech before commencement of therapy in the realms of nasality, resonance, and articulation of speech sounds. The audible perception of the child’s speech plays a huge role in correction and stabilization of correctly learnt speech sounds. The speech therapist actively indulges in helping the child to learn to identify and discriminate correct versus incorrect speech sound production through listening and training, using own auditory feedback loop.
... Hence, "Great attention has been paid to teaching EFL students the literacy skills they will need to succeed in tertiary institutions abroad" (Ferris & Tagg, 1996, as cited in Baker, 2015. Though such studies have been beneficial to EFL teachers, few have looked beyond reading and writing skills (Baker, 2015;Kim et al., 2015;Kozulin, 2002). It is noted that listening and speaking skills are most problematic for EFL students even if they study in English-speaking countries (Kung, 2013). ...
The present study attempted to survey the effect of technology-mediated scaffolding on the development of second language speaking components (fluency, coherence, lexical resources, grammatical range, and accuracy, and pronunciation) among Iranian intermediate EFL adult learners. To do so, 60 intermediate level female students with the age range of 18 to 25 in the EFL research center in Tehran were selected from among 90 intermediate students according to their performance in a standard version of the Preliminary English Test (PET). The selected participants were divided into two groups, namely the experimental group (EG) in which the learners received technology-mediated teaching through Telegram application, and the control group (CG), who followed the conventional teaching/learning methods of L2 speaking. The participants went through the process of pre-testing, intervention, and post-testing. Then, the data collected were analyzed, and multivariate ANOVA (MANOVA) was run to probe the null-hypotheses. The outcome of the post-test data analyses clarified that technology-mediated scaffolding had a statistically significant effect on the speaking sub-skills such as fluency, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy, and pronunciation of Iranian EFL learners.
... The socio-cultural environment, according to Vygotsky, gives the students a range of roles, demands and incorporates the students into his world by mediation instruments. Mental engagement is the premise of a media process in which abstract and socio-cultural objects (technology) play an important role in the individual's mental lives (Kozulin 2002). "Learning as a mediated process is social in origin and then becomes individual as a result of mediated interaction between the child and teachers, making human relations to be mediated by physical and symbolic tools" (Wertsch 1991, 25). ...
A preponderance of empirical research in higher education exists on the use of electronic resources to promote university education and learning. This suggests that this area of research has attracted significant interest worldwide. However, there seems to be inadequate information on the association between specific electronic infrastructures, how they are utilised for teaching and learning, as well as their effects on students' learning effectiveness in higher institutions. This research draws on previous studies and seeks to establish how different electronic resources are used in universities and how they affect students' learning effectiveness. Using a descriptive survey design, the survey examined 1,452 participants (undergraduates and postgraduates) from Nigerian universities. The data were analysed using mean and standard deviation, while a Polytomous Logistic Regression Model was used in testing the hypothesis formulated. Findings showed that the degree of the use of digital infrastructures in universities is low. The extent of learning effectiveness among students in universities is also low. The usage of e-infrastructures (such as e-learning, e-communication and e-library tools) significantly predicts students' levels of learning effectiveness. Based on these results, conclusions and relevant theoretical and practical implications are discussed for policy reforms in education and e-learning. This study faces the limitation arising from the small number of universities studied. However, it is suggested that future related studies extend their focus beyond the context of Nigeria.
... The framework for the analysis in this chapter draws on Activity Theory (Engeström, 1999) to map two disciplinary knowledge systems so as to understand how practices are shaped in fields as different as SOTL and Engineering. Originating in early Soviet psychology, Activity Theory has built on the work of Vygotsky (sociocultural theory) and Feuerstein (mediated learning experience) (Kozulin, 2002). Today, we have an understanding that learning is mediated through 'tools' or 'instruments' in relation to sociocultural environments. ...
The chapters in this collection are reflections of the intellectual, emotional and day-to-day experiences of professional staff engaged in academic development. They provide the reader with glimpses of how academic developers at one South African university are continuously shaping their identities through sense-making processes, how they creatively apply different theoretical approaches to both analysing and informing their work and what their views are of the practical and systemic challenges facing higher education. As such this book expands on as well as challenges the dominant ways of thinking about academic development and academic developers in higher education.
... dos del materialismo dialéctico, serían Al respecto, el enfoque histórico-cultural hace suyo el planteamiento del materialismo dialéctico al definir que es por medio de la actividad social que la conciencia de los sujetos emerge y ello permite desarrollar las potencialidades humanas (Kozulin, 2002). Desde esa perspectiva, de acuerdo a Raus (2017), la actividad social humana corresponde a "un conjunto de acciones culturalmente determinadas y contextualizadas que se esos medios auxiliares los que permiti rían transformar la naturaleza, pero que dialécticamente, también terminan trans formando los procesos psíquicos del ser humano, lo cual correspondería a la fase interna del proceso de transformación. ...
Este libro comprende que todo proceso educativo debe considerar y orientarse a partir de relaciones sociales educativas determinadas histórico-culturalmente. Por esto se propone comprender la docencia universitaria como una actividad social, contextualizada y relacional, que utiliza las contradicciones/tensiones inherentes a estos ámbitos como fuerzas impulsoras de la enseñanza-aprendizaje.
... The brain not only decodes the information but also stores it for retrieval, later. Based on previously available, as well as new, information, the brain can encode or formulate a new message, which is sent to the areas of motor planning and motor execution (Kozulin 2002). We hear an individual convey that message to a person or persons using his speech mechanism in perfect synchrony. ...
... Así mismo, establecen formas para entender el rol de los contextos, las particularidades del sujeto cognoscente, la cultura, las mediaciones sociales, elementos y factores que no pueden ser omitidos de estos análisis, pues son parte de toda actividad humana y permiten el surgimiento de la conciencia de los sujetos y el desarrollo de sus potencialidades (Kozulin, 2002). ...
2021). Aprendizaje contextualizado y expansivo: Una propuesta para dialogar con las incertidumbres en los procesos educativos. Actualidades Investigativas en Educación, 21 (3), 1-22. Dirección estable: https://www.aacademica.org/juan.rubio.gonzalez/17 Esta obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons. Para ver una copia de esta licencia, visite https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.es. Acta Académica es un proyecto académico sin fines de lucro enmarcado en la iniciativa de acceso abierto. Acta Académica fue creado para facilitar a investigadores de todo el mundo el compartir su producción académica. Para crear un perfil gratuitamente o acceder a otros trabajos visite: https://www.aacademica.org.
... Así mismo, establecen formas para entender el rol de los contextos, las particularidades del sujeto cognoscente, la cultura, las mediaciones sociales, elementos y factores que no pueden ser omitidos de estos análisis, pues son parte de toda actividad humana y permiten el surgimiento de la conciencia de los sujetos y el desarrollo de sus potencialidades (Kozulin, 2002). ...
A propósito del actual contexto de pandemia, los ámbitos educativos se han visto afectados y tensionados al punto de desarrollarse diversas crisis y exteriorizado las reales condiciones de las prácticas en los centros educativos. En ese contexto, este ensayo científico crítico propone la posibilidad de realizar un diálogo con las incertidumbres en los procesos educativos, a partir de su contextualización y expansión. Lo anterior, implica considerar las tensiones/contradicciones que le son inherentes a estos procesos complejos e histórico-culturales. En ese sentido, se analizaron las problemáticas de los modelos tradicionales de enseñanza, basados en las certezas, predicción y control sustentadas en una matriz epistémica dualista y empirista-positivista, que entraron en crisis en momentos de pandemia. Además, se plantea la necesidad de dialogar con las incertidumbres en los ámbitos educativos, proponiendo la complejidad y el enfoque histórico-cultural como posibles paradigmas mediadores de este proceso. Para sustentar lo anterior se establecieron los principales postulados de las lógicas expansivas y contextualizadas en los procesos educativos, como mecanismos superadores de las certezas y propiciadores de contextos y prácticas educativas que consideren las totalidades, las condiciones materiales-sociales del contexto cultural, las emergencias, el caos y la diversidad. Se concluye que la matriz epistémica dualista tiende a castrar la enseñanza-aprendizaje y no permite transformaciones, aperturas y diálogos con las nuevas realidades educativas, atributos que sí poseen los procesos educativos contextualizados y expansivos, al ser propuestas heurísticas que permiten comprender y gestionar la complejidad y la incertidumbre de los escenarios actuales.
... Kurt Hahn educador alemán (según James, 1995) enseñaba habilidades para construir comunidades y solucionar conflictos, desarrollaba la autoestima y la capacidad de salir adelante de forma autónoma. Posteriormente entrenó soldados para sobrevivir, lo que significaba un gran problema, ya que las situaciones complicadas les generaba estrés y existía A principios del siglo XX Vygotsky afirmaba que por medio de la actividad es donde la conciencia emerge, al igual que el potencial humano se desarrolla (Kozulin, 2002), por lo que es necesario un análisis sistemático para entender la complejidad de las actividades realizadas dentro de la educación. ...
La vivencialidad educativa a través de la realidad virtual es una propuesta de mediación
tecnológica que pretende renovar las posibilidades pedagógicas del docente y las capacidades de aprendizaje de los estudiantes desde un enfoque de reconstrucción inmersivo, el cual considero a la
enseñanza activa, situacional y experiencial dentro de su estructuración teórica, para
posteriormente amplificarlas a través de “vivencias virtualizadas".
... Teacher mediation helps enhance students' performance by organizing effective learning activities involving teaching materials and establishing positive relationships with students. The role of teacher mediation is to help students transit from the level of social interaction with the teacher to the individual level of internalized function (Kozulin, 2002). ...
Teacher questions have long been considered important in mediating students’ learning in language classrooms. This paper examined the mediated-learning behaviors involved in teacher questions during whole-class instruction in high schools of China. Five lessons of different topics were observed. Conversation analytic approach was applied to analyze teachers’ verbal interactions with students during whole-class teaching. Teachers’ questions and students’ responses were transcribed and categorized as display questions or referential questions. The mediated-learning behaviors involved in the two types of questions were discussed by presenting six sessions of interaction. The study investigated which question type initiated the interaction involving more variety of mediated-learning behaviors and what pedagogical implications this may have for teacher questioning techniques that enhance student learning. The study found the interactions initiated by referential questions contain more varieties of mediated-learning behaviors. This study suggests that teachers need to be encouraged to use referential questions more frequently whether in display interactions or in referential interactions.
... Hasil penelitian ini masih relatif searah dengan temuan yang disajikan oleh (Kozulin, 2002a(Kozulin, , 2002b walaupun penelitian ini mengkaji perilaku guru alih-alih ibu. Dimensi yang memunculkan perbedaan status sosial ekonomi dalam penelitian ini juga mencakup transendensi, pemaknaan dan perasaan kompeten. ...
Studi ini ingin menemukan kontributor modifiabilitas kognisi anak sesuai pilar pendidikan, apakah interaksi dengan guru, teman sebaya atau lingkungan fisik TK. Subjek penelitian adalah 42 anak dan 22 guru TK di Jakarta yang dipilih secara purposif dan dirating dengan instrumen fungsi kognitif (ACFS), interaksi mediatif (MLERS dan MLE teman) serta lingkungan sekolah (ECERS-R), semuanya dalam setting alami. Data diolah dengan analisis regresi. Hasil menunjukkan anak memiliki potensi modifiabilitas kognisi khususnya terkait interaksi mediatif dengan guru dan faktor sosial ekonomi. Ditemukan juga bahwa guru masih perlu meningkatkan keterampilan memediasi perkembangan kognitif, utamanya di kelompok SES menengah bawah. Interaksi mediatif dengan teman sangat terbatas dan lingkungan sekolah belum sesuai dengan prinsip DAP. Pembahasan mengacu pada isu metodologis dan konteks Indonesia.
... The socio-cultural views on learning emanates from the fact that during social interactions between the learners and their teacher, or among learners themselves, scientific knowledge is exchanged (Leach & Scott, 2003). In other words, it views science knowledge as being co-constructed between the learner and a mediator who ensures that the learner understands the science content being taught (Kozulin, 2002). Learning is a mediated process and is social in origin and only becomes individual after interaction through language use between the learner and the more knowledgeable other who can be a teacher or a competent peer (Lantolf & Poehner, 2008;Shabani, 2016;Vygotsky, 1987). ...
The low enrolment, lack of interest, exacerbated by the general poor performance in physical science in South Africa paints a gloomy picture about the status of physical science in the country. Despite the fact that there might be other factors at play, one factor which cannot be ignored is the discourse about the use of language in the science classroom as viewed by physical science teachers. In the study reported on here a quantitative methodology was followed in which a closed-ended questionnaire survey was used as data collection tool. In the study we examined South African physical science teachers’ perceptions about the language use in science classrooms, and the study was informed by the Vygotskian socio-cultural theory (SCT). The target population from which a sample size of 37 physical science teachers was systematically sampled was high school classroom teachers and learners in Grades 10, 11 and 12 in the Ngaka Modiri Molema district of the North West province of South Africa. The study revealed that physical science teachers encountered difficulties with meanings of non-technical words used in science context. The conclusion drawn was that many physical science teachers were not proficient in the discourse of the science classroom and this often compromised their effectiveness in the teaching and learning of science. The main difficulty was confusion in differentiating between technical and non-technical words and the lack of convincing explanations of meanings of these words in teaching and learning. Key among the recommendations of this study was the need to address teachers’ challenges with regard to the language use and the implications thereof.
... According to Baker (2015, p. 424), teaching EFL students the literacy skills, which they will require for their success in tertiary institutions abroad has attracted more attention in recent years. Other studies (e.g., Baker, 2015;Kim & Craig, 2012;Kozulin, 2002;Kung, 2013) have noted that writing and speaking skills are most problematic for EFL students. ...
The present study was an attempt to investigate the perceptions of cognitively more and less active EFL learners about using the ENGAGE Model, as an innovation, in the EFL classroom. The participants of the study were 10 intermediate level male EFL learners in a language institute in Iran who were randomly selected out of 60 homogeneous participants of the 1 Ph.D. Candidate in TEFL, Department of English Language Teaching, Ardabil Branch, 262-ENGAGE Model as an Innovation in the EFL Classroom: Perceptions of Cognitively ... study. Of the 10 participants, 5 were cognitively more active and 5 cognitively less active individuals. They were selected based on their answers to a validated cognitive profile questionnaire. An interview guide was used to elicit the perspectives of cognitively more and less active EFL learners on the ENGAGE Model in the EFL classroom. The findings of the study showed that the cognitively more active learners enjoyed the ENGAGE Model class more than the cognitively less active ones. Likewise, the cognitively more active learners benefited from the course more than their counterparts in the cognitively less active camp. They assessed themselves more positively in terms of L2 speaking and writing. Both cognitively more and less active learners mentioned that they liked the ENGAGE Model classroom and found it more engaging than the other methods they had experienced before. However, the cognitively less active learners reported exhaustion, saying that the assignments were beyond their ability and that they could not cope with all of them. The findings have practical implications for EFL classrooms.
... In teaching L2 speaking, EFL teachers and course books rely on various approaches, ranging from traditional to modern ones (Kim, 2014;Eslami, Mirzaei & Dini, 2015). Likewise, some other studies (Baker, 2015;Kim & Craig, 2012;Kozulin, 2002) have rarely looked beyond reading and writing skills. Moreover, EFL learners are typically perceived as reticent in class (Sadeghi & Maleki, 2015). ...
This study investigates the role of teacher mediation in facilitating children’s communication during problem-solving, play-based coding activities with Kubo, a screen-free coding toy, in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) settings. Following an initial observation involving nine kindergarten teachers and 36 children, a workshop was held to identify elements that teachers considered relevant for facilitating children’s use of verbal and non-verbal communication. Key mediation elements, such as multimodal communication, planning, time, humor, and reflective questioning, were identified during the workshop and applied in a subsequent observation with the same participants. The findings reveal that these mediation strategies facilitated children’s communication and participation in the activity using a multimodal approach to support their problem-solving process. Teacher mediation facilitated children’s ability to articulate their thought processes, fostering a communicative and reflective learning environment. This study underscores the importance of various elements in teachers’ semiotic mediation and identifies specific strategies that show promise for engaging all children.
Fluency development is critical in language learning; however, the teacher’s role as a mediator in a learner’s fluency development has been rarely explored in constructive learning classrooms. Under the guidance of Mediated Learning Experience (MLE) theory, this study investigated the extent to which teacher-implemented mediation aided learners’ cognitive and utterance fluency development in one Advanced Placement (AP) Chinese high-school task-based language teaching (TBLT) classroom. MLE theory, developed by psychologist Reuven Feuerstein, provided a mediation framework for this study. The design of this action research followed the test-intervention-test procedure and collected pre- and post-test speaking samples from 21 participants. To investigate the effectiveness of the mediation, three utterance fluency variables that correlate to cognitive fluency development were measured: the number of silent pauses, the number of self-corrections, and mean syllable duration (MSD). The pre- and post-test data showed that both the number of silent pauses and MSD statistically significantly decreased on the posttests, which suggests that the meditation intervention improved learners’ utterance and cognitive fluency. Although the decrease in the number of self-corrections on the posttest was not statistically significant in this study, this finding suggests that self-correction is a variable that may require a much longer time to change.
A growing number of studies have focused on pedagogical translanguaging, helping to develop students’ writing competence in second language (L2) classrooms. However, the role of translanguaging in the feedback from both teacher and students in L2 writing remains scant. Adopting a sociocultural approach, this study aims to investigate how translanguaging practices in L2 writing tutorials can mediate learning in the process of feedback, especially in the post-writing stage. Data were collected from classroom observations and writing assignments, with seven students and one tutor in 16-week writing tutorials at a university in Central China. Data were analyzed through thematic analysis and microgenetic analysis. Results show that teachers and students work together to construct knowledge and expand the multilingual repertoire and that translanguaging strategies promote feedback in the dialogic process. The mediating role of translanguaging in L2 writing tutorials can offer opportunities to enhance content learning, encourage learner participation, establish comprehension and provide pastoral care. The findings also shed light on L2 writing pedagogy that translanguaging as a mediational tool can decolonize curricula that are primarily English-medium and promote awareness of teachers in an equitable educational environment, by supporting equity for culturally and linguistically diverse students.
Nursing education is transitioning from traditional teaching to competency-based education. Additionally, more nursing courses and programs are now offered online. Scholarly writing is a powerful strategy to teach effective communication and critical thinking, both core competencies for safe and effective nursing practice. However, teaching writing online to nursing students is challenging due to a lack of research evaluating best practices, faculty time constraints, and inconsistent writing assessment. Automated essay scoring systems using artificial intelligence (AI) provide new opportunities for efficient, reliable, and valid assessment of writing skills. We used a quasi-experimental design to investigate the impact of a 14-week fully online competency-based writing course on students’ self-efficacy, task value, and writing performance. The participants were master’s nursing students enrolled in an existing one-semester online competency-based writing course for healthcare professionals. An AI-powered writing assessment, IntelliMetric®, and the SAWSES self-efficacy survey were administered pre- and post-intervention. The results showed statistically significant gains in self-efficacy and writing performance with large effect sizes. This study addresses the gap in nursing education regarding the assessment of online, research-based writing interventions on students’ scholarly writing capacity. Recommendations include implementing a required scholarly writing course in all graduate-level nursing programs, scaffolding students’ competency development with the cognitive apprenticeship model, using best practices from composition research to inform online instruction, and employing AI-powered automated essay scoring to evaluate students’ writing progress and instructional efficacy.
The flipped classroom is a teaching method focusing on student learning sessions outside the class. This student-centered method helps students get an initial idea of the topic studied in class. This writing will discuss the research findings related to aspects of active learning through the Flipped classroom. A case study was conducted in four primary schools. Four excellent teachers joined this study to see the implementation of the flipped classroom method in teaching elementary school science subjects. Among the critical findings from this case study is the emphasis on active learning aspects seen in the stages of flipped classroom implementation. The stage includes the before, during, and after the flipped classroom. The essence of active learning is the search for information in the phase before the flipped classroom, the production of a science project during the flipped classroom, and the presentation of the project after the flipped classroom. This study requires more extensive qualitative and quantitative testing in other contexts at the primary school level. This concern also increases the understanding of how the flipped classroom method is applied in primary schools, especially in teaching and learning science subjects.
Background
Besides regulatory learning skills, learning also requires students to relate to their social context and negotiate it as they transition and adjust to medical training. As such, there is a need to consider and explore the role of social and cultural aspects in student learning, particularly in problem-based learning, where the learning paradigm is different from what most students have previously experienced. This article explores two significant sociocultural factors contextualized in an African setting that may conflict with effective problem-based learning implementation: the socialization of schooling before medical training and the cultural socialization relating to speaking and silence.
Method
We employed a qualitative case study approach using in-depth interviews with 23 first-year students. Participants ranged in age from 18 to 25 years. All students were bi/multilingual (some spoke three to five languages), with English as the learning language. We conducted an inductive thematic analysis to systematically identify and analyze patterns in the data using the Braun and Clarke framework.
Results
Before medical school, students worked hard to compete for admission to medical school, were primarily taught using a teacher-centered approach, and preferred working independently. At the beginning of medical school, students found it difficult to understand the problem-based learning process, the role of the case, speaking and working effectively in a group, managing a heavy workload, and taking increased responsibility for their learning. By the end of the first semester, most students were managing the workload better, were more comfortable with their peers and facilitators, and appreciated the value of the problem-based learning approach.
Conclusions
In the sub-Saharan African context, sociocultural factors provide another lens for understanding students' learning experiences in a problem-based learning program. Adjustment to problem-based learning requires a conceptual and pedagogic shift towards learner-centered practice, particularly concerning self-direction, the role of the case, and collaborative learning.
This special issue of Formazione & Insegnamento celebrates the 100th anniversary from Reuven Feuerstein’s birth1. Even though he passed away in 2014, the in-fluence of the founder of the theories of Cognitive Structural Modifiability (CSM) and Mediated Learning Experience (MLE) continues to grow, and his theories and methods are lively, as the works on dynamic assessment of Tzuriel (2021) and Tzu-riel et al. (2022) witness. The idea of this special issue came about during the event of 7 October 2021, with the aim of gathering the contributions of the national and international speakers and envisioning together the future of Feuerstein’s theories and methods. Significantly, the name of the event was “One century after Reuven Feuerstein’s birth: from neural plasticity to Cognitive Modifiability”, thus connec-ting with the book on “The Changing Mind” edited by Margiotta (2011), seeking to gather the neuroscientific evidence on neural plasticity that backs SCM (see also Feuerstein et al., 2015)
It explains about the significance of scaffolding for fostering learner autonomy
This study explores parents’ views of science as a family sociocultural background that influences how parents support children’s science talk as they engage in a science activity together at home. We focus on Indonesian families as they have distinct sociocultural characteristics that may yield different parent–child interactions than their Western counterparts in informal science learning settings. A microethnography approach and thematic discourse analysis are employed to capture the parent–child science talk and interactions. Findings show that Indonesian parent–child interactions are directive and collectivist in nature. Parents tend to lead learning at home, and the other family members voluntarily participate. Through their science talks, Indonesian parents engaged children in the science activity using explanatory talk, corrective feedback, and real-world connections. Throughout the interactions, the parents emphasized particular science knowledge and practices based on their views of science. We present three cases where the parents viewed science as a hypothesis-testing practice, as knowledge related to everyday phenomena, and as an inference-making process. Their talks and support for children’s learning varied due to these different views of science. The study adds to the limited literature on parent–child interactions in informal science learning in non-Western contexts.
This paper will reflect on the influence of Vygotsky and Luria in my work as an occupational therapist in the community mental health setting of an ‘Activity Centre’ in the National Health Service, between 1991 and 2001. The paper will discuss a limited study, referencing Vygotsky during that period, with the benefit of hindsight and subsequent developments in the field of cultural-historical psychology. The origi¬nal study raised the questions of what evidence could be found to support the application of Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) with a mixed group of adults in a community setting, and how this process of learning might be assessed and evaluated. At the time, these questions were informed by litera¬ture sources no later than 1998, and learning theory was often absent from professional training in mental healthcare. However, I will propose that some models of practice in mental health — particularly those founded in psycho-analytic group therapy and occupational therapy — could be enhanced by a deeper un-derstanding of Vygotsky’s ZPD, Luria’s model of field research, and the discussion of some less established connections in psychoanalytic praxis.
Standardized norm-referenced language assessments are used to identify developmental language disorder (DLD) in bicultural Navajo children. However, these assessments do not include normative data for Navajo children, the majority of whom are exposed to both Navajo and English, and consequently the assessments may not reflect their true language abilities. The purpose of this clinical tutorial is to provide background and alternative assessment information to help practitioners accurately identify Navajo children with and without DLD. In particular, the use of dynamic assessment, a test–teach–retest method, has shown promising results in differentiating Navajo children with and without DLD.
Education has taken on board the concepts of ‘scaffolding’ and ‘Zone of Proximal Development’ because embedded within them is a psycho‐social model of teaching and learning. In this paper these concepts are examined in schooling contexts rather than those of everyday life. A first section outlines the ideas of the American socio‐cultural school, for example, Cole, Lave, Rogoff etc. and their link with the work of Vygotsky. Three sections are then devoted to a brief appraisal of the work of researchers who have been particularly concerned with scaffolding and schooling: Newman, Griffin and Cole; Tharp and Gallimore, and Wood on effective learning through scaffolding and contingent control. Section 7 is devoted to our research which sets out to explore and identify scaffolding strategies in three specific primary schooling contexts: design and technology, mathematics and science. We show the difficulty of scaffolding specialist knowledge and analyse the reasons for the absence of scaffolding in the classrooms observed. The last two sections set out our ideas on the differences between scaffolding everyday knowledge and specialist knowledge.
Vygotsky's followers developed a doctrine of two types of learning: empirical and theoretical. Empirical learning is based on a process of comparing a number of different objects, picking out their common observable characteristics, and, based on this, formulating a general concept about this class of objects. This type of learning is typical for preschoolers and is often cultivated under the system of traditional school instruction. Theoretical learning is based on a process of supplying the student with general and optimal methods for dealing with certain classes of problems that direct him or her toward essential (not simply common) characteristics of the problems of each class. Then, in the course of specially organized activity, the student masters and internalizes the processes of use of these methods. Experiments conducted with students of different ages suggest that theoretical learning is much more efficient than empirical learning.
Two instructional studies directed at the comprehension-fostering and comprehension-monitoring activities of seventh grade poor comprehenders are reported. The four study activities were summarizing (self-review), questioning, clarifying, and predicting. The training method was that of reciprocal teaching, where the tutor and students took turns leading a dialogue centered on pertinent features of the text. In Study 1, a comparison between the reciprocal teaching method and a second intervention modeled on typical classroom practice resulted in greater gains and maintenance over time for the reciprocal procedure. Reciprocal teaching, with an adult model guiding the student to interact with the text in more sophisticated ways, led to a significant improvement in the quality of the summaries and questions. It also led to sizable gains on criterion tests of comprehension, reliable maintenance over time, generalization to classroom comprehension tests, transfer to novel tasks that tapped the trained skills of summarizing, questioning, and clarifying, and improvement in standardized comprehension scores. Many of these results were replicated in Study 2. In contrast to Study 1, which was conducted by an experimenter, Study 2 examined group interventions conducted by volunteer teachers with their existing reading groups.
This work presents landmark research concerning the vital dynamics of childhood psychological development. It’s origin can be traced to the late 1970s, when several psychologists began to challenge existing notions of cognitive development by suggesting that such functioning is bound to specific contexts and that cognitive development is based on the mastery of culturally defined ways of speaking, thinking, and acting. About the same time, several translations were made available in this country of the seminal work of Vygotsky, the noted theoretician, offering a conceptual base on which these workers could build. This volume, with contributions from many of the scholars who pioneered this area and translated the work of Vygotsky, looks at the complex mechanisms by which children acquire the cultural and linguistic tools to carry out cognitive activities and explores the implications of this research for education. The book is organized around three main parts: Discourse and Learning in Classroom Practice, Interpersonal Relations in Formal and Informal Education, and The Sociocultural Institutions of Formal and Informal Education. An afterword by Jacqueline Goodnow suggests new directions for sociocultural research and education. The intended audience is composed of developmental, educational, and cognitive psychologists, along with advanced students in developmental and educational psychology.
Sociocultural Studies of Mind addresses the primary question: how is mental functioning related to the cultural, historical, and institutional settings in which it exists? Although the contributors speak from different perspectives, there is a clear set of unifying themes that run through the volume: 1. One of the basic ways that sociocultural setting shapes mental functioning is through the cultural tools employed. 2. Mediation provides a formulation of how this shaping occurs. 3. In order to specify how cultural tools exist and have their effects, it is essential to focus on human action as a unit of analysis. This landmark volume defines a general approach to sociocultural psychology, one that we hope will be debated and redefined as the field moves forward. Sociocultural Studies of Mind is crucial reading for researchers and graduate students in cognitive science, philosophy, and cultural anthropology.
The seminal work of Russian theorist Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934) has exerted a deep influence on psychology over the past 30 years. Vygotsky was an educator turned psychologist, and his writings clearly reflected his pedagogical concerns. For Vygotsky, schools and other informal educational situations represent the best cultural laboratories to study thinking. He emphasized the social organization of instruction, writing about the 'unique form of cooperation between the child and the adult that is the central element of the educational process'. Vygotsky's emphasis on the social context of thinking represents the reorganization of a key social system and associated modes of discourse, with potential consequences for developing new forms of thinking. This volume is devoted to analyzing Vygotsky's ideas as a means of bringing to light the relevance of his concepts to education. What does Vygotsky's approach have to offer education? Distinguished scholars from various countries and representing several disciplines discuss the essence and significance of Vygotsky's work, analyze the educational implications of his thoughts, and present applications in practice, addressing educational issues such as school organization, teacher training, educational achievement, literacy learning and development, uses of technology, community-based education, and special education.
Cambridge Core - Sociolinguistics - Ways with Words - by Shirley Brice Heath
The problem of stages' in the mental development of the child is the fundamental problem of child psychology. Elaboration of this problem has important theoretical significance since it is by determining the stages of mental development and by discovering the patterns of transition from one stage to the next that psychology will eventually solve the problem of the motive forces of mental development. We contend that every conception of the motive forces of mental development must first be tested on the "proving grounds" of the theory of developmental stages.
Vygotsky's ideas, which originated in the scientific debates ofthe 1920s-1930s, have proved to be relevant for the psychological and educational agenda of the last decade of the twentieth century. Such delayed recognition carries with it an inevitable problem of interpretation. In this paper several such interpretations reflecting changing perspectives in Russian and Western psychologies are discussed. One of these interpretations was perpetuated by the 'psychology of activity' school which until recently dominated the field of Vygotskian scholarship in Russia. Another interpretation focuses on the issue of learning activity' as distinct from learning in a generic sense. This interpretation has direct relevance to the issue of cognitive education currently discussed in Western educational psychology. Finally, there is a humanistic interpretation of Vygotsky's theory leading to the concept of future-oriented education.
This paper examines some 35 reports of empirical research on Feuerstein's 'Instrument Enrichment' FIE as a method of teaching thinking skills, and asks what can be concluded from these reports with respect to the following: (a) the nature and statistical reliability of FIE effects, and, for those effects that are statistically reliable, (b) the 'amount' of FIE that appears to be required in order for these effects to appear.
The hallmark of human cognition is symbolization: There is nothing that so clearly distinguishes us from other creatures as our creative and flexible use of symbols. Cultural creations such as writing systems, number systems, maps, and models-to name a few-have enabled human knowledge and reasoning to transcend time and space. My working definition of an external, artifactual symbol is that it is any entity that someone intends to stand for something other than itself. Note that this definition is agnostic about the nature of symbols; virtually anything can be a symbol, so long as some person intends that it be responded to not as itself, but in terms of what it represents. Adults are so experienced and skilled with symbols and symbolic reasoning that they simply assume that many of the novel entities they encounter will have symbolic import. They appreciate that such entities should be responded to as representations of something other than themselves and readily do so. My research reveals that children only gradually adopt this assumption. Despite the centrality of symbolization in human cognition and communication, young children are very conservative when it comes to detecting and reasoning about symbol-referent relations.
This article suggests new directions for learning theory and cognitive education based on the combination of Vygotsky's "psychological tools" paradigm and Feuerstein's mediated learning experience (MLE) approach. Cognitive functions required by formal schooling do not appear spontaneously. Moreover, their development can be impeded by both an insufficient amount of MLE and by a lack of experience with the higher order psychological tools. Thus, cognitive education should become an integral part of school curricula and teacher development.
This study was designed to investigate (a) the relationship between SES and mediated learning experience (MLE) in mother‐child interactions, (b) the differences in MLE interaction patterns in free‐play versus structured situations, especially among different SES levels, and (c) the prediction of cognitive performance by MLE processes using dynamic assessment (DA) tests. A sample of 48 kindergarten children and their mothers were randomly selected from lowmediumand high‐SES levels (n=16 in each level). Mother‐child interactions were videotaped for 30 minutes (15 minutes in each situation), and analyzed later using Klein's MLE Observation Scale. All children were given a DA measure — the Children's Analogical Thinking Modifiability test (CATM). The findings revealed that MLE interaction scores were positively related to SES level, and higher in the free‐play than in the structured situation, especially in the high SES group. Stepwise regression analyses on the CATM Preteaching and Postteaching scores revealed that they were significantly predicted by the Total MLE or by MLE specific criterion scores in the structured situation (Rs = 0.40 to 0.56). The results are discussed in relation to the MLE theory and recent developmental research.
The current study describes the developmental trends of specific nurturant behaviors, defined as mediated learning experience (MLE), of mothers towards their infants over a period of 18 months and compares them across different caregiving situations. Observations of molar sequences of meaningful behaviors, preselected on the basis of Feuerstein's theory of MLE (1979a). were conducted in unstructured home environments of 40 middle-class Israeli infants when they were 6, 12, and 24 months of age. Each observation consisted of mother-infant interactions during a feeding, a bathing, and a play situation. The MLEs were generally found to increase with age between 6 and 24 months, regardless of the different caregiving situations studied. Exceptions were noted at age 24 months, when significantly more MLEs were observed at play than in the other caregiving situations, and at 12 months, when mediated feelings of competence during feeding were found to be more frequent than at 6 or 24 months. Mothers were also highly consistent in the amount of MLE they provided at each age level and for the various situations. Finally, differences in styles of mediation were observed between mothers identified as either high or low mediators. The results demonstrate the advantages of a molar, rather than molecular, approach to monitoring parent-infant interactions that are critical to the child's healthy psychosocial development.
This study had 2 aims: to clarify results obtained with schooled and unschooled children in Hong Kong, and to explore the effects of chronological and mental age upon Piaget's tasks. The Ss were several groups of U. S. schoolchildren, selected to allow a close matching for either MA or CA and to cover a wide range in IQ. The data, combined with Hong Kong data, gave 2 results: (1) lack of schooling does not upset the conservation of weight, volume, or surface but does upset a task of combinatorial reasoning; (2) among schoolchildren, all tasks show a close relation to MA. The interaction between task and schooling may reflect the greater reliance of unschooled children upon perceptually present material or upon action models for reasoning.
A comparative study of parent-child interaction and its relation to children's intellectual achievement is presented. The question of cultural continuities in cognitive development was examined. The cross-national design also illustrates some of the problems encountered when such relationships are studied across social contexts in general. The results suggest that although interaction characteristics are related to children's intellectual achievement, that relation is moderated by context factors that may operate differently in each culture. The findings are discussed in terms of how literacy mediates parents' teaching styles in ways that remain culturally ingrained. Research issues and recommendations for future research and policy are discussed.