When reading about Social Constructivism and Vygotsky, the analogy to coaches and athletes (“offering help and suggesting ways of practicing, but never doing the actual athletic work himself or herself”) really resonated with me. I have been “learning” baseball since age 5 and been influenced and taught really difficult skills in what seems to me to be a “scaffolding” fashion from countless coaches, mentors and peers over the years. Obviously, learning baseball for most people, myself included, is not as useful or valuable as academic learning, but given the large role it has played for me it is a really easy analogy to help my understanding of Vygotsky’s approach.
I’m thinking in particular about the way in which most community baseball programs teach young kids – they follow an initial progression designed to advance a toddler’s learning and understanding of the game that is in line with both the physical strength, motor function, cognitive understanding and emotional control of the relevant age. There are countless examples: pitching starts out with dads or coaches throwing the ball to young batters. There are no “balls & strikes” just some number of chances to swing. This is the ZDP these kids are in, but after working at it, practicing over and over with parents or coaches throwing them underhand or giving them tips, watching how their other little teammates do it and seeing what works and what doesn’t, and once kids get a little hand-eye coordination practice down and grow a bit, they might be ready to step up to the next stage where a child will pitch the ball from a close distance. Once this skill is established, the pitching mound may move back further. This will go on and on in various ways, step by step. Currently, when I step up to the plate for Carleton, I swing a metal bat. In this ZPD I need to get stronger and swing faster because in the majors, they always hit with a wooden bat. A similar learning process takes place one on one as well. I have spent my life practicing for hours little drills with strange materials developed by coaches in an effort to correct mechanical flaws in a swing or improve a relevant skill. These are guided experiences, arranged by coaches, developed in order to draw out an emerging competency. Coaches will watch, tweak, suggest, sometimes demonstrate and, eventually, the skill is obtained. For example, when I was a junior in high school looking across the country for a place I could play college baseball, I met a coach who provided advice on my throwing mechanics. He explained that when I separated my arm from my glove I should immediately point both of my thumbs in the downward direction. This was a unique strategy to help form stronger throwing mechanics, and due to my build-up of trust and the fact I was in ZPD, I could comprehend this strategy and apply it to my routine which eventually led to me learning this motion. There are always some physical or mental limits to the learning, but that ceiling is typically quite high.
An example displaying scaffolding that I noticed from the classroom at NHS that I am observing involved a small partner assignment a boy and girl were conducting. This assignment required presenting in front of the class specific results they found during their experiment of the week. The students were instructed by the teacher to plan out how to present their results effectively and precisely in limited time. This is a difficult task for anyone who lacks public speaking skills because being succinct and exact under time constraints and in front of peers can be is difficult. As this pair was practicing, the boy noticed the girl was using a lot of time in her speaking part with filler words such as “um,” “like,” “ahh” and so on. This is a confidence issue and unessential jargon adults struggle with as well but this boy noticed this and worked with the girl to improve the speaking style. He pointed out these filler words and told her that she has no reason to be nervous. He mentioned “we got these results and they’re accurate, just say them.” He was clearly taught certain speaking skills that he had more opportunities to practice than his partner. This was a skillset he had clearly had a chance to practice and develop that she clearly was less exposed to. His experience from his background guided his assistance and advice to his partner in their preparation and she could learn from her partner, practice in front of him, take his advice and feel more confident. I have no doubt that such advice coming from the peer (rather than an adult) may have helped her to see that if he could do it, so could she. Just as Vygotsky pointed out, she learned here from a more knowledgeable peer. The peer provided advice and then more practice time so the girl could reflect herself on her speaking style and then work herself to improve on it.
Unfortunately, my role as a MKO has not affected student learning thus far in the class room. This is a product of how the instructor teaches the class, a method I very much support. When the class is learning through experiments, they are physically doing the tasks and discussing the results. When the class is being lectured and works on problems, it is not a typical lecture that would make it easier for me to directly affect student learning. Mr. Johnson likes to do demonstrations, such as the class watching him do an experiment and discussing the concepts behind those results. He prefers to teach like that instead of standard lecturing and group discussion because he believes the students are more engaged watching demonstrations. (His style reminds me of what the reading described as the metacognition strategy). This leaves me without opportunities to offer my own knowledge on certain concepts. Therefore, I have provided other opportunities to be a stronger resource of help for the students in the future. The students are able to reach out to me via email to set up a time to either discuss certain topics they have or even shoot me an email if they have a certain question about something. This is a perfect opportunity for me to be an available resource for the students and to provide help from the perspective of a MKO practicing some Vygotsky type techniques.
A couple teaching strategies I noticed Mr. Johnson utilizes that I think is important and effective in terms of engaging the class is his use of positive reinforcement responding to individuals’ participation ( which he really needs for his specific guided teaching approach). There was a long period of time during the first period where participation was lacking, understandably so as it was quite early, but then a student promptly asked a couple questions. Mr. Johnson responded right away proclaiming “Great question! I love it when you guys are engaged and ask questions, it makes me happy.” That enthusiasm and recognition of a student going out of her way to learn provoked others to be more engaged. I believe this approach to get the students to focus and be involved during a slow, morning period is really motivating; it pushes the students to learn without forcing it upon them, which seems to never be successful.
Further, the examples Mr. Johnson uses in teaching concepts are not only on point but very meaningful and relatable to his class. When he was explaining diffusion, for example, the concept that molecules move from areas of high concentration to low concentration, he provided an example about perfume and why it can spread throughout a room. As he is teaching a group of teenagers, perfume is something they know of and may care about making the meaning behind its function more interesting to the classroom. He also used a dog joke that was quite humorous and relevant to the concept he was getting across. “Where are ribosomes constructed he asked the class?” One student responded “The endoplasmic reticulum.” “Yah but soft or rough?” Nobody responded. He then asks the class “What would my dog say?” The class, in excitement and in concert, screamed “RUFF!” This analogy engages the class and grasps their attention. They also will likely remember the concept better. Mr. Johnson suggests to the students that their teacher understands them and share similarities with them, regardless of the age discrepancy. One is more inclined to listen and learn from someone who they trust and who they know cares about them. These strategies encourage that response and ideation. “Thank you, Mr. Johnson”, the class will later say.