CUS3701

Question one 1.1. Lev Vygotsky, an educationist who argued for a socio-constructionist perspective in education, was a young man during the Russian Revolution (1917–1918), a time of great change in his culture and society. He believed that the lifelong process of development is dependent on social interaction, and that social learning actually leads to cognitive development (Vygotsky, 1978). Traditionally, schools have not promoted environments in which learners play an active role in their own education as well as that of their peers. Vygotsky’s theory, however, requires teachers and learners to play non-traditional roles as they collaborate with each other, because both are influenced by the contexts in which they live, teach, and learn. Instead of teachers dictating meaning to learners for future recitation, they should collaborate with learners in order to create meaning in ways that learners can make their own (Hausfather, 1996). Learning becomes a reciprocal experience for both learners and teachers. This means that a teacher cannot ignore context when planning and during the process of developing learning programmes. According to Vygotsky’s theory, the physical classroom should provide clustered desks or tables and workspaces for peer learning, collaboration, and small-group learning. Like the environment, the learning material should be structured to promote and encourage learner interaction and collaboration. Thus, the classroom becomes a community of learning. Because Vygotsky asserts that cognitive change occurs within the zone of proximal development, instruction should be designed to reach a developmental level that is just above the learner’s current developmental level. Vygotsky (1978) argues that the overall development of the child and a new stage of the development process should be kept in mind when learning is planned. Appropriation is necessary for cognitive development within the zone of proximal development. Individuals participating in peer collaboration or guided teaching must share the same focus in order to access the zone of proximal development. “Furthermore, it is essential that the “partners” in this educational environment be on different developmental levels, and that the higher-level partner be aware of the lower partner’s level. If this does not occur, or if one partner dominates, the interaction is less successful. This is why joint attention and a common understanding of the problemsolving process are needed to create a cognitive, social, and emotional interchange between the “partners” in the educational environment (Driscoll, 1994; Hausfather, 1996). This requires the teacher to have a good understanding of contextual influences in terms of planning, instructional design, and assessment in the teaching-learning environment. 1.2. The key economic forces that drive the South African education system`