Vygotsky's Analysis

Superior Essays
Conjointly, Vygotsky stipulated the importance of the teacher’s role in planning activities and lessons that should not only, include items that can be undertaken independently but also those that are ahead of development and lie in the ZPD. These are required for a developmentally relevant curriculum (Karpov & Haywood, 1998). Besides, good education should be directed at working on the developing functions and less on the developed functions (Shayer, 2002). Nevertheless, this claim does not imply that anything can be included in the curriculum, but only those that fall within the ZPD. Each developmental stage is known to have its own appropriate method of instruction. As a matter of fact, the age period of the students need to be taken into …show more content…
Special education was the primary source of empirical data Vygotsky used for support. At the time, given the incongruence between Vygotsky’s innovative beliefs and contemporary American special education, it seemed difficult for the professionals to read and agree to Vygotsky’s texts. Vygotsky (1983) argued that a physical handicap does not hinder only the individual’s way of reacting to the world but mostly, his interactions. Even if, blindness or deafness involves biological factors, the social consequences of having those disabilities are huge and the teacher should be able to cater for them as well. According to Vygotsky (1995), special educators should thrive to alter the negative societal attitudes towards impaired individuals and identify the disability in a child as strength, instead of a weakness. Nevertheless, the application of the ZPD to special education remains nearly inexistent. This surely must be due to the higher amount of individual differences amongst handicapped individuals as numerous variables should be taken into account before making assumptions. However, from this view, a qualitative differentiation can be made between mentally retarded children and children from poor families who are academically neglected, temporally-delayed or bilingual. According to the results in psychological tests, both groups seem to be performing in a similar backward fashion as those tests assess the current level of development (Sattler, 1992). Comparatively, they diverge drastically in their potential to gain from social assistance (Lubovsky, 1990; Rubinshtein, 1979). Further, validity remains an issue with the use of the ZPD on children with disabilities and therefore, should be further researched on its advantages and limitations (Gindis, 1999). Vygotsky stipulated that special education activities and programs should incorporate the

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The content talked about in chapter three and the first case study brings to light a lot of different issues regarding Special education. Issues of inclusion, normalcy, and the medical model of "diagnosing" students with disabilities are all topics that are debated frequently. It is important to understand that the history of disabilities has brought a negative persona on the idea of Special education; this issue is properly identified in chapter three of Rethinking Disability when the authors provide a description of how a typical conversation may go between a normal working person and a Special education teacher. For example, a person whose line of work may be working in an office may say to a Special education teacher, "Why, you must be…

    • 350 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    It excels in the fact that it mainstreams the child with their friends and peers throughout a great deal of the school day, while at the same time giving them the appropriate education that they are entitled to. “Inclusion is a value or a belief system to those who make it successful” (King, 152). In schools that utilize the inclusion method, administrators usually delegate certain classrooms as inclusion classrooms where the teachers in these classrooms are expected to use the existing curriculum, including the mandatory state standards, to teach their classes. They do, however, often change their delivery of information, including instructional strategies, grouping methods, assessment strategies, and pacing (King,152). This is to meet the needs of all of the students in the classroom, and provide the most beneficial education to those with special…

    • 1393 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    I must admit I was intimidated by the readings for this week. However, once I started, I realized the readings complement the information in Literate Lives from my Literacy Foundations course, which makes it simpler to understand. Let’s look at some of the paraphrased facts from that course that correlates with this week (Flint, 2008) . Then, I will build upon that information to dive deeper into the issue of disproportionality.  The background, culture, and experiences teachers have differ from their students.…

    • 1883 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Handicapped Act 1986

    • 1165 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments of 1986 Based on new research found on infant development, encourage a change in early interventions and preschool services. Early intervention was found to improve a child’s intelligence, prevent secondary handicapping conditions decrease dependency in institutionalization and decrease family stress (Education of the Handicapped Act, 1986). The establishment of the Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments of 1986 was created in order to improve early interventions and encourage each state to provide better assistance to the child and their families. Services included language and speech development classes, self-help skills, physical and cognitive development. Under this act, each family was…

    • 1165 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Six Tips for Successful IEP Meetings Communication between the school and the parents are vital to the proper educational development of children. Most schools seek to have a partnership between the teacher and parent for all students, but it is even more crucial for children with special needs. The article tells a story of little boy and his struggle in the classroom. It is an example of how the school and parents lack of communication caused the boy’s behavior to get out of hand. The boy was already receiving special education services for speech articulation, however, his IEP did not address all issues.…

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ideally, an educator seeks the best teaching method for his or her students; however, the debate remains, what theory is universal for teachers to use? The solution is not singular, for several theories offer exceptional suggestions on how to apply certain material that best suits the development of students. Such suggestions may come from the theories of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. Despite their differing views in cognitive development, both have contributed to the improvement of teaching methods and as a future educator, I plan to use both elements as resources to my teaching methods. Lev Vygotsky introduced what is known as Social Development Theory.…

    • 829 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Introduction Special education has made significant changes over the past years, partly due to the fact that people have stood up and made a change for the better toward children with disabilities. Children are no longer put into segregated hospitals and left to die and forgotten about. Children for many years were labeled as unlovable and a disgrace and hid away from society. Parents were faced with humiliation and public scorning for having a child with a disability and lived in fear. People are now more widely educated and have advanced over the past century to include children with disabilities as part of society and not simply a disgrace to be swept under the rug.…

    • 1323 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    A teacher’s goal is to maximize his or her student’s potential. Traditionally, the biggest challenge for students with disabilities was to meet their needs in the areas of social, behavioral, cognitive, perceptive and motor skills (Adebisi et al. 14). A learning disability is defined by the Schwab Foundation as a person who is diagnosed by a professional with a difficulty as a result of a CNS dysfunction in the areas or reading, writing, math, science, reasoning speaking, or listening. In order to meet the diverse needs of these students, they were traditionally removed from the mainstream classroom and placed in a separate classroom to learn. Although this was the best way to meet the students’ academic needs, their social needs were grossly…

    • 1757 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Introduction Since the passage of the Education of All Handicapped Children Act, now codified as IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the required adequate yearly progress (AYP), students are being served in various ways and the United States is striving to improve the quality of the educational practices and academic outcomes for students with disabilities (Palmer, 2015 and Stoutjesdijk, Scholte, & Swaab, 2012). In an attempt to meet the mandates of NCLB and IDEA, educators must address impediments to special education student’s academic achievement. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate how culture, specifically special education culture is keeping students with a disability from achieving academically. In the United States, there are many cultures and many…

    • 1062 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    To work in every environment is the task for the teachers to achieve for the mental growth of the children. Vygotsky focus on the interaction of people in a social context. He told us that we should use tools developed by our culture to improve the thinking ability of our generation. He said that students should be helped when needed. In the guidance of elders students learn more and learn in a correct way.…

    • 1341 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Brilliant Essays

    Doris Chevis EDUC 6315 American Educational Reform Research Paper Teaching Students’ with Disabilities Teaching student’s with disabilities is a research-based field that is dedicated to educators who believe in the growth and the well being of special kids. This topic discussed will introduce: what a disability is, how are kids referred to special education, how can we accommodate these kids, and what benefits can the kids have after high school. Teaching students’ with disabilities is a special task; a person has to have the knowledge, skill and patience to work in the environment. I have worked with students’ with disabilities for three years now and have studied their disabilities and how to accommodate them for 5 years. Defining what a disability is What is a disability?…

    • 1990 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Brilliant Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Early intervention can make the difference in having a successful education. Children who have had the opportunity to attend early intervention, have had lowered rate of having to attend special education classes in the future (Berk, 2014). They also have proven to have higher IQ’s than those children who did not have the opportunity to attend an early intervention. These programs are essential for not only children who have been born with a developmental disability but have been born in to lower Socio-economic back rounds. Therefor it is imperative to continue to find was to continue serving our children and allow them to evolve into productive citizens as well as giving them the best chance at a greater quality of…

    • 1771 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In order to explain my beliefs’ on education and how these ideas influence my practice I am going to use and hypothetical baby girl who I named Rose. The reason for doing so is that I do believe like Rousseau education starts at birth. As you know there are two form of education; informal and formal. While informal education starts very beginning at birth in the family, formal education starts with the school enrollment approximately at the age of 5 if a child is attending a kindergarten, if a preschool it can be early as 2-3 years old. I used a female child contrast to Rousseau ideas about education of the women, because if I educated a woman I will be education a family, unlike to education only a man.…

    • 1272 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Drawing inspiration from Kotler and Lee (2009) , I desire the social marketing tool for notifying the public of concerns affecting the marginalized and children with disabilities. In reality, the public need awareness of marginalized children’s limitation and collaborate to improve their situation. Recalling back to Maria’s incidence, Maria’s mother successful rescued her daughter from the ritual after attending the circumcision sensation which opened and transformed her minds. Similar to Kotler and Lee (2009), I believe in the influence of social marketing as one means to sensitize, inform the public, and bring social transformation.…

    • 955 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Among the advantages of inclusion system, let's consider the disadvantages the most. To the point that every children with disability needs an extra care and attention to an adult or even to a teacher for the reason that they manifest things different from the normal beings. They may manifest behaviors that will require attention and will result into behavioral difficulties (Comfort, 1988; MacCoby, 1983; Roedell 1984). Each student have their extraordinary behaviors which makes a teacher's mind divided into two portions, (1) to understand special children and (2) to manage normal students. These things may tolerate teachers when they hear about "Inclusion System".…

    • 1512 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays