Vygotsky's Zone Of Proximal Development

For Part 1 of this paper, I made a concept map on a Prezi that outlines the six main concepts of the class, the subparts of each concept, and applications to a classroom setting. The six topics, although all different aspects of educational psychology, interact and combine when applied to a classroom setting. Reflecting on my past experiences, I see how knowledge of each concept, both individually and in interaction with other concepts, can enhance one’s teaching. As I was teaching private flute lessons this summer, I pulled teaching concepts from social development and cognitive learning theory. Social development, which considers the social interactions through which children progress, encourages scaffolding as a teaching tool. Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, a model that fits under social development, holds that a child’s …show more content…
She brought the audition music to the first lesson, and wanted me to help her make the highest band. Goal theory, a part of the motivation concept we covered in this educational psychology course, identifies performance goals as ones where students are focused primarily on their performance instead of their deeper understanding (Ormrod 2006). My student was exhibiting a performance goal. To help her shift her attention to mastery goals, I stressed that our main focus was expanding her musicianship. We began each lesson by working other pieces and scales, then later moved to her audition piece. Here I utilized a concept from cognitive learning theory—the idea that by connecting new information to old knowledge, one is more likely to remember something (Ormrod 2006). I asked her to make connections between the new melodies, scales, and concepts, to her band excerpt. By the end of the summer, her excerpt was polished, she made the higher ensemble, and she was excited to work on new, challenging