Group+6

Group 6 - Social Devolopment Theory!

First, here are the group emails:

Samantha Harrison: skh528@gmail.com Roy Rackley: rrackl1@students.towson.edu You can also hit me up on facebook! Tammy Bell: tbell5@students.towson.edu Michael Slaughter: mslaug1@students.towson.edu Facebook works for me also

Person 1-> Mike • Introduce and describe the theorists' contributions to the theory Social Development Theory is a type of Cognitive Development that was developed by the late Lev Semionovich Vygotsky. Though a contemporary of the great Piaget, he disagreed with many of Piaget’s methods and ideas and thus created his own system. This system, while not 100% accurate, gave children much more credit in terms of how they developed than Piaget did. In fact many of the critiques he made of the Piagetian system more than sixty years ago are still in use today. The Social Development Theory has only recently made headway in North America, but since it’s rise in the 1970's, it has become a powerful force in developmental psychology.

• Describe at least 3 main characteristics of the theory All my information was from a textbook entitled, "Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice" by Robert E. Slavin.
 * Intellectual development is based on the child's historical and cultural experiences. Basically meaning how and where the child was raised, as well as in what setting.
 * Cognitive growth is based on a sign system. These symbols are created by cultures to help people think, communicate and solve problems.
 * Cognitive Development is strongly linked to input from others.
 * All children use similar methods to gain knowledge.

Person 2 > ** Tammy **
• Explain the strengths and weaknesses of the theory __Strengths__ The Vygotskian Theory is a powerful source in developmental psychology and is used as a basis for current theories. This theory allows students to play an active role in the learning process and the emphasis on scaffolding allows students to take more responsibility for their own learning. Social Development theory supports the idea of cooperative learning meaning that students work collectively to help each other learn. Vygotsky believed this method promoted peer interaction and suggests that students work in groups of varied abilities. This idea of tutoring from peers also promotes growth in the zone of proximal development. Traditionally, information is passed from teacher-to-student but this theory allows information to be passed from student-to-teacher therefore creating a reciprocation of learning for both teachers and students. __Weaknesses__ One of the biggest weaknesses and criticisms of Vygotsky's theory is the idea of private speech, "children's self-talk, which guides their thinking and action; eventually internalized as silent inner speech". Research is suggesting that there is no relationship between a child's private speech and success in problem solving activites". Research also points to the fact that the frequency of children's private speech is low therefore making it difficult to find the relevance to the child's cognitive development. Private speech occurs more with difficult and failed tasks as opposed to successful performance. [] [] __Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice 9th Edition__ by: Robert Slavin Person 3---> //**Samantha**// • Explain how the theory is associated with either direct instruction or constructivism The social development theory deals a great amount with constructivism. Social interaction has a major role in how children learn according to Lev Vygotsky. “Every function in the child’s cultural development appears twice: first on the social level, and later, on the individual level; first, between people and then inside the child. This applies equally to voluntary attention, to logical memory, and to the formation of concepts. All the higher functions originate as actual relationships between individuals” (Vygotsky 1978, pg57). Constructivism deals with the social development theory because children learn through their personal experiences with others which help them develop a greater sense about the topic. This helps them because they are forming new information from their personal experiences. Their interactions with each other help them develop new skills and ways of learning from experiencing the different ways of learning and obtaining knowledge. Children need to develop their own sense of the world through their experiences and opportunities to build on their previous knowledge. Children need to construct their own meanings of things rather than just memorizing the facts and not remembering them later in life. The social interaction helps a great deal when involving students with hands on problems because they can build off each other’s meanings to create more powerful meanings of the topic. Using the hands on approach with children helps them learn so much quicker because you add to their personal experience, making them have their own interpretation rather than the standard one. [] [] [] Person 4 --> Roy • Provide at least one example of how technology can be integrated into classroom instruction that uses your learning theory. What would this classroom look like? What would the instruction look like? Include the targeted grade level. What are the goals for instruction? What would the technology integration look like? Here is a sample Lesson Plan that uses Technology and Social Learning Theory: **https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1NTpGmPhXNoqqC_f4jw_tMmiidhTA7E0Ro_OIlpFEOyU**