Ewart Daniels P.V.

1B Learning and Cognition

Learning from Others: Learning in a social context Week 8/Session 7
Topic: Strategies for fostering communication 11 th March 2019
Strategies for fostering communication can be define as ways teachers facilitates their
students in and out of the classrooms e.g. by placing them in groups to complete a given task.
This enables peer learning to take place on a cognitive and communicable level.
Everything we learn takes place in a social context. From birth and throughout our lives, our
interactions with others shape our understanding of the world and also build the cognitive level
in an individual. Vygotsky proposed the idea that learning and development take place in the
interactions children have with peers as well as with teachers and other adults. These social
interactions develop language which supports thinking and they provide feedback and assistance
that support ongoing learning. In a variety of ways, these social interactions form the basis of the
understandings that eventually become internalized in the individual. The classroom teacher
plays a key role in shaping these social interactions when he/she carefully assesses students’
current understandings and creates situations that allow students to grow further. This is the
notion of teaching as “assisted performance.”
In video seven (7) it can be seen that 5th grade teacher (Yvonne Scott) worked on her students
ZPD (zone of proximal development) by having them create a butterfly garden and doing their
research in groups as time goes on by observing all changes touching more on the naturalist
intelligence (nature smart). As a teacher in training I observed all my life that my country is eco-
friendly and I have learned a lot from nature and that can be passed on to my students.
Teachers can build on the ways children learn from each other by creating a learning
environment where there are ample opportunities for student-to-student discussion,
collaboration, questions and feedback making learning efficient and effective for all. Nature
smart people tends to find jobs in “agriculture” and “tourism” sectors respectively.

Reference: http://www.learner.org/resources/series 172.html.