Describe a social-constructivist classroom. Describe some other educational themes that have been inspired by Vygotsky's emphasis on the social origins of higher cognitive processes

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

In social-constructivist classrooms, children participate in a wide range of challenging activities with teachers and peers, with whom they jointly construct understandings. As children acquire knowledge and strategies through working together, they become competent, contributing members of their classroom community and advance in cognitive and social development.
Vygotsky's emphasis on the social origins of higher cognitive processes has also inspired the following educational themes:
• Teachers and children as partners in learning. A classroom rich in both teacher–child and child–child collaboration transfers culturally valued ways of thinking to children.
• Experiences with many types of symbolic communication in meaningful activities. As children master reading, writing, and mathematics, they become aware of their culture's communication systems, reflect on their own thinking, and bring it under voluntary control.
• Teaching adapted to each child's zone of proximal development. Assistance that both responds to current understandings and encourages children to take the next step helps ensure that each child makes the best progress possible.
• Cooperative learning. In this peer collaboration, small groups of classmates work toward common goals—by resolving differences of opinion, sharing responsibilities, and providing one another with sufficient explanations to correct misunderstandings.