The name Lev Vygotsky is well known to most teachers, his work has been the basis of modern evidence based education research.
Differentiation and scaffolding can help students better understand and learn. Here are teaching ideas and tips to use in class.
Executed well, student-centered instructional methods can disarm some of the more intimidating parts of academia.
Collaborative learning refers to obtaining knowledge through collaboration with colleagues when carrying out a task or solving a problem.
Vygotsky and Piaget are two classic theorists on education. Here we will address their key ideas on teaching and learning with a particular focus on how they affect literacy. Vygotsky The role of …
An overview of psychologist, Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural theories on learning as a social process including his zone of proximal development theory.
Choosing a partner can be a daunting task for teachers and students alike. Why not make it random? These fun cards help students "find" their own buddy. They choose a partner card and search for their classmate who has the matching one! Partner Cards includes: ~ 45 pairs of "We Go Together..." *new pairs added! ~ 9 pairs of Opposites ~ 29 pairs of Emotions/Feelings ~ 9 pairs of Colors ~ 12 pairs of Time ~ 21 pairs of Numbers ~ Wild Card ~ Teacher's Choice Partner cards will get your students up and moving! They are a great way to have students work with new peers in the classroom. By request, the partner cards are now smaller which will make them easier to print. The amount of cards has increased, but the number of pages has decreased. Keep Your Teaching Colorful! Sara ☺ Want to Create Groups of Students? Use the Grab-a-Group Cards to create more than just pairs!
Zone of Prox….. what? And how am I suppose to use this? So what is it? The zone of proximal development is a concept created by psychologist Lev Vygotsky. According to Vygotsky, the zone of p…
Support every student by breaking learning up into chunks and providing a concrete structure for each.
The teacher must adopt the role of facilitator not content provider.
Vygotsky believed teaching's purpose was to develop new knowledge, scaffolding through the ZPD is integral in supporting this learning.
One of the most important elements of teaching is providing students with plenty of opportunities to actively engage in learning with their peers. This blog post covers my favorite cooperative learning strategies that I have used in my classroom. These activities can be used across all subjects and several grade levels (3-6+). Bonus: I created […]
1896-1934 The Mozart of Psychology Personal Background Lev Vygotsky is an “outstanding scientist”, an “eminent scholar”, and even a “genius”. “A Well-kn…
This post shares Vygotsky’s idea of collective creativity, a concept presented in his article ‘Imagination and Creativity in Childhood’. I firstly talk about how he defines creativity and imagination. I then…
A complete summary of the 15 most influential learning theories. Includes Vygotsky, Piaget, Bloom, Gagne, Maslow, Bruner, Kolb and many more.
"Constructivism is a model in psychology that characterizes learning as a process of actively constructing knowledge. Individuals create meaning for themselves or make sense of new information by selecting, organizing, and integrating information with other knowledge, often in the context of social interactions." (EdPsych Modules, 2nd Edition) There have been multiple occasions throughout my graduate studies in which the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky were mentioned when discussing students and their cognitive development. But what are these theories and how can they be applied or observed in the classrooms? While both individuals may have different approaches when it comes to cognitive development, both would agree that 1) learning is a process of actively constructing knowledge, 2) cognitive development is an interaction between heredity and environment, 3) a symbolic system is needed for development, 4) internalized language is needed for conscious thought, promotes reflection, and helps plan, and 5) play is important.
Learning is understood broadly as any kind of activity, whether in a formal or informal context, that enhances an individual’s knowledge or skills in one way or another. The relationship between ...
Scaffold your instruction with these teaching scaffolding strategies to help bridge readiness and mastery for your elementary students!
Are you looking for a concrete way you can map out your reading/writing/language mini-lessons so that your students can be successful during their independent time? WATCH MY LIVE VIDEO AND DISCOVER HOW I SCAFFOLD LEARNING DURING A 10-15 MINUTE MINI-LESSON. How to Scaffold Learning in a Mini Lesson Check out all my reading and writing
This iste provides an introduction to multiple intelligences and how to use them in the classroom.
Hey Y'all! This is Chandra from Teaching with Crayons and Curls! I hope that you've been enjoying our posts this month and have learned some magical new ideas to use in your classroom with our Teaching Pot of Gold: Making Learning Magical blog series! I don't know about you, but I truly believe that for my students to LEARN, they have to be ENGAGED! So, I'm here to share some magic about how I try my best to keep my students engaged! My husband is also an educator and many of our conversations are school related. He has been so fortunate to attend many more education conferences than I have, and has always been willing (and excited) to share the information he has learned with me! At one of the conferences that he attended, he was very lucky to learn all about Kagan Structures. I had never heard about Kagan Structures before, but now I am completely hooked! I have to figure out a way to be officially trained or find a way to attend a workshop! If you've never heard of Kagan Cooperative Learning, but you are looking for ways to engage your students and provide them with experiences for cooperative learning, I highly suggest looking into these structures! This book is absolutely incredible! One of my favorite structures is Show Down! My students absolutely LOVE this activity and it's a great way to review for a math test while also allowing them to work cooperatively- hello Speaking and Listening standards!!! You can read about the specific directions for how to complete this activity from the creator, Laura Candler, on her blog! I changed it up a little bit in my classroom for my firsties, but it's still very similar! My students always use dry erase boards for this particular strategy. I LOVE using dry erase boards in my classroom because they are fast and easy, and my kids love using them! Win, win! I have my students work in small groups of about 4 students and they sit in a small circle. We usually sit on the floor for this activity and I walk around the classroom to take observations on their work- great quick assessment tool! In the actual directions, there is a team captain that switches a task card over! However, I usually just display the problem students are solving on the Smartboard. The task cards are a great way for you to differentiate the problems each group is working on, but since I usually use this activity for a test review, we are all working on the same problem! Once the problem is up, students get to work independently. I have them try to keep their dry erase boards hidden from the other members of their group, so that they are working independently. Once I notice that most students are done working, I yell "SHOWDOWN" and students turn their boards around so that all the students in their group can see their work. This is when they work cooperatively to discuss how they solved their problems or completed the problem. They can celebrate successes or tutor each other on how to correctly solve the problem. This is NOT a game, nobody wins or gets point! It's truly about working together and teaching each other! My students get so excited everytime I tell them we are about to complete Showdown, which makes my teacher heart so very happy! I would LOVE to know what Kagan Structures you love using in your classroom! Make sure to comment below with your favorites! For even more ideas from The Primary Peach, be sure to follow us on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook to catch all the latest news and updates!
Scaffolding is an important technique to use with students of all levels. Learn the difference between scaffolding & differentiation at StoryboardThat.
In years of the past, a classroom full of on-task students may have been synonymous with a classroom full of quiet students. Not so much the case anymore. Active engagement in meaningful, standards-based learning doesn’t often look like students silently hunched over a desk as they concentrate on a worksheet. Kids make connections when they […]
Today was the day. I was about to utter the dreaded words “peer editing.” As I began class with my eighth graders, I told them we would be editing each ...
Education has been studied for years. Educational theories address issues related to definition, existing types, influence factors, and styles of learning.
Explore the social cognition learning model. Learn how Lev Vygotsky influences curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Dive into key readings and resources.
I’ve been thinking a lot about differentiation and how to make it better in the classroom. I know I’ve thought ‘where do I start?’ I think differentiation can start slowly and in one area. After time,
A complete summary of the 15 most influential learning theories. Includes Vygotsky, Piaget, Bloom, Gagne, Maslow, Bruner, Kolb and many more.
Cooperative Learning through Problem Solving contains sets of cards that encourage students to work together to solve the given problem. All of the problems
Through my research on and 15 years of practice with collaboration in the classroom, I’ve been working towards taking this HUGE concept of collaborative learning and simplifying it for easy application in EVERY classroom. Here’s what I’ve discovered
There is an age-old adage that says, “two heads are better than one." Here are 20 collaborative learning tips and strategies for teachers.
