Vygotsky Theory Research Paper

There are many different theories in today’s world that can help in an everyday classroom to teach children. The three theories that I will be discussing and how they can apply to today’s classroom are: Albert Bandura, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky theory.

The first Theorist that I will be talking about is Albert Bandura he was the originator of social learning theory. During his famous Bobo doll experiment Bandura demonstrated that children could mimic actions just by watching adults do things. Based on my class notes of Albert Bandura in this theory he states that the most learning occurs through conditioning or a system of reinforcement or punishment. He also believed that a positive ability belief is the number one predictor of success.

Basically stating that children who believed that they were able to succeed at a task were more like to do so rather than those who do not believe in themselves. People who believe in efficacy can affect the choice that they make. For example to be able to succeed at a particular thing people need a strong self-efficacy to be able to meet theory goals in life. As Bandura states, “Students who have limited self-efficacy are less likely to continue to try because they don’t believe they can success, where students who have strong self-beliefs are more likely to continue to apply themselves. There are many different ways that this theory can be applied in the everyday classroom. For example, we can teach the students to think out loud, “how did you accomplish that goal?” Or since students tend to mimic the actions that they see I could model the behavior that I expect from them.

Basically what that is trying to say is where the students are and where they need to be. They use a variety of test to measure the student’s intelligence. As McLeod states in his article, “The distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance.” (McLeod, 2010, pg.1) What is basically trying to say is that I as a teacher will provide support for the student until the student feels comfortable to move forward independently. To apply this theory in today’s classroom I will develop a set of instructions into small steps that the student is able to complete independently, this is typically known as scaffolding. The meaning to scaffolding is where a teacher provides help to the student by slowly increasing the student’s knowledge. Once the student with the benefit of scaffolding has mastered the task, the scaffolding can be removed and the student will then have an opportunity to complete the task again on his own. Vygotsky believed that when a student is the zone of proximate development for a certain task, with adequate assistance from the teacher can give the student enough confidence to achieve whatever he is trying to do. (McLeod, 2010) It is very easy for teachers and parents to recognize where the student is with the zone of proximate development by asking the