Vygotsky's Theory of Development

Vygotsky mentions that mentors could be teachers, tutors, parent, or peer and each of these provides scaffold learning. When Vygotsky mentions that we scaffold children’s learning he means that us as mentors assist to children’s learning to their needs with the intention of achieving their goal.  We add support to their learning in order to make it easier for them.  Scaffolding is a method in which mentors use for children to help children gain the knowledge that is necessary.  I am an elementary school tutor and drill team coach and I am constantly thinking of ways to help make students learning easier for themselves.  One method that I frequently like to use has to do with teaching my students math.  Children tend to learn well with visual representation so I like to use physical objects in the classroom to tutor them.  The time that my mom first started teaching me how to dance is an example of scaffold learning that I can explain.  It wasn’t something that I was very good at besides the little wiggle and wave your hands type of thing that most 5 year olds do.  My mom decided to take time to teach me to dance properly.  We would stand in the living room and dance to music of her preference but when I wasn’t quite getting it, she let me pick the music.  That is when it became easier for me when she would say “move your hips” or “sway your body like this.”  There wasn’t a handbook that she could teach me off of or an instruction manual but she managed by adjusting her teaching method to my abilities to make it easier for me.  She assisted me to my benefit. In high school I decided I wanted to try something different in my life besides dancing and running, which is when I decided to learn how to play the guitar.  It was too late in the school year to try and join the guitar class so I asked my older cousin.  He began by explaining all of the chords to me and how they are each supposed to sound when they are played.  It was difficult to learn how to switch from chord to chord while playing a song but watching him play the song “Trouble” by Never Shout Never made me mesmerized and excited to learn more because I too wanted to be able to  play that song like him. I can see myself using both scaffolding and the zone of proximal development at home with my brother and at school while tutoring my first grade class or with my drill team class.  At home I will be able to use assisted teaching to help my brother with his homework.  Instead of giving him straight forward answers to his homework I can help him learn how to get to that answer by assisting him to reaching that goal.  While tutoring my first grade students I can help them by using visual learning and giving them examples of my experiences that way they can come up with their own experiences.  My drill team students will be able to learn through watching me and being able to choose what kind of music they like to dance to most that way I can make it easier for them to learn the routines that I am trying to teach them.