Vygotskian Perspective Research Articles

Argumentation and Knowledge Construction in Higher Education: A Vygotskian Perspective

Empirical research indicates that the utilization of argumentation as an educational strategy fosters the acquisition of argumentation skills and disciplinary knowledge. Furthermore, there is evidence to show that argumentation skills development mediates the effect of oral argumentation on disciplinary knowledge. However, studies have also shown that argumentation is scarce in higher education and that although lecturers see argumentation as a relevant pedagogical goal, they think that students need to first acquire knowledge in order to develop argumentation skills. Therefore, a crucial pedagogical resource to promote scientific knowledge in higher education is being overlooked. This paper is aimed at shedding light onto argumentation as a key practice in higher education teaching, disputing the idea that to argue, students first need to acquire knowledge. We elaborate further on Vygotsky’s notion of scientific concepts, highlighting their dialectic structure, which accounts for the epistemic potential of argumentation. This paper extends an invitation to higher education lecturers to prompt argumentation in classrooms as a form of disciplinary learning. Limitations and implications are discussed throughout the paper

Teacher practices and student preferences of oral corrective feedback in Indonesian EFL classrooms: A Vygotskian perspective

Oral corrective feedback (OCF) is considered a salient pedagogical process which teachers use to assist students to enhance their language learning. Less is known about which feedback practices students prefer or consider effective for particular language learning processes. From a sociocultural perspective, this study investigated the extent of congruency between teacher practices and student preferences for OCF in Islamic Senior High Schools in Indonesia. Using a mixed-methods approach, quantitative data were collected from 444 students using a five-point Likert scale and administered across one province. Complementary data were collected from classroom observations, teacher interviews and student focus groups. The analyses of these multiple datasets illustrate that teacher practices are not congruent with student preferences for OCF. Findings show that students favour feedback on vocabulary errors, whereas in practice, teachers respond more often to pronunciation errors. Students prefer negotiated feedback, but in practice teachers mostly use clarification requests. The groups are aligned in relation to one area; students indicate a preference for teacher feedback, likewise teachers’ practice demonstrably favours teacher feedback. Pedagogically, the findings indicate a need for teachers to transform their conceptual understanding and practices of OCF to better support student collaboration and mutual meaningful scaffolding for L2 development.

Secondary school students’ understanding of the concept of virus from a Vygotskian perspective

Resumo: O artigo discute a formação de conceitos científicos na escola, a partir do contexto da pandemia pela COVID-19. O cenário do trabalho de pesquisa foi uma disciplina eletiva em que, a partir do desenvolvimento de uma sequência didática sob a perspectiva vigotskiana, estudantes do ensino médio puderam expressar e debater assuntos inerentes ao contexto pandêmico. O foco da pesquisa foi direcionado ao conceito de vírus e a produção dos dados foi realizada a partir da aplicação de três instrumentos de pesquisa ao longo da execução da sequência didática: o levantamento de ideias prévias (LIP), o questionário intermediário e o estudo de síntese (ES). As contribuições da sequência didática para os estudantes foram, primeiramente, o estudo de um assunto relevante e concreto e, principalmente, o potencial entendimento de conceitos relacionados à pandemia. A comparação dos dados a partir dos instrumentos evidenciou o desempenho processual de elaboração de conceitos.

Scientific language use and sensemaking in concept maps: Interaction between concept systems, scientific concepts and everyday concepts

The interaction between student language use and sensemaking is an area in science learning that needs further elucidation in order to meet government standards in science education. In this study, concept mapping was used to explore the relationship between scientific language use and sensemaking defined as the interaction between the scientific concept system and everyday concepts in order to make sense of a proposed phenomenon. Eighty-eight concept maps from five different school classes and two school systems were analyzed in terms of their language use and concept formation from a Vygotskian perspective. This work proposes an intimate relationship between student language use, concept system formation and sensemaking in science, indicating possible implications for the study of learning as well as formative assessment using concept maps.

Vygotskian Perspectives in Deaf Education: An Introduction in Two Movements.

Vygotsky's (1993) Fundamentals of Defectology is a radical's handbook of deaf and disability studies. Vygotsky's overall research program views disabilities, including deafness, from an integrated biosocial and critical theory standpoint. In two movements, I introduce an American Annals of the Deaf Special Issue on Vygotskian perspectives in deaf education focused mainly on his Defectology volume. Movement One describes Vygotsky's life, research, death, and posthumous impact by situating his deaf pedagogy research as one node in a network of defectological pedology, translated as applied special educational psychology. Movement Two describes how Vygotsky's project has been extended, synthesized, and developed in modern and postmodern contexts of deaf education and disability studies. Throughout, I synthesize Vygotsky's claims and update his terms by juxtaposing them with contemporary terms and theories to provide sociohistorical context for the new scholarship comprising this Special Issue's unique contribution to Vygotskian deaf research.

Six Arguments for Vygotskian Pragmatism in Deaf Education: Multimodal Multilingualism as Applied Harm Reduction.

Deaf education research and practice have not always lived up to the ideal of improving deaf students' lives. Consequently, we have constructed novel arguments supporting deaf pedagogy using pragmatic ethics, the aim of which is to increase benefit and decrease harm to individuals and society. The ideal of harm reduction asks the pragmatist to pursue the path of action least likely to result in injury to others. Besides applying ideas that reduce harm, educators must also increase benefits for deaf students. Our analysis synthesizes Vygotskian perspectives on deaf pedagogy and pragmatic ideals about reducing harm and increasing benefit. We propose six arguments that can enable deaf educators to think about and enact deaf-positive concepts and strengths-based classroom interactions, including the use of sign language, images, and text, among other modes, such as speech. Our goal is to reduce the threat of harm from language deprivation.

From Vicious Circles to Virtuous Cycles: Vygotskian-Inspired Conclusions for Biomedicine and Deaf Education.

In this concluding article of an American Annals of the Deaf Special Issue, we draw on Vygotsky's Fundamentals of Defectology to argue that the essence of deaf pedagogy is not centered on constructing deaf students' hearing abilities but on a biosocial orientation that considers the whole multimodal child with unfettered access to natural signed languages. In alignment with this biosocial view, we recognize and resist the overarching influence of biomedical professionals and systems on deaf education. Such biomedical influence comes with convenient detachment from accountability in education systems while arguably causing at least significant, if not maximal, harm to the optimal developmental outcomes of deaf children. The article ties together the articles of the Annals Special Issue, along with additional Vygotskian perspectives, to bring forth the emergence and exploration of biosocial accountability in deaf education.

Reviewing the theory of objectification: a Vygotskian perspective on knowing and becoming in mathematics teaching and learning, by Luis Radford

Reviewing the theory of objectification: a Vygotskian perspective on knowing and becoming in mathematics teaching and learning, by Luis Radford

Inner speech as a cognitive tool—or what is the point of talking to oneself?

ABSTRACT Many higher cognitive tasks, such as problem-solving and deliberation are accompanied by the experience of an inner voice in our heads. In this paper, we develop the idea that our own inner speech supports these tasks. We approach the phenomenon of inner speech through a comparison with overt speech – a comparison that is suggested by a Vygotskian approach that focuses on how inner speech develops from overt speech during ontogeny. We argue for the cognitive potency of inner speech by hypothesizing that condensed inner speech may help reduce cognitive load; yet by being pragmatically expanded upon, inner speech may scaffold further cognitive accomplishments. More specifically, as we adopt a Vygotskian perspective, we begin by introducing his notion of internalization and examine in what way inner speech might be condensed. Then the question of whether inner speech is governed by the same pragmatic mechanisms that govern overt speech is posed and answered in the affirmative. We advocate the idea that inner speech aids deliberation due, to some degree, to the manner in which pragmatic principles governing overt speech are re-purposed in inner speech. We close by addressing two objections.

Shadow Education and Its Academic Effects in Bangladesh: A Vygotskian Perspective.

Private tutoring is a newly emerging field of research, which remains largely under-theorized. Adopting the Vygotskian philosophy of learning as an analytical lens, this qualitative study conceptualized the academic effects of private tutoring in a Bangladeshi higher secondary educational context. The primary data were gathered from 18 semi-structured interviews with tutored students, parents, and teachers. The data from secondary sources were also collected to supplement the primary data. A thematic procedure was used to analyze the data. The analysis demonstrated two important findings. First, students internalized knowledge and skills through scaffolding by their private tutors, which eliminated their learning deficiencies and boosted their academic credentials. Second, private tutoring induced long-term deficiencies as it provided rote learning. It dulled students’ critical thinking and made them dependent on others. The paper carried significant theoretical implications by producing a unique insight into students’ learning in the shadows from a Vygotskian perspective.

Making microteaching matter

Microteaching is a core second language teacher education practice. Yet, there is a lack of consensus surrounding what exactly it means to engage in microteaching and how teacher educators can intentionally make this practice relevant for teacher development. Addressing these issues, the present study utilizes Vygotskian sociocultural theory (Vygotsky, 1978, 1986, 1987) to reconceptualize the microteaching simulation as play activity. Contrary to the colloquial understanding of play, a Vygotskian perspective frames play as a serious activity with developmental consequences. Using a novel conceptualization of play as (1) artificial, (2) futureoriented, and (3) mediational, I analyze dialogic episodes from the practice teach, a Vygotskian inspired microteaching simulation embedded within an MA TESL course. I demonstrate how play was co-constructed by the teacher educator, teachers enacting microteaching lessons, and teacher peers, and show how this play led the teachers to become aware of the reasoning behind their pedagogical activities. These episodes illustrate how engagement in the practice teach opened up possibilities for the teachers to function ahead of their current developmental levels through play. Ultimately, a Vygotskian perspective grounded in the value of play offers the potential to reclaim the relevance of microteaching as a meaningful second language teacher education practice.

“I know it, but… I have the word on the tip of my tongue!” TOT as phenomenon to re-thinking Metacognition and Feeling-of-knowing in Psychology (“Lo sé, pero… ¡tengo la palabra en la punta de la lengua!”: PDL como fenómeno para repensar la metacognición y la sensación de saber en Psicología)

ABSTRACT The phenomenon of having a word on the tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) is an inherent psychological experience that emerges from an unsuccessful cognitive effort aimed at finding the right word to express a specific thought. From a Vygotskian perspective, this can be understood as a dynamic relationship between psychological processes that evolves over time, especially between thought and language, with these functions at times intersecting and later bifurcating — even aligning in parallel — during microgenetic human development. Following Vygotsky’s postulates, in this article we explore the TOT experience as an episodic gap between thought and language during daily psychological activity. Then, the notion of metacognition in psychology is adjunctly revisited and reviewed. Based on theoretical developments on the notion of feeling-of-knowing, the TOT experience and metacognition are reframed as affective phenomena and the accuracy of the traditional interpretation of metacognition as a cognitive-intellectual monitoring system is put into question. Finally, the article discusses possible contributions the TOT phenomenon and the feeling-of-knowing might offer to educational practices and processes.

M. De Castro & U. Zona - A vygotskian perspective on machine learning. How cultural stereotypes are involved in education of algorithms

M. De Castro & U. Zona - A vygotskian perspective on machine learning. How cultural stereotypes are involved in education of algorithms

Vygotskij, o Trabalho do Professor e a Zona de Desenvolvimento Próximo

ABSTRACT The text shows that after 1930, Vygotskij developed the question of teaching. Vygotskij forged new concepts, involving more systematic work on the dialectical contradiction between internal and external. An analysis of teaching work from a Vygotskian perspective shows the importance of transposed knowledge as a teacher’s tools. Elements of Vygotskij’s theory of development, elaborated after 1930, describe how educational tools function on the side of the student, allowing, through their appropriation, the construction of new psychic systems. This requires to reflect on the relationship between education and development, two totally different processes that Vygotskij conceptualizes through the notion of zone of proximal development.

Dynamic Assessment of L2 Writing: Exploring the Potential of Rubrics as Mediation in Diagnosing Learner Emerging Abilities

AbstractRubrics, commonly used in L2 writing programs, not only facilitate teacher grading of student writing, but also serve the purpose of providing feedback to improve learners’ texts. While the potential of rubrics to support writing development more generally has been discussed, realizing that potential through specific pedagogical practices remains under‐researched. Grounded in Vygotskian theory, this study conceptualizes rubrics as a mediating tool for diagnosing and promoting learner writing abilities. We report data concerning two focal participants from a larger study of Dynamic Assessment (DA) in an English academic writing program. A three‐step DA procedure was followed: learners independently produced a draft, reviewed it alongside a mediator who offered prompts, feedback, and guidance, and then independently revised their writing. Both the pre‐ and post‐mediation drafts were rated according to a writing rubric, and comparisons of these ratings highlighted learner responsiveness to mediation. In addition, the mediator annotated the rubric during interaction to reflect the extent of mediation offered and particular areas of learner struggle. Together, the ratings and annotations provided a profile of learner abilities – developed and emerging. From a Vygotskian perspective, the latter provides the appropriate focus of instruction. Implications for use of this approach in intact classrooms are discussed.

A Vocationally Focused Approach to Teaching Literacy in the 21st Century: A Vygotskian perspective

The overriding concern with economic crisis following Covid-19 pandemic meant that literacy education became narrowly defined as skills-for-employment. There have been attempted shifts towards a much more vocationally focused agenda, focusing on what is considered to be the key cognitive and workplace skills required for successful participation in the national economic development after the pandemic. Functional literacy links literacy with economic development, individual prosperity and vocational achievement. “The term ‘functional’ should be considered in the broad sense of providing learners with the skills and abilities they need to take an active and responsible role in their communities, everyday life, the workplace and educational settings. Functional English requires learners to communicate in ways that make them effective and involved as citizens, to operate confidently and to convey their ideas and opinions clearly (QCDA 2007). However, many young professionals with college degrees suffer an inability to use functional illiteracy, and this poses a threat to the country’s development. This paper suggests a model for teaching 21st century literacies in which new knowledge and skills necessary for successful adaptation to changing world are continuously acquired throughout life. It proposes a functional, vocationally-focused approach to education based on Vygotsky’s perspective on literacy in the 21st century in order to promote educational reform. This approach attempts to bridge the gap between disciplinary and practical knowledge integrating language and content within a CLIL methodology.

Book Review: Transforming mathematics education: from embodied experiences to an ethical commitment. Luis Radford (2021) The theory of objectification: a Vygotskian perspective on knowing and becoming in mathematics teaching and learning

Book Review: Transforming mathematics education: from embodied experiences to an ethical commitment. Luis Radford (2021) The theory of objectification: a Vygotskian perspective on knowing and becoming in mathematics teaching and learning

Funds of identity

This paper provides an overview of the funds of identity (FoI) concept, theoretical framework, and applications, with a focus on its theoretical origins and application in education. Funds of identity (FoI) theory aims to complement the funds of knowledge (FoK) conceptual framework that draws attention to knowledge and competencies of minoritised students. Funds of identity theory is distinctive because of its focus on funds that are defined as significant by students themselves. Grounded in Vygotskian perspectives on identity, funds of identity scholarship offers a conceptual framework and concrete methods for the enactment of education that is personally meaningful. The paper concludes by exploring the relevance of FoI theory within the New Zealand setting, especially to support social justice for Māori learners.

There and Back Again: A (Reversed) Vygotskian Perspective on Digital Socialization.

OPINION article Front. Psychol., 24 February 2021 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.501233

Teacher Talk and Teacher Discursive Moves: A Systematic Review from Vygotskian Perspective

In this study, qualitatively-oriented content of research studies pertaining in-class usage of teacher discursive moves (TDMs) was examined in a fine-grained sense in the context of teaching science. For this purpose, within the scope of the present systematic review, 31 research studies available in the related literature were explored by means of various theoretical perspectives (e.g., communicative approaches, Vygotskian perspective, learning demand, etc.). TDMs practised on various studies had both dialogic and monologic tendency. In addition, the thematic representations extracted at the end of coding and categorisation processes showed that the TDMs incorporate a hierarchy regarding supporting teaching. In addition, most studies did not address the TDMs that could help learners to internalise science phenomena. Recommendations were offered to teacher educators and teachers in the junction of professional pedagogical development and the TDMs.