As a teacher it is important to not assume that a child understands a concept or not based on one piece of work they produce. Asking a variety of open-ended questions will help teachers understand a child's thinking and understanding. This allows the teacher to identify the child's ZPD to figure out what next steps for that individual will be. Once the teacher assesses a students prior-knowledge they can begin to build on that by scaffolding the learning to achieve the desired outcomes.
Unit: Division and Multiplication (Grade 2) Task: Ask students to draw a division story or multiplication story. Teacher Conference: Ask questions to see if students understand the concept of division or if they simply added a candy in each little bag until they counted to 30. You may also was to know if the child knows different ways they can divide the number. - How many candies are in the big bag? - How many little bags are there? - How did you know to put 6 in each bag? Some students pay still be adding one in at a time while others know that 30 divided in 5 equal groups is 6. - How high can you count by counting by 6's? - Is there a different number of bags you could have used? - What could your picture look like it I added 3 candies? - Why is it important to have the same number in each bag? What do we call that?
Unit: Numbers to 100 (Grade 3) Task: Students are asked to represent as many different ways that they can make 100 using one or all of the operations. Teacher Conference: You may want to see if there are any misconceptions with how numbers are built, if students understand how to use the inverse operation to check their answers, and what the students understand about the Place Value system. - How can we use multiplication to check our division questions? Vice versa - How can we use subtraction to check our addition questions? Vice versa. - If I am making 100 by adding two numbers and the first number ends in 7 what number has to be in the one's place of the second number?
Authentic Assessment
When assessing students, teachers should determine what they are able to do independently. Creating a Rubric of Understanding will help teachers assess students knowledge and understanding of outcomes by documenting what success looks like at each level; 3 being the idea level. These rubrics can be used at the beginning, middle, and/or end of a unit. If a students is below a 3, then the teacher knows that they will need to provide structured guidance through scaffolding for student to reach the ideal level. Below of is am example of what this can look like.
Workplace Training for Adults
Vygotsky's learning theories apply to Adult learners too. Many of his ideas are well-suited to adult learning environments. Below are two examples of adult educational strategies that demonstrate Vygotskian theory in action.
Structured on the Job Training - This approach provides learners with scaffolded experiences to build a schema that ultimately leads to proficiency (Bockarie, 2009).
Apprenticeship - Apprenticeship moves from passive to active as scaffolding is removed. Over time learners construct meaning for themselves and develop problem solving skills required for mastery (Buren, 2009).
Both of the examples above provide the social interaction and context Vygotsky (1978) saw as critical to learning.