Vygotsky & The Power of the Group

Mullum Bird Boffins Win Trip to Sydney
Alex McAuley (2006, September 5) Byron Shire Echo. Retrieved October 13, 2006.
Talented students in Years 7 to 10 at Mullumbimby High School seized an opportunity to showcase their skills at the Tournament of Minds….

To me this article is a classic example of Lev Vygotsky’s (U.S.S.R. 1896) social development theory in practice. Some examples are:-

Here we have seven boys working together on a Maths Engineering project that was judged at a regional tournament. The boys stated, “When we first saw what the problem was we thought there was no way it could be done, but we worked on it together and in the end it was not as hard as we thought.” Vygotsky’s studies led him to the realisation of a phenomenon which he called the Zone of Proximal Development. Vygotsky describes it as "the distance between the actual development level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers" (Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind and society: The development of higher mental processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.). According to Vygotsky cognitive development was an outcome of social learning.

The boys involved in the project ranged from years 7 to 10 and were at different levels of learning. Vygotsky’s theory states that, “…it is essential that the partners be on different developmental levels and the higher level partner be aware of the lower's level. If this does not occur, or if one partner dominates, the interaction is less successful (Driscoll, Marcy P. (1994). Psychology of Learning for Instruction. Needham, Ma: Allyn && Bacon; Hausfather, Samuel J., (1996) Vygotsky and Schooling: Creating a Social Contest for learning. Action in Teacher Education. (18) 1-10.Hausfather, 1996).

The project was specific and had a specific outcome that the boys could work within. Hausfather stated, “Because Vygotsky asserts that cognitive change occurs within the zone of proximal development, instruction would be designed to reach a developmental level that is just above the student's current developmental level. Individuals participating in peer collaboration or guided teacher instruction must share the same focus in order to access the zone of proximal development. "Joint attention and shared problem solving is needed to create a process of cognitive, social, and emotional interchange" (Hausfather,1996).