This is Lev Vygotsky. A handsome man, for a Russian childhood educator at the turn of the century, right? Vygotsky remains today as one of the more important contributors to ideas in early childhood development to this day, despite his sad, early death of T.B in 1934.
Vygotsky had one experiment, which I learned about today and thought was quite fascinating. One of his main theories was that development could only occur through social interactions with others. To explore this idea, he went through the following experiment.
Vygotsky first invited a group of children into a room that held one large cupboard. On top of the cupboard sat a cookie (maybe more), and two large sticks. He told the children that they could eat the cookie, if they could figure out a way to use the two sticks to get it. Then, he would leave the room, telling the children he had to make a call but would return shortly. The children were quite smart. Together, they talked about different strategies, and eventually they were able to use the sticks to get the cookies down.
The second time Vygotsky went through this experiment, he again left cookies and two sticks on top of the cupboard. He told the children the same thing, that they could eat the cookies if they could figure out a way to get them down. He left the room, telling them he had to make a call but would return soon. However, this time, when the children began to talk about what to do, they would suddenly hear a loud thump on the door. Vygotsky told them there was a sick baby in the next room and they weren't allowed to speak. Each time they spoke, they would hear the knock. By the time Vygotsky returned, the children had still not figured out how to get the cookies down.
What's the point?
When you stop children from talking, they are not able to learn.
Too often, when you walk into a kindergarten classroom, you find the teacher rushing around, telling the children 'Shush! Shush!' (What does shush even mean?? When did we begin to make that sound and associate it with an order to be quiet?) Classrooms should be humming. We should allow our children to ask questions, to talk out loud, to make noises and explore with their bodies. That's how we know they are learning.
Until the next time...
No comments:
Post a Comment