Learning Theory In Vygotsky's Social Constructivism

707 Words3 Pages

CLIL is a methodology that stems from various learning theories but all of them dig into Vygotsky’s social constructivism (1934). This theory states that we all have some “prior knowledge” that enables us to learn new concepts. Constructivists reject the idea that children are like an empty bucket that can be filled with the ideas from the teacher. In the learning process, students learn from each other and the teacher also learns from the students which makes the process bidirectional. Vygotsky also acknowledges the strong interconnection between the spoken language (speech) and the development of mental concepts. He states that thought and speech are directly connected, and it is not right to take them as two isolated elements. Even if language and thinking and have differing genetic roots, at around two years of development both lines connect to make a new form of behavior: verbal thinking and rational language. Knowledge from the teacher lectures to the pupils is not sufficient enough for the students to learn. It is best for students to be active in learning either by experiencing, thinking, or by solving problems. Regardless, the most important point from social constructivism is that we learn from interaction with others, and that without this interaction no concept is truly learned. The guidance of the teacher is therefore very important as well as providing scaffolding for the pupils. This guidance is necessary for students’ learning. Vygotsky coined the term of

Open Document