Principles of Instruction

1) The structure of social relations in the cultural setting determines the individual's psychological structure.  This is important because it suggests that there is no universal psychological structure.  Children with very different backgrounds are more varied in their psychological make-up than is generally assumed.

2) Instruction should preceede and thereby maximize development.  This is in direct contrast to Piaget who stated that instruction should be led by development, and believed it was not beneficial to teach beyond the level of the child.  However, some of the difference between the two may be definitional in that they define developmental level in very different ways.

3) Schools play a decisive role in making the child conscious of their own mental processes.



Components of Instruction

    Vygotsky, in his own writings, never addressed the specific components of instruction. Therefore, we must infer these from his theory.

1) Implement the law of genetic development
(1) Work with the cognitive readiness of the child
(2) There must be a willingness of adults to make children responsible for their own learning
(3) Use reflective assessments as feedback
(4) Provide explicit directions
(5) Teacher and child must construct a joint definition of the task
(6) Appropriate use of signification:  if the goal is transmission of knowledge, then do not expect cognitive development; to grow and change requires new use of strucutres, not internalization of
exsiting knowledge


 
 

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