EDCI 5065 Week 4 T2P

If students can learn to appreciate and utilize other people's differences as a resource then successful learning can occur because students will strengthen their own learning and understanding of a topic through the experiences of their classmates. Vygotsky suggests that learning primarily develops through social interaction. Student's social environments help shape the framework on which concepts are built. Through the help and guidance of more knowledgeable others, students will be able to reach toward their next level of proximal development. I believe that it is important for social interaction to occur in the classroom, particularly in the World Language classroom as a huge part of the World Language curriculum is learning about culture and acceptance. Student's prior experiences concerning other cultures can help other students better understand culture and acceptance through discussion and social interaction.


If students are active in a student-centeed classroom then students will become more engaged and interested in their work because they are taking their work into their own hands acting as autonomous learners, which leads to self-determination. Through a student-centered classroom, students have control in the content that is being presented. As a result, students feel they have a responsibility for this content, which leads the students to become intrinsically motivated toward the topic and perhaps may lead them to feel this way about learning in general. The idea of a student-centered classroom can be tied to Jean Lave's theories of learning. Lave believes that learning is social and comes largely from our experiences of participating in daily life. This is facilitated through communities of practice, which are formed by people who engage in a process of collective learning in a shared domain of human endeavor i.e. Vicki Davis' classroom. I believe that when students feel they have control over their learning, and this can be accomplished through student-centered learning, students will begin to feel self-determined toward their learning.