Raise or Raze?

I agree with Vygotsky that culture plays a prominent role in cognitive development, even more so at the higher processing of cognition. For small children, their world is pretty much themselves, their mom, their family, and they are learning how to do so much. Parents model for their children, and the children learn to do it by watching, by getting help from others, and this is what I think the ZPD is: getting the help and guidance before they can learn to do something independently.

I see how this translates well to teaching. Teachers first guide students and hold them up by providing models, lots and lots of practice before setting them off on their own. Not to mention teaching itself. We go to school to learn, and we are taught things to take with us into the classroom, and then we are let go to do it on our own. So adding the practice-theory-practice that Hillocks and Phelps describe, flows nicely from this concept. Teachers observe (or just get out there and teach a lesson) best ways to teach things, they reflect on it, then they may work on their own lesson plan and curriculum, and finally teach it themselves. Reflecting definitely does have a huge benefit to becoming more aware of your own teaching practices which can only improve your teaching.

I had to do this sort of reflective teaching for two full years of teaching. In order to clear a teaching credential, teachers get “inducted” via the BTSA program (Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment). It was like getting an MA degree without getting anything more than clearing your credential. Weekly meetings with a master teacher and coach are structured around this entire concept. I had to share lesson plans, try them out, and reflect on them, and then reteach them again and reflect on how it improved. I’m actually glad that I got to participate in this program because it really taught me a lot about being more reflective, and also scaffolding…coming back to a concept even if it is a couple of weeks or a month later and looping it back into your teaching practice gives the students a chance to reuse, remember, and become more proficient at the skill they are learning. I see how this practice taught me so much, and encouraged me to reach out to colleagues to collaborate more on curriculum, projects, and resources. I learned so much from the BTSA program and my colleagues. I can see how comparing this idea of development parallels our students’ development; I’ve always felt that I was learning alongside of them. I consider myself a lifelong learner and tend to talk about this in depth in cover letters for jobs.