Why Vygotsky? : A look at alternative methods of teaching and learning in the English classroom

[摘要] This paper describes an alternative approach to the teaching of concepts related to theEnglish Curriculum. It combines a shift in the theory of school teaching withpsychological theory development. This research was conducted at a private, CatholicSecondary School in Johannesburg over a period of almost six months with a class oftwenty Grade Ten students. The research was designed in response to the fact that manytraditional, 'rote’ teaching methods are not effective in the classroom and that analternative needs to be found. This research aimed at testing the theories of the Sociohistoricalschool in order to ascertain whether they could provide clues as to methods thatmight be more conducive to real learning. Vygotsky’s (1978) theoretical construct of theZone of Proximal Development, Hedegaard’s (1996) idea of a 'double move’ and theideas posited by Wells (1996, 1999) and Tharp and Gallimore (1988, 1992) form thetheoretical basis for these 'alternative’ teaching methods. The results shown in this paperindicate that a 'double move’ is possible within the context of the English classroom andthat the ideas of the Socio-historical school indeed provide an alternative method that isfar more successful than those traditionally used in most classrooms.

[发布机构] University of the Witwatersrand