Educational Theory in My Classroom

So much of what you learn from educational theorists sounds like a foreign language until you are in a classroom setting. Then it all starts to make sense. At that point, you have to decide which information you find most useful. That does not mean that you have to pick one theorist and hold tight to his ideas alone; it means that you draw from all of them to develop your own teaching strategy. You may, however, draw from one more than the others. If I had to choose one theorist that sums up my instructional strategy, it would be Lev Vygotsky. His ideas about social learning and scaffolding are essential in my classroom.

Teenagers are, by nature, social creatures, so I keep that in mind when planning my lessons. I like to let my students work in groups and see what they can accomplish on their own. I would rather they see me as a participant in the learning process rather than a dictator giving instructions and demands. The setting in my classroom is very relaxed so that the students feel comfortable to speak freely and give their opinions and interpretations. Students often learn best from each other, and this gives them the opportunity to do so. If I can catch them in the Zone of Proximal Development, I will uses whatever methods I can to get them to understand. For example, when I teach figurative language, the students already know figures of speech. They just don't know the literary term for those figures of speech. I put them into groups and have them identify figures of speech that they use everyday and classify them as simile, metaphor, etc. According to Piaget, they should have no problem doing this, and working in groups helps them to go beyond what they already know to what I want them to know.