An extremely prominent concept and idea within the field of education, is Vygotsky's sociocultural theory. In chapter 2 of Anita Woolfolk text, Educational Psychology, this theory is outlined and essentially delineates and emphasizes the role of cooperative dialogues between individuals and more knowledgeable members of their society and how these interactions are beneficial to individual learning and achievement. Through sociocultural learning, learners are able participate in a broad range of joint activities and internalize the effects of working together, they acquire new strategies and knowledge of the world and culture. One of the activities we completed earlier in the term forced us to act as a character of one of the characters of the civil rights movements and complete a plethora of mini-role plays, which would introduce us to the cast of characters that made up this time period. The following quote is extracted from my personal field notes from HYPE on March 12th, 2015. .
"There were a lot of important issues discussed in this session, regarding the civil rights movement and how this issues are prominent in our society today, and brought the lesson to a full circle. I really noticed how everyone seemed extremely engaged in the entire conversation One extremely interesting moment, was when Gracie came to the realization to her character was beaten by another individual's character in the class. At the conclusion of the activity, Jenna asked the class what they enjoyed about this activity, and Franklin responded by stating, 'I really enjoyed how we were able to work together in groups to learn about this material, instead of just working like by ourselves or something. I feel like this engaged me more than working that way would have.' Everyone in the class began to nod their heads in agreement with Franklin following his comment.".
The quote extracted above, essentially depicts Vygotsky's theory in direct practice.
