Vygotsky’s learning theory and Maslow’s theory of motivation to evaluate learning outcome

The case study shows effective learning taking place from the method that the teacher uses to teach the students all the way to the way that she interacts with the students during the lesson. When the lesson begins, Miss Afra the teacher in the case study establishes the class behaviour goals and expectations, which helps set the mood of the class. It is important that students’ needs are met to help them reach their full potential as Maslow’s motivation theory advices; it is hence the role of the teacher to understand their students’ needs in order to fulfil them (Onchwari et al., 2008). Miss Afra clearly understands the background of her students given that a number of them like Hami are struggling with the English language which is their second language. These are students that are suffering from self-esteem being in a new country and given that they cannot effectively express themselves in English either verbally or in writing.

Setting the class goals is one of the ways that the teacher ensures that the need for love and safety of these students are met. The class goals and expectations make it very clear that every student is safe and is a valued member. Miss Afra unites the students by establishing that she understands the challenges that they face with the outside community and they would work together to overcome the challenges. This was very effective and Hami for instance who was very nervous about the assignment of the day changed his attitude and he felt confident and ready to take up the task knowing that he was in a safe environment and did not need to fear. Setting the classroom goals, help set an accommodating mood for the class, where every student felt valued and ready for the lesson of the day.

Vygotsky’s social cultural theory describes defines learning as a collective course and also illustrates that it is the initiation of human intellect in the social order (Nye, 2007). The theory points out that one of the important elements in the development of cognition is social interaction. The theory argues that the development of children is highly dependent on their interactions with other people around them (Nye, 2007).  In the case study, social interaction is evident in the system used where Miss Afra gives the students a chance to discuss ideas about the assignment in the class. These discussions help the students to interact with one another and hence helping the students to get comfortable with one another thus motivating positive learning mood.

The Vygotsky theory further illustrates that the capacity for intellectual growth is restricted to zone of proximal development (ZPD) (Nye, 2007). This is the zone where students are cognitively prepared but they still require assistance and social collaboration for them to fully develop. A teacher in this case is expected to afford students with framework to help support the development of the students’ understanding of knowledge spheres or even the growth of some of the multifaceted abilities that they struggle with. Miss Afra effectively follows Vygotsky theory when it comes to the concept of scaffolding; she begins by making an illustration of her own experience for the class. She makes the lesson and the task interesting, by using the whiteboard to demonstrate each of the task sections for the students to see. She demonstrates every step of the assignment starting with the brainstorming, selection of the topic and lastly to the writing of the letter all on the board; making it very easy for the students to follow and understand.

The Vygotsky theory supports collaborative learning as a means of supporting the intellectual skills as well as the skills of the learners and ensuring that intentional learning is facilitated (Nye, 2007).  Miss Afra effectively engages the students all through the process by speaking out her ideas loudly allowing the students to ask questions and this makes the lesson much more interesting and collaborative. She creatively uses circles, different colours for different ideas and a timer for each of the section which is effective because it makes it much easier for the students to understand every step of writing an effective essay. Miss Afra in this case creates a good learning mood where the students are excited and ready to understand the writing process for their assignments.

 By allowing the writing lesson to take place section by sections, makes it easy for the students to understand where they have a problem understanding and they freely ask questions. Hami for instance does not understand the five Ws (what, where, who, when, why) and he is not scared to ask for more explanation for the teacher. The way that Miss Afra answers his question is effective in that she does not mock him but rather gives him some simple examples which help him understand the concept better. This is an effective learning element and it fulfils the arguments Maslow’s motivation theory, which illustrates the need for positive feedback from teachers in order to motivate self-esteem of the students (Onchwari et al., 2008).

Another effective method that is utilized by Miss Afra is the use of group work. Group work is important because it allows the students a chance to interact with one another as they brain storm ideas to help complete their tasks. It is often common for group works to negatively impact on some of the students especially the ones that have poor social skills (Nye, 2007). Miss Afra was able to deal with this issue by advising the students to have individual roles within the group which ensured that every student participated in the group task. This worked effectively and it allowed all the students to participate and concentrate on the group tasks which made the lesson more interesting and successful.

Giving the students a chance to read each other’s task at the end of the lesson was equally an effective strategy in helping improve self-esteem for the students. Maslow’s motivation theory illustrates that self-esteem is an important element that affects goal achievement (Onchwari et al., 2008). When individuals are given powerful positive verbal feedback, they get motivated to do better because they understand their strength as well as their weakness. In this case, the exercise allowed the students to get feedback on their tasks either positive or negative, which helped them to understand their strengths as well as their weaknesses in writing. It also acted as a good motivation cue for the students to practice more in order to improve on their writing skills.

            This case study shows that learning effectively takes place, the students are able to reach their full potential as the Maslow’s motivation theory advice in the writing skills lesson. Every step of writing was clearly explained and demonstrated by the teacher ensuring that the needs of the students were met. The teacher created a good learning environment for learning and incorporated creative as well as collaborative learning techniques that allowed the students to feel safe and motivated, hence better understanding of the elements being instructed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Nye, C. (2007). Dependence and Independence in Clinical Supervision: An Application of

Vygotsky’ s Developmental Learning Theory. Clinical Supervisor, 26(1/2), 81–98. https://doi.org/10.1300/J001v26n01_07

Onchwari, G., Onchwari, J., & Keengwe, J. (2008). Teaching the Immigrant Child:

Application of Child Development Theories. Early Childhood Education Journal, 36(3), 267–273. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-008-0269-9