The Socio-Cultural Theory: The Nature Of Learning Dialogues

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INTRODUCTION In this essay I start by describing the nature of learning conversations and the incorporation of the socio-cultural theory in my domain of mathematics. The essay will include a break- down of the topic and the objectives, the activity and learning conversation and the analysis of the conversation. It will also include recommendations of how learning conversations can be part of the teaching and learning mathematics. The combination of learning conversations and the socio-cultural theory takes into account learner diversity within the classroom as well as the learners’ social and cultural background. THE NATURE OF LEARNING CONVERSATIONS Magano, Mostert and Van der Westhuizen (2010), defined learning conversations as verbal interactive activities meant to promote effective learning. Examples of learning conversations include class discussions, seminars, role play or debates and other…show more content…
Personally I would encourage the use of cooperative learning as a pedagogical approach to teaching, particularly when most schools are trying to foster positive attitudes towards learning and successful learning outcomes for learners. Many of my learners were eager to express their thoughts about cooperative learning. The weaker learners felt that the sharing of ideas gave them a different perspective of looking at problem solving, simply by finding key words or even making a simple sketch to better understand the word problem. The use of code-switching made the task much easier and that they preferred group learning over individual learning. Learning during group work should be designed in a manner that allows learners to talk, debate, make mistakes and slowly move towards new understandings. It is therefore important that as teachers we think carefully about when and how we conduct cooperative learning, and when and how we intervene in group

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