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Lev Vygotsky.
 * __Vygotsky's Learning Theories__**

Born 1896, died 1934. Russian.

A trained psychologist who worked at the Moscow State University, his chosen fields were child development, development & education psychology - particularly Language and Speech. His pioneering work was quite diverse and was responsible for: zonal proximal development - his interpretation of 'internalisation' - from the cognitive school of theory.


 * Internalisation and psychology of play**

Particularly interested in how culture and the child's interaction with the world influences their development. After absorbing and learning directly from their cultural surroundings, the child 'internalises' these skills and uses them in their own style, with their own creativity. To develop higher mental functions, links are made to ideas then to actions then to ideas (in a learning loop). These links are said to arise from actions either observed by the child or by using imagination which may create aspirations. Thus, child's play can use any toy or tool to represent a longing to carry out an action that is not yet possible but may be practiced using imagination e.g. flying in a plane. Chairs may be lined up to represent the cockit and a series of 'role play' scripts played out to represent a flight. This particular example of imagination and play may also lead to social development of roles: the pilot, the flight attendants and passengers.


 * Thought and language**

Development of language in the young starts with external or social interaction; used as tools to gain attention and care, then interact at a basic level. With age and maturity, this speech is internalised and used directly as part of cognitive development - thinking. Vygotsky is of the opinion that mature internal speech would be condensed and unintelligable to outsiders; used by the individual to make sense of the world; to work things out.


 * Zone of proximal development**

In essence, those tasks that can be carried out by the developing child without help or guidance; a low limit of ZPD is reached. For those activities requiring some guidance, a higher level of ZPD is reached.

As with most of the learning theories, there are elements of truth in Vygotsky's theories that can easily be seen in the students that I interact with.
 * Relevance to my work area**

The students are definitely products of their upbringing and backgrounds which have heavily influenced their speech, local affilitions, cultural and social allegiances. This cultural influence is taken a step further in adulthood when they are recruited into the RAF. Now, they interact with the service ethos, traditions and language. This language engenders certain learned/conditioned responses (drill, discipline, technical etc). However, they are still bringing with them their individual cognitive approaches to both their childhood and adult development - something Vygotsky's critics indicated was never really considered or explored.

The concept of zonal proximal development is particularly interesting to my style of pedagogy as it almost encapsulates what I try to achieve with all my students and any youngster under my guidance. First, I try to find out their existing levels. Then, I pitch the level of knowledge and training to that level and monitor their development. As the student becomes more proficient at the tasks set (assessed continuously; both verbally and practically) I stretch them into independence; autonomy and self-reliance in the subject being the ultimate goal of the course.

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Now how does that last bit resonate with game based learning?

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