Class+Handout

Type in the content of your page here. =Lev Vygotsky= November 17, 1896 - June 11, 1934

Lev Vygotsky was born in Russia and grew up shortly after the Russian revolution, when Marxism and socialism were prevalent. He received a degree in law from Moscow University and got his Ph. D. in literature and linguistics. He lived in Moscow for the last part of his life, where he directed a program to help teach handicapped and special needs children. Vygotsky's theories played a huge role in shaping education. Here are a few of his major philosophies: 1. A child's behavior is shaped by his or her culture. 2. Children learn best by working with someone who is already experienced in any given task (for example, a teacher). Gradually, the child is able to do the task alone, without the teacher's help. 3. Vygotsky came up with the idea of the Zone of Proximal Development, or ZPD, which refers to the span between what a child can achieve on his or her own and what the child can achieve with guidance from a teacher (or other more skilled person). Vygotsky was interested in children's innate problem-solving skills, but more interested in their potential after recieving assistance from someone else. 4. Use of language is the primary way in which children learn, and what sets human learning apart from animal learning. Language is needed almost soley for social interaction.

=Lisa Delpit= Still living

Lisa Delpit is a woman of color who grew up in a segregated community in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She earned her bachelor's degree in education from Antioch College and her master's and doctoral from Harvard University in curriculum, instruction, and research. She has been hailed as a visionary and written numerous books and articles on the perspectives and motives of teachers of color. She currently is the professor of Urban Educational Research at Georgia State University and the director for the Center of Urban Educational Excellence. Some of her contributions to education include: 1. Delpit observed that the problems attributed to children of color are a result of miscommunication in the classroom. More white students succeed than black students because the curriculum focuses on middle and upper-class values. 2. She promotes the usage of non-standard English in school classrooms to reach as many students as possible. She believes that students should be allowed to express themselves in their native tongue while learning standard English in a systematic, academic way. 3.

=Mortimer Adler= December 28, 1902 – June 28, 2001

Mortimer Adler was an American author, educator, perennialist, and philosopher who made a number of contributions to education. Among the most noteworthy are the following: 1. Adler believed that all students should receive a classics based education where literature, science, philosophy and the arts were integrated. He promoted a universal humanities program where all students were offered the same rigorous basic education. He was not in favor of vocational and electives that differentiated among students and diluted what he felt was true learning. The Great Books program where the Socratic method is used is an example of a model he developed, and many variations came off of this as well. 2. He placed an emphasis on critical thinking, in which young people are asked to seek genuine understanding of material, rather than simply memorizing facts. His goal was for students to become critical thinkers and to learn how to think. This is something schools all across the nation have begun to adopt as part of their standards. 3. He promoted lifelong learning, and believed that education should teach people to use leisure time well, to earn their living ethically, and to be responsible citizens in a democracy. This influence is evidenced by the surge in adult education, and non-traditional students entering schools. 4. Adler questioned the value of the huge number of standardized tests, and challenged whether they were assessing true learning or were just measuring short-term memorization. He believed valuable time and learning were lost because of them. This debate continues today in education.