¶ … People Learn
Edward C. Tolman was a man whose research focused on trying to understand how animals acquire knowledge. As a psychologist, he also tried to determine how the mind of the human being paralleled what he saw in lower life forms. What he found was that motivation was a primary factor in how people learn. A rat in a maze would find the hidden pieces of tasty cheese far more quickly if the animal had been left hungry than if he or she had been fed before the test had been administered. Subsequently, the rats learned to equate their examinations with the obtaining of food stuffs (Tolman 1948). Similarly, human beings learn to equate knowledge with acquisition of things that they desire. Students from the youngest of ages are told that good grades will be rewarded, not merely in the abstract but with physical reward such as money or gifts, as well as the promise of a brighter possible future than their less academically-inclined counterparts.
Researchers have utilized Tolman's research to find out why people desire knowledge and also how they acquire knowledge. His results all lay the foundation for some of the preeminent theoreticians of human logic and the acquisition of knowledge, such as Lee Vygotsky. This man Vygotsky was one of the first sociologists and psychologists exclusively interested in the study of child development and in the exploration over which education techniques would best serve children. Before him, psychologists such as Tolman were more concerned with the adult brain, and the male adult brain in particular. Theoreticians and sociologists in the modern time period have written extensively on whether or not the theories of Vygotsky are still viable in the United States and in the field of education throughout the world. Specifically researchers have examined his theory on the Zone of Proximal Development and Scaffolding wherein the child's base knowledge is used to determine the next step in their education. To this end, the works of authors Gredler (2009), Hofstetter (2009), Kravstov (2010), Louis (2009), Mills (2010), Muthivhi (2010), Nicolopoulou (2010), Towsey (2009), and Zaretskii (2009) all function as a dialogue with one another in exploring the continued significance of Vygotsky's theories on development of the human brain and the scaffolding technique.
This all builds on the initial research performed by Edward Tolman. Rats, he found, all have a stimulus-response if they are accomplishing a goal. That is, the rat must feel that he or she will be rewarded for making an attempt to find their way through the confounding maze. Gredler (2009) identifies the major concepts of Vygotsky's works and applies them into the modern perspective and also attempts to identify his writings with the perspective of the Soviet Union and the Cold War fears of the world at large. Besides this, Vygotsky, she argues, was influenced by other philosophers who were not working exclusively within the field of child development or education, such as Tolman. Specifically, Vygotsky was influenced by the philosophers Hegel, Spinoza, and Marx. Vygotsky did not begin his work studying the effects of the psychological development of children but rather later applied theories of human psychology exclusively to children. Tolman originally tested his theories of knowledge acquisition on the abilities of rats, but then applied the evidence of that research to higher life forms, which eventually included humanity. The basic analytical level Gredler studies is the effectiveness of the stimulus-response law that began Vygotsky's philosophical writings (4). She breaks down the different levels of Vygotsky's methodologies and defines their effectiveness in his overall assertions. Among these are a tabled breakdown of external regulation, internal regulation, egocentric speech, and the importance and outcomes of cognitive development, none of which could be understood without the research and experimentation of Tolman in the first half of the twentieth century.
In her conclusions, Gredler decides that although Vygotsky's theories and methodologies are still useful in the present educational climate, the current aims of education require the modification of some of these principles. For example, education in the modern era is now more concerned with the acquisition of knowledge and problem-solving skills, whereas Vygotsky felt the role of education was the development of higher mental functions (Gredler 2009,-page 10). Perhaps the greatest discrepancy in modern society vs. The hypothetical world Vygotsky was theorizing about involves the sense of self and individuality in education. "Unlike current perspectives, Vygotsky, by specifying developmental levels of self-mastery, defined...
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