Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory and Precious Sojung Simons
Human Growth & Development Professor. Vanessa Dahn
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory and Precious
Based on the book Push, written by Sapphire, Precious, is an interesting movie. This movie took me on an emotional up and down journey that I will never forget. Precious can analyzed using Vygotsky’s Socio-cultural Theory. Before I embark upon the movie Precious and Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory, I would like to briefly explain what I mean when I talk about Vygotsky’s theory. Lev Vygotsky proposed that cognitive elements proceed through elements such as Social Interaction and Psychological tools which is not inherited…show more content… Nevertheless, Precious draws a picture on the test instead of answering questions because Precious is illiterate. On the first day of school, a teacher named Blu Rain introduces herself and tells her students to introduce themselves and include what they are good at. Precious skipped her turn at first, but after everybody introduced themselves, she decided to take her turn. This step in my opinion, can be related to Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory. In Vygotsky’s theory, he used a logical approach to study the interaction of the individual and social forces leading to one’s consciousness. Also, Vygotsky states that, “Through others we become ourselves" (Vygotsky, 1978) which in other words, if social interaction is not existing at the moment, then cognitive development will not proceed. However, as the story continues, Precious says, “I am not good at anything.” Then the teacher says, “Everyone is good at something.” This quote is very simple but then very powerful. And fortunately, this quote worked for Precious as a confidence booster. We can also relate this to Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory. Ms. Rain says something positive, so it makes Precious generate her thoughts and she says out loud what she is good at, and this makes her feel good for the first…show more content… Rain’s education methods can be related to Vygotsky’s scaffolding methods. Ms. Rain has her students write in their own journal and speak out loud in the class. Then she gives personal feedback during class or personally writes in their journals. Ms. Rain uses this method because she knows that most of her students in her class have speech problems and have a hard time writing. Thus, by doing this education method, they can learn how to write and can open up their minds towards the teacher and share their stories with peers. This scaffolding method helps with students’ feelings that the teacher is paying attention to every student and it makes students work harder and develop their
