Social Learning

Social learning is built through human interaction. (Kim 2001) With social learning there are many ideas and ways to implement lessons so that students are actively engaged and are able to build their cooperatively learning skills through communication. (Orey 2009)

In order for students to learn through the social learning theories students must be presented with tasks where they are able to work individually and together to create or complete the task. Dr. Orey mentioned the zone of proximal development where students will not be able to achieve success outside the frame where they are able to learn on their own. (Laureate 2009) When students work cooperatively they are able to support each other if a student is struggling with a certain concept.
Throughout the years I have been able to implement stations and Web Quests in my classroom where students have specific jobs for completing their tasks. With these jobs there is a clear boundary of who is responsible for each part of the workload and the students are able to complete tasks while developing their 21st century learning skills. Also I am able to integrate technology in the units with Web Quests students work to complete. Another strategy that was mentioned in our learning resources what that of Jigsaw learning. In my classroom students are grouped and given topics/parts of units to learn and teach to their peers. This is a great way for students to become masters of different areas of content and present it to their peers in a manner which they will understand.

Social learning can be successful in any classroom if it is managed and implemented in an orderly fashion. The teacher must be involved in monitoring group/partner work and stay abreast of the progress of each group. I don’t feel that social learning should be implemented everyday in a middle school classroom but it does help to differentiate learning for students and allows them to take ownership of their success.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore: Author.

Orey, M.(Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Main_Page