Applications of Vygotsky's Sociocultural Approach for Teachers'Professional Development

This paper outlines an approach to teachers' professional developmentthat originates in Vygotsky's (1978, 1981) sociocultural theory (SCT),arguing that what Vygotsky claimed about students' learning in theschool setting is applicable to the teachers and that the developmentaltheories of Vygotsky resting on the notions of social origin of mentalfunctions, unity of behavior and consciousness, mediation andpsychological systems (Vygotsky, 1998) can help more vividlyunderstand the professional growth of teachers in their work places. Thepaper discusses how the seven influential models of professionaldevelopment mostly coded in the literature namely mentoring,observation/assessment, scaffolding, inquiry/action research,individually guided activities, study groups and involvement in adevelopment process (Guskey, 2000; Kozulin, 2003; DuFour, 2005) canbe best grounded in Vygotsky's theoretical framework. It is claimed thatthe commonality that interweaves the aforementioned models isVygotsky's concept of 'social mediation' (Vygotsky, 1987). Finally, thepaper concludes with a discussion of the various implications of theproposed approach for designing and implementing teacher professionaldevelopment by linking the developmental aspects of professionaldevelopment and core tenets of Vygotsky’s developmental theories.

کلیدواژه ها:

Teacher professional development ، Vygotsky ، mediation andsociocultural theory