Compare Vygotsky's and Feuersteins contributions to Educational Essay

Compare Vygotsky's and Feuersteins contributions to Educational Learning - Essay Example Building therefore on this base, Vygotsky developed a theory in which society and culture contribute to the learning process of children and is in large part responsible for their learning. Feuerstein's great contribution has usually been to operationalize the concepts propounded by Vygotsky. Such components as sociocultural mediation and the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), identified by Vygotsky, have been further developed and probed by the capable instruments created by Feuerstein for enhancement of mediated learning. The theories of social and cultural mediation as propounded by Vygotsky and Feuerstein will be explored in this essay. It will also consider the ZPD and the instruments that have been developed to enhance learning using these theories. Vygotsky argues that children develop higher levels of cognition through the mediation that occurs in a social context. Lower mental processes are genetic and instinctive; they come naturally to an individual. The higher mental processes, on the other hand, are definitive of a cognitive stage unique in man as a species through which he is able to distance himself from the world and, through the use of various symbols and in conjunction with other men, abstractly manipulate its contents to extract and develop his knowledge and understanding of them (Panofsky, 2003). Because of the meaning these higher mental functions have for society, and because they exist before (and independent of) the individual, they must be learned through mediation. This means that higher levels of cognition are necessarily mediated by society, and it is only once a lesson is learned on the societal level that it becomes internalised and manifests itself on a psychological level. Social agents of mediation ta ke a variety of forms and provide the learner with access to what has been given a variety of names ranging from psychological, to cultural or cognitive tools (Smagorinski). How a human person acts within a given society is dependent on the forms and qualities of interactions available to him as a model. If adequate mediation is provided, learning occurs; if not, learning suffers. This theory then goes on to describe the child and/or learner as limited in his or her ability to acquire knowledge when left on his own. What a child is able to perform when placed in a social setting is almost invariably more than that which he or she is able to do alone, and this additional capability gives the educator an idea of the child's potential (Salomon and Perkins, 1998). This potential (denoted by Vygotsky as the Zone of Proximal Development) cannot be realised, however, unless learning is mediated by another in a social setting. Feuerstein also advocated the theory of mediation in learning. He developed the cognitive map which denotes the dimensions of cognition, and contributed to the mediation theory by formulating an operation that delineates the different stages and participants in the mediation process. The Mediated Learning Experience (MLE) he defined as "The quality of interaction directed towards ensuring meaningful learning by parents, teachers, caregivers and peers, interposed between the child and the stimuli they receive" (Feuerstein). It was his idea that these social mediators

Identify Savas Four strategies of privatization Research Paper

Identify Savas Four strategies of privatization - Research Paper Example There is no unanimous agreement on the set of words to define privatization. However, the word, in most cases, is associated with the ideological approach that involves the private sector, either partially or totally, to achieve public goals. E.S. Savas compares it to the exchange of roles between the government and the private segment (Hodge, 2006). Savas outlines various approaches through which government can implement privatization. Load shedding is one of the strategies. In this case, the government loses part or the whole of its ownership to private operators (Lawther, 2000). When left in the hands of the government, most of the enterprises become exploitive. Application of user charges is another strategy. To improve the economic society, goods and services that are provided directly by the government can be subjected to such charges. This aims at disclosing the real costs of the goods and services preventing any inclusion of unwanted expenses (Kemp, 2007). The third strategy is the introduction of competition. Most public sectors and cartels do not embrace competition which is, however, essential in improving public services. When there are various institutions interested in the same market, competition automatically arises (Otenyo & Lind, 2006). This gives customers a wide range of choice leading to appreciation of high quality products only. Finally, another way to privatize enterprises is by limiting government involvement in business procedures such as by making grants through the private sector (Hodge, 2006). This simplifies the public’s effort to assess the growth and development projects. Privatization is an essential practice in all aspects of life. In Florida, there has been continuous urge to privatize the prison system. Earlier this year, the state governor, showed deeper in implementing the same. Legislators who pioneered this idea typically consulted the Savas’ privatization strategies. According to the department of corrections,