International contexts

1.      In chapter 12, I found it most interesting when reading about International contexts. International contexts can be defined as the international example of the influence of context on learning. This chapter was interesting to me because of how it talked about young brazillian street peddlers and how they make change and price their products. These young street peddlers usually do not have any education so most also cannot read. When trying to see how much a bill is worth, they look at pictures and the colors of the bill to determine how much it is. Another interesting matter is when comparing the young street peddlers to those who are enrolled in school. When tested, the brazillian street peddlers did not do well. However, this was the similar outcome for the school children. When the school children were given real bills to solve math problems, they were unable to do so.

Vygotsky would not be surprised by these differences in school children and young street peddlers, because he believed that peers are good mentors. To me, Vygotsky’s belief made sense because I think that people can learn more by watching and interacting with peers. By being actively involved when solving a problem or learning a new concept, I believe that people learn more and faster because it would be a part of our system.