Social constructivism

Social constructivism is a family of theories holding that knowledge and meaning develop through social interaction and shared practices.

Lev Vygotsky: A Soviet psychologist whose work connected cognitive development with social interaction and cultural tools. His account of learning through guidance and cultural mediation anchors influential social constructivist theories.
Social interaction: Reciprocal behavior and communication between two or more people. It is the basic setting in which socially mediated learning and meaning-making occur.
Collaborative learning: Learning in which people work together toward shared understanding or a common task. It makes peer interaction a direct resource for building knowledge.
Cognitive constructivism: An account of learning that emphasizes how individuals actively organize and revise their own knowledge. It shares constructivism’s emphasis on active learning but centers individual cognition more strongly.
John Dewey: An American philosopher and educator who argued that experience, inquiry, and democratic life shape education. His emphasis on learning through shared activity influenced later socially oriented educational thought.
Zone of proximal development: The range of tasks a learner can perform with guidance but not yet independently. It shows how assistance from others can extend what a learner is able to do.
Cultural-historical activity theory: An approach to human activity that analyzes people, tools, communities, rules, and shared goals. It explains cognition through historically shaped collective activity rather than isolated minds.
Reciprocal teaching: An instructional method in which students take turns leading dialogue about a text. Its structured discussion uses shared explanation to develop comprehension.
Behaviorism: A psychological approach that explains behavior through observable actions and environmental contingencies. Its focus on stimulus and response contrasts with social accounts of meaning-making.
George Herbert Mead: An American philosopher and sociologist who explained the self through social interaction and communication. His account of the socially formed self connects interaction with the development of meaning.

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