구성주의 이론에 나타난 학생의 지식 구성 능력의 비판적 검토 - Vygotsky 이론을 중심으로 - = A Critical Examination on the Primary of the Student in Knowledge Construction : the Case of Vygotsky's Constructivism

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study is to examine critically the primacy of the student in knowledge construction in the case of Vygotsky`s constructivism. constructivism in education implies that the student should be provided the opportunity to study whatever s/he wants because the world, the knowledge, and the reality of the student are the outcomes of his/her own construction. In the article, I maintained that the kind of implication might not be fitting with the relevant understanding of Vygotsky`s constructivism. In this study, I have critically examined two featuring concepts from it: the concepts of internalization and of zone of proximal development(ZPD). After both reviewing and analyzing those concepts critically, I derided two statements from Vygotsky`s constructivism. First, even though it is indeed true that the student constructs actively their own world, knowledge, and reality, s/he is able to construct their own world, knowledge, and reality only under the influence of interpersonal relations and social interactions. Second, the ZPD is not only dependent on the variable of the student, but also on the variable of the teacher. For the educational purpose, the teacher is a more important variable than the student because the teacher is flexible in the way s/he teaches whereas the student is not in an instructional setting. Therefore, the teacher should maker an effort to expand the ZPD by providing a variety of instructional materials and methods. Finally, I would like to claim that the current tendency of educational reform in Korea to put an emphasis on the primacy of the student in an instructional setting should be checked and balanced by the same emphasis placed on the primacy of the teacher is organizing educational content and utilizing instructional methods. The proponents of Open Education in Korea should keep in mind that the balance between the primacy of the student and that of the teacher has to be secured even in the case of Vygotsky`s constructivism.