Katherine's Blog

The Academic communication in the Social Sciences and Humanities unit took me by pleasant surprise. There was anticipation of a dry and dare I say it boring but necessary unit of study ahead of me. Thankfully due to a great tutor, informative vlogs, an easy to read textbook and a variety of multimedia exercises and focused topics for the semester I managed to not only learn a lot but enjoyed the process.

I came into this unit 16 years out of school and my last memories of school were unpleasant both socially and academically. I chose ACSH100 to learn how to read and write academically. My skills may have some way to go but I feel this unit has given me a great foundation from which to base myself on.

As you will see from the exerts I chose for my blog, my academic writing skills are still developing but without having participated in this unit I would have had no clue. I have acquired the knowledge of APA referencing, language for academic and persuasive texts, my grammar world has been reopened and the old paradigm of ‘who needs grammar’ has been rewritten. The acquiring of grammar knowledge will come into great use for all of my academic writing going forward. Knowing about nominal groups and verbal groups, dependent and independent clauses and not just throwing words together, actually planning out sentences so they are succinct and powerful. Theme and rheme were terms I had never heard before nor was hedging. I am glad I now understand the importance of language and hope to keep the Academic Culture Handbook close by for all future writing.

I will not be using the wordpress website in future because I feel my academic writing skills have a way to go yet and I trust as my time continues at university this will happen with constant effort and revision.

This semester saw some extremely trying times for me personally with suffering from my mental illness, a friend taking her own life and another being sent to prison. I am grateful for all the support I received on this journey. I wouldn’t have been able to get through this semester without the support of my tutor Liz Shoostovian. Despite the setbacks I feel I am leaving this unit with a solid understanding of academic reading and writing, the importance of language and grammar and I will continue to build on these foundations with my own study now I know what is required of me as a student at the University.

I hope to add to this body of work as I go along on my University journey

Lev Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist who developed the sociocultural theory in the 1920’s and 30’s. Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory Vygotsky (as cited in Verenika, 2010) stated that the human mind is developed through interactions with the world around them, that social interaction was the leading force in a child’s cognitive development and ‘good learning’ occurs through mediation of a more informed peer. This essay explores the relationship between Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and research findings in child and adolescent development. The focus will be upon Vygotsky’s concepts of mediation and social interaction and its significance for teaching.

Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory focused on the child as an individual as a result of their environment and cultural upbringing. Vygotskian theory was developed in line with the Piagetian concept of the child as an active participant in the learning process but with more emphasis on the co-construction between teacher and student (Verenikina, 2010). Vygotsky identified the caregiver as a representative of the sociocultural dynamic the child was born in to and how their experiences and knowledge were passed onto the child through social interaction emphasising the sociocultural development of the child’s beliefs, ideas and attitudes (Duchesne & McMaugh, 2016). The importance and validity of this is shown through recent evidence expressed by Shore (cited in Duchesne & McMaugh, 2016) that the quality of life provided by the attachment relationship in early years has a significant effect on the social and emotional processing centres of the child’s brain. Vygotsky believed that while child development occurred through natural growth and maturation it refined into higher mental processes through mastery of psychological and cultural tools such as language and symbols, Karpov (2005, p.20) expresses this leads to the conclusion that Vygotsky saw mediation as the major component to the child’s development process. According to Vygotsky (as cited in Duchesne and McMaugh, 2016) all functions of the child’s cultural and cognitive development happens through the social interactions between peer and child (inter-psychological) and then this becomes internalised with self speech (intrapsychological).

Vygotsky emphasised the importance of language and speech as a means of communicating with peers discussing academic concepts and experiences with friends but also as their language skills develop they are able to problem solve and self regulate through self speech because it helps them think about what they are doing (Berk, 2003). With mediation and social interaction as Vygotsky’s main focus in his sociocultural theory he identified the Zone of Proximal Development which is the area between what a child is capable of doing on their own and their potential with the help of the more knowledgeable other (Duchesne & McMaugh, 2016). The ZPD builds on Vygotsky’s idea of co-construction and that mediation and instruction should lead development, as evidence shows parents and teachers have often seen that with the correct help in collaboration with a more knowledgeable peer the child is capable of a more advanced activity or problem than when working independently (Kozulin, Gindis, Ageyev, Miller, 2003).

Here is my first piece of academic writing:

“This work is my own work and does not represent the views of Macquarie University staff or students.”

The (Macquarie University AIM,2019) states that “Our community is strong and vibrant because we share and live out a specific code of values together. We call these values academic integrity.” (page1) The 5 core values listed are trust, respect, honesty, responsibility and support. The Macquarie University AIM helps students to understand what it means to be apart of an academic community and the importance of upholding the expected responsibilities towards this community in accordance with Academic Integrity. It has been explained in AIM that if you study in the spirit of the Universities academic values you show respect for yourself and all members of the community, including your peers and your teachers.. Your work can be assessed correctly, effectively and support your growth as an academic and going into your career, your skills and knowledge can be trusted by yourself and your employer.

Plagiarism according to the Merriam Webster online dictionary(May 2017), “to steal and pass off the words or ideas of another as one’s own, to commit literary theft, to present as new and original idea derived from an existing source. In other words plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone else’s work and lying about it afterward.”

When I think of integrity I think ethics, morals and respect so when we start to look at plagiarism in relation to academic integrity we see an act that is outside of academic integrity in relationship to it, it is it’s complete opposite. With words like ‘stealing’, ‘fraud’ and ‘theft’ in the definition of plagiarism we are getting the understanding of academic integrities polar opposite. 

Examples of information with academic integrity are referencing and citing throughout the article with reliable sources, quotes and facts to support theories.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton