Understanding the Case #1

I had a brief interaction with Rishi and Anand. I was trying to explain to them that in order to be successful in a sales-and-marketing career, they must keep their eyes and ears open and try to understand how the world around them actually works. While trying to give them an example, I used a chart with various brands of a different company that was displayed in the classroom and one they were familiar with. It was obvious that familiarity with the chart helped them to understand the concept better. To me it seemed a clear illustration of Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development. They seemed to be able to understand a few difficult concepts really well when it was explained in that fashion. In another development, Rishi took the initiative to create a Whatsapp group for the three of us without any input from me. Also, the fact that both of them work together whenever we interact has led me to believe that working in a group may be the best way to keep both of them motivated and equipped to learn from each other as well. While they work on improving their communication skills, I think one of the learnings that I am really keen to try out is to have them use private and inner speech while they are working on tasks to improve their learning.

With respect to Rishi and Anand, the key motivation comes from a feeling of approaching success. This success could be improving their own communication skills as well as picking up sales and marketing knowledge and skills which will help them in placements. At no point is the need for developing communication skills looking like an embarrassment or failure avoidance strategy. Given that they have exercised their choice in identifying these two goals for themselves, they seem to be intent on putting in the appropriate effort into this project. Time will tell if they persist with it.

Rishi feels that he is quite competent with use of spreadsheets and when I tell him that there are higher level skills he might need to learn which are applicable in sales, his reaction was that it would not be too difficult for him and he might even help Anand there. He doesn’t seem to be similarly confident about his English communication. This shows that his competence and corresponding self-esteem is different for different domains. Also, once they were given a glimpse of how they can master sales and marketing, they seem to be motivated to understand their environment in line with Weiner’s assumptions in Attribution theory.

Divya seems to be driven by a desire for Agency – a need to exert control over her own life and where it is headed. She sees the choices she has in front of her and is trying to be as well- informed as possible about each of those choices so that she can convince herself and those who matter to her about what she wants to do. One of the long term goals that she is pursuing are related to her fitness and weight control and her self-regulation is evident there. She continuously monitors her progress, changes her strategies when she comes head to head with a roadblock and alters her own behavior with respect to diet and training accordingly.

As I read more and look at some of the hypothetical scenarios and cases discussed in class to bring the theories closer to home, even I am understanding and learning to apply the theory. The examples in class also bring the material within my zone of proximal development.