Are teachers facilitators or are they mediators? Piaget, Vygotsky and the wisdom of the teacher

Abstract

There is an ongoing debate about whether teaching is better understood as ‘facilitation’ or ‘mediation’. The debate can be framed in relation to three different theoretical accounts of these concepts: (i) teaching as facilitation, as rooted in the genetic epistemology of Jean Piaget; (ii) teaching as mediation, as rooted in the cultural historical psychology of Lev Vygotsky; and (iii) teaching as the seamless incorporation of both facilitation and mediation in the deliberative practice of teachers. The first two frames, as formal theories of cognitive development and learning, suggest a clear analytic distinction between facilitation and mediation as teaching strategies. The last frame foregrounds the pragmatic sense that teachers have of facilitation and mediation as shifting moments in pedagogy. In debating the various framings, it becomes clear that both formal and pragmatic theories make sense of teachers’ classroom pedagogy.