According to Vygotsky’s social constructivism, humans construct knowledge through interaction with other people, particularly the more knowledgeable other.  Teachers should model a cognitive process within the students’ zone of proximal development, and then assist students to complete tasks until the students can internalize the process and perform the tasks independently.  In a math class, for example, this could take the form of showing students how to complete a problem and then providing them a similar problem with some of the steps already supplied. As students show facility at inserting the needed information, they are asked to complete greater numbers of steps until they can solve the problem without assistance. William James likewise stressed the importance of imitation in learning, that teachers and peers can set an example, which is basically another expression for modeling.  James (1899/2001) claimed, “The teacher who meets with most success is the teacher whose own ways are the most imitable.  A teacher should never try to make her pupils do a thing which she cannot do herself. ‘Come and let me show you how’ is an incomparably better stimulus than ‘Go and do as the book directs’” (p. 26).  Both Vygotsky and James emphasized the importance of social influence in learning.