Lev Vygotsky (17 November 1896-11 June 1934) was a Soviet psychologist known for his contributions to developmental psychology. He notably challenged Jean Piaget's theory, positing his own: he believed that children learn how and what to think from their culture, and that interaction drove cognitive development (the opposite of Piaget's view).
Biography[]
Lev Vygotsky was born in Orsha, Russian Empire in 1896 to a Jewish family, and he served as a representative of the Bolshevik government in Gomel from 1919 to 1923. He never finished his studies at Imperial Moscow University due to the October Revolution, and therefore never obtained a degree. However, he became a prominent Soviet psychologist, and his main focus was on developmental psychology. During the 1920s, he spread reductionist beliefs, seeing human development as being connected to interpersonal connections and actions with the social environment. During the 1930s, he would go on to retract his earlier views, and he died of tuberculosis in 1934.
Theory of cognitive development[]
Vygotsky was also known for his critique of Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development. He identified play as young children's leading activity, uniting emotional, volitional, and cognitive development. Vygotsky had a sociocultural perspective of cognitive development, emphasizing the role in development of cooperative dialogues between children and more knowledgeable others; he also believed that children learned the ways of thinking and behaving culturally from the community through these social interactions. He believed that social interaction drove cognitive development, the opposite of Piaget's view.
Vygotsky claimed that thinking was influenced by culture, social, and historical forces, and that culture teaches us what and how to think. A key concept is the idea of cultural and psychological tools of intellectual development (aid and change one's thought processes, tools of intellectual adaptation passed on through culture, cognitive and procedures, techniques of thinking and problem solving that children internalize from their culture). Scaffolding includes supporting learning during its early process; as student become more capable of working independently, supports are withdrawn. Another concept is private speech, in which children's self-talk guides their thinking and action. Eventually, these become internalized as silent inner speech.
Vygotsky once said, "In play, a child is always above his average age, above his daily behavior; in play, it is as though he were a head taller than himself." He also believes in a zone of proximal development, the difference between what the student can do on their own and what they can accomplish with help from a more knowledgeable other. Through the dialectical process, children learn through problem-solving experiences shared with others. Learning is initially guided by parents or teachers, and gradually shifts to the child. The end result is internalization, the child's incorporation, primarily through language, of bodies of knowledge and tools of thought from the culture.