LEV VYGOTSKY1896-1934

“In the Vygotskian—sociocultural view, humans are embedded in a sociocultural matrix and human behavior cannot be understood independently of this ever-present matrix” (Miller, 2011, pg. 166).

-He was born into an academic Russian Jewish family.

-Began work in psychology in 1924 with Luria and Leontiev.

-This team wanted to empower citizens. • They wanted to “change citizens’ thinking from a feudal mentality of helplessness and

alienation to a socialistic mentality of self-directed activity and commitment to a larger social unit based on sharing, cooperation, and support. In the new Soviet view, each person was responsible for the progress of the whole society” (Miller, 2011, pp. 168).

-He died at age 37, after spending only 10 years in the field.

It is important to look at Vygotsky’s sociocultural matrix in order to better understand his work:

“Because Vygotsky regarded language as a critical bridge between the sociocultural world and individual mental functioning, he viewed the acquisition of languages as the most significant milestone in children’s cognitive development” (Berk & Winsler, 1995, pp. 13).

Miller explains how the child, another person, and the social context are “fused” together in an activity (2011). For the individual, mental activity is derived from the given context and members of that context. Higher mental functions, like privately thinking in your head, do not happen until after collaborative activity (Berk & Winsler, 1996).

Miller points out this fusion creates a single unit where “individuals and cultural communities mutually create each other” (Miller, 2011, pp.171).

Language is a critical piece in this exchange.

“Children, like adults, do much of their best learning when they are actively engaged in a problem, especially with other people” (Berk & Winsler, 1995, pp. 29).

Vygotsky called for active learning (Miller, 2011). He wrote about the importance of play, particularly imaginative play, for young children. According to Vygotsky, playful experiences with other children and adults leads to development (Berk & Winsler, 1995).

The beginning of that quote says, “The interaction between the adult and the child, for Vygotsky, is like a dance…” (Berk & Winsler, 1995).

We will look at the zone of proximal development and scaffolding.

I think it is really important to note here that Vygotsky did have a much broader view of the zone than is often presented. The zone exists in activities like play too, not only with an adult or more capable peer (Miller, 2011). Still, this is a helpful visual to understand the basic idea.

Here is a second visual that you might like better.

“The role of the teacher includes both designing an educative environment and collaborating with children by scaffolding their efforts to master new skills” (Berk & Winsler, 1995, pp. 152).

Scaffolding is how a more competent other collaborates with a child to support his or her emerging skills. We work with the child in his or her zone of proximal development (Miller, 2011).

• “The adult supports children’s autonomy by providing sensitive and contingent assistance, facilitating their representational and strategic thinking, and prompting them to take over more responsibility for the task as their skill increases” (Berk & Winsler, 1995, pp. 31).

Miller describes how this knowledge is first on an intermental plane, between the minds, and becomes internalized by the child’s mind to the intramental plane (Miller, 2011). The goal is to support the child until they have internalized the knowledge and can act independently.

“If a child is using overt, task-relevant private speech, then the activity is probably within the child’s zone of proximal development: it is challenging enough for the child to need to use self-talk but not too difficult” (Berk & Winsler, 1995, pp. 47).

As children acquire language, they use private speech to talk to themselves as they think (Miller, 2011). Berk & Winsler explain that an activity a child uses private speech for is something they have mastered (1995).

A brief look at a major differences between Vygotsky and Piaget…

“Piaget focused on what it is within the organism that leads to cognitive change; Vygotsky explored how social experience might cause important revisions to the child’s thinking” (Berk & Winsler, 1995, pp. 110). So Piaget indicated that the active person created disequilibrium in a static environment, whereas Vygotsky saw social force in causing disequilibrium (Miller, 2011).

We will look at this more on the web!