Lev Vygotsky

Sarah M Lewis

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Sarah Lewis

Lev Vygotsky is a major theorist in the child development realm. His

work included the zone of proximal development, More knowledgeable
others and the sociocultural theory. He died very young at the age of 37
placing a halt on many of his theories he was in the process of working on
when he passed. If he had lived a full life he could have gone on to become
the next Freud or Piaget although to some he had already achieved that
status.
Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky was born in modern day Belarus in
November of 1896. He was born to a father who was a bank manager that
was well respected and his mother was a homemaker but had trained as a
teacher. The Vygotsky family was Jewish and this would eventually come to
be the reason that he studied in medicine and not in education as you could
not be in the education profession as a Jewish person in Russia during the
revolution. Vygotsky was allowed to study at Moscow University as part of
the five percent of Jewish students permitted into the university for ballot
placement. After studying for some time at Moscow University, Lev decided
that medicine was not for him and went into law ultimately believing that it
would allow him the same freedom as medicine.1 in 1917 Vygotsky
graduated with a degree in law and returned to the town he grew up in.
In 1920 at the age of 24, Vygotsky began his long battle with bouts of
Tuberculosis. Eventually this would be his undoing however this bout he
would survive. It is during this particular up rise of the illness that he would
believe he was dying and he passed on all of his work to his mentor. It is at

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the age of 28 that Vygotsky became interested in psychology, in 1924

Vygotsky wrote a paper titled Methodology of reflexological and
psychological research at the Second Psychoneurological Congress in
Leningrad. Vygotsky was a wonderful writer and in his short time here on
earth he wrote 10 books and 270 scientific articles. He was in the process of
writing the final chapter of his book Thought and Language when he died
in 1934.
Vygotsky is the theorist behind many published works including his
most well-known idea by the name of Sociocultural Theory which includes
the zone of proximal development, Intersubjectivity and Scaffolding. Our
book states that the zone of proximal development or ZPD for short is
defined as the area of development into which a child can be led in the
course of interaction with a more competent partner, either adult or peer. [It]
is not some clear cut space that exists independently of joint activity itself.
Rather, it is the difference between what a child can accomplish
independently and what he or she can achieve in conjunction with another
more competent person. The zone is thus created in the course of social
interaction.2
What this ZPD is in the common day language is that children learn to
a certain degree with no help from others. However, with help from someone
who is a bit more advanced in the area the child may be able to achieve a
higher level of understanding. For example, a child learns how to say so
many words on his or her own but with the help of a parent or a student that
knows more words he or she will gain knowledge that is more expansive. The

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child's level of learning on their own makes up the lowest level of the zone
and the amount of words they have after they worked with a parent or sibling
make up the highest level of the zone.
The next part of Vygotskys theory is intersubjectivity, which says that
people respond to tasks, problems and conversations with their own way of
responding and making sense of it. Their views will be subjective and if they
discuss their differing viewpoints they may come to an understanding that
would make both sides happy. Basically what this meant to me when I read
about it was compromise. Everyone has their own ideas, we dont all share
the same ideas and when we meet up during work or projects, this can
create tension. If both parties can talk through the tension what they will end
up with is some sort of compromise making both parties happy.
The last part of the Sociocultural Theory is Scaffolding. Scaffolding is
the distance in the zone of proximal development. In other words while
children are learning we give them the support and the devices that they
need to learn the very most that they possibly can. As they learn we
gradually take away the devices and supports that they used as stepping
stools to gain the information that they have learned. For example we want
children to read so we start by reading to them and teaching them their
letters as they grow to be more proficient at the tasks we have given them
we take away those supports and replace them with newer ones that will
take their learning level higher.
Lev Vygotsky also had a theory about inclusion or Defectology as he
calls it. What the word defectology describes is a learning disability and
abnormal psychology. What he did was understand that there was a

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difference in learning at different settings. For example a child who has a

disability such as Bells palsy will learn one way at home with his or her
mother and another way at school in a classroom. He said that we need to
have the ability to include these kids and apply these scaffolding concepts to
help them gain the most knowledge that is possible for them to achieve.
Shortly after Vygotsky died his work in psychology was found to be
unfavorable to the communist regime and his work was banned in Soviet
Russia until the Communist Regime fell. This was said to be happening
because Joseph Stalins son failed a test that was associated with Vygotsky.
His work was banned in the 1930s and wasnt allowed to be published until
the 1950s under Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. It is said that some of Vygotskys
students continued with his work and tried to keep his findings alive during his time of
banishment.

We see Vygotskys theory in schools but it makes more sense to think

of the sociocultural theory as a life- long experience because we never stop
using it. I know that personally I use this all the time. When I am at work and
Im not totally comfortable with something, Ill ask a manager to show me
the best way to do the task or the easiest way to do the task. It also applies
for toddlers and even infants, thats why I chose Vygotsky to write my paper
on.
Vygotskys work is different than Piagets in three major ways. According to
Simply Psychologys web page, those three major ways are that Vygotsky places

more emphasis on culture affecting or shaping cognitive development. This

contradicts Piaget's view of universal stages and content of development

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because Vygotsky does not refer to stages in the way that Piaget does. The
second way that they differ is that Vygotsky places considerably more
emphasis on social factors contributing to cognitive development and Piaget
is criticized for underestimating the emphasis on social factors. The third
major way that Vygotsky places more and different emphasis on the role of
language in cognitive development Piaget is also criticized for lack of
emphasis on this. However both Vygotsky and Piaget recognized the
importance of social interactions in cognitive development, it was Vygotsky
who believed the most helpful interactions where those with peers. Piaget
thought that interaction with peers encouraged disequilibrium or cognitive
conflict forcing change or development. Vygotsky theorized that language
was the most important tool for development. Piaget, however, didnt think
that language played a huge role.
I found this quote and I think it describes Vygotskys sociocultural
theory very well. What children can do with the assistance of others might
be in some sense even more indicative of their mental development than
what they can do alone. As an early childhood education major I believe Lev
Vygotsky is very important to the education field. We as teachers are
required to help our students with whatever means necessary. This would
include scaffolding and using helpful stepping stones to get our students to
learn the required information but more so than that we want them to have
the very best education that we can possibly provide to them.

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I didnt know who I was going to write this paper on when it was
assigned. It was until I really dug into all of the theorists that were on our list
of options that I found one I really truly believed in. usually I found that I
liked concepts from many of the theorists we were learning about but could
also find major flaws in how I thought about learning. Vygotsky has been the
only theorist in early childhood education that seemed to not be way out in
left field which is also strange because he spent so little time in the actual
psychology field.
Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky may not have had a very long life but he
had a very successful career both in and out of psychology. All while he
raised his kids and lived through the kinks of everyday marriage that I would
imagine were only much harder in Communist Russia. This man should be
better known to us in America. His theories created some of the best
teaching strategies that we use in everyday lesson planning. Thank you Lev
Vygotsky.

Sources
1.

Hansen-Reid, Mette. Lev Vygotsky Theories and Life. Massey

University, 2001. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

<http://www.massey.ac.nz/~wwpapajl/evolution/assign2/MHR/indexvyg.html
>.

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2.

Morrison, George S. Early Childhood Education Today. 12th ed. N.p.:

Pearson, 2012. 134-36. Print.

3.
McLeod, S. A. Vygotsky. Simply Psychology, 2007. Web. 4 Nov. 2013.
<http://www.simplypsychology.org/vygotsky.html>.
4.
Lev Vygotsky." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Vol. 33. Detroit: Gale,
2013. Biography in Context. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.
<http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/bic1/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWind
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&amp;mode=view&displayGroupName=Reference&limiter=&currPage=&dis
ableHighlighting=false&displayGroups=&sortBy=&search_within_results=&a
mp;p=BIC1&action=e&catId=&activityType=&scanId=&documentId=GALE
%7CK1631010017&source=Bookmark&u=lom_oakcc&jsid=f9691356dcc637
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5. Vygotsky, . Quotable Quotes. N.p., 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.
<http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~rpuscas/>.
6. "Comparing Piaget with Vygotsky." wordpress.com (2013). Web. 20 Nov.
2013. <http://edpsych294.wordpress.com/comparing-piaget-withvygotsky/>.