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Lev Vygotsky

Russian and Soviet psychologist known for cultural-historical activity theory and the zone of proximal development.

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Lev Vygotsky was a Russian and Soviet psychologist who created the framework known as cultural-historical activity theory.[1] His work emphasized that social interaction and culture fundamentally shape a person's learning and cognitive development.[2]

Key facts and history

Vygotsky was born on November 17, 1896, in Orsha, Russian Empire, into a non-religious middle-class Jewish family.[3] He was raised in Gomel, where he was home-schooled until 1911 and then earned a degree with distinction at a private Jewish gymnasium.[4] He initially applied to medical school at his parents' insistence but transferred to law school during his first semester.[5] Vygotsky completed his dissertation "The Psychology of Art" by the end of 1925, though it was not published until the 1960s.[6]

Vygotsky died on June 11, 1934, and his ashes were buried at Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery.[1][7] Because Moscow University enforced a three percent quota on Jewish students, Vygotsky gained admission there in 1913 through a random selection process called the "Jewish Lottery."[5] Following that congress, Vygotsky encountered Alexander Luria and, aided by Luria, was offered a research fellowship at Moscow's Psychological Institute, which Konstantin Kornilov directed.[8] Vygotsky's sole journey outside the Soviet Union occurred in the summer of 1925, when he traveled to a London conference focused on educating deaf children.[9]

What the research sources say

McLeod's account states that Vygotsky's sociocultural theory asserts that learning and cognitive development are fundamentally shaped by social interactions and surrounding culture.[2] According to McLeod, Vygotsky viewed language as the primary cultural tool that allows the development of higher-level thinking.[2] Van der Veer and Zavershneva's article notes that Vygotsky left the Soviet Union only once to attend a conference on the education of the deaf in London.[9] The same source reports that Vygotsky's own paper about the education of the deaf was never presented during that conference.[9]

Kurt's account describes the zone of proximal development as one of Vygotsky's main contributions to education.[10] Kurt also states that Vygotsky believed play fosters intellectual development by allowing children to replicate culturally-shaped real activities.[10]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Lev Vygotsky" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Haggbloom, "The 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century", Review of General Psychology, 2002, p. 139–152 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. McLeod, "Vygotsky | Simply Psychology", August 5, 2019. facts only, no text reused. simplypsychology.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Lev Vygotsky" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Valsiner, "The Oxford Handbook of Culture and Psychology", Oxford University Press, 15 December 2013, p. 67; Pickren, "Portraits of Pioneers in Developmental Psychology", Psychology Press, 2012, p. 114; Rieber, "The Essential Vygotsky", Springer Science & Business Media, 20 March 2013; Pound, "How Children Learn", Andrews UK Limited, 2019, p. 51; Thomas, "Fifty Key Thinkers on Language and Linguistics", Routledge, 27 April 2012, p. 185; Yasnitsky, "Vygotsky: An Intellectual Biography", Routledge, 14 June 2018 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Lev Vygotsky" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Smet, "A Dialectical Pedagogy of Revolt: Gramsci, Vygotsky, and the Egyptian Revolution", BRILL, 27 January 2015, p. 13 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Lev Vygotsky" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Pass, "Parallel Paths to Constructivism: Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky", IAP, 1 November 2004, p. 40–41 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Lev Vygotsky" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: van der Veer, R. & Zavershneva, E. (2011). To Moscow with Love: Partial Reconstruction of Vygotsky's Trip to London. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Sc; Завершнева Е.Ю. «Ключ к психологии человека»: комментарии к блокноту Л.С. Выготского из больницы «Захарьино» (1926 г.) // Вопр. психол. 2009. No.3. С. 123—141.; Zavershneva, E. "The Key to Human Psychology". Commentary on L.S. Vygotsky's Notebook from the Zakharino Hospital (1926). Journal of Russian and East European P (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Lev Vygotsky" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Кипнис Соломон Ефимович, "Новодевичий Мемориал Некрополь Новодевичьего Кладбища 1995", 1995 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Lev Vygotsky" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Gonzalez-DeHass, "Theories in Educational Psychology: Concise Guide to Meaning and Practice", Rowman & Littlefield, 2013, p. 64; Green, "Theories of Human Development: A Comparative Approach", Psychology Press, 14 July 2015, p. 258; Van der Veer, R., & Valsiner, J. (1991). Understanding Vygotsky. A quest for synthesis. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.; Nutbrown, "Early Childhood Education: History, Philosophy and Experience", SAGE, 2008, p. 57 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. van der Veer, R. & Zavershneva, E. (2011). To Moscow with Love: Partial Reconstruction of Vygotsky's Trip to London. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Sc. facts only, no text reused. doi.org
  10. Kurt, "Vygotsky's Theories and How to Incorporate Vygotsky's Theories in The Classroom", Education Library, October 22, 2022. facts only, no text reused. educationlibrary.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Lev Vygotsky (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Developmental psychology

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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