Lev Vygotsky

Lev Vygotsky

1. Who is he?

   • Lev Vygotsky was a Soviet Psychologist and the founder of a theory on human cultural and bio-social development which is more commonly known as 'cultural historical psychology'.
   • He was also the founder of the Vygotsky circle - a group of scholars compromising mostly of psychologists, educationalists, medical specialists, physiologists and neuroscientists who were all associated with Vygotsky.
   • His main work was based in developmental psychology because he proposed the idea of the theory of the development of much higher cognitive functions within children.

2. What is his theory

   • Vygotsky's work has become a foundation of the majority of research and theories into cognitive development, also known as the Social Development Theory.
   • His theories stress the fundamental role that social interaction plays in the development of a child's cognition because he believed that the community plays a central role in this process.
   • Unlike Piaget's notion that childrens' development must come before their learning, Vygotsky argued, "“learning is a necessary and universal aspect of the process of developing culturally organized, specifically human psychological function”" (www.simply psychology.org)

3. How this informs current practice in relation to;

   • Child Behaviour
   • Enabling Environments
   • Practioner Interaction