Stephen Pate CEPD 8102 University of West Georgia

 He was born in Orscha, Russia in 1896 to a Jewish family.  Because of his heritage, he was forced to learn through private tutors and had to wait to get into Moscow University.  Because of his intense desire to learn, he also attended the private university Shaniavsky University, graduating from both schools at the same time.  He came to prominence through a speech given at the Second Psychological Congress in Leningrad in 1924.

 Vygotsky finished his major work, The Historical Meaning of the Crisis in Psychology, in The book was not published until 1982 due to censors in the Soviet Union.  Stalin did not approve of Vygotsky’s philosophical beliefs, so his school of thought was largely ignored for a half century.  He died at the age of 37 in 1934 due to tuberculosis.  The use of his philosophy—social constructivism—came into prominence in the United States in the 1980’s.

 Learning is a social activity.  There are no general stages of development—learning is the key concept.  Language plays a powerful role in shaping thought.  Culture plays a vital role in learning, both from a teacher and student standpoint. The learner learns by interacting with the teacher and with other skilled learners.  Education plays a central role in learning by helping children learn what the culture uses as tools.

 The teacher is not the director of learning; rather, he/she is a guide and facilitator.  The teacher should establish a baseline of what a student is capable of, then structure learning so that he/she is raising his/her minimum level of understanding.  Learning can be facilitated by building concepts and adjusting the amount of guidance to fit the child’s current performance.  It is helpful to encourage a student’s learning by encouraging self- talk when a student is approaching a problem.

 Social Constructivism: Emphasizes the use of social contexts of learning and building knowledge through social interaction  Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD):Vygotsky coined this term as the range of tasks that are too difficult for the child to master alone but are capable of being learned with help from an adult or more-skilled peers.  Scaffolding: A changing level of support. The guide in learning adjusts the level of support as directed by the student’s level of understanding.  Private Speech: Self-talk students use when solving problems

 Because of the censorship of Vygotskian principles by the Soviet Union, some of Vygotsky’s points of view are just now coming to light.  Vygotsky believed that the use of imagination was important to the intellectual development of learners.  Using Vygotsky’s views on education and imagination allows teachers to navigate the contradictions that exist in teaching adolescents. These contradictions come from viewing adolescents in terms of their emotional functions while trying to teach them as if they are young adults capable of abstract thought.

 Like learning in the classroom, Vigotsky stressed that imagination does not develop all at once, but slowly and gradually.  If a teacher accepts Vigotsky’s point of view on imagination as an active, conscious process of meaning-making, then use of a student’s imagination can be a vital part of the learning experience.  Vigotsky viewed the use of language as essential to learning. He said that “speech frees the child from the immediate impression of an object. It gives the child the power to represent and think about an object that he has not seen” (Gajdamaschko, 2006).

 The major school of thought that differs from Vigotsky’s social constructivism is Piaget’s cognitive constructivist theory.  Educational psychologists who disagree with social constructivism tend to see learning as a more linear experience dictated by student development rather than through social contexts.  Another criticism is Vygotsky’s dependence on language in shaping thought. Critics believe that language is directed by a student’s cognitive ability. In other words, the student’s thoughts direct the language, not vice versa.

 Teachers who use social constructivism need to first assess the learner’s ZPD. This means the skilled helper determines the learner’s abilities in order to determine where to start instruction.  After determining the ZPD, the teacher should start instruction towards the upper limit of the student’s abilities.  Parts of remediation should come from peers who are more skilled in the subject area, which provides positive support and guidance.  Lastly, teachers should encourage self-talk to solve problems as well as place learning into meaningful context. Students need to learn how to solve problems set in the real world.

 Gajdamaschko, N. (2006). Theoretical concerns: Vygotsky on imagination development. Educational Perspectives, 39 (2),  Liu, C. & Matthews, R. (2008). Vygotsky’s philosophy: Constructivism and its criticisms explained. International Education Journal, 6 (3),  o.html o.html  Santrock, J.W. (2008). Essentials of life-span development (1st ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.