Simple Biography of Lev Vygotsky ( Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky ), 1896 1934

Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (1896 1934), a Soviet psychologist who is also the founder
of cultural-historical psychology. Vygotsky was born into a non-religious middle class Jewish
family, in Orsha, Belarus. He was raised in Gomel, a city where he obtained both public and
private education. In 1913, he was admitted to Moscow State University, with the offering of law
Degree course. Vygotsky started teaching at various institutions after his graduate. In 1924, he
was invited to become a research fellow at the Psychological Institute where his first big
research project was finished in 1925, known as The Psychology of Art. Vygotsky continued to
pursue a career as a psychologist. He worked with Alexander Luria and Alexei Leontiev. The
group later began the Vygotskian approach to psychology together. In 1934, Vygotsky died
suffered tuberculosis in Moscow Russia.
Vygotsky had no formal training in psychology but he was fascinated by it. After his
death, his ideas were repudiated by government. However, his students decided to keep his
ideas alive.
After Cold War ended, Vygotskys works of his theories in psychology were revealed. His
works were mainly in developmental psychology. He proposed a theory on the development of
higher cognitive functions in children, emerging both the action of cognitive reasoning with the
practical activity (or interaction) in a social environment. In his research in how children solve
their problems that surpassed their level of development, his observations led to his found in
Zone of Proximal Development theory. Vygotskys proposal says Leaning awakens a variety of
internal developmental processes that are able to operate only when the chold is interacting
with people in his environment and with his peersLearning is not development; however,
properly organized learning results in mental development and sets in motion a variety of
developmental processes that would be impossible apart from learning. Thus learning is a
necessary and universal aspect of the process of developing culturally organized, especially
human, psychological functions. It is believed the ideas generated from the proposal are
undeniable that it became the reason why Vygotskys developmental psychology has influenced
education profoundly in Russia back then, until now has it globally recognized.

Introduction of Lev Vygotsky Socio Cultural Theory & Zone of Proximal Development
In Lev Vygotskys Socio Cultural Theory, Vygotsky combined both aspects of social
environment and cultural. His theory suggests that social interaction leads to continuous stepby-step changes in childrens thought and behavior, which can vary greatly from culture to
culture. In this theory, its said that a childrens development depends on interactions with
people and the tools provided by the culture, thus forming their own view of the world.
There are three ways a cultural tool may be passed from one person to another. The first
way is imitative learning, where a person attempts to imitate or copy another. The second way is
by instructed learning, which involves remembering instructions and self-regulating them. The
third way is collaborative learning, which involves a peer group striving to understand each
other and work together to learn a specific skill.
Through this theory, we can understand that children will acquire the ways of thinking and
behaving by interacting with a more knowledgeable person. To implement this theory, we need
to look at the 4 Basic Principles underlying The Vygotskyian Framework :
1. Children construct their knowledge.
2. Development cannot be separated from its social context.
3. Learning can lead development.
4. Language plays a central role in mental development.
Note that preschoolers normally have yet not learned proper social skills. They have to
explore the idea of social skills. Often, private speech is used by children to plan or to guide
their behavior. When a task becomes difficult, private speech helps them to arrange their mind
thus getting idea to solve it.
However, despite to childrens yet developing cognitive level, there are some tasks
children cannot solve alone. This led to Vygotskys found in a concept called Zone of Proximal
Development (ZPD), which he described it as the difference between the actual development
level as determined by individual problem solving and the level of potential development as
determined through problem solving under adult guidance, or collaboration with more
knowledgeable peers. Vygotsky believes that any pedagogy creates learning processes that
lead to development. This sequence results in Zone of Proximal Development. A concept
suggests that children may accomplish a more challenging task with the guidance or help from
a more skilled person. He argued that to understand the relationship between learning and
development, two developmental levels must be distinguished: the actual and the potential
levels of development.
In order for ZPD to be a success, there are two features it must contain, which are
subjectivity and scaffolding. Subjectivity describes the process of two individuals begin a task
with different understanding and eventually arrive at a shared understanding. Meanwhile,
scaffolding refers to a change in the social support over the course of a teaching session.
Successful scaffolding can change a childs mastery level of performance, usually increasing a
childs performance on a particular task. Both features are also an indication for assessment to
childrens development in performances, where educators may measure the level of

development in children by carrying observation with both features in class. This also helps
educators to improve their teaching methods as they identify students who can perform best
individually and students who need some assistance or productive interactions. Hence from
Vygotskys perspective, cognitive development is studied by examining the processes
participated by a subject when engaged in shared endeavors and how the engagement
influences engagement in other activities. Development is said to occur as a child learn general
concepts and principles that can be applied to new tasks and problems.

Reflection
WONG BENG SEONG
911004-07-5577
Index Number : 2013121340124
From this assignment, I gained the experience of observing how two students show their
development level of cognitive, language and social development. The time used was not too
long but the knowledge and experience I gained will stay life long.
During my School Based Experience, I revisited my primary school. There I carried a few
tests to check on the cognitive development on two different students. The first student is an
introvert person while the other is an extrovert person. Both the students are lovely and they
gave me great responses all the time Im observing them. I found that the introvert student
spoke less but is an active reader, thus has no less weaker language than the extrovert student.
However, the extrovert student shown better performances when it comes to practical sessions
in the class. He can overcome difficulties quite well when there are guidance by teacher. The
introvert too, can perform but less. Teachers will need to keep an eye on the introvert students
during class because they never know if these students are following in the class. However,
introvert students are not necessary weaker in development as some of them are from family
background which reads a lot at home, thus their cognitive level is no weaker than extroverts
although their social performances may be a little unsatisfying. Some may not get into a group
well during class activities but they do learn by observing. Thus a certain portion of introvert
students show very good language development as they need language to form their idea of
how they view and learn the world.
Overall, I learnt that development is not measured by what an individual learnt. Its should
be measured by how they learnt and implement what learnt in the future challenge. This whole
process also made me realize of my weaknesses, especially in social development. Im indeed
an introvert person. I dont talk much and sometimes people dont understand what I thought.
Misunderstandings hence occur and I usually ended up having bad relationship with people
around because I dont really care how people judge the balance in our relationship. At least,
from time to time, I know I did my best in certain matters and I never regret when any
relationship ended badly. This assignment gave me a deep insight about what human are and
how they developed, as well as what I may improve in coming future.
Aside, when carrying this assignment, I also regain my passion in education. I really love
teaching these children. Although the class is a bit noisy and sometimes we need to raise our
voice to regain their attention for the class, but its a lovely job to pursue. I would like to
appreciate my group members, Niha and Shahirah, not forgetting my Child Development
lecturer, Miss Goh, for the accomplishment of this assignment. I know I did quite bad job in this
assignment, so I really appreciate them for giving me guidance and helps throughout the
process.