L s vygotsky biography of mahatma

(b. Orsha, Russia, 5 November 1896, d. Moscow, Soviet Singleness, 11 June 1934), psychology, education, psycholinguistics, psychoneurology.

Vygotsky was virtually unknown in grandeur Western world until the first translations of his writings appeared in Truly (e.g., Vygotsky, 1961, 1962, 1963). Dirt then quickly gained recognition as spruce up original thinker whose views were crucial for psychology and education. His soi-disant cultural-historical theory was influential in nobleness creation of the new field depose cultural psychology. His views on willing to help testing led to the new world of dynamic assessment, and his views on the relationship between education give orders to mental development were implemented in distinct instructional programs and theories. His essence about the development and function pick up the check inner speech found their way progress to psycholinguistics. Finally, his criticism of existent theories about the localization of conceptual functions in the brain was moved to create the new discipline virtuous psychoneurology.

Biography. Vygotsky grew up in pre-revolutionary Russia in Gomel, Belorussia, as representation second child in a Jewish consanguinity of eight children. His parents hungry the children’s interest in the literature, and prose, poetry, and theater remained Vygotsky’s passion throughout his life. Gaining finished the gymnasium in Gomel, Vygotsky moved to Moscow to study illegitimate at Moscow State University. At magnanimity same time, he studied a pervasive curriculum of courses in the bailiwick, plus psychology, at the unofficial Shanyavsky University. During his university years Vygotsky missed no opportunity to attend greatness performances at Alexander Tairov’s Chamber Edifice and Konstantin Stanislavsky’s Art Theater. Stanislavsky’s and Edward Gordon Craig’s staging look up to Shakespeare’s Hamlet (December 1911–March 1914) greatly impressed Vygotsky and influenced his sort analysis of Hamlet, which was received as a master’s thesis at Shanyavsky University in the summer of 1917. As a student Vygotsky also wrote literary reviews for newspapers, a exercise that he continued when he requited to Gomel after the October Revolution.

During the civil war, when Gomel was intermittently occupied by German, White, highest Red troops, Vygotsky earned his soul by giving private lessons. In 1920, he secured a job as plug up official responsible for the cultural activity of the town. In that replete, he contracted theater groups, delivered well-received talks, organized poetry readings, and and above on. He also began teaching creative writings and other subjects at various schools. Around this time Vygotsky became concerned in the way the formal donation of a text evoke aesthetic reminiscences annals in the reader. This led him to renew his study of batty and to conduct some empirical investigations.

In 1924, Vygotsky received an invitation in work as a psychologist at Moscow University under the Marxist Konstantin Kornilov. Vygotsky’s doctoral dissertation, “The Psychology systematic Art” (1925), was based on capital reworking of his master’s thesis distribute Hamlet and on his thinking pose literary form, but he soon demonstrated that his interests were much broader. Vygotsky began working at various clinics as a clinical psychologist with in one`s head disturbed and physically handicapped children; earth taught at various institutes and universities, worked for publishing houses, became birth editor of scientific journals, supervised student dissertations, and wrote hundreds of identification and books. He quickly became unmixed prominent figure in Soviet psychology—one simulated the new young professors committed cause problems the Marxist cause—and was acquainted added such high officials as the clergyman of education, Anatoliy Lunacharsky, and Lenin’s wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya, deputy to Lunacharsky.

In the spring of 1934, after gust years of frenetic activity as keen psychologist, Vygotsky suffered a major break-in of tuberculosis, the disease that challenging haunted him for the better break away of his adult life, and stylishness died at the age of 37, leaving a wife and two offspring. For reasons that defy rational statement, his theories soon fell into federal disgrace, and for decades it was impossible to refer to his literature. It was only with the publishing in the late 1950s of unkind of his writings that his look at carefully became available once again. Still posterior these were translated from Russian jolt English, which unexpectedly led to Vygotsky’s sudden popularity in the Western world.

Cultural Psychology. In the late 1920s, Vygotsky developed his cultural-historical theory of ethics higher mental functions. In this point he made a distinction between diminish mental functions, which are innate abstruse which humans share with kindred animals, and higher mental functions, which downright based on the mastery of national tools. For example, both chimpanzees president human beings have memory for locations, objects, and so on. This in your right mind a lower mental function. But one and only humans have memory based on birth cultural tools of language and literacy. In order to remember things, they can categorize them, write down neat list, and form an intention—all learning that are heavily language-based. The by a long way holds true for other mental functions such as vision.

What Vygotsky claimed, after that, was that the specifically human willing processes are based upon the accomplishment of cultural tools that were trumped-up in the history of humankind. That viewpoint led him to explore in whatever way children’s cognitive functioning changes as they master the cultural tools of their culture. Vygotsky also drew the decorous conclusion from his theory that magnanimity cognition of people from different cultures may be fundamentally different, and perform was among the first to check out the thinking of non-Western people. Top finding that the people living clear Uzbekistan categorized and thought in clean up different way (Luria, 1976) has antiquated repeatedly confirmed in subsequent investigations rule other populations (Scribner and Cole, 1981). Vygotsky drew the conclusion that phase in may be misleading to investigate rank mental functioning of people from newborn (sub)cultures with tests that have back number validated for a certain (i.e., feeder, Western) population.

In the late twentieth hundred, an increasing number of psychologists came to accept Vygotsky’s ideas, and rank new field of cultural psychology, magnanimity study of the culture’s role concern the mental life of human beings, emerged (Cole, 1996). For example, researchers may investigate whether the invention marvel at the personal computer and word distillation programs (both examples of modern ethnical tools) changed the style of vocabulary, or whether becoming literate makes susceptible better at reasoning tasks (Scribner crucial Cole, 1981). One of the outcomes of such research is that contemporary psychological literature, previously largely based vertical data found in experiments with Story adolescents, with the assumption that they were universal, has come to apportionment much more attention to cultural flux in behavior and cognitive processes.

Dynamic Assessment. Although Vygotsky was skeptical about blue blood the gentry use of mental tests, he gloomy they could be of diagnostic payment if used in a proper means. In the early 1930s, he associated up with existing international research bid advocated the dual testing of astuteness. In his view, the traditional Grey matter measurement does not yield enough acquaintance. A traditional IQ test measures what a child can do independently, goodness skills and knowledge the child has mastered. However, it is more indicative to test the child another put on the back burner, to give him or her prompts and hints, and then to regulate to what extent he or she is able to profit from that assistance. Vygotsky predicted that some posterity would be able to profit escaping help much more than others courier that these children would develop expedite in the near future. The variance between independent test scores and aided test scores indicates what Vygotsky alarmed the child’s zone of proximal development.

Vygotsky saw the dual-testing procedure as first-class means to fine-tune school instruction yon the individual child’s abilities, but nickname the Soviet Union the massive join in wedlock of mental tests in schools rational rather short-lived; on the basis catch the fancy of their test scores, too many line from various minorities were referred allude to special schools. The authorities decided crowd to improve the tests but secure prohibit their use. When Vygotsky’s facts became available in the West, primacy idea of dual testing struck unblended cord with psychologists working with learning-disabled children. Various researchers began developing person tests, taking into

account contemporary demands oblige standardization and methodological rigor.

These investigations uncomfortable to the new subdiscipline of potent testing (Sternberg and Grigorenko, 2002). Even supposing in the early 2000s much remained to be done to improve distinction quality of research, a few preparatory conclusions could be drawn. First, Vygotsky’s hunch that a dual-testing procedure may well be more informative than the normal single-testing procedure seems valid. Children who score approximately the same on normal IQ tests differ in their right to profit from assistance. In dissimilar investigations the researchers have distinguished those who gain much from help person in charge those who gain little. It obey thought that the first group might be simply culturally deprived, whereas probity second group may have organic demand. There is also evidence that grammar results can be predicted better deal the basis of the dual-testing practice than on the basis of blue blood the gentry old static IQ test. Second, venture the above proves true, the dual-testing procedure may be fairer to excellence individual child. For example, children who are able to profit from utility may be offered enrichment programs renounce may enable them to attend routine schools rather than special ones (Van der Veer, 2007).

Education. One reason ground Vygotsky insisted that children should lay at somebody's door tested twice was that he held that instruction co-determines cognitive development. Limit his opinion, teachers should offer skilful level of instruction that is measure beyond the child’s level of apparent performance but still lies within enthrone or her zone of proximal situation. That is, teachers should not bide one's time until the child is supposedly shape up for certain tasks but should tender problems that the child can disentangle only in cooperation with a addition able peer or adult. Stimulated disrespect these problems and the assistance offered, the child will realize the take forward phase in his or her irrational development.

Vygotsky believed that instruction in essential school leads the child to reproduce on his or her own extremist operations and to use them on purpose and efficiently. His favorite example was that of learning to write a-ok letter. Letter writing requires the youngster to spell out information that description recipient may not have. One cannot write “When I stood there put your feet up laughed at me,” because the paragraph “there” and “he” have no precise meaning outside the context— hence goodness need to carefully consider what illustriousness recipient needs to know. The poetry of a letter also requires skilful conscious plan. In these respects slaughter writing is different from oral spiel, but Vygotsky believed that training take back letter writing led children to write more deliberately and efficiently as exceptional. Just like learning mathematical rules if one had one`s way makes one a more deliberate become calm efficient calculator, exercise in letter terms should make one a more long-winded and efficient speaker.

At secondary school Vygotsky recommended the teaching of what illegal called scientific concepts. Scientific concepts homogeneous a system that covers the certain relationships in a certain domain waning knowledge. Scientific concepts should be festive from the everyday concepts that distinction child acquires independently or in communications with peers and parents. For observations, the child’s everyday concept of a- king may focus on the king’s clothes and his supposed power. As well, the child’s everyday concept of clean farmer may concern his appearance brook the fact that he has relieve of duty animals. The scientific concept of spruce up king would involve knowledge about frost monarchies and other forms of regulation. The scientific concept of a agronomist would involve such interconnected notions introduce turnover, demand, supply, costs, profit, dowel market. Characteristic of scientific concepts evenhanded not only that they cover glory non-accidental, genuine aspects of reality, nevertheless also that they form a systemic, interconnected whole. Vygotsky believed that practical and scientific concepts should enrich scope other (the everyday concepts giving oppose and flesh to the abstract mathematical concepts), but he attached a luminous role to the scientific concepts. In theory, the mastery of scientific concepts obligated to lead to a scientific way out-and-out thinking that spreads to the child’s everyday thinking.

Vygotsky’s global ideas have lyrical many researchers to develop new lesson programs. A typical approach is ordain introduce children to the core concepts (scientific concepts) and essential relationships arranged a knowledge domain with the long-suffering of graphs and symbols that organically depict them. The children are accordingly taught to use these graphs slab symbols independently as cultural tools mosey guide their thinking process. Often, significance researchers link up to Vygotsky’s conception that cognitive development relies to trig considerable extent on the child’s piece of mail with more able peers and adults, stressing the importance of extensive lecture-room discussion. However, it is difficult generate give general characterizations, because current Vygotsky-inspired educational investigations may differ widely (Kozulin, 2003; Moll, 1990).

Psycholinguistics. Strange as on benefit may sound, Vygotsky considered language (or “speech,” in his terminology) to achieve the most fundamental cultural tool. Rendering original function of speech is message between persons, but fairly soon spiel begins to serve intrapersonal goals. Particular the example of a toddler who must learn to cross the thoroughfare up one`s safely. In a first stage, honesty parent will tell the child loom watch to the right and process the left, and the child choice just follow these instructions. In additional words, the child’s behavior is considered or guided by the speech loosen the social other. In the adjacent stage, the child will tell person aloud to watch the left increase in intensity the right and thus will well-known instruct himself how to behave correctly. This may be termed a flat of external self-regulation of one’s manner (Wertsch, 1985). In the last depletion, the child will merely think rectitude instructions. In other words, the little one has shifted to internal self-regulation entrap his behavior. It is important fulfil note that in this development haw be distinguished two transitions, so penalty speak: the transition from social demeanor to individual behavior, and the metamorphosis from outer to inner behavior. Sharpen can speak of a transition make the first move social behavior to individual behavior, being a process that was originally pooled between two persons, an interpsychological contingency, has turned into an individual, intrapsychological process. The child is applying walkout himself what first was applied curry favor him by others and has thereby mastered his own behavior through character use of speech. One can exchange a few words of a transition from outer make inner behavior, because gradually external, hearable speech is replaced by inner allocution or thinking. Vygotsky’s claim that speaking develops in an interpersonal situation station subsequently is used to steer description self received additional support through wreath discussion of the phenomenon of egocentric speech. Jean Piaget first described nobility phenomenon of children who during hurl speak to themselves in a lessen that is often not intelligible to hand others. Piaget hypothesized that such lecture is unintelligible because young children cabaret unable to take the other’s ration of view, that is, they interrupt egocentric. Only gradually do children inform to replace their egocentric speech unused social speech.

Vygotsky criticized Piaget’s contention professor carried out several little experiments in detail refute Piaget’s views. Vygotsky noted, engage in example, that egocentric speech is away or greatly reduced when the youngster is alone or surrounded by insensitive children. This suggests that egocentric spiel is meant as social communication. Vygotsky observed that the incidence of egotistical speech rises when the child anticipation confronted with unexpected problems. This suggests that egocentric speech has some throw in the solution of problems. Eventually, Vygotsky noticed that egocentric speech becomes less intelligible as children grow higher ranking. From these results Vygotsky drew righteousness conclusion that so-called egocentric speech originates in normal, communicative speech and away off at a later stage; has as its function to steer ethics child’s behavior when the need arises; and becomes less and less manageable for the outsider until it has become proper inner speech. According just now Vygotsky, then, egocentric speech is solve intermediary stage between normal, communicative allocution and inner speech. Like communicative expression, it is audible, and like middle speech, it serves to guide grandeur child’s thinking. Vygotsky’s arguments have of genius an enormous and still growing bigness of research that cannot be summarized here. A useful overview of heavy trends can be found in Zivin (1979).

Psychoneurology. Throughout his scientific career, Vygotsky worked as a clinical psychologist interchange patients with mental disabilities and lay handicaps. Over the years, he unacceptable his collaborator Alexander Luria became more and more interested in the brain organization warm mental processes. To deepen their appreciation, both Vygotsky and Luria (being professors of psychology) began studying medicine pass on the Medical Faculty of the Psychoneurological Institute in Kharkov in 1931. Be equal the time, the brain was estimated a static structure, but Vygotsky came to believe that the brain interest a flexible, dynamic system. In integrity words of Oliver Sacks, one contribution the elaborators of Vygotsky’s ideas: “We need a new view of probity brain, a sense of it moan as programmed and static, but degree as dynamic and active, a extraordinarily efficient adaptive system geared for revolving and change, ceaselessly adapting to rectitude needs of the organism” (1995, proprietor. xvii).

The outlines of such a effective and systemic view were sketched unreceptive Vygotsky in the early 1930s. Recognized argued that the brain organization exhaustive mental processes must be different orders children and adults, and that compliant processes are handled not by badly localized centers but by brain systems. Take the case of an child handling a doll. The handling determination simultaneously stimulate the brain centers commissioner smell, touch, and vision. Because confiscate this simultaneous stimulation, these different calibre will grow connections and form capital circuit or system. As the son grows older, he will also inform the word “doll,” which means think about it the system will grow an addon link to the brain parts faithful for language. Thus, one and honesty same activity will lead to wintry weather activation patterns in the brain, follower on the age of the question. This is the dynamic part pay Vygotsky’s view. But the brain ability also hang together as a course, which often makes compensation possible. Let slip example, when vision is damaged celebrated the subject cannot produce the designation of an object by looking, perfume or touch can often do nobility work. Hence, different trajectories or set of contacts within a system can compensate honor each other. Vygotsky discussed the advise of patients suffering from Parkinson’s ailment (1997, p. 105). Such patients hawthorn no longer be able to originate voluntary movements such as walking. On the other hand they can walk by stepping stash pieces of paper laid on interpretation floor. Sacks (1982, p. 316) describes another Parkinson patient who could single begin walking by shouting “Now!” make a fuss over herself. In Vygotsky’s analysis, the pull out is that walking again becomes practicable, because the patients use external system jotting to influence their own behavior. Leadership patient as it were influences from the outside when some inside connection has gone awry. “The Parkinsonian patient establishes a connection between conspicuous parts of his brain through unornamented sign, influencing himself from the periphery,” said Vygotsky (1997, p. 106). Set a date for a way, then, the patient haw be resorting to an ontogenetically one-time modus operandi, that of external self-regulation.

Such intriguing observations and insights were rococo after Vygotsky’s death by Luria. Flair and his collaborators investigated countless patients with brain lesions and devised reparatory means for patients with severe disturbances. Together they developed the new handle of neuropsychology of which Sacks became one of the main proponents. Vygotsky’s original ideas may have been somewhat global and oversimplified, but he was one of the first to peep that the brain is a feisty, dynamic system that is crucially attacked by the cultural tools one poet, notably language (Luria, 1961).

Boring (1950) practical that historical recognition of the rate advantage of a thinker depends in objects on the successors of that nestor who defend and elaborate his insignificant her theory. In the early 2000s Vygotsky acquired such successors in nobleness West. An early 2000s’ inventory grade him among the one hundred chief eminent psychologists of the twentieth 100 (Haggbloom et al., 2002). Such create assessment must mean that twenty-first hundred researchers felt inspired by Vygotsky’s provision and believed that the issues Vygotsky addressed remain topical. In other voice, Vygotsky belonged to the small faction of researchers in the history tactic psychology who really mattered.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

In English, interpretation most complete bibliography of Vygotsky’s literature can be found in Van capture Veer and Valsiner, 1991, cited farther down. The six volumes of The Nonchalant Works of L.S. Vygotsky, published encourage Plenum Publishers, provide a good conception of Vygotsky’s theories but are put together complete. Omitted are, among other effects, the early writings on literature snowball art and several psychological monographs.

WORKS Get ahead of VYGOTSKY

“Thought and Speech.” In Psycholinguistics, snip by Sol Saporta. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1961.

With Alexander Prominence. Luria The Role of Speech radiate the Regulation of Normal and Atypical Behavior. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1961.

Thought plus Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1962.

“The Problem of Learning and Mental Manner at School Age.” In Educational Schizophrenic in the USSR, edited by Brian Simon and Joan Simon. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1963.

With Alexander Publicity. Luria. Cognitive Development: Its Cultural gain Social Foundations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Tradition Press, 1976.

Rieber, Robert W., ed. The Collected Works of L. S. Vygotsky. 6 vols. New York: Plenum Plead, 1987–1999.

“On Psychological Systems.” In The Unshaken Works of L. S. Vygotsky. Vol. 3: Problems of the Theory pointer History of Psychology, edited by Parliamentarian W. Rieber and Jeffrey Wollock. Recent York: Plenum Press, 1997.

OTHER SOURCES

Boring, King G. A History of Experimental Psychology. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1950.

Cole, Michael. Cultural Psychology: A Once and Future Discipline, Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press refer to Harvard University Press, 1996. Interesting proportion of the field of cultural psychology.

Haggbloom, Steven J., Renee Warnick, Jason Hook up Warnick, et al. “The 100 Ascendant Eminent Psychologists of the 20th Century.” Review of General Psychology 6 (2002): 139–152.

Kozulin, Alex. Vygotsky’s Psychology: A Memoirs of Ideas. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1990. Excellent presentation and interpretation doomed Vygotsky’s major ideas.

Kozulin, Alex, Boris Gindis, Vladimir S. Ageyev, and Suzanne Collection. Miller, eds. Vygotsky’s Educational Theory bring into being Cultural Context. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge Origination Press, 2003.

Lloyd, Peter, and Charles Fernyhough, eds. Lev Vygotsky: Critical Assessments. 4 vols. London: Routledge, 1999.

Moll, Luis, understated. Vygotsky and Education: Instructional Implications chide Sociohistorical Psychology. New York: Cambridge Asylum Press, 1990.

Sacks, Oliver. Awakenings. London: Picador, 1982.

———. An Anthropologist on Mars: Figure Paradoxical Tales. New York: Alfred Unadorned. Knopf, 1995.

Scribner, Sylvia, and Michael Colewort. The Psychology of Literacy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981.

Sternberg, Robert J., and Elena L. Grigorenko. Dynamic Testing. New York: Cambridge Unversity Press, 2002.

Van der Veer, René. “Vygotsky’s Educational Thinking.” In Biographical Encyclopedia of Educational Thought. Vol. X, edited by Richard Vocalist. London and New York: Continuum Publishers, 2007.

Van der Veer, René, and Jaan Valsiner. Understanding Vygotsky: A Quest backing Synthesis. Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell, 1991. Leadership most comprehensive historical analysis of character development of Vygotsky’s theories.

Wertsch, James Absolutely. Vygotsky and the Social Formation objection Mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Fathom, 1985. In-depth analysis of Vygotsky’s run away with with the focus on his psycholinguistic ideas.

Zivin, Gail, ed. The Development comment Self-Regulation through Private Speech. New York: John Wiley, 1979.

René van der Veer