Vygotsky theory pdf
Lev Vygotsky Biography, Life, Interesting Facts
CHILDHOOD
Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky was born on November 17, , in Orsha, a town in Belarus (part of the Russian Empire then) into a wealthy Russian-Jewish family. His father was a Banker, and his mother chose to be a house maker though she was a trained teacher.
In his early childhood days, he grew up in the Belarusian City Gomel and received his primary education there. He showed signs of brilliance from a very young age and performed wonderfully well in his early education.
EDUCATION
After graduating from secondary school, Lev Vygotsky was admitted to the Moscow University in under a Jewish student quota of three percent used for admission to the Universities of Moscow and St.
Petersburg. The lucky winners of a Jewish lottery were selected for entry into the coveted Universities. He started pursuing the study of medicine as his parents were keen to make him a doctor. During the first semester, he realized that his interest did not lie in the study of medicine and consequently, he got transferred to a law school.
He graduated from the law school in and simultaneously studied his pet subject of Psychology privately along with the study of different art subjects of his interest.
CAREER AND LATER LIFE
Lev Vygotsky returned to Gomel after completion of his graduation.
After his return to the city of Gomel, the German invasion and the civil war had brought in turbulent times.
Sign system vygotsky biography Sometimes scientific concepts have no relation to the surrounding world of things at all. While everyday concepts are derived from concrete and factual experience, scientific concepts are formed in such a way that all its elements are themselves generalized abstract features, independent of things and phenomena as particular objects: To form such a concept it is also necessary to abstract, to single out elements, and to view the abstracted elements apart from the totality of the concrete experience in which they are embedded. Scientific concepts are first formed in the verbal environment and only afterwards related or applied to particular situations. Vygotsky was very well acquainted with and heavily influenced by his predecessors from the s and early s.During these years, he maintained anonymity and almost no information is available about his life during these two years. Eventually, in , Bolsheviks took control of the town. Vygotsky actively participated in the great social evolution under the Bolshevik rule. From to , he was an important member of the Bolshevik Government of Gomel town.
Lev Vygotsky attended the Second All-Russian Psychoneurological Congress in Leningrad in January During this Congress, he showcased a presentation which explained the methods of reflexological and psychological investigations.
His presentation attracted a lot of attention, and the Psychological Institute in Moscow sent an invitation to him offering a position of a Research Fellow in the prestigious Institute. He embarked on a career as a second class staff scientist at the Psychological Institute.
Sign system vygotsky biography pdf This principle establishes that in the operation of the nervous system, the organizing point is a dominant focus of excitation that inhibits the process of other reflexes and is augmented at their expense. The pointing movement becomes a gesture for another person. After a traditional Jewish education, he was admitted to the law school at Moscow University, but he also took courses in history and philosophy. Compared to other animals, humans influence their relations with their environments to a much larger extent.He completed his thesis on the Psychology of Art in as his first research project. He had a fascination towards child psychology and was very interested in the education of children with learning disabilities. He subsequently established a laboratory of psychology in Moscow for abnormal children.
In , Lev Vygotsky went to London, his only overseas trip, to attend a Congress organized for the education of the deaf.
After his return to the Soviet Union, he fell severely ill due to a relapse of tuberculosis. He was hospitalized, and the recovery took almost a year.
The disease damaged him and temporarily rendered him jobless until the end of the year However, he survived and then concentrated on researching on the crisis in Psychology.
Lev Vygotsky started documenting his theoretical and methodological work in this field but was unable to complete the document. The unfinished report was later published in , almost 50 years after his death with suitable modifications and editorial interference.
It is regarded as one of the most important works of Vygotsky.
Working relentlessly on child development, Lev Vygotsky made judicious use of innovative psychology and made significant contributions to the evolution of developmental psychology and educational philosophy.
In his famous sociocultural theory, he asserted that children’s learning process is critically related to social interaction with people of different age groups and is instrumental in the improvement of their psychological development. Children go through a continuous process of learning due to such social interactions.
During , Lev Vygotsky was involved in a research program exploring the development of higher cognitive functions of logical memory, selective attention, decision making and language comprehension.
Along with a group of students, he studied the situation from three different angles, an instrumental angle, a developmental approach and a cultural-historical approach.
In the early s, Lev Vygotsky went through deep personal and professional crisis. He was under the severe phase of self-criticism and started reconstructing several of his theories after recognizing various imperfections in them.
The influence of holistic theories propagated by some German-American scholars popularly known as the proponents of the Gestalt Psychology had a profound impact on him. His radical revision and significant theoretical shift mostly remained unfinished due to his premature death.
MAJOR WORKS
Lev Vygotsky is best known for his two major works, the sociocultural theory and the Zone of Proximal Development.
Also, his theory of Guided Participation is also considered as one of his major works. His pioneering effort in the field of Psychology was well documented in the six books published during a ten-year period of his career. One of his highly acclaimed books ‘Thinking and Speech’ threw light on the connection between language development and thought.
Sign system vygotsky biography examples Kozulin A, trans. He and his collaborators investigated countless patients with brain lesions and devised compensatory means for patients with severe disturbances. Vyshensky, Ivan. Because of this simultaneous stimulation, these different parts will grow connections and form a circuit or system.The book was published posthumously.
However, Lev Vygotsky's theories were not well-received, and the knowledgeable contemporary people were skeptical about his theories and inventions. His theories ultimately found full acceptance and were profusely acclaimed only decades after his death.
PERSONAL LIFE AND LEGACY
Lev Vygotsky married Roza Smekhova in the early s.
The couple was blessed with two daughters. He breathed his last on June 11, , at the young age of 37 in Moscow, Russia after suffering from his recurrent tuberculosis.