Lev Vygotsky ( 1896- 1934)

Lev Vygotsky was born in western Russia in a place call Belorussia. He graduated with a Law degree at Moscow University. He was an avid reader; he read many book about psychology, Linguistics, sociology, psycology, physiology, and the arts. Through all of this reading he found his passion.
Vygotsky developed many theories in the child learning and development. His major work was called Thought and Language 1934.
Vygotsky's major themes include:
-Social interaction plays a fundamental role in the process of cognative development. He felt that social learning precedes development. It appears twice, once on the social level and later on the individual level. Frist between people (interpsycological) adn then inside the child ( intrapsycological)
-The (MKO) More Knowledgeable Other which refers to anyone who has a better understanding or a higher ability level that the learner,with respect to a particular task, process, or concept. The MKO usually refers to a teacher ,coach or parent, but could also be peers, or a young person.

- The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is the distance between a students ability to perform a task under adult guidence and or with peer colaboration; with the students ability of solving the problem independently. Vygotsky believed that learning occured in this zone.
 For this to be a sucess the ZPD must contain two features
     1. Subjectivity- describes the process of two individuals begin a task with different understanding and eventually arrive at a shared understanding.
     2. Scaffolding- Refers to a change in the social support over the course of a teaching session. If it is sucessful, a  child's mastery level of performance can change, which means that it can increase a child's performance on a particular task. (implications for assesments with learning or behavior problems)
-Social Cultural Theory- Best known for being an educational psycology with a social culture theory. States that social interaction leads to continuos step by step changes in children's thoughts and behavior that can vary greatly from culture to culture.
 Theory development depends on interaction woth people and the tools that the culture provides to help from their own view of the world
  Three ways Cultural Tools are passed on:
    1. Imitative Learning- Where one person tries to imitate or copy another
    2. Instructive Learning- Which involves remembering the instructions of the teacher and then using these instructions to self regulate
    3. Cultural Tools-  Are passed to others is through collavorative learning, which involves a group of peers who strive to understand earch other and work together to learn a specific skill

Lev Vygotsky developed many great theories, but with a early death we never got to see his full potential.

http://www.learning-theories.com/vygotskys-social-learning-theory.html