Lev Semenovich Vygotsky was one of the founders of modern psychology. His research led to the emergence of the largest psychological school in the Soviet Union. His legacy has been rethought many times, forgotten and rediscovered. Until now, disputes about Vygotsky's theories are being conducted at the international level.
early years
Lev Semenovich Vygotsky (real name - Lev Simkhovich Vygotsky) was born in 1896 in the Belarusian city of Orsha, where his parents' family was forced to live below the Pale of Settlement. Soon they moved to Gomel, Mogilev province. At the end of the 19th century, this city was a center of trade and industry.
Vygotsky's parents appreciated their education, had a broad outlook and tried to instill in their children a love of art and science. The best holidays in the family were reading and trips to the theater.
The first teacher of the young Leo, Solomon Ashpiz, an activist of the Social Democratic Party, encouraged students to develop free thinking through a Socratic dialogue. Even before entering the gymnasium, Leo learned English, Hebrew and Ancient Greek, and later Latin, French, Esperanto and German were added to them.
After the successful completion of schooling, Lev Vygotsky was going to study philology at Moscow University, but was refused. At that time, Jews could not freely choose their profession. Then Vygotsky entered the medical. And then he transferred to the law faculty. In addition, he attended lectures on psychology and philosophy at G. Shpet and P. Blonsky at the People’s University, and after 1917 he completely transferred there.
Scientific works
While still a student, Vygotsky began to publish in magazines with articles on literature and Jewish culture. He was printed a lot in the magazines "New Life", "New Way" and in Gorky's Chronicle. The psychologist paid great attention to the problem of anti-Semitism in Russian literature.
After the revolution, Vygotsky left his legal career. He collaborated with Gomel newspapers and magazines, wrote theater reviews. Lev Semenovich taught logic and literature in schools and technical schools, and lectured in psychology. Experience in educational institutions has become a serious impetus for the scientist. Which led him to the decision to develop psychological theories in pedagogy.
A long-standing interest in culture prompted the creation of one of the most significant works. This is Vygotsky’s book Psychology of Art. It was written as a dissertation and was first published only in 1965.
Another fundamental work was called "Educational Psychology." The author analyzed his own teaching experience and developed on his basis his scientific theories. In the later works Thinking and Speech and Teachings on Emotions, these ideas are continued.
Among the legacy of L. S. Vygotsky are books, monographs, and scientific articles. He managed to publish many essays, which began to fall under the prohibition of Soviet power during his lifetime. After the death of the scientist, his works were removed from the libraries and outlawed.
The theories of Vygotsky found a new life only at the end of the fifties. And after the publication of books abroad, the scientist became world famous. Until now, his scientific concepts have been admired and debated among colleagues.
Cultural and historical theory. Essence
The basic psychological theory of Vygotsky began to take shape from his early publications in magazines and acquired its finished form in the 30s. The scientist insisted on considering the social environment in which the child is located as the main factor in the development of personality.
Lev Semenovich believed that the reason for the crisis of contemporary psychology was that researchers considered only the primitive side of human consciousness, while ignoring higher functions. He distinguished between two levels of behavior:
- natural, involuntary, formed by the evolution of biological processes;
- cultural, based on the historical development of human society, managed.
Vygotsky believed that consciousness has a sociocultural, iconic nature. Signs are formed by society in a historical context and affect the restructuring of the child's mental activity. The scientist argued that speech is the most important factor in psychological development. It combines the physical, cultural, communicative and semantic levels of consciousness.
Higher psychological functions with the help of signs (mainly speech) are adopted from the outside and only then become part of the person’s inner world. Vygotsky deduced the concept of the social situation of development. It can be stepwise, evolutionary or crisis.
Signs and Thinking
By the term "sign" Lev Semenovich Vygotsky understood a conditional symbol that carries a certain meaning. The word can be considered a universal sign, changing, forming the consciousness of the subject who mastered it.
Speech carries information of the socio-cultural environment in which the child grows. With its help, such important functions of consciousness as logical thinking, will, and creative imagination are formed.
Psychology of Pedagogy
Most of the work of Leo Semenovich Vygotsky is devoted to the study of the psychological laws of human development that arise in the process of education and training. The term "pedology" is also used to denote this area of knowledge.
Education in psychology means the development of human abilities, the transfer of skills and knowledge. Under education - work with personality, behavior. This is an area of feelings and relationships between people. Pedagogical psychology has a close relationship with sociology and physiology.
Developmental education
For the first time in Russian psychology, Vygotsky began to study the relationship between learning and human development. Under the term "development" he understood gradual changes in the physiology, behavior and thinking of the child. They occur over time under the influence of the environment and natural processes in the body.
Changes occur in several areas:
- Physical - changes in the structure of the brain, internal organs, motor and sensory skills.
- Cognitive - in mental processes, mental abilities, imagination, speech, memory.
- Psychosocial - in personality behavior and emotions.
These areas are developing simultaneously and are interconnected. There is a need for a rough schedule of the emergence of specific forms of behavior in children. Lev Semenovich Vygotsky developed the doctrine of age as a central problem and theoretical psychology. As well as teaching practice.
In subsequent years, Soviet scientists V. Davydov, P. Halperin, M. Enikeev and others, based on the theories of L. S. Vygotsky on the psychology of child development, developed the concept of developmental education. That is, the work of the scientist was continued by his followers.
Laws of age development
L. S. Vygodsky in the psychology of child development formulated several general provisions:
- Age development has a complex organization, its own rhythm, which changes in different periods of life;
- Development is a sequence of qualitative changes;
- The psyche develops unevenly, each side of it has its own period of change;
- Higher mental functions are collective forms of behavior and only then become individual human functions.
Levels
In the theory of age development, Vygotsky distinguished two important levels. Consider them:
- Zone of actual development. This is the level of readiness of the child, the tasks that he is able to perform without the help of adults.
- Zone of proximal development. It includes tasks that a child cannot solve himself, only with the help of an adult. However, through interaction with other people, the child gains the necessary experience and subsequently becomes able to perform the same actions independently.
According to Vygotsky, training should always go ahead of development. It should be based on the already passed age stages and focus on functions that have not yet been fully formed, the child’s potential.
The most important factor in the development of a child is cooperation with an adult. At the same time, training takes place not only at school, but also in everyday life, and in the family.
Personally-Active Approach
Lev Semenovich Vygotsky believed that a human person is formed in the process of complex interaction with the environment. There is no unmotivated activity. Her motive comes from a specific need. The mental development of the individual is aimed at the formation of internal actions aimed at achieving conscious goals.
Vygotsky’s personality theory puts at the center of the learning process of the student himself, his goals, motives, individual psychological characteristics. The teacher determines the direction and teaching methods based on the interests and prospects of the child.
Impact on the development of science
In world psychology, Vygotsky’s theory of the cultural and historical development of personality gained popularity in the 70s, when the scientist’s books began to be published in the West. Many works have appeared on the comprehension and development of his ideas.
American and European psychologists use Vygotsky’s findings to develop methods for studying foreign languages and even researching modern computer technologies. In the context of cultural-historical theory, the possibilities of new forms of learning are considered: distance and electronic. Scientists D. Parisi and M. Mirolly suggested using the achievements of the Soviet psychologist to give robots more “human” features.
In Russia, the theory of Vygotsky was developed and rethought by students and followers. Among them, outstanding scientists P. Halperin, A. Leontyev, V. Davydov, A. Luria, L. Bozhovich, A. Zaporozhets, D. Elkonin.
In 2007, the Cambridge University Press published a major study of the work of L. S. Vygotsky. Scientists from ten countries of the world, including Russia, took part in its creation.