Material Detail

This webpage presents a brief introduction to the life and ideas of Lev Vygotsky. The page is short, a ~10 minute read, although this would vary depending on familiarity with the material. Vygotsky's life is covered briefly, and some of his main ideas are introduced, e.g., the zone of proximal development, the social origin of language/thought, etc. I found these concepts to be, for the most part, fairly clearly and logically introduced. The later sections of the text dealt with Vygotsky's connections to other theorists, and raised some interesting and less-discussed points, e.g., that despite the stereotype of Piaget rather than Vygotsky emphasizing social influences, Piaget placed greater importance on peer interaction than Vygotsky. Despite many strengths, there are two ways in which this material could be improved. First, the order through which concepts are introduced seems somewhat random. Vygotsky's theory gives central billing to social interaction in development, yet the webpage begins with the zone of proximal development (ZPD), and only later mentions the role of social interaction. Secondly, a number of terms are used for describing ideas in Vygotsky's theory that are either very obscure or idiosyncratic. For example, the term "social learning theory" is not used in any materials on Vygotsky that I am familiar with, and could be confusing in that it connotes the very different "learning theory".