Influential Leaders- Lev Vygotsky

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Lev Vygotsky was born in Russia. He was a law school graduate who explored subjects like sociology, psychology, linguistics, and philosophy. His interest in psychology gained him collaboration with Alexei Leontiev and Alexander Luria (famous Russian psychologists). He published a number of books on psychological development and linguistics. His main focus was on education and child development. Vygotsky died at the age of 38 due to tuberculosis. One of the most influential theorists in the field of education and child development, Lev Vygotsky is well known for his theory of social constructivism. It is also known as cultural-historical theory or socio-cultural theory. His theory has been the foundation for many of the cognitive development researches. According to Vygotsky’s theory, knowledge is constructed by the child through social interactions and mediations. The child learns through social interactions and internalizes the learning to construct meaning and knowledge. A connection is made between the new learning experience and the existing knowledge. Mental tools like internal and external mediators, speech, writing, scaffolding and shared activities play a significant role in the process of cognition. Language, social environment, and culture influence the child’s learning process. Reciprocal teaching is one of Vygotsky’s approaches widely used in schools today. This approach enables higher level of thinking like summarizing, clarifying, predicting, and questioning within students. In contrast to Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, socio-cultural theory states that development and learning have mutual effects on each other. Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development (ZPD) is a well known concept of Vygotsky. According to the ZPD, development happens at two levels and these levels become the limits of the ZPD. The lower level is the child’s independent

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