Preston's Lecture Notes: Vygotsky

Please read this outline actively, and feel free to post comments or questions-- if Pound and Eliot could demonstrate the value of social learning by sending letters across the Atlantic, surely we can do it on our blog!
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Lev Semenovich Vygotsky and Social Learning Theory

“A word devoid of thought is a dead thing, and a thought unembodied in words remains a shadow.”

We tend to think of words and thoughts as independent entities, separated and distinct from one another. However, as we learned from our discussion on Linguistic Relativity, the relationship between thought and language is much more complex and interdependent. Vygotsky’s work in this area allows us some insight into how the collaboration between thoughts, words and interaction between individuals facilitates learning.

Most American Literature students will tell you that T.S. Eliot wrote “The Waste Land,” and any bibliographic research would appear to confirm this simple fact. However, it is simply not true. That poem was the result of a collaborative process between Eliot and Ezra Pound, in which dozens of letters and manuscripts were passed back and forth to facilitate a thought process that would not have been possible otherwise. “The Waste Land” exists as evidence of thinking between at least two creative sources, and we turn to Vygotsky for some illumination on what has come to be known as “the teachable moment.”

First some biographical facts:
• Vygotsky lived from 1896-1934
• Like several researchers/theorists we have studied, Vygotsky turned his attention to education and psychological development after exploring other fields
• Vygotsky died of TB, and his work did not become well-known in the U.S. until after the cold war


ORIGINS OF THOUGHT & LANGUAGE
• In Vygotsky’s model, the development of thought and language can be imagined as the strands of the DNA double-helix; they grow interdependently
• Around the age of 2, thought becomes verbal and speech becomes rational
• The child first uses language for superficial social interaction; later language becomes embedded and becomes the actual structure of conscious thought


WORD MEANING & CONCEPT FORMATION
• “…A problem must arise that cannot be solved otherwise than through the formation of new concepts.”
• The child solves a problem by naming it; when she doesn’t have a name, she substitutes from other sources
• Through this process, word meaning becomes the basis for concept formation


SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM
• All fundamental cognitive activities take shape in context of socio-history and socio-historical development
• NOTE: this development is not innate—it is the product of activities within social institutions
• Language is crucial tool because advanced modes of thought are transmitted by means of words (here we may make a connection with Piaget’s abstract/hypothetical thinking in the formal operations stage)


ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT
• Includes all functions/activities as a child/learner can perform only with assistance from someone else (adult or peer)
• EXAMPLE: I.Q. Testing/ in isolation 2 children score at 8 year-old level, and with assistance one scores at 9, one scores at 12


IMPLICATIONS
• Human learning presupposes a specific social nature
• Learning is part of a process by which children grow into the intellectual life of those around them
• Learning awakens a variety of internal processes that are able to operate ONLY when the child is in the action of interacting with people in her environment

KEYS
• Authenticity of environment
• Affinity between participants


VYGOTSKY’S INFLUENCE
• Krashen’s language acquisition theory
• Less structured, more natural/communicative/experiential approaches to learning
• Emphasis on real-world human interaction
• Assessment: Is the individual the only/best unit of analysis?
• “Teachable moment”
• Value on knowledge as a profoundly social process
• Recognition that often the epitome of ignorance is the reluctance to seek help