I. Background
Vygotsky was born in 1896 and died in 1934. Piaget is a contemporary figure. However, unlike Piaget's view that cognitive development is universal, Vygotsky's theory emphasizes the influence of culture and society on children's cognitive development. However, due to the strong western culture in his theory, it was suppressed by the Soviet government from 1936 to 1956, and it was forbidden to discuss his theory. It was not until the 1960s that Vygotsky's theory was valued by American psychologists.
Vygotsky 1896 was born in Olsa town, northeast of Minsk, and 19 17 graduated from the Law Department of Moscow University and the History and Philosophy Department of Shanyavsky University. 19 17 after graduating from Moscow university majoring in literature, I began to study literature. From 19 17 to 1923, Vygotsky taught literature and psychology in a school. In this school, he is also in charge of the drama department of the adult education center and has given many lectures on literature and science. During this period, Vygotsky began to publish the literary publication Verask; Soon, he published his first literary research, and later re-published Psychology of Art. He also set up a psychology laboratory in the teacher training college to teach psychology courses, which were later published in Educational Psychology.
1924, he moved to Moscow, first working in a psychological institution, and then working in his own institution for the disabled. At the same time, he presided over the education department of physically and intellectually disabled children under Narcompros (People's Education Committee), and also taught at Krupskaya Communist Education Institute, Moscow II University (later Moscow State Education Institute) and Hertzen Teaching Institute in Leningrad. From 1925 to 1934, Vygotsky gathered a large group of young scientists who are good at psychology, disability and psychological abnormality to work together. His interest in medicine prompted Vygotsky to receive medical training, first in a medical institution in Moscow, and later in Kharkov, where he opened a psychology course at the Ukrainian Institute of Neuropsychology. Shortly before his death, Vygotsky was invited to be the head of the psychology department of the all-alliance experimental medical institutions. 1934 died of tuberculosis.
Second, teammates and successors.
He and two other psychologists of the former Soviet Union, Leontiev and Guanliya, are representatives of the school of cultural history, so this school is called Villeroux School.
Successor: zankov
Third, the opponent
Piaget (individual constructivism)
Fourth, representative works
1925, consciousness is a problem of behavioral psychology.
The core idea of verb (abbreviation of verb)
Vygotsky s theory of cultural and historical development;
Vygotsky, a psychologist in the former Soviet Union, first noticed the influence of society and culture on human psychology from the perspective of historical materialism. In 1930s, he put forward "the theory of cultural and historical development", arguing that people's advanced psychological function is the product of social history, which is restricted by social laws. He emphasized the important role of human social culture in people's psychological development and the importance of social communication in this development.
(A) the basic content of Vygotsky's concept of development
1. Cultural and historical development theory
Vygotsky analyzed the essence of psychological development from the perspective of species and individual development and put forward the theory of cultural and historical development.
(1) Two psychological functions:
Vygotsky distinguishes two kinds of psychological functions, one is the low-level psychological function as the result of animal evolution (such as basic perceptual processing); The other is the advanced psychological function as the result of historical development, that is, the psychological function mediated by the symbol system (such as the fine processing of memory). The essence of advanced psychological function is mediated by psychological tools and restricted by the law of social and historical development.
(2) Two tool theories
There are two levels of tools mentioned by Vygotsky, one is the tool of material production and the other is the tool of spiritual production (language symbol system). According to segars's thought about the role of labor in adapting to and transforming nature with tools in the production process, Vygotsky elaborated in detail his views on the social origin and intermediary structure of advanced psychological functions. The use of tools has led to a new way for human beings to adapt to nature, which is no longer a direct way for the body like animals. In the production of human tools, the indirect experience of human beings, that is, the experience of social and cultural knowledge, is condensed, so that the law of human psychological development is no longer dominated by biological laws, but by the law of social and historical development. The tools mentioned by Vygotsky have two levels. Material production tools and spiritual production tools (language symbol system). Production tools point to the outside, causing changes in the object; Speech symbol system points inward, which affects people's psychological structure and behavior.
In this sense, Taguchi believes that human thinking and intelligence are developed in activities and are the result of the continuous internalization of social interaction of various activities. This kind of social interaction with others, language and other symbolic systems, including teaching, plays a formative role in development. Children's cognitive development depends more on the help of people around them. Children's knowledge, thoughts, attitudes and values are all developed in the interaction with others, and their development depends on their learning methods and contents. He believes that people's advanced psychological function is developed in the interaction with society, or that people's advanced psychological activities originated from the interaction with society.
2. Psychological development concept
Based on the detailed definition and description of people's advanced psychological function and its characteristics, Vygotsky put forward many different views on children's cognitive development related to Piaget's cognitive development view. Piaget emphasized that children mainly construct their own cognitive schema of the world around them, while Vygotsky believed that children's psychological development was social.
(1) psychological development performance
When discussing development, Vygotsky first defined psychological development as a process in which individuals gradually transform their psychology into advanced functions from birth to adulthood on the basis of low-level psychological functions and under the influence of environment and education. There are four main manifestations of the development from low-level functions to high-level functions:
(1) the sustainable development of autonomic function. Voluntary action refers to the initiative and intentionality of psychological activities consciously triggered by the subject according to the predetermined purpose. The more random children's psychological activities are, the higher their psychological level is.
② Improvement of abstract generalization function. With the development of writing and language, with the growth of knowledge and experience, children develop the generality and indirectness of various psychological functions, and finally form the most advanced consciousness system.
(3) The relationship between various psychological functions is constantly transforming and reorganizing, forming a psychological structure mediated by symbols. The more complicated, indirect and contracted the child's psychological structure, the higher the psychological level.
④ Individualization of psychological activities. Vygotsky emphasizes the influence of personality characteristics on cognitive development, and thinks that the development of children's consciousness is not only the growth and improvement of individual function when children transition from one age stage to another, but also the development of children's personality and whole consciousness. The formation of personality is an important symbol of the development of advanced psychological functions, and personality characteristics play an important role in the development of other functions.
(2) the causes of psychological development
For the reasons of children's psychological development, Vygotsky emphasized three points:
① The development of psychological function originates from the development of social culture and history and is restricted by social laws.
② From the perspective of individual development, in the process of communicating with adults, children form various new psychological functions on the basis of low psychological functions by mastering the language symbol system, a tool of high psychological functions.
③ Advanced psychological function is the result of internalization of external activities.
3. Internal chemical theory
Vygotsky emphasized the important role of environmental and social factors in children's development. He proposed that the essence of psychological development is the process that individuals gradually transform from low-level psychological function to high-level psychological function under the influence of environment and education. He believes that most development benefits from the outside, that is, individuals gain knowledge from the social environment and develop through internalization. Many children's learning takes place in the interaction with the environment, which determines the internalized content of most children. Parents and others in their children's environment can expand their children's knowledge horizons and promote their learning through their interaction with their children. Internalization theory is the core idea of Vygotsky's psychological development view. Vygotsky's internal chemistry theory is based on his tool theory.
In the process of internalization, self-centered language plays a vital role in language development. Piaget believes that egocentric language is a kind of non-social language, which is the expression of the unique egocentric consciousness of children aged 2-7. Vygotsky believes that egocentric speech is a transitional form from external language to internal language. According to him, children are actually talking to themselves. They think loudly because they haven't learned how to control their thinking from the inside. Children are often guided by verbal commands from others in their daily lives. When children try to regulate their behavior, they will imitate those vocal words to help themselves.
4. The relationship between education and development-"the zone of proximal development"
Vygotsky believes that children have two levels of development (see the figure below): one is the current level of children, that is, the development level of children's psychological function formed by a completed development system; The second is the level of development to be achieved, that is, the higher level that can be achieved with the inspiration of others. The difference between these two levels is the nearest development zone.
Teaching should pay attention to students' recent development zone, transform potential development level into realistic development level, and create new recent development zone. Teaching can create students' development.
Vygotsky put forward: "Teaching should be ahead of development". There are two meanings here: (1) Teaching plays a leading role in development. It determines the development of children and the content, level, speed and characteristics of intellectual activities. (2) Teaching has created the zone of proximal development. Teaching should adapt to the current level of students, but more importantly, it should play a leading role in development.
Its proposal illustrates the possibility of children's development, and its significance lies in: guiding educators not only to see the development level that children have reached today, but also to see the process that is still in the state of formation and development. Therefore, Vygotsky emphasized that teaching should not only adapt to the current level of development, but also to the recently developed areas, so as to stay ahead of development and finally reach a new level of development by crossing the recently developed areas. Therefore, the optimal quantitative effect of teaching is produced in the "nearest development zone".
5. Scaffolding teaching
In order to promote the development of teaching, Vygotsky believes that teachers can use teaching scaffolding to carry out scaffolding teaching, that is, to give support and guidance to students when they try to solve problems beyond their current knowledge level, to help them pass through the nearest development zone smoothly, so that they can finally complete their tasks independently. Scaffolding teaching can be done in the following ways: (1) Divide what students want to learn into many easy-to-master segments; (2) Show students the skills they need to master; (3) provide tips for practice. It should be noted that the support and help provided by teachers should be appropriate. With too much help, students' ability to solve problems independently can not be fully developed; Without enough help, students may be discouraged by failure, and over time, they may have a sense of learned helplessness.
6. Social Constructivism Development View
First of all, Vygotsky believes that psychological development is a process of combining quantitative change with qualitative change, from structural change to the final formation of a new qualitative consciousness system. Secondly, Vygotsky emphasizes activities and thinks that psychological structure is the result of internalization of external activities; Finally, Vygotsky emphasized the inner psychological structure and thought that new knowledge must be based on old knowledge.
Vygotsky's ideological system is an important cornerstone of the development of constructivism today, in which scaffolding teaching is worthy of attention. The main points of this teaching method are: firstly, it emphasizes the development activities of students under the guidance of teachers; Secondly, the guiding elements of teachers will gradually decrease, and eventually students will reach the level of independent discovery, and the responsibility of monitoring learning and exploration will shift from teachers to students. Vygotsky's theory is also instructive to cooperative learning, situational learning and other teaching modes.
(B) the impact of Vygotsky's theory on teaching:
(1) Learners are independent and active "apprentices".
Students do not passively accept knowledge, but have initiative. Students' learning is to construct an internal structure or schema according to their own knowledge in order to absorb, accept and explain new information. Students consciously imitate the behavior of experts or peers to think and complete specific tasks. When completing tasks in a cooperative social background, students will make explicit or vague model injuries, proofs and debates on the psychological strategies used. Therefore, psychological factors such as complex, motivation and personality all affect students' learning in a direct or indirect way.
(2) Students' learning is influenced by background.
Any learning is carried out in a certain social or practical meaningful background, which includes learners' original experience, social and cultural system, classroom interaction with teachers and peers, etc. These backgrounds, especially social functions, will affect the learning process and results in different ways. Teaching is a cumulative process, which depends on previous knowledge and past experience. Students' learning is influenced by their experiences activated in specific situations. Therefore, teachers should adapt teaching to students' current level at the beginning, and then help them build and connect new information.
(3) In order to ensure the effectiveness of teaching, teaching should provide students with challenging cognitive tasks and scaffolding.
Challenging cognitive tasks refer to those tasks that are slightly beyond the scope of students' ability, but can be completed with the help of experts, that is, they are in the recent development zone and form a positive mismatch with students' ability. Vygotsky believes that teaching should consider not only the level that children have reached, but also the level that children may reach through hard work, and advocates that teachers should pay attention to students' "best learning period" and not blindly surpass and lag behind, so as not to miss the "zone of recent development". Teachers should provide students with challenging cognitive tasks and scaffolding, so that students can participate in problem solving with the help of scaffolding and gain meaningful understanding, thus ensuring the maximization of teaching benefits. This principle emphasizes the guiding position of teachers in teaching, requires teachers to consider the existing level of students when designing and arranging teaching, and advocates that teaching content or tasks should cause positive cognitive conflicts for students.
(4) Teaching is an interactive dynamic system.
The necessary conditions for students' learning are appropriate level of teaching and a certain guiding social environment. The social relationship between teachers and students is an important factor in learning. Teachers, as instructors of students, provide necessary information and support for students' learning and intellectual development. This kind of support is also commonly called scaffolding, which students use to build a stable understanding and finally complete the task independently.
Vygotsky explained the learning mechanism in interactive situations with the expected method. In communication, adults expect children to know some information and act under this assumption, and finally children can really construct this information or knowledge. This interaction in the zone of proximal development is a cognitive activity of cooperation between adults and children, and the view that children finally construct is also the common product of children's original view and adult's view.
In short, Vygotsky's question about children's psychological development can be summarized in one sentence: "Education is not equal to development, but it is not limited by development. Education can promote development within a certain range."