Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934)
was a Russian psychologist who developed the social development theory. In
short, the theory is that “social interaction precedes development;
consciousness and cognition are the end product of socialization and social
behavior.”
Piaget’s
understanding was that development must precede learning, but Vygotsky saw that
social learning leads to development. “Every
function in the child’s cultural development appears twice: first, on the
social level, and later, on the individual level; first, between people
(interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological).”
Another major theme in
Vygotsky’s theory is the More Knoledgeable Other (MKO) which refers to someone
who knows more (has a better understanding or higher ability level) on
something than the learner. In practice the MKO can be anyone in position to
teach and advice a learner.
Vygotsky also introduced the term
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) which means the distance from performing a
task under adult guidance or with a peer to the student’s ability to solve the
problem by him-/herself. So the learning zone is the distance.
(http://www.learning-theories.com/vygotskys-social-learning-theory.html)
