3. Lev Vygotsky
 Lev Vygotsky was born November 17, 1896 in
Orshaa city in the western region of the Russian
Empire.
 He attended Moscow State University, where he
graduated with a degree in law in 1917.
 His formal work in psychology did not begin until
1924 when he attended the Institute of
Psychology in Moscow and began collaborating
with Alexei Leontiev and Alexander Luria.
 His interests in Psychology were quite diverse,
but often centered on topics of child development
and education. He also explored such topics as
the psychology of art and language development.

4. About the Theory
Vygotsky placed more emphasis on social
contributions to the process of
development.
He focused on the connections between
people and the sociocultural context in
which they act and interact inshared
experiences.
According to Vygotsky, humans use tools
that developfrom a culture, such as speech
and writing, to mediatetheir social
environments. Initially children develop
thesetools to serve solely as social

6. Three Major Themes
Social Interaction
The More
Knowledgeable Other
(MKO)
Zone of Proximal
Development

7. Social Interaction
Vygotsky felt social learning anticipates
development.
He states: “Every function in the child’s
culturaldevelopment appears twice: first, on
the social level,and later, on the individual
level; first, betweenpeople
(interpsychological) and then inside the
child(intrapsychological).”He believes that
young children are curious andactively
involved in their own learning and
thediscovery and development of new
understandings.

8. The More
Knowledgeable Other
(MKO)
MKO refers to someone who has a
better understandingor a higher
ability level than the learner, with
respect to a particular task, process,
or concept.
Many times, a child’s peers or an
adults children may be the
individuals with more knowledge or
experience.

10. Zone of Proximal
Development (ZPD)
This is an important concept that relates
to the difference between what a child can
achieve independently and what a child
can achieve with guidance and
encouragement from a skilled partner.
Vygotsky sees the ZPD as the area where
the most sensitive instruction or guidance
should be given, allowing the child to
develop skills they will then use on their
own, developing higher mental functions.

11. Vygotskys theory differs from that
of Piaget in a number of important
ways:
1: Vygotsky places more emphasis on culture
affecting/shaping cognitive development this contradicts Piagets view of universal
stages and content of development.
(Vygotsky does not refer to stages in the way
that Piaget does).
2: Vygotsky places considerably more
emphasis on social factors contributing to
cognitive development (Piaget is criticized
for underestimating this).
3: Vygotsky places more emphasis on the role
of language in cognitive development (again
Piaget is criticized for lack of emphasis on

12. Two Features of
ZPD

15. Four Basic
Principles
Underlying the
Vygotsky
Framework

19. Two Types of
Mental
Function

21. Conclusion

23. Urie Bronfenbrenner
Born in Russia
Immigrated to the US at age 6
Enlisted in the US army
immediately after completing his
PhDCo-founder of the Head Start
program-Designed to serve atrisk nursery students to prepare
them for school

24. About the Theory
Development is the result of the
relationships between people and
their environments.
 Implications: Cannot evaluate a
child’s development only in the
immediate environment. Must also
examine the interactions among the
larger environments that a child
develops in.

25. Conceptual Model
Series of systems
each is contained
within the other so
that literally
children are
affected by all
systems but some
are more
immediate to the
children and are
able to be
influenced by

26. Model
Microsystem: Within this system the
student has direct interactions with
parents, teachers, peers, and others.
Mesosystem: This system involves the
linkages between microsystems such as
family and school, and relationships
between students and peers.
Exosystem: This system works when
settings in which a child does not have
an active role influence the student’s
experiences.

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2014