life and works of Lev Vygotsky and Lawrence Kohlberg

1. JAMAICA C. DOTILLOS
M.S. Ag. Ed.

2.  1. Vygotsky’s Cognitive Development Theory
 2. Kohlberg Moral Development Theory

3. Born
November 19, 1896
Orsha, Russian Empire, now in
Belarus
Died
June 11, 1934 (aged 37)
Moscow, USSR
Nationality Russian
Fields Psychology
Alma mater
Moscow State University,
Shaniavskii Open University
Notable students Alexander Luria
Known for
Cultural-historical psychology, Zone
of proximal development
Influences
Wilhelm von Humboldt, Alexander
Potebnia, Alfred Adler, Jean Piaget,
Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Köhler,
Kurt Koffka, Kurt Lewin, Kurt
Goldstein
Influenced Vygotsky Circle, Evald Ilyenkov
Spouse
Roza Noevna Vygodskaia (nee
Smekhova)

4. Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (Russian: Лев Семёнович Вы́ готский or
Выго́тский, born Лев Симхович Выгодский Lev Simkhovich
Vygodsky, November 17 [O.S. November 5] 1896 – June 11, 1934) was
a Soviet psychologist, the founder of a theory of human cultural and
bio-social development commonly referred to as cultural-historical
psychology, and leader of the Vygotsky Circle

5. Lev Vygotsky was born in the town of Orsha, in the Russian Empire
(present-day Belarus) into a non-religious middle class Russian
Jewish family. His father was a banker. He was raised in the city of
Gomel, Belarus, where he obtained both public and private education.
In 1913 Vygotsky was admitted to the Moscow State University
through a "Jewish Lottery" to meet a three percent Jewish student
quota for entry in Moscow and Saint Petersburg universities. There
he studied law and, in parallel, he attended lectures at fully official,
but privately funded and non degree granting "Shanyavskii People’s
University".His early interests were in the arts and he might have
aspired to be a literary critic, fascinated with the formalism of his
time.

6. For unclear reasons, around the early 1920s, he changed his birth
name from Vygodskii (with "d") into Vygotskii (with middle "t") and
his patronymic from original Jewish "Simkhovich" to Slavic
"Semenovich“
In January 1924, Vygotsky took part in the Second All-Russian
Psychoneurological Congress in Leningrad. Soon thereafter, Vygotsky
received an invitation to become a research fellow at the
Psychological Institute in Moscow. Vygotsky moved to Moscow with
new wife Roza Smekhova. He began his career at the Psychological
Institute as a "staff scientist, second class".

7. By the end of 1925, Vygotsky completed his dissertation in 1925 on
"The Psychology of Art" (not published until the 1960s) and a book
"Pedagogical Psychology" that was apparently created on the basis of
lecture notes that he prepared back in Gomel as a psychology
instructor at local educational establishments.

8. In 1926-30 Vygotsky worked on a research programme investigating
the development of higher cognitive functions of logical memory,
selective attention, decision making and language comprehension,
from early forms of primal psychological functions

9. Vygotsky guided his students in researching this phenomenon from
three different angles:
1. The instrumental angle, which tried to understand the ways in
which humans use objects as aides of mediation in memory and
reasoning.
2. A developmental approach, focusing on how children acquire the
higher cognitive functions during development. And;
3. A culture-historical approach, studying the ways in which forms of
mediation and developmental trajectories are shaped by different
social and cultural patterns of interaction.

10. In early 1930s Vygotsky experienced deep crisis, personal and
theoretical, and after a period of massive self-criticism made an
attempt at a radical revision of his theory. The work of the
representatives of the Gestalt psychology and other holistic scholars
was instrumental in this theoretical shift. In 1932-1934 Vygotsky was
aiming at establishing a psychological theory of consciousness, but
this theory because of his death remained only in a very sketchy and
unfinished form.

11.  Consciousness as a problem in the Psychology of Behavior, essay, 1925
 Educational Psychology, 1926
 Historical meaning of the crisis in Psychology, 1927
 The Problem of the Cultural Development of the Child, essay 1929
 The Fundamental Problems of Defectology, article 1929
 The Socialist alteration of Man, 1930
 Ape, Primitive Man, and Child: Essays in the History of Behaviour. A. R. Luria
and L. S. Vygotsky. 1930

12.  Paedology of the Adolescent, 1931
 Play and its role in the Mental development of the Child, essay 1933
 Thinking and Speech, 1934
 Tool and symbol in child development, 1934
 Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes, 1978
 Thought and Language, 1986
 The Collected Works of L. S. Vygotsky, 1987

13. The work of Lev Vygotsky (1934) has become the foundation
of much research and theory in cognitive development over
the past several decades, particularly of what has become
known as Social Development Theory.

14. Vygotsky's theories stress the fundamental role of social
interaction in the development of cognition. Vygotsky
believed strongly that community plays a central role in the
process of "making meaning.“

15. No single principle (such as Piaget's equilibration) can
account for development. Individual development cannot be
understood without reference to the social and cultural
context within which it is embedded. Higher mental
processes in the individual have their origin in social
processes.

16. Vygotsky's theories stress the fundamental role of social
interaction in the development of cognition. Vygotsky, as he
believed strongly that community plays a central role in the
process of "making meaning."

17. Vygotsky sees cognitive functions, even those carried out
alone, as affected by the beliefs, values and tools of
intellectual adaptation of the culture in which a person
develops and therefore socio-culturally determined. . The
tools of intellectual adaptation therefore vary from culture
to culture.

18. Like Piaget, Vygotsky claimed that infants are born with
the basic materials/abilities for intellectual development -
Piaget focuses on motor reflexes and sensory abilities.
Lev Vygotsky refers to Elementary Mental Functions
 Attention
 Perception
 Sensation
 Memory

19. Eventually, through interaction within the sociocultural
environment, these are developed into more sophisticated
and effective mental processes/strategies which he refers to
as Higher Mental Functions.

20. For example, memory in young children this is limited by
biological factors. However, culture determines the type of
memory strategy we develop. E.g., in our culture we learn
note-taking to aid memory, but in pre-literate societies
other strategies must be developed, such as tying knots in
string to remember, or carrying pebbles, or repetition of the
names of ancestors until large numbers can be repeated.

21. Vygotsky believed that language develops from social
interactions, for communication purposes. Vygotsky viewed
language as man’s greatest tool, a means for
communicating with the outside world.

22.  1: It is the main means by which adults transmit information to children.
 2: Language itself becomes a very powerful tool of intellectual adaptation.

23. Vygotsky differentiates between three forms of language:
• social speech which is external communication used to talk to others
(typical from the age of two)
• private speech (typical from the age of three) which is directed to
the self and serves an intellectual function; and finally private
speech goes underground, diminishing in audibility as it takes on a
self-regulating function and is transformed into-
• silent inner speech (typical from the age of seven)

25. Like Piaget, Vygotsky believes that young children are
curious and actively involved in their own learning and the
discovery and development of new
understandings/schema. However, Vygotsky placed more
emphasis on social contributions to the process of
development, whereas Piaget emphasized self-initiated
discovery.

26. According to Vygotsky (1978), much important learning by
the child occurs through social interaction with a skillful
tutor. The tutor may model behaviors and/or provide verbal
instructions for the child.

27. Vygotsky refers to this as cooperative or collaborative
dialogue. The child seeks to understand the actions or
instructions provided by the tutor (often the parent or
teacher) then internalizes the information, using it to guide
or regulate their own performance.

28. Example:
A young girl is given her first jigsaw. Alone, she performs
poorly in attempting to solve the puzzle. The father then
sits with her and describes or demonstrates some basic
strategies, such as finding all the corner/edge pieces and
provides a couple of pieces for the child to put together
herself and offers encouragement when she does so. As the
child becomes more competent, the father allows the child
to work more independently. According to Vygotsky, this
type of social interaction involving cooperative or
collaborative dialogue promotes cognitive development.

29. The more knowledgeable other (MKO) is somewhat self-
explanatory; it refers to someone who has a better
understanding or a higher ability level than the learner,
with respect to a particular task, process, or concept.

30. Although the implication is that the MKO is a teacher or an
older adult, this is not necessarily the case. Many times, a
child's peers or an adult's children may be the individuals
with more knowledge or experience.

31. For example, who is more likely to know more about the
newest teenage music groups, how to win at the most
recent PlayStation game, or how to correctly perform the
newest dance craze - a child or their parents?

32. The MKO need not be a person at all. Some companies, to
support employees in their learning process, are now using
electronic performance support systems. Electronic tutors
have also been used in educational settings to facilitate and
guide students through the learning process. The key to
MKOs is that they must have (or be programmed with)
more knowledge about the topic being learned than the
learner does.

33. The concept of the More Knowledgeable Other is integrally
related to the second important principle of Vygotsky's
work, the Zone of Proximal Development.
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.

35. Vygotsky (1978) sees the Zone of Proximal Development 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.

36. Vygotsky also views interaction with peers as an effective
way of developing skills and strategies. He suggests that
teachers use cooperative learning exercises where less
competent children develop with help from more skillful
peers - within the zone of proximal development.

37. For example, the child could not solve the jigsaw puzzle by
itself and would have taken a long time to do so (if at all),
but was able to solve it following interaction with the
father, and has developed competence at this skill that will
be applied to future jigsaws.

38. Scaffolding is a concept closely related to the idea of ZPD,
although Vygotsky never actually used the term.
Scaffolding is changing the level of support to suit the
cognitive potential of the child. Over the course of a
teaching session, one can adjust the amount of guidance to
fit the child’s potential level of performance. Ideally,
scaffolding works to maintain the child’s potential level of
development in the ZPD.

39. Freud (1990) conducted a study in which children had to
decide which items of furniture should be placed in
particular areas of a dolls house. Some children were
allowed to play with their mother in a similar situation
before they attempted it alone (zone of proximal
development) whilst others were allowed to work on this by
themselves (Piaget's discovery learning).

40. Freud found that those who had previously worked with
their mother (ZPD) showed greatest improvement
compared with their first attempt at the task. The
conclusion being that guided learning within the ZPD led to
greater understanding/performance than working alone
(discovery learning).

41. For Vygotsky, thought and language are initially separate
systems from the beginning of life, merging at around three
years of age. At this point speech and thought become
interdependent: thought becomes verbal, speech becomes
representational. When this happens, children's
monologues internalized to become inner speech. The
internalization of language is important as it drives
cognitive development.

42. Children raised in cognitively and linguistically stimulating
environments (situations more frequently observed in
higher socioeconomic status families) start using and
internalizing private speech faster than children from less
privileged backgrounds. Indeed, children raised in
environments characterized by low verbal and social
exchanges exhibit delays in private speech development.

43. A contemporary educational application of Vygotsky's
theories is "reciprocal teaching", used to improve students'
ability to learn from text. In this method, teacher and
students collaborate in learning and practicing four key
skills: summarizing, questioning, clarifying, and predicting.
The teacher's role in the process is reduced over time.

44. Also, Vygotsky is relevant to instructional concepts such as
"scaffolding" and "apprenticeship", in which a teacher or
more advanced peer helps to structure or arrange a task so
that a novice can work on it successfully.

45. Vygotsky's theories also feed into current interest in
collaborative learning, suggesting that group members
should have different levels of ability so more advanced
peers can help less advanced members operate within their
ZPD.

46.  https://explorable.com/social-development-theory
 http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/social-development.html
 McLeod, S. A. (2014). Lev Vygotsky. Retrieved from
www.simplypsychology.org/vygotsky.html

47. 1. Should Heinz have stolen the drug?
2. Would it change anything if Heinz did not love his wife?
3. What if the person dying was a stranger, would it make
any difference?
4. Should the police arrest the chemist for murder if the
woman died?

48. Lawrence Kohlberg was, for many years, a professor at
Harvard University. He became famous for his work there
beginning in the early 1970s. He started as a
developmental psychologist and then moved to the field of
moral education. He was particularly well-known for his
theory of moral development which he popularized through
research studies conducted at Harvard's Center for Moral
Education.

49. His theory of moral development was dependent on the
thinking of the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget and the
American philosopher John Dewey. He was also inspired by
James Mark Baldwin. These men had emphasized that
human beings develop philosophically and psychologically
in a progressive fashion.

50. Kohlberg's stages of moral development are based on the
assumption that humans are inherently communicative,
capable of reason, and possess a desire to understand
others and the world around them. The stages of this model
relate to the qualitative moral reasonings adopted by
individuals, and so do not translate directly into praise or
blame of any individual's actions or character.

51. Kohlberg found out that children are faced with different
moral issues, and their judgments on whether they are to
act positively or negatively over each dilemma are heavily
influenced by several factors. In each scenario that
Kohlberg related to the children, he was not really asking
whether or not the person in the situation is morally right
or wrong, but he wanted to find out the reasons why these
children think that the character is morally right or not.

52.  Level 1 (Pre-Conventional)
stage1. Obedience and punishment orientation (How can I avoid punishment?)
2. Self-interest orientation (What's in it for me?)
 (Level 2 (Conventional)
Stage 3. Interpersonal accord and conformity (Social norms)
4. Authority and social-order maintaining orientation (Law and order morality)
 Level 3 (Post-Conventional)
Stage 5. Social contract orientation
6. Universal ethical principles (Principled conscience)

53. The pre-conventional level consists of the first and second
stages of moral development, and is solely concerned with
the self in an egocentric manner. A child with pre-
conventional morality has not yet adopted or internalized
society's conventions regarding what is right or wrong, but
instead focuses largely on external consequences that
certain actions may bring.

54. individuals focus on the direct consequences of their
actions on themselves.
"The last time I did that I got spanked so I will not do it again."

55. A child's classmate tries to dare the child to skip school.
The child would apply obedience and punishment driven
morality by refusing to skip school because he would get
punished. Another example of obedience and punishment
driven morality is when a child refuses to cheat on a test
because the child would get punished.

56. Instrumental Relativist Orientation
In this stage, the person is said to judge the morality of an
action based on how it satisfies the individual needs of the
doer.

57. A person steals money from another person because he
needs that money to buy food for his hungry children. In
Kohlberg’s theory, the children tend to say that this action
is morally right because of the serious need of the doer.

58. The conventional level of moral reasoning is typical
of adolescents and adults. To reason in a conventional way
is to judge the morality of actions by comparing them to
society's views and expectations.

59. Good Boy-Nice Girl Orientation
A person judges an action based on the societal roles and
social expectations.

60. A child gives away her lunch to a street peasant because
she thinks doing so means being nice.

61. It is important to obey laws, dictums and social
conventions because of their importance in maintaining a
functioning society.

62. A policeman refuses the money offered to him under the
table and arrests the offender because he believes this is
his duty as an officer of peace and order.

63. The post-conventional level, also known as the principled
level, is marked by a growing realization that individuals
are separate entities from society, and that the individual’s
own perspective may take precedence over society’s view;
individuals may disobey rules inconsistent with their own
principles. Post-conventional moralists live by their own
ethical principles — principles that typically include such
basic human rights as life, liberty, and justice.

64. The world is viewed as holding different opinions, rights
and values. Such perspectives should be mutually respected
as unique to each person or community. Laws are regarded
as social contracts rather than rigid edicts.

65. Democratic government.
“The greatest good for the greatest number of people.”

66. Moral reasoning is based on abstract reasoning using universal
ethical principles
Laws are valid only insofar as they are grounded in justice, and a
commitment to justice carries with it an obligation to disobey unjust
laws.
In this way action is never a means but always an end in itself; the
individual acts because it is right, and not because it avoids
punishment, is in their best interest, expected, legal, or previously
agreed upon.

67. Kohlberg suggested that there may be a seventh stage —
Transcendental Morality, or Morality of Cosmic Orientation
— which linked religion with moral reasoning. Kohlberg's
difficulties in obtaining empirical evidence for even a sixth
stage, however, led him to emphasize the speculative
nature of his seventh stage.

68. Progress through Kohlberg's stages happens as a result of
the individual's increasing competence, both psychologically
and in balancing conflicting social-value claims. The
process of resolving conflicting claims to reach an
equilibrium is called "justice operation."

69. 1. "equality," which involves an impartial regard for persons, and
2. "reciprocity," which means a regard for the role of personal merit.
The most adequate result of both operations is "reversibility," in
which a moral or dutiful act within a particular situation is evaluated
in terms of whether or not the act would be satisfactory even if
particular persons were to switch roles within that situation.

70. Knowledge and learning contribute to moral development.
Specifically important are the individual's "view of persons"
and their "social perspective level", each of which becomes
more complex and mature with each advancing stage.

71. The "view of persons" can be understood as the individual's
grasp of the psychology of other persons; it may be pictured
as a spectrum, with stage one having no view of other
persons at all, and stage six being entirely socio-centric.

72. Similarly, the social perspective level involves the
understanding of the social universe, differing from the
view of persons in that it involves an appreciation of social
norms.

73.  Sarah Mae Sincero (Feb 23, 2012). Theory of Moral Development. Retrieved Jul
24, 2015 from Explorable.com: https://explorable.com/theory-of-moral-development
 http://www.csudh.edu/dearhabermas/kohlberg01bk.htm
 http://www.simplypsychology.org/kohlberg.html