Lev Vygotsky was a Soviet psychologist known for his sociocultural theory of cognitive development, which emphasized how social interaction and culture impact cognitive development. He is renowned for concepts like the zone of proximal development, which refers to the difference between what a learner can do independently and what they can do with guidance and collaboration, and the more knowledgeable other, someone with more understanding to help the learner. Vygotsky founded the Vygotsky Circle to research cultural-historical psychology focused on how social learning precedes development.

2. November 17, 1896 - June 11, 1934
• Soviet Belarussian Psychologist
• Cultural-Historical Psychology
• Vygotsky Circle
•Socio-Cultural Perspective

3. Major themes:
Social Interaction :
• “Learning is a necessary and universal aspect of the process of developing
culturally organized, specifically human psychological function."
More Knowledgeable Other (MKO):
• The MKO refers to anyone who has a better understanding or a higher
ability level than the learner, with respect to a particular task, process, or
concept.

4. • Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD):
•
The ZPD is the distance between a student’s ability to perform a task
under adult guidance and/or with peer collaboration and the student’s
ability solving the problem independently.
• Features of ZPD:
• Level 1 – Subjectivity
• the process of two individuals begin a task with different understanding
and eventually arrive at a shared understanding
• Level 2 – Scaffolding
• the process of guiding the learner from what is presently known to what
is to be known.