T13 Vygotsky and Language

Psychological theory of classroom learning Lev Semionovitch Vygotsky occupies an interesting pedagogical position in UK education. He was born in Orcha in 1896, during the period of the Russian Empire, and died in Moscow in 1934. He was the originator of a theory of human development that not only drew on ideas of race and heredity but also insisted that human psychology develops as a result of being immersed in social and cultural processes. To survive in Soviet Russia in the Stalinist era meant managing expectations in ways that recognised and promoted state ideals. It is no surprise, and indeed possibly a strength for us a hundred years later, given the US-dominated twentieth century obsession with the cult of the individual, that Vygotsky's theoretical psychology emphasised social practices. His theoretical position is that development of cognitive functions in children, such as higher order reasoning, is possible only through practical activity in a social (read socialist?) environment. Teachers in schools will easily recognise that practical activities in social settings are what typify classrooms. They are social spaces where children learn, often in collaboration, through engagement with practical activity. That is certainly the theoretical basis of The Really Useful Maths Book