Vygotsky

Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (November 17 1896 – June 11, 1934) was a Soviet psychologist, known for his work on psychological development in children. He published on a diverse range of subjects, and from multiple views as his perspective changed over the years. Among his students was Alexander Luria. He is known for three main ideas: 1. Scaffolding. Teachers must build an educational scaffold to help students learn. If the scaffold is up too long, students will not learn. If the scaffold comes down too early, students will struggle. 2. Self-Talk. This idea says that students can “talk themselves through” a problem or a situation. Teachers must help students self-talk in order to train students to teach themselves. Teachers can ask: “What do you think?” “How might you solve this?” his concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD): the distance between what a student (apprentice, new employee, etc.) can do on their own, and what they can accomplish with the support of someone more knowledgeable about the activity. Vygotsky saw the ZPD as a measure of skills that are in the process of maturing, as supplement to measures of development that only look at a learner's independent ability. From Wikipedia (Full Wikipedia article)