Cooperative learning theory vygotsky

November 5] — June 11, was a Russian and Soviet psychologist, best known for his work on psychological development in children and creating the framework known as cultural-historical activity theory.

Strengths and weaknesses of vygotsky's theory

After his early death, his books and research were banned in the Soviet Union until Joseph Stalin 's death in , with a first collection of major texts published in Lev Simkhovich Vygodsky his patronymic was later changed to Semyonovich and his surname to Vygotsky for unclear reasons [ 2 ] [ 3 ] was born on November 17, , [ 4 ] in the town of Orsha in Mogilev Governorate of the Russian Empire now Belarus into a non-religious middle-class family of Russian Jewish extraction.

Vygotsky was raised in the city of Gomel , [ 8 ] where he was home-schooled until and then obtained a formal degree with distinction in a private Jewish gymnasium, which allowed him entrance to a university. In , Vygotsky was admitted to the Moscow University by mere ballot through a " Jewish Lottery ": at the time a three percent Jewish student quota was administered for entry in Moscow and Saint Petersburg universities.

He had an interest in the humanities and social sciences, but at the insistence of his parents he applied to the medical school at Moscow University. During the first semester of study, he transferred to the law school. After the Congress, Vygotsky met with Alexander Luria and with his help received an invitation to become a research fellow at the Psychological Institute in Moscow which was under the direction of Konstantin Kornilov.

Vygotsky moved to Moscow with his new wife, Roza Smekhova, with whom he would have two children.

Vygotsky theory of play

By the end of , Vygotsky completed his dissertation titled "The Psychology of Art", which was not published until the s, and a book titled "Pedagogical Psychology", which apparently drew on lecture notes he prepared in Gomel while he was a psychology instructor at local educational establishments. In the summer of he made his first and only trip abroad to a London congress on the education of the deaf.

After his release from the hospital, Vygotsky did theoretical and methodological work on the crisis in psychology, but never finished the draft of the manuscript and interrupted his work on it around mid The manuscript was published later with notable editorial interventions and distortions in and was presented by the editors as one of the most important of Vygotsky's works.

However, he also harshly criticized those of his colleagues who attempted to build a " Marxist Psychology" as an alternative to the naturalist and philosophical schools. He argued that if one wanted to build a truly Marxist Psychology, there were no shortcuts to be found by merely looking for applicable quotes in the writings of Marx. Rather one should look for a methodology that was in accordance with the Marxian spirit.