L. S. Vygotsky (1896–1934)

While a bit dated, Vygotsky's work is still heavily cited by current pedagogical theorists like Marcia Baxter-Magolda and her collaborators. It was through reading Baxter-Magolda's work that I was first led to Vygotsky, and having seen his name just about everywhere I've since dug into the study of teaching and learning, I thought it high time I got back to the source.

This translation is a readable, and as indicated in the book's preface, it's more than a translation, but also a show more rearrangement: as Vygotksy's organization suffered during his tubercular convalescence, the original Russian manuscript of his work was often redundant and difficult to read. Hanfmann and Vakar have eliminated much of the redundancy and have streamlined Vygotsky's arguments, making the resulting test more readable.

Seeking to better understand the organic and functional relationships between language and thought, Vygotsky begins by critiquing theories of language and thought development that were in vogue at the time of writing (early 1930s). Specifically, he points to Jean Piaget and to William Stern, indicating difficulties in their theories. Piaget's development from egocentric thought and speech to society-driven thought and speech is criticized for assuming the existence of bonds between speech and thought that do not necessarily exist. His chief problem with Stern's theory of language development has to do with its insistence on "intentionality" as a root cause of vocalization, and rather than an aspect of it. (It should be noted to Piaget's later work, though suffering from a number of weaknesses that would be pointed out by others [for instance, Carol Gilligan], would later respond to some of Vygotsky's criticisms.)

Vygotsky then moves to better understand the genetic roots of thought and speech in his fourth chapter, indicating how data support no clear-cut linear relationships between the development of thought and speech. This chapter is devoted to a deeper analysis of what he calls the "pre-intellectual elements of speech" and the "prelinguistic elements of thought."

This is as far as I've read to date.

So far the text is dense but accessible, and I'm finding many of the philosophical discussions fascinating. I'm particularly interested to continue reading the next chapters, which promise to discuss "concept formation" in children, and the roots of scientific learning. Ultimately my hope is to better understand the way that social forces (and in particular society-driven communication through speech and writing) purport to serve the development of scientific (and therefore mathematical) thinking. show less

Contenuti di interesse per chi predilige l'impostazione cognitivista, non troppo stimolante per gli altri, forse un po' datato. Lo stile dell'autore è poco scorrevole e contribuisce ad appesantire la lettura. Resta tra le opere consigliate nei corsi di Psicologia e una buona fonte di informazioni.

XXXVI, 324 pp., 1 ill. (front). 23x15 cm. Original publisher's cloth. Frontispiece portrait of the author. Bumped and slightly rubbed, some soiling of the covers, minor tear of the title page, otherwise very good and clean internally. One of 10,000 copies. Rare. Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) was an outstanding Soviet psychologist, neurolinguist, and ingenious experimenter. This monograph was the final result of his lifetime work - he died before the book was published. The work was widely show more considered an important step in understanding the psychology of speech. In this book, Vygotsky described the experiments he conducted with children's social behavior, arguing that a lot of social functions have a genetic rather than adscititious nature. This later gave roots to social constructivism. The book was first published in English in the USA in 1962. In the 1970s, Vygotsky's theories were adopted by American psychologists when creating new paradigms in developmental and educational psychology. Worldcat shows copies in Princeton University and NYPL. show less

Met een nawoord van M. G. Jaroshevskij.
Opstellen over verschillende aspecten van tekengebruik, in relatie tot werktuigen, woord. Gebruik van wertuigen bij dieren.
Opstel over emoties; opstel over creativiteit bij acteurs.