Lev Semenovich Vygotsky psychology. L

VYGOTSKY(real name Vygodsky) Lev Semenovich (Simkhovich) (11/5/1896, Orsha, Mogilev province - 6/11/1934, Moscow) - an outstanding psychologist, founder of the cultural-historical school in psychology; Professor; member of the Russian Psychoanalytic Society (1925–30).

The only one permanent place Vygotsky's work over the past 10 years (1924-1934) was Moscow State Pedagogical University (then the Second Moscow State University and Moscow State Pedagogical Institute named after A.S. Bubnov), in which the scientist continuously worked in various positions, and headed the department of difficult childhood at Moscow State Pedagogical Institute.

In 1917 he graduated from the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University and at the same time from the Faculty of History and Philosophy of the Moscow City People's University. A.L. Shanyavsky. After the revolution of 1917 in Gomel, he taught literature at school. Worked at the Moscow State Institute of Experimental Psychology (1924–28); at Leningrad State Pedagogical Institute named after. A.I. Herzen; V State Institute scientific pedagogy at Leningrad State Pedagogical Institute named after. A.I. Herzen (1927–34); at the 2nd Moscow State University (1924–30); at the Academy of Communist Education named after. N.K. Krupskaya (1929–31); at Moscow State Pedagogical Institute. A.S. Bubnova (1930–34); at the Experimental Defectology Institute of the People's Commissariat for Education (EDI), founded by Vygotsky himself (1929–34). He also gave lecture courses at universities in Tashkent and Kharkov. Fascinated by literary criticism, Vygotsky wrote reviews of books by symbolist writers: A. Bely, V. Ivanov, D. Merezhkovsky (1914–17), as well as the treatise “The Tragedy of the Danish Hamlet by W. Shakespeare” (1915–16). In 1917 he began studying research work and organized a psychological office at the Pedagogical College in Gomel. At the II All-Russian Congress on Psychoneurology in Leningrad (1924) he made an innovative report “Methodology of reflexological and psychological research.” Sent to London for a defectology conference (1925), visited Berlin, Amsterdam and Paris. In 1925, his doctorate was accepted for defense. diss. "Psychology of Art". Published a textbook on psychology for secondary school teachers " Pedagogical psychology"(1926). Member of the International Psychological Congress at Yale University (1929). At the VI International Conference on Psychotechnics in Barcelona, ​​Vygotsky’s report on the study of higher psychological functions in Psychotechnical Research (1930). Enrolled in Faculty of Medicine to the Ukrainian Psychoneurological Academy in Kharkov (1931). Together with A.R. Luria organized a scientific expedition to Central Asia(1931–32), during which one of the first cross-cultural studies of cognitive processes was conducted. In 1924, the Moscow stage of Vygotsky’s activity began. The most important area of ​​research in the early years (1924–27) was the analysis of the situation in world psychology. Scientists wrote prefaces to Russian translations. works by the leaders of psychoanalysis, behaviorism, and gestaltism, which determined the significance of each direction for the development of a new picture of mental regulation. Until 1928, Vygotsky's psychology was humanistic reactology - a type of learning theory that attempted to recognize the social nature of human thinking and activity. In search of methods for objectively studying complex forms of mental activity and personal behavior, Vygotsky created the fundamental work “The Historical Meaning of the Psychological Crisis” (1926–27). He tried to give human psychology the status of a science based on the laws of cause-and-effect relationships. The second period of creativity (1927–31) was instrumental psychology. Vygotsky wrote the book “The History of the Development of Higher Mental Functions” (1930–31, published in 1960), in which he outlined a cultural-historical theory of the development of the psyche, which identified two levels of behavior merged in evolution: “natural” (a product of the biological development of the animal world) and “ cultural" (the result of historical development). He formulated the concept of a sign as an instrument, when operated by an individual from his primary natural mental processes (memory, attention, associated thinking) a special system of functions of the second sociocultural order, inherent only to humans, arises. Vygotsky called them higher mental functions. The new research program was central in the last years of the scientist’s life (1931–34). The monograph “Thinking and Speech” (1934), devoted to the study of the relationship between thought and word in the structure of consciousness, became fundamental for Russian psycholinguistics. Vygotsky revealed the role of speech in the transformation of a child’s thinking, in the formation of concepts and in solving problems. The focus of Vygotsky’s quest was the triad “consciousness–culture–behavior.” Studying the development and decay of higher mental functions using the material of child psychology, defectology and psychiatry, I came to the conclusion that the structure of consciousness is a dynamic semantic system of affective volitional and intellectual processes that are in unity. Great value in creative heritage Vygotsky was interested in the idea of ​​the relationship between learning and the mental development of a child. The main source of this development is the changing social environment, to describe which Vygotsky introduced the term “social situation of development.” A serious contribution to educational psychology was the concept he created about the “zone of proximal development,” according to which only that learning is effective that “runs ahead” of development. Many of Vygotsky’s works are devoted to the study of mental development and patterns of personality formation in childhood, and the problems of teaching children at school. Vygotsky played an outstanding role in the development of defectology and pedology. Created in Moscow a laboratory for the psychology of abnormal childhood, which later became integral part EDI. One of the first among domestic psychologists not only theoretically substantiated, but also confirmed in practice that any deficiency in both psychological and physical development amenable to correction. Vygotsky proposed a new periodization life cycle human, which is based on the alternation of stable periods of development and crises, accompanied by the appearance of certain neoplasms. He was the first in psychology to approach the consideration of the psychological crisis as a necessary stage in the development of the human psyche, revealing its positive meaning. IN last period creative work, the leitmotif of the scientist’s quest, linking into a common knot the various branches of his work (the history of the doctrine of affects, the study of the age-related dynamics of consciousness, the semantic subtext of a word), became the problem of the relationship between motivation and cognitive processes. Vygotsky’s ideas, which revealed the mechanisms and laws of cultural development of the individual, the development of his mental functions (attention, speech, thinking, affects), outlined a fundamentally new approach to the fundamental issues of personality formation. Vygotsky provided big influence on the development of domestic and world psychology, psychopathology, pathopsychology, neuropsychology, psychiatry, sociology, defectology, pedology, pedagogy, linguistics, art history, ethnography. The emergence of social constructivism is associated with the name of Vygotsky. The scientist’s ideas determined an entire stage in the development of humanities in Russia and still retain their heuristic potential. In the 1980s, all of Vygotsky's major works were translated and formed the basis of modern educational psychology in the United States.

Disciples and followers: L.I. Bozhovich, P.Ya. Galperin, L.V. Zankov, A.V. Zaporozhets, P.I. Zinchenko, R.E. Levina, A.N. Leontyev, A.R. Luria, N.G. Morozova, L.S. Slavina, D.B. Elkonin. A number of foreign researchers and practitioners (J. Bruner, J. Valsiner, J. Wertsch, M. Cole, B. Rogoff, R. Hare, J. Shotter) consider Vygotsky their teacher.

Op..: Pedagogical psychology // Education worker. M., 1926; Pedology of a teenager. M., 1930; Thinking and speech. M.; L., 1934; Mental development of children in the learning process: collection of articles. M., 1935; Development of higher mental functions. M., 1960; Psychology of art. M., 1965; Structural psychology. M., 1972; Collected works: in 6 volumes / chapter. ed. A.V. Zaporozhets. M., 1982–84; Problems of defectology. M., 1995.

“Works of L. S. Vygotsky: on the 120th anniversary of his birth.”

Vygotsky Lev Semenovich (original name - Lev Simkhovich Vygodsky (1896-1934) - an outstanding scientist, thinker, famous in world psychology, an outstanding Soviet psychologist, teacher, neurolinguist, inventive experimenter, thoughtful theorist, literature expert, professor at the Institute of Experimental Psychology in Moscow , one of the founders of the Soviet school of psychology, a classic of world psychological science, the creator of the cultural-historical theory of mental development in the process of an individual’s assimilation of the values ​​of human culture and civilization, the theoretical and empirical potential of which has not yet been exhausted, which can be said about almost all other aspects of Lev Semenovich’s work He distinguished between “natural” (given by nature) mental functions and “cultural” functions (acquired as a result of internalization, i.e. the process of mastering by the individual cultural values). Investigated the role of tools and signs as necessary components of cultural behavior. He studied the relationship between thinking and speech, the development of meanings in ontogenesis, and egocentric speech. Introduced the concept of zone of proximal development.

He had a huge influence on the development of domestic and world psychology. L. S. Vygotsky worked in many areas of psychology. He studied the history of psychology and made a major contribution to the solution of its methodological and theoretical problems - he was one of those who placed Soviet psychology on the foundation of Marxist philosophy. He studied consciousness and individual mental processes: memory, attention, emotions; conducted fundamental research on thinking and speech; developed a number of problems of child development - normal and abnormal, laying, in particular, the foundations of Soviet defectology. He made a great contribution to uncovering the question of the influence of the collective and society on the individual. Finally, he made significant contributions to the psychology of art.

Lev Simkhovich Vygodsky (in 1917 and 1924 he changed his patronymic and surname) was born on November 17 (November 5, old style) 1896 in the Belarusian town of Orsha, the second of eight children in the family of a wealthy deputy manager of the Gomel branch of the United Bank, a graduate of the Kharkov Commercial Institute, a merchant Simkha (Semyon) Yakovlevich Vygodsky and his wife Tsilya (Cecilia) Moiseevna Vygodsky. A year later, in 1897, the family moved to Gomel (Belarus), which L.S. Vygotsky always considered his hometown. Young Lev Vygotsky studied mainly at home. His education was carried out by a private teacher Sholom (Solomon) Mordukhovich Ashpiz (Aspiz), known for using the so-called method of Socratic dialogue and participating in revolutionary activities as part of the Gomel Social Democratic organization. He studied only the last two classes at the private Jewish male gymnasium A.E. Ratner.

He showed extraordinary abilities in all subjects. At the gymnasium he studied German, French, Latin languages, at home, in addition, English, Ancient Greek and Hebrew. A significant influence on the future psychologist in his childhood was also exerted by his cousin, later a famous literary critic and translator, one of the prominent representatives of “Russian formalism” David Isaakovich Vygodsky (1893-1943). It is interesting that L.S. Vygotsky changed one letter in his last name to distinguish himself from his already famous relative D.I. Vygodsky. Lev Semenovich was interested in literature and philosophy. His favorite philosopher was and remained until the end of his life Benedict Spinoza.

After graduating from high school, he entered the Faculty of Law of Moscow University (participated in G.G. Shpet’s seminar) and at the same time, the Faculty of History and Philosophy of the A.L. Shanyavsky People’s University (Moscow) (attended courses by P.P. Blonsky, who played an important role in his spiritual development), where he studied during the First World War (1914-1917). With enthusiasm, studying either medicine or law, L.S. Vygotsky literally “swallowed” books, read W. James and Z. Freud, Russian and European literature. At the same time, he became interested in literary criticism, and his reviews of books by symbolist writers - rulers of the souls of the then intelligentsia: A. Bely, V. Ivanov, D. Merezhkovsky appeared in several magazines. During these student years, he wrote his first work - the treatise “The Tragedy of the Danish Hamlet by W. Shakespeare” (1915), which contains existential motifs about the eternal “sorrow of existence.”

After finishing his studies in Moscow, L.S. Vygotsky returned to Gomel. From 1918 to 1924 he taught at several institutes, playing an important role in literary and cultural life of this city. He organized a psychological laboratory at the Gomel Pedagogical School and began work on the manuscript of a textbook on psychology for secondary school teachers (“Pedagogical Psychology. Short course", 1926). He was an uncompromising supporter of natural science psychology, focused on the teachings of I.M. Sechenov and I.P. Pavlov, which he considered the foundation for building new system ideas about the determination of human behavior, including the perception of works of art.

In 1924, he moved to Moscow, where he lived the last and most scientifically productive decade of his life. He worked at the Moscow State Institute of Experimental Psychology (1924-1928), at the State Institute of Scientific Pedagogy at the Leningrad State Pedagogical Institute (LGPI) and at the Leningrad State Pedagogical Institute named after. A.I. Herzen (both in 1927-1934), Academy of Communist Education (1929-1931), 2nd Moscow state university(MSU) (1927-1930), and after the reorganization of the 2nd MSU - at the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute. A.S. Bubnov (1930-1934), as well as at the Experimental Defectology Institute (1929-1934), in which he took an active part in the founding; also gave courses of lectures in a number of educational institutions and research organizations in the cities of Moscow, Leningrad, Tashkent and Kharkov.

Moving to Moscow gave Lev Semenovich the opportunity to collaborate with A.R. Luria, who was then engaged in psychoanalysis, and other eminent scientists. L.S. Vygotsky became involved in a number of studies, including becoming interested in “defectology”; thanks to this interest, he was able to travel abroad for the first and only time in 1925: he was sent to London for a defectology conference; On the way to England, he stopped in Germany and France, where he met with local psychologists. Thus, in 1924, the ten-year Moscow stage of L.S.’s creativity began. Vygotsky.

The most important area of ​​research in L.?S. Vygotsky in the first years of the Moscow period began to analyze the situation in world psychology. He writes a preface to Russian translations of the works of the leaders of psychoanalysis, behaviorism, and gestaltism, trying to determine the significance of each of the directions for the development of a new picture of mental regulation.

He was also interested in psychoanalytic ideas. In 1925, together with A.R. Luria L.S. Vygotsky published a preface to S. Freud’s book “Beyond the Pleasure Principle,” in which it was noted that S. Freud belongs “to one of the most fearless minds of our century,” whose “Columbus merit” is the discovery of phenomena of mental life that lie “beyond side of the pleasure principle" and such an interpretation of them that contains the germs of materialism. In the same year, the defense of the dissertation “Psychology of Art” took place - November 5, 1925 L.S. Due to illness, Vygotsky was given the title of senior researcher, equivalent to the modern degree of candidate of sciences, without protection. Agreement for the publication of the book “Psychology of Art”, in which, paying tribute to the “tremendous theoretical values” and “ positive aspects psychoanalysis", criticized his pansexualism and underestimation of the role of consciousness and - in this context - the work of the Russian psychoanalyst I.D. Ermakov, was signed on November 9, 1925, but the book was never published during Lev Semenovich's lifetime.

The second period of creativity of L. S. Vygotsky (1927-1931) in his Moscow decade was instrumental psychology. He introduces the concept of a sign, which acts as a special psychological tool, the use of which, without changing anything in the substance of nature, serves as a powerful means of transforming the psyche from natural (biological) to cultural (historical). Thus, the dyadic “stimulus-response” scheme accepted by both subjective and objective psychology was rejected. It was replaced by a triadic one - “stimulus-stimulus-reaction”, where a special stimulus - a sign - acts as an intermediary between an external object (stimulus) and the response of the body (mental reaction). This sign is a kind of instrument, when operated by an individual, from his primary natural mental processes (memory, attention, associated thinking) a special system of functions of the second sociocultural order, inherent only to man, arises. L.S. Vygotsky called them higher mental functions.

The most significant achievements of Lev Semenovich and his group during this period were compiled into a lengthy manuscript, “The History of the Development of Higher Mental Functions.”

In the last period of his creative work, the leitmotif of Lev Semenovich’s quest, linking into a common knot the various branches of his work (the history of the doctrine of affects, the study of the age-related dynamics of consciousness, the semantic subtext of a word), became the problem of the relationship between motivation and cognitive processes.

Ideas L.S. Vygotsky’s ideas received wide resonance in all sciences that study humans, including linguistics, psychiatry, ethnography, and sociology. They defined a whole stage in the development of humanitarian knowledge in Russia and the CIS countries and to this day retain their heuristic potential.

Unfortunately, the long-term and quite fruitful work of L.S. Vygotsky, his many scientific works and developments, as often happens with talented people, especially in our country, were not appreciated. During Lev Semenovich's lifetime, his works were not allowed for publication in the USSR. From the beginning of the 1930s, real persecution began against him; the authorities accused him of ideological perversions.

June 11, 1934 after long illness, at the age of 37 Lev Semenovich Vygotsky died. Undoubtedly, L.S. Vygotsky had a significant influence on domestic and world psychology, as well as on related sciences - pedagogy, defectology, linguistics, art history, philosophy, psychiatry. Lev Semenovich's closest friend and student A.R. Luria rightly called him a genius and a great humanist of the 20th century.

Vygotsky Lev Semyonovich (1896-1934), Russian psychologist.

Born on November 17, 1896 in Orsha. The second son in a large family (eight brothers and sisters). His father, a bank employee, a year after Lev’s birth, moved his relatives to Gomel, where he founded public library. The Vygodsky family (the original spelling of the surname) produced famous philologists, the psychologist’s cousin, David Vygodsky, was one of the prominent representatives of “Russian formalism.”

In 1914, Lev entered the Faculty of Medicine at Moscow University, from which he later transferred to law; At the same time, he studied at the Faculty of History and Philology of the People's University named after A. L. Shanyavsky. During his student years, he published reviews of books by symbolist writers - A. Bely, V. I. Ivanov, D. S. Merezhkovsky. Then I wrote my first great job“The Tragedy of Danish Hamlet by W. Shakespeare” (it was published only 50 years later in Vygotsky’s collection of articles “Psychology of Art”).

In 1917 he returned to Gomel; took an active part in the creation of a new type of school, began conducting research in the psychological office he organized at the pedagogical college. Became a delegate to the II All-Russian Congress on Psychoneurology in Petrograd (1924). where he spoke about the reflexological techniques he used to study the mechanisms of consciousness. After speaking at the congress, Vygotsky, at the insistence of the famous psychologist A.R. Luria, was invited to work by the director of the Moscow Institute of Experimental Psychology, N.K. Kornilov. Two years later, under the leadership of Vygotsky, an experimental defectology institute was created (now the Institute of Correctional Pedagogy of the Russian Academy of Education) and thus laid the foundations of defectology in the USSR.

In 1926, Vygotsky’s “Pedagogical Psychology” was published, defending the individuality of the child.

Since 1927, the scientist published articles analyzing trends in world psychology, and at the same time developed a new psychological concept, called cultural-historical. In it, human behavior regulated by consciousness is correlated with forms of culture, in particular with language and art. This comparison is made on the basis of the concept developed by the author about a sign (symbol) as a special psychological tool that serves as a means of transforming the psyche from natural (biological) to cultural (historical). The work “History of the Development of Higher Mental Functions” (1930-1931) was published only in 1960.

Vygotsky’s last monograph, “Thinking and Speech” (1936), is devoted to problems of the structure of consciousness. In the early 30s. Attacks against Vygotsky became more frequent; he was accused of retreating from Marxism. Persecution, along with incessant exhaustion work, exhausted the scientist’s strength. He did not survive another exacerbation of tuberculosis and died on the night of June 11, 1934.

Vygotsky Lev Semyonovich.

Ideas of pedagogy and education

Lev Semenovich Vygotsky is a famous Russian psychologist of the early 20th century who connected psychology with pedagogy. His innovative ideas and concepts in pedagogy and psychology were far ahead of their time.

Studying the development of children, the scientist created or developed several areas in psychological pedagogy: pedology and correctional pedagogy. Based on his ideas, a new democratic school was created.

He is not the author of the methods, but his theoretical developments and observations formed the basis for the practical systems of famous teachers (for example, Elkonin). The research begun by Vygotsky was continued by his students and followers, giving them practical use. His ideas seem especially relevant now.

Main directions of Vygotsky's research

L.S. Vygotsky was, first and foremost, a psychologist. He chose the following areas of research:

• comparison of adults and children;
• comparison modern man and ancient;
• comparison of normal personality development with pathological behavioral deviations.

The scientist drew up a program that determined his path in psychology: to look for an explanation of internal mental processes outside the body, in its interaction with the environment. The scientist believed that understanding these mental processes is possible only in development. And the most intensive development of the psyche occurs in children.

This is how Lev Semenovich Vygotsky came to an in-depth study of child psychology. He studied the patterns of development of normal and abnormal children. In the process of research, the scientist came to study not only the process of child development, but also his upbringing. And since pedagogy is the study of education, he began research in this direction.

Lev Semenovich believed that any teacher should base his work on psychological science. This is how he connected psychology with pedagogy. And a little later, a separate science in social pedagogy emerged - psychological pedagogy.

While studying pedagogy, the scientist became interested in new science pedology (knowledge about the child from the point of view of various sciences) and became the main pedologist of the country.

He put forward ideas that revealed the laws of cultural development of the individual, his mental functions (speech, attention, thinking), explained the internal mental processes of the child, his relationship with the environment.

His ideas on defectology laid the foundation for correctional pedagogy, which began to practically help special children.

L.S. Vygotsky did not develop methods for raising and developing children, but his concepts proper organization training and education have become the basis of many developmental programs and systems. The scientist’s research, ideas, hypotheses and concepts were far ahead of their time.

Principles of raising children according to Vygotsky.

The scientist believed that education does not consist in adapting the child to environment, but in the formation of a personality that goes beyond this environment, as if looking forward. At the same time, the child does not need to be educated from the outside, he must educate himself.

This is possible with proper organization of the education process. Only the personal activity of a child can become the basis of education.

The teacher should only be an observer, correctly guide and regulate the child’s independent activity at the right moments.

Thus, education becomes an active process from three sides:

• the child is active (he performs an independent action);
• the teacher is active (he observes and helps);
• The environment between the child and the teacher is active.

Education is closely related to learning. Both processes are collective activities.

Development and education of special children.

Lev Semenovich Vygotsky developed a new theory of abnormal child development, on which defectology is now based and all practical correctional pedagogy is built. The purpose of this theory: the socialization of special children with a defect, and not the study of the defect itself. It was a revolution in defectology.

He connected special correctional pedagogy with pedagogy normal child. The scientist believed that the personality of a special child is formed in the same way as that of ordinary children. It is enough to socially rehabilitate an abnormal child, and his development will follow the normal course.

His social pedagogy was supposed to help the child remove the negative social layers caused by the defect. The defect itself is not the cause of the child’s abnormal development, it is only a consequence of improper socialization.

The starting point in the rehabilitation of special children should be an unaffected state of the body. “We should work with the child based on what is healthy, positive,” - L.S. Vygotsky.

Great humanist, L.S. Vygotsky, highest manifestation I saw humanism not in the fact that the educator or teacher showed leniency and concessions, focusing their work on the defect, but, on the contrary, in the fact that they created, within reasonable limits, difficulties for deaf children in the process of their upbringing and education, taught them to overcome these difficulties, and thereby developing the personality, its healthy forces. Speaking about special education, he emphasized: “Toughening and courageous ideas are needed here. Our ideal is not to cover the sore spot with cotton wool and protect it by all means from bruises, but to open the widest possible path for overcoming the defect, its overcompensation. To do this, we need to understand the social orientation of these processes.”

Along with the general patterns of L.S. Vygotsky also noted the uniqueness of the development of an anomalous child, which lies in the divergence of the biological and cultural processes of development. The merit of the scientist is that he pointed out the fact that the development of a normal and abnormal child is subject to the same laws and goes through the same stages, but the stages are extended over time and the presence of a defect gives specificity to each variant of abnormal development. In addition to impaired functions, there are always intact functions. Corrective work should be based on intact functions, bypassing the affected functions. L.S. Vygotsky formulates the principle correctional work as a workaround principle.

The idea of ​​the zone of proximal development has become very effective in restoring the normal development of special children.

Theory of the zone of proximal development.

The zone of proximal development is the “distance” between the level of actual and possible development of the child.

• Level of current development- this is the development of the child’s psyche in this moment(which tasks can be completed independently).
• Zone of proximal development– this is the future development of the individual (actions that are performed with the help of an adult).

This is based on the assumption that a child, while learning some elementary action, simultaneously masters general principle this action. Firstly, this action itself has more wide application than its element. Secondly, having mastered the principle of action, you can apply it to perform another element.

This will be an easier process. There is development in the learning process.

But learning is not the same as development: learning does not always push development; on the contrary, it can become a brake if we rely only on what the child can do and do not take into account the level of his possible development.

Learning will become developmental if we focus on what the child can learn from previous experience.

The size of the zone of proximal development is different for each child.

It depends:

• on the needs of the child;
• from its capabilities;
• on the willingness of parents and teachers to assist in the development of the child.

Psychological foundations of preschool pedagogy.

Fundamental to understanding the driving causes and conditions for the formation of the human personality L.S. Vygotsky emphasized the cultural-historical factor. His works prove that the social situation of upbringing shapes or delays the process of realizing the child’s potential.

In the cultural-historical concept of L.S. Vygotsky formulated a number of laws of child mental development:

1. The law of the formation of higher mental functions - higher mental functions arise first as a form of collective behavior, as a form of cooperation with other people, and only later do they become internal individual (forms) of functions of the child himself.

2. Law of unevenness child development, according to which each side in the child’s psyche has its own optimal period of development. This period is a sensitive period.

3. The law of metamorphosis defines development as a consistent change in qualitative states of consciousness (structure of consciousness).

4. The law of heterochronic development states that mental development does not coincide with chronological age, i.e. has its own rhythm, which differs from the rhythm of biological maturation.

5. The law of the environment determines the role of the social environment as a source of development.

6. The law of the leading role of training for development.

7. The law of the systemic and semantic structure of consciousness.

L.S. Vygotsky formulated the general laws of mental development. he argued that normal and abnormal children develop according to the same laws.

One of the main figures in the scientific work of L.S. Vygotsky's idea was development. “The focus of Vygotsky’s attention,” writes D.B. Elkonin, “was to clarify the basic patterns of the child’s mental development.”

The problem of psychological foundations preschool education is still relevant today. It is solved in the reconstructed theory of L.S. Vygotsky like this:

• If you understand preschool education How education for children " preschool age» (4-7 years), then it is in the stable stage ZPD associated with this “age”.
• If we callpreschool educationeducation of children from 3 to 6-7 years old, then it is then in two stage ZPD associated with the “crisis of 3 years” and “preschool age”.

The leading type of activity in the “crisis of 3 years” isexecutive play activity; in “preschool age” -holistic play activitywhich includes, exceptexecutive gaming activity, its regulation through a game item . Moreover, by the end of “age” this activity changes, turning into mental. This is how internal self-regulation arises -the most important factor in psychological readiness for school.

L.S. Vygotsky emphasized the enormous importance of play for a child’s development. He talks about play as a child's zone of proximal development. “Game is a source of development and creates a zone of proximal development... Essentially through play activity and the child moves. Only in this sense can play be called a leading activity, i.e. determining the development of the child,” “in play, the child is always above his average age, above his usual everyday behavior; In the game he seems to be head and shoulders above himself. The game in a condensed form collects in itself, as if in the focus of a magnifying glass, all development trends; The child in the game seems to be trying to make a leap above the level of his usual behavior.”

The influence of communication on the upbringing of a child.

The child develops quickly and masters the world if communicating with an adult. At the same time, the adult himself should be interested in communication. It is very important to encourage your child's verbal communication.

Speech is a sign system that arose in the process of socio-historical development of man. It is able to transform children's thinking, helps solve problems and form concepts. At an early age, a child’s speech uses words with a purely emotional meaning.

As children grow and develop, words of specific meaning appear in their speech. In senior adolescence The child begins to designate abstract concepts in words. Thus, speech (word) changes the mental functions of children.

The mental development of a child is initially controlled by communication with an adult (through speech). This process then goes into internal structures psyche, inner speech appears.

Merits of L.S. Vygotsky in pedology.

At the beginning of the 20th century, educational psychology appeared, which was based on the fact that learning and upbringing depend on the psyche of a particular child.

The new science did not solve many problems of pedagogy. An alternative was pedology - a comprehensive science about the full age development of a child. The center of study in it is the child from the point of view of biology, psychology, sociology, anthropology, pediatrics, and pedagogy. The hottest problem in pedology was the socialization of the child.

Lev Semenovich Vygotsky was the first to postulate that the social and individual development of a child are not opposed to each other. It's just two different shapes the same mental function.

He believed that the social environment is the source of personal development. The child absorbs (makes internal) those activities that came to him from the outside (were external). These types of activities were initially enshrined in social forms culture. The child adopts them by seeing how other people perform these actions.

Those. external social and objective activity passes into the internal structures of the psyche (interiorization), and through general social-symbolic activity (including through speech) of adults and children the basis of the child’s psyche is formed.

L.S. Vygotsky formulated the basic law of cultural development:

• In the development of a child, any function appears twice - first in social aspect, and then in the psychological (i.e., at first it is external, and then becomes internal).

Vygotsky believed that this law determines the development of attention, memory, thinking, speech, emotions, and will.

Distribution and popularity of the ideas of L.S. Vygotsky

Many ideas of L.S. Vygotsky’s ideas are now being popularized here and abroad..

Such famous defectologists as E.S. Bein, T.A. Vlasova, R.E. Levina, N.G. Morozova, Zh.I. Schiff, who were lucky enough to work with Lev Semenovich, evaluate his contribution to the development of theory and practice: “His works served as a scientific basis for the construction of special schools and theoretical basis principles and methods for studying the diagnosis of difficult children. Vygotsky left a legacy of enduring scientific significance, included in the treasury of Soviet and world psychology, defectology, psychoneurology and other related sciences." The research conducted by L.S. Vygotsky in all areas of defectology is still fundamental in the development of problems of development, training and education of abnormal children The outstanding Soviet psychologist A.R. Luria, in his scientific biography, paying tribute to his mentor and friend, wrote: “It would not be an exaggeration to call L.S. Vygotsky is a genius."

And at present, there are still many talented hypotheses and unrealized ideas of the scientist that are waiting in the wings.

Implementation of the ideas of L.S. Vygotsky.

Among the many psychological and pedagogical undertakings that declare commitment to the ideas of L.S. Vygotsky is the “Golden Key” program.

For the authors of this program, the implementation of the thoughts of L.S. Vygotsky on eventfulness human life, about children's capabilities, about age periods and transitions, about the importance of characterrelationships Children and adults have not only scientific, but also personal and family significance. One of the authors of the Program is the granddaughter of L.S. Vygotsky – Kravtsova Elena Evgenievna - Director of the L. Vygotsky Institute of Psychology, Doctor of Psychology, Professor of the Department of Design Psychology, author of numerous scientific publications and monographs.

Their program risks running counter not only to pedagogical, but also to many organizational canons of the usual structure of educational institutions.

Its distinctive features are: joint education of preschool children in different age groups and junior schoolchildren, teaching schoolchildren within the walls kindergarten, activeinvolvement families, the purposeful work of the program authors with teaching teams. Educational problems are considered in it through the tasks of restructuring the entire life together of children and adults, the task of changing the “social situation of development”.

“Golden Key” is unlikely to become one of the mass programs in the coming years. But the experience of both the successes and difficulties of wonderful scientists and teachers, to one degree or another, for one reason or another, can be important for every kindergarten.

Federal State Educational STANDARD.

“Pedagogy should focus not on yesterday, but on tomorrow’s child development,” these are the words of L.S. Vygotsky. His ideas for developmental education scientific school relevant today in the context of the implementation of the Federal State Educational Standard for Education.

System-activity approach – methodological basis Federal State Educational Standard.

The system-activity approach assumes:

• The presence in children of a cognitive motive (desire to know, discover, learn) and a specific educational goal (understanding of what exactly needs to be found out, mastered)
• Children perform certain actions to acquire missing knowledge.
• Identifying and mastering by children a method of action that allows them to consciously apply acquired knowledge.
• Develop the ability to control your actions.

According to the theory of L.S. Vygotsky, “the development of a child is mediated by his education and training and upbringing.”

An adult, relying on the zone of proximal development, runs a little ahead, outstripping the child’s development. It leads to child development, which brings to life a whole series of processes that would be generally impossible without education.

On this basis, the position on the leading role of training in development was substantiated, and the psychological and pedagogical conditions of developmental training were identified (L. V. Zankov, D. B. Elkonin, V. V. Davydov).

The pedagogical theory of developmental education assumes a fast pace of learning, continuous repetition of educational material in new conditions, instilling in children positive motivation for learning and cognition, and the humanization of relationships between teachers and children. The idea of ​​developmental education is implemented in our “Childhood” program.

The priority of activities at the preschool level is the development of imagination and creativity children through play, construction, reading fairy tales, independent writing, symbolic substitution, modeling, experimentation.

Conclusion.

After the death of Lev Semenovich, his works were forgotten and did not spread. However, since 1960, pedagogy and psychology have rediscovered

L.S. Vygotsky, revealing many positive aspects in him.

His idea of ​​the zone of proximal development helped in assessing learning potential and proved fruitful. Her outlook is optimistic. The concept of defectology has become very useful for correcting the development and education of special children.

Many schools have adopted the definitions age standards according to Vygotsky. With the advent of new sciences (valeology, correctional pedagogy, a new reading of previously perverted pedology), the scientist’s ideas became very relevant and fit into the concept of modern education.

1896-1934) - famous in world psychology of owls. psychologist. The greatest fame was brought to V. by the cultural and historical concept of the development of higher mental functions he created, the theoretical and empirical potential of which has not yet been exhausted (which can be said about almost all other aspects of V.’s creativity). IN early period creativity (until 1925) V. developed the problems of the psychology of art, believing that the objective structure of a work of art evokes in the subject at least two opposing affects, the contradiction between which is resolved in catharsis, which underlies aesthetic reactions. A little later, V. develops problems of methodology and theory of psychology (“The Historical Meaning of the Psychological Crisis”), outlines a program for constructing a concrete scientific methodology of psychology based on the philosophy of Marxism (see Causal-dynamic analysis). For 10 years, V. was engaged in defectology, creating in Moscow a laboratory for the psychology of abnormal childhood (1925-1926), which later became an integral part of the Experimental Defectological Institute (EDI), and developing a qualitatively new theory of the development of an abnormal child. In the last stage of his work, he took up problems of the relationship between thinking and speech, the development of meanings in ontogenesis, problems of egocentric speech, etc. (“Thinking and Speech”, 1934). In addition, he developed problems of the systemic and semantic structure of consciousness and self-awareness, the unity of affect and intellect, various problems of child psychology (see Zone of proximal development, Learning and development), problems of mental development in phylo- and sociogenesis, the problem of cerebral localization of higher mental functions and many etc.

He had a significant influence on domestic and world psychology and other sciences related to psychology (pedology, pedagogy, defectology, linguistics, art history, philosophy, semiotics, neuroscience, cognitive science, cultural anthropology, systems approach and etc.). V.’s first and closest students were A. R. Luria and A. N. Leontiev (“troika”), later they were joined by L. I. Bozhovich, A. V. Zaporozhets, R. E. Levina, N. G. Morozova, L.S. Slavina ("five"), who created their original psychological concepts. V.'s ideas are developed by his followers in many countries of the world. (E. E. Sokolova.)

Added ed.: Main works of V.: Collection. Op. in 6 vols. (1982-1984); "Educational Psychology" (1926); "Sketches on the History of Behavior" (1930; co-authored with Luria); "The Psychology of Art" (1965). The best biographical book about V.: G. L. Vygodskaya, T. M. Lifanova. "Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky" (1996). See also Instrumentalism, Intellectualization, Interiorization, Cultural-historical psychology, Double stimulation method, Functionalism, Experimental genetic method for studying mental development.

VYGOTSKY Lev Semenovich

Lev Semenovich (1896-1934) - Russian psychologist who made a great scientific contribution to the field of general and educational psychology, philosophy and theory of psychology, developmental psychology, psychology of art, and defectology. Author of the cultural-historical theory of behavior and development of the human psyche. Professor (1928). Having graduated from the Faculty of Law of the First State Moscow University and at the same time from the Faculty of History and Philology of the People's University A.L. Shanyavsky (1913-1917), taught from 1918 to 1924 at several institutes in Gomel (Belarus). He played an important role in the literary and cultural life of this city. Even in the pre-revolutionary period, V. wrote a treatise on Hamlet, which contains existential motifs about the eternal sorrow of existence. He organized a psychological laboratory at the Gomel Pedagogical School and began work on the manuscript of a textbook on psychology for secondary school teachers (Pedagogical Psychology. Short Course, 1926). He was an uncompromising supporter of natural science psychology, focused on the teachings of I.M. Sechenov and I.P. Pavlov, which he considered the foundation for building a new system of ideas about the determination of human behavior, including in the perception of works of art. In 1924, V. moved to Moscow and became an employee of the Institute of Psychology of Moscow State University, of which K.I. was appointed director. Kornilov and who was given the task of restructuring psychology on the basis of the philosophy of Marxism. In 1925, V. published the article Consciousness as a problem in the psychology of behavior (Collected Psychology and Marxism, L.-M., 1925) and wrote the book Psychology of Art, in which he summarizes his work of 1915-1922. (published in 1965 and 1968). He subsequently returned to the topic of art only in 1932 in a single article devoted to the actor’s work (and from the standpoint of a socio-historical understanding of the human psyche). From 1928 to 1932 V. worked at the Academy of Communist Education named after. N.K. Krupskaya, where he created a psychological laboratory at the faculty, the dean of which was A.R. Luria. During this period, V.'s interests concentrated around pedology, which he tried to give the status of a separate discipline and conducted research in this direction (Pedology of the Adolescent, 1929-1931). Together with B.E. Warsaw published the first domestic Psychological Dictionary(M., 1931). However, political pressure on Soviet psychology was increasing. The works of V. and other psychologists were subjected to sharp criticism in the press and at conferences from an ideological position, which made it very difficult to further develop research and introduce it into pedagogical practice. In 1930, the Ukrainian Psychoneurological Academy was founded in Kharkov, where A.N. Leontyev and A.R. Luria. V. often visited them, but did not leave Moscow, because During this period, he established relations with the Leningrad State University. In the last 2-3 years of his life, he began to formulate a theory of child development, creating the theory of the zone of proximal development. Over ten years of his journey in psychological science, V. created a new scientific direction, the basis of which is the doctrine of the socio-historical nature of human consciousness. At the beginning of his scientific career, he believed that new psychology is designed to integrate with reflexology into a single science. Later, V. condemns reflexology for dualism, since, ignoring consciousness, it took it beyond the limits of the bodily mechanism of behavior. In the article Consciousness as a problem of behavior (1925), he outlined a plan for the study of mental functions, based on their role as indispensable regulators of behavior, which in humans includes speech components. Based on K. Marx’s position on the difference between instinct and consciousness, V. proves that thanks to work, experience is doubled and a person acquires the ability to build twice: first in thoughts, then in deeds. Understanding the word as an action (first a speech complex, then a speech reaction), V. sees in the word a special sociocultural mediator between the individual and the world. He attaches special importance to its sign nature, due to which the structure of a person’s mental life changes qualitatively and his mental functions (perception, memory, attention, thinking) from elementary become higher. Interpreting the signs of language as mental tools, which, unlike tools of labor, change not the physical world, but the consciousness of the subject operating with them, V. proposed an experimental program for studying how, thanks to these structures, a system of higher mental functions develops. This program was successfully carried out by him together with the team of employees who formed School B. The center of interests of this school was the cultural development of the child. Along with normal children, V. paid great attention to abnormal ones (suffering from defects of vision, hearing, mental retardation), becoming the founder of a special science - defectology, in the development of which he defended humanistic ideals. The first version of their theoretical generalizations concerning the patterns of mental development in ontogenesis, V. outlined in the work Development of Higher Mental Functions, written by him in 1931. This work presented a scheme for the formation human psyche in the process of using signs as a means of regulating mental activity - first in the external interaction of the individual with other people, and then the transition of this process from the outside to the inside, as a result of which the subject gains the ability to control his own behavior (this process was called interiorization). In subsequent works by V. focuses on the study of the meaning of a sign, that is, on the associated (mainly intellectual) content. Thanks to this new approach, he, together with his students, developed an experimentally substantiated theory of child mental development, embodied in his main work Thinking and Speech (1934). He closely connected these studies with the problem of learning and its impact on mental development, covering a wide range of problems of great importance. practical significance. Among the ideas he put forward in this regard, the position on the zone of proximal development gained particular popularity, according to which only that learning is effective that runs ahead of development, as if pulling it along with it, revealing the child’s ability to solve, with the participation of the teacher, those tasks that he can independently solve. can't cope. Important In the development of a child, V. attached importance to the crises that a child experiences during the transition from one age level to another. Mental development was interpreted by V. as inseparably linked with motivational (in his terminology, affective), therefore, in his research, he affirmed the principle of the unity of affect and intelligence, but his early death prevented him from implementing a program of research analyzing this principle of development. Only the preparatory work has survived in the form of a large manuscript, The Doctrine of Emotions. Historical and psychological research, the main content of which is the analysis of the Passions of the Soul by R. Descartes - a work that, according to V., determines the ideological appearance modern psychology feelings with its dualism of lower and higher emotions. V. believed that the prospect of overcoming dualism was contained in the Ethics of V. Spinoza, but V. did not show how it would be possible to rebuild psychology based on Spinoza’s philosophy. V.'s works were distinguished by a high methodological culture. The presentation of specific experimental and theoretical problems was invariably accompanied by philosophical reflection. This was most clearly reflected both in works on thinking, speech, emotions, and in the analysis of the ways of development of psychology and the causes of its crisis at the beginning of the 20th century. V. believed that the crisis has a historical meaning. His manuscript, which was first published only in 1982, although the work was written in 1927, was called - The historical meaning of the psychological crisis. This meaning, as V. believed, was that the disintegration of psychology into separate directions, each of which presupposes its own, incompatible with the other, understanding of the subject and methods of psychology, is natural. Overcoming this tendency towards the disintegration of science into many separate sciences requires the creation of a special discipline of general psychology as a doctrine of basic general concepts and explanatory principles that allow this science to maintain its unity. For these purposes philosophical principles psychology must be rebuilt and this science must be freed from spiritualistic influences, from the version according to which the main method in it should be an intuitive understanding of spiritual values, and not an objective analysis of the nature of the individual and his experiences. In this regard, V. outlines (also unrealized, like many of his other plans) a project for developing psychology in terms of drama. He writes that personality dynamics are drama. Drama is expressed in external behavior in that case when there is a collision of people playing different roles on the stage of life. Internally, drama is associated, for example, with a conflict between reason and feeling, when the mind and heart are not in harmony. Although his early death did not allow V. to realize many promising programs, his ideas, which revealed the mechanisms and laws of the cultural development of the individual, the development of his mental functions (attention, speech, thinking, affects), outlined a fundamentally new approach to the fundamental issues of the formation of this personality. This has significantly enriched the practice of teaching and raising normal and abnormal children. V.'s ideas received wide resonance in all sciences that study man, including linguistics, psychiatry, ethnography, sociology, etc. They defined an entire stage in the development of humanities in Russia and still retain their heuristic potential. Proceedings.V published in Collected Works in 6 volumes - M, Pedagogy, 1982 - 1984, as well as in the books: Structural Psychology, M., Moscow State University, 1972; Problems of defectology, M., Education, 1995; Lectures on pedology, 1933-1934, Izhevsk, 1996; Psychology, M., 2000. L.A. Karpenko, M.G. Yaroshevsky