| Lev
Semyonovich Vygotsky> stressed that with a proper education, everyone’s needs will be met and
everyone’s life will be fulfilled. Vygotsky “developed an unusually
deep understanding of the importance of past experiences and prior
knowledge in making sense of present experiences and new situations"
(Preston and Vogel, Methods of Teaching: Applying
Cognitive Science to Promote Student Learning, 1993). He believed that
all new knowledge and newly introduced skills are influenced by each
student’s social surroundings, especially,family life. Vygotsky
explained the central role that language plays in cognitive
development. He believed that language skills are critical for creating
meaning and linking new ideas to past experience and prior knowledge.
He emphasized that these internalized skills or psychological tools are
used to gain mastery over one’s own behavior and cognition. (Hamilton
and Ghatala, Learning and Instruction,
1994) Vygotsky’s research concludes that language largely determines
the ways a child learns “how” to think since it is through words that
we organize complex concepts. “Learning, according to Vygotsky, always
involves some type of external experience being transformed into
internal processes through the use of language" (Feden and Vogel, Methods of Teaching: Applying Cognitive Science
to Promote Student Learning 1993). |
