Lev Vygotsky is one of the most important figures in educational and developmental psychology
His ideas, reflected in his “sociocultural theory”, focus on how people are active learners, the most expert individuals can provide us with very valuable help so that we end up building our own learning and how language is a basic tool that allows transmission of knowledge.
Vygotsky is also known for the debate that his theory has provoked compared to that of another psychologist who was interested in the cognitive development of children: Jean Piaget. There are several differences in the contributions of both authors
However, both Vygotsky and Piaget have provided valuable information for this area of psychology. This demonstrates the complexity of cognitive development.
Since Vygotsky has made very valuable quotes for psychology, In this article you can find his 45 best phrases Let us begin.
1. Psychology falls into a dead end when it analyzes verbal thought into its components, thought and word, and studies them in isolation.
Vygotsky explains that dialogue is an important psychological tool in the development of a child’s thinking. Children grow and develop, and as this happens their basic language becomes more complex
2. The teacher must adopt the role of facilitator, not content provider
The student is the one who must build the learning, the teacher only accompanies him along the way.
3. The defect alone does not decide the destiny of the personality, but rather the social consequences and its socio-psychological realization. From the perspective of the future, pedagogy is an immense source of possibilities in the formation of man and his future.
Unlike Piaget, who considers that learning occurs individually. Vygotsky believes that learning occurs through social interactions with the support of someone more expert.
4. Experience teaches us that thought is not expressed in words, but rather realizes itself through them
Language is essential for thought, believes Vygotsky Children’s cognitive development happens thanks to informal and formal conversations with adults.
5. The brain is not only an organ capable of preserving or reproducing our past experiences, but it is also a combining, creative organ, capable of reworking and creating new norms and approaches with elements of past experiences.
Both Piaget and Vygotsky think that we are active learners, not passive.
6. There is no better learning than from your own experience
Experiential learning is, without a doubt, one of the most powerful forms of learning.
7. Human learning presupposes a specific social nature and a process by which children access the intellectual life of those around them
Vygotsky’s theory focuses on how social interaction influences learning.
8. Culture is adapted to the typical, normal man, to his constitution, the atypical development conditioned by the defect cannot take root in the culture in a different and indirect way as it takes place in the normal child.
A phrase from Lev Vygotsky that invites deep reflection.
9. A thought can be compared to a cloud that casts a rain of words
The relationship between language and thought is clear, says Vygotsky Language is key to human development, as it enables the exchange of knowledge.
10. Knowledge that does not come from experience is not really knowledge
Experience is key to our learning and is necessary for people’s cognitive development.
11. To understand the language of others it is not enough to understand the words; it is necessary to understand their thinking
Vygotsky, thought and language are closely related. Learning occurs in a communicative and social environment.
12. Modern psychology – in general – and child psychology – in particular – reveal a propensity to combine psychological and philosophical problems
A reflection by Vygotsky on what psychology is.
13. People with intense passions, who achieve great feats, who have strong feelings, brilliant minds and a strong personality, rarely emerge from good boys and girls.
14. Learning is more than the acquisition of the ability to think; is the acquisition of numerous skills to think about a wide variety of things
Language considerably improves our cognitive development. Complex mental activities have their origin in basic social activities
15. Our parents pass on what previous generations have discovered
Our parents are facilitators of our learning and transmit knowledge to us because cognitive development is based on social interactions, with the support of someone more expert.
16. The behavior performed is an insignificant part of the behavior possible. Man, at every moment, is full of unrealized possibilities
Culture puts limits on our actions and thoughts.
17. If we give students the opportunity to talk with others, we give them frameworks to think for themselves
Vygotsky has always been a strong defender of collaborative learning and worked further on the influence of the sociocultural environment on cognitive development.
18. A word devoid of thought is a dead thing, and a thought put into words is but a shadow
A phrase with a certain ironic touch about thought and language.
19. What a child can do today with help, he will be able to do on his own tomorrow
Regarding collaboration with someone more expert. Vygotsky, in clear relation to the fact that adults facilitate children’s learning.
20. By ignoring the problem of consciousness, psychology closes itself off from accessing the study of complex problems of human behavior. It is forced to limit itself to only clarifying the most basic links between the living being and the world.
In order to solve problems, they must be observed in their entirety.
21. When psychological nature is not correctly understood, the relationships between thought and words in all their real complexity cannot be clarified in any way.
Like the previous phrase, in order to solve a problem you have to be objective.
22. The problem of the psychological nature of consciousness is constantly and intentionally avoided in our psychology. Everyone tries not to see it, as if for the new psychology it did not exist.
A thought-provoking quote about psychology.
23. Learning is like a tower, you have to build it step by step
Lev Vygotsky, this quote expresses his concept of scaffolding.
24. Theories are born from problems
Difficulties make us mobilize and test our intelligence, they are moments of growth.
25. A need can only be truly satisfied through a certain adaptation to reality
Culture largely determines our needs.
26. The true direction of the development of thought is not from the individual to the social, but from the social to the individual
In contrast to Piaget, Vygotsky will be remembered for his contribution to the social vision of learning.
27. The most admirable thing is that the consciousness of language and social experience arise contemporaneously and in an absolutely parallel way
The construction of language and social experience They are closely related.
28. Speech and action are part of the same complex psychological function, which is directed towards the solution of the problem in question.
Dialogue is an important psychological tool in problem solving.
29. Educational agents can facilitate learning, but the student must build it
Vygotsky referring to the potential of the zone of proximal development Educational agents are facilitators of knowledge that help us in cognitive development. Vygotsky is one of the greatest exponents of social constructionism.
30. Through others we become ourselves
Vygotsky states that individuals learn through social interactions and that collaborative learning is a necessary tool for cognitive development.
31. Language is the tool of tools
One of Vygotsky’s mottos about psychological development.
32. The mind cannot be independent of a culture
People do not exist as isolated individuals.
33. The child begins to perceive the world not only through his eyes but also through his speech
Language allows us to create a worldview.
34. Pedagogy must be oriented not towards yesterday, but towards the tomorrow of the child’s development
Pedagogy understood as a vector of development.
35. What happens between subjects and objects?
A reflection on the way in which human beings become agents, that is, to be aware of their intentions.
36. To understand the highest functions of behavior we must discover the means by which human beings learn to organize and direct their behavior
Vygotsky distinguishes between higher and basic psychological processes.
37. We instruct ourselves in the same way as we instruct others; by using the word as a tool
A reflection on learning.
38. We become ourselves through others
Our environment shapes us.
39. The structure of speech is not a simple reflection of the structure of thought, because words cannot be put on by thought like tailor-made garments
One of Vygotsky’s reflections on the relationship between language and thought.
40. The history of the development of signs leads us to a much more general law governing the development of behavior
Transformation through language is one of the areas of mental development.
41. Learning to direct one’s mental processes with the help of words and signs is an integral part of the concept formation process
The concepts appear developing with each other.
42. Experience tells us that thought is not expressed through words but is created in them
Thought is not something entirely separate from language.
43. Everything that is known about psychic development indicates that its essence is in the change of the interfunctional nature of consciousness
The development of psychological functions involves many different processes
44. Behind the words is the grammar of thought, the syntax of meanings
The interesting thing about language is what is beyond the words, since that is what gives them meaning.
45. The interesting thing about the human mind is the way in which it transforms and yet remains
There is a balance between what changes and what remains stable.
