Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory

Through this paper, I revisit L. S. Vygotsky’s (۱۸۹۶-۱۹۳۴) sociocultural theory of the mind and learning. This theory situated individual mentality in a larger cultural-historical setting. Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory was influential in education settings. I review the potential contribution of Vygotsky’s theory into educational phenomena. Besides, I try to reflect and criticise this theory. L. S. Vygotsky’s context of his work Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky entered the State University of Moscow in ۱۹۱۷. He was interested in language and literature, although he was interested in philosophy and many scientific fields. His career as a psychologist lasted only from ۱۹۲۴ utill his death from tuberculosis at ۳۷ in ۱۹۳۴. Through his life, he carried out an extensive research program on higher mental functioning, studied medicine, produced many papers. In his last years, Vygotsky was accused of individualism and he was blamed for mass intelligence testing. Two years after his death, research on child development was banned and suppressed Vygotsky’s works and all Psychology journals (Smagorinsky, ۲۰۰۹). Since ۱۹۶۰, Vygotsky and sociocultural theory have received growing attention outside Russia. The impact of sociocultural theory grows further, especially in educational settings. Debatably, Vygotsky’s work united the social and individual realms in psychology and also provided an alternative to the high individualism. His sociocultural theory tried to fill a gap in the social sciences. It was important since Vygotsky remains relevant while near contemporaries such as Ivan Pavlov and William James have largely slipped from sight.Vygotskian theory has rooted in German philosophy from Kant to Hegel, and Marx and Engels. From Marx, he adopted his methodological approach, grounded in the ‘philosophy of internal relations’ (Ortell, ۲۰۱۵) that Marx had adapted from Hegel and was the foundation of Marx’s dialectical method. Vygotsky’s research was focused on practical applications to education and medicine. The research program was ranging from the neurological mechanisms to the evolution of social language in historical settings. Vygotsky was the first modern psychologist to suggest the mechanisms by which culture becomes part of each person’s nature. In his notion that the mind “should be understood in terms of a Marxist theory of the history of human society, he laid the foundation for a unified behavioural science”.