Vygotsky's learning and development

I read a Vygotsky response about the interaction between learning and development. He first recognizes Piaget's theories, describing them in detail. Then he rejects Piaget's three positions on learning and development but states those theories led him to a more adequate view of this relationship. His new theory has two issues "first: the general relation between learning and development, second the specific feature of this relationship when children reach school age." He then goes on to introduce a new concept he invented to elaborate on the dimensions of school learning: the zone of proximal development.  He explains this concept by breaking down development into two levels: the actual developmental level and the potential developmental level. The first referring to ability to problem solving independently, the latter referring to ability to problem solve with adults or capable peers. Vygotsky's proximal zone is the distance between these two ages.

In this reading I generally agreed with Vygotsky's theories on development. I think they account for a very important part of learning which occurs through being with people. I appreciate it as an inventive way to predict a child's intellect.


Interaction between learning and development