A Theory of Intellectual Development

Abstract

SOCIO-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE In the past decade, Vygotsky's work has gained widespread attention and commendation. Indisputably the work is worthy of careful study. And according to its own fundamental principles, the theory itself is a product of its historical-cultural situation, and in examining it, one needs to first understand it from within that time period and then consider how it might be modified in the light of current cultural and historical times. I will try to demonstrate in this paper that Vygotskian theory can support two opposing interpretations, one which fundamentally supports reform and one which can, in fact, undermine it. To begin, a summary of Vygotskian theory is offered. Vygotsky proposed to develop a theory of intellectual development that would: 1) recognize a central role for social and cultural influences; 2) build upon the characteristics that separate humans from other animals; 3) create a Marxist psychology [Wertsch, 1985]; and 4) contribute to the social program of making literacy accessible to all. It should be kept in mind that Vygotsky's contributions were made at a time when there was a sense of triumphant pride and confidence in the power of science to improve the quality of life, when literacy was seen as a positive accomplishment, entailing only gains and no losses, and literacy was assumed to be accomplished in a relatively uniform manner across all peoples [John-Steiner, 1985]. My discussion of the Vygotskian perspective is organized in six major categories: 1) socio-cultural perspective; 2) Marxist influences of historical analysis and the role of labor; 3) semiotics and psychological tools; and 4) the dialectic of thought and language; 5) conceptual development; and 6) learning and development.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 96 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.