Major Contributions, Awards, and Honors
Vygotsky's most famous writing is "Thought and Language". In it, he brought together Piaget's theory on children's langauage development and his own theories on conceptual knowledge in school-age children. His work on the inter-relationship between the development of language and thought remains his most important contribution. Vygotsky says that language is an external tool that aids in thought development. The best way to put this would be "thinking-out-loud".
(http://funwithfcs.uvjvs.wikispaces.net/file/view/LevVygotsky.pdf)
Vygotsky is accredited with the development of the socio-cultural school of thought. He believed that culture effects an individual's thought processes greatly rather than just education.
(http://www.ibe.unesco.org/fileadmin/user_upload/archive/publications/ThinkersPdf/vygotske.pdf)
(http://funwithfcs.uvjvs.wikispaces.net/file/view/LevVygotsky.pdf)
Vygotsky is accredited with the development of the socio-cultural school of thought. He believed that culture effects an individual's thought processes greatly rather than just education.
(http://www.ibe.unesco.org/fileadmin/user_upload/archive/publications/ThinkersPdf/vygotske.pdf)
Vygotsky and Teaching
Vygotsky saw education as crucial to the development of a child, sometimes referring to it as the "artificial development" of a child. (http://www.ibe.unesco.org/fileadmin/user_upload/archive/publications/ThinkersPdf/vygotske.pdf) He said that an education should ensure the child's growth by making sure it has all the right tools, internal techniques and operations to think and solve problems actively. Social and cultural relationships such as those between the pupil and teacher, and the pupil and peers should also be nurtured according to Vygotsky because the value of education is not only in the content of the material but also in the way that it is structured and presented.