About Us and Vygotsky…

Hi and thanks for visiting our site! My name is Matt and I decided to focus on Lev Vygotsky because I believe his theory has made a great impact on the learning and teaching profession. I’m a new teacher on the west coast of Canada and I’m still improving how I teach every day. I find his theories can be found throughout my district in school plans and as a new teacher I’d like to become more familiar with them. I believe that his theories can be applied (with others) to show how students construct knowledge and how language and social context play a central role in development. My goal is to provide you with some facts, practical applications and discussion starters. I’m looking forward to hearing about your experiences with this topic!

– Matt

Hello!

Thanks for stopping by our blog! Personally, I have always been passionate about psychology and theorists who examine how learning best occurs in children. It was this passion, which led to my first degree in child psychology. During the course of my 4 years studying different areas of psychology, Vygotsky and his theories were continually discussed and examined. It was clear to me then, the importance his work had on the study of psychology and thus, I jumped at the chance to revisit his theories and examine them more methodically through this blog. As a primary educator, I find his work on the zone of proximal development most fascinating. I continue to find new connections from his theories to my own teaching practices, and look forward to hearing your opinions and experiences with Vygotsky. Enjoy!

Breanna

Hi all,

My decision to choose to Vygotsky came about because of conversations I was a part of a few years ago with former colleagues who were studying his work as a part of their Masters program. I had not heard of Vygotsky prior to those discussions, and what I learned at the time about his socio-cultural focus and the idea that learning led to development (not the other way around as Piaget theorized) intrigued me. What I was hearing made sense to me based on what I know of learning – it fit into my understanding of the process – and as a result, I wanted to learn more.  The more I understand about how his theories influenced the development of the constructivist theory of learning, the more I come to appreciate his work. 

I believe that who we are, and what we come to be in life is so much a result of the environments we grow and live in (they shape us in their cultural image, we react to them to be something different, or we make a space for ourselves somewhere between those polarities). Vygotsky, like most other theorists, is no different, and one of the many things I am quite intrigued by is how his social and cultural context shaped his belief systems, and by extent, his theories.  It brings me back to the on-going examination of how my social and cultural belief systems affect what I believe about education and how that impacts the what and how of what I teach (or better yet, how I can create learning experiences for learners). We hope you enjoy exploring the blog.

Jo