Theory of learning and development of Vygotsky,

By Jeynny Carol Perez

The work of Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934), is the basis of many theories on cognitive development especially in the theory of social development. Vygotsky believed that community is the central axis of cognitive development. Sociocultural theory emerges from Vygotsky's work in response to Behaviorism. Its main idea is that society, beliefs and cultural attitudes influence individual cognitive development and development of their abilities, allowing them to adapt to the environment in which they live. On the other hand Vygotsky as much as Jean Piaget are important figures in the constructivist theory, is a pedagogical current that is characterized by giving to the student tools that allow him to construct his own knowledge. Piaget believed that cognitive development was due to the evolution and origins of the human being, while Vygotsky believed that cognitive development is linked to socio-cultural development where social factors contribute to such development.

In addition, Piaget and Vygotsky affirmed that children are born with abilities that allow their intellectual development, but Piaget was inclined to the motor reflexes and sensorial capacities and Vygotsky refers to the elemental mental functions like the attention, sensation, perception and memory, that through contact with the sociocultural environment these skills become more sophisticated and effective. Vygotsky argues that every human being is born with abilities such as language and a  cognitive develoment but with the contact with the society they develop and improve them; he is one of those  contribute to the theory of constructivism.

Constructivism emerged as an epistemological current interested in understanding problems in the acquisition of knowledge. It is also a pedagogical behavior that conceives of learning as a result of a process of personal-collective construction of new knowledge and attitudes from those already existing in cooperation of peers and the facilitator. In this approach the active author of learning is the student who analyzes and reflects the knowledge acquired to recreate one's own.

The constructivist approach is based on three great authors Vygotsky, who emphasizes that knowledge is acquired and perfected with influence from the sociocultural environment; Piaget, who says that knowledge depends on the evolution of the human being and the stages of development that influence learning. moreover Ausubel, who promotes teaching by exposure to meaningful learning.

In conclusion, the method of constructivism is the most used today. To give an example, the distance or virtual education in which the student is the one who builds his own knowledge based on the experiences, with the help of the social environment and the teacher is the facilitator who gives all the necessary tools according to the needs of the students. Another example in an English class is: The teacher gives the explanation of a topic with didactic tools and the student exposes the subject by means of an exposition, an interview or a writing, which will be making known their experiences and experiences applied to the subject and its environment.

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