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The 45 best sentences of Lev Vygotsky

The 45 best sentences of Lev Vygotsky

April 5, 2024

Lev Vygotsky is one of the most important figures in the psychology of education and development .

Their ideas, reflected in their "sociocultural theory", focus on how people are active learners, the most expert individuals can provide us with a very valuable help so that we end up building our own learning and how language is a basic tool that allows the transmission of knowledge.

  • You can deepen the ideas of this character in our post: "The Sociocultural Theory of Lev Vygotsky"

The best Vygotsky phrases

Vygotsky, in addition, is known for the debate that has provoked his theory about that of another psychologist who was interested in the cognitive development of children: Jean Piaget. There are several differences in the contributions of both authors .


However, both Vygotsky and Piaget have provided valuable information for this plot of psychology. This shows the complexity of cognitive development.

  • Related article: Piaget vs Vygotsky: similarities and differences between their theories

Since Vygotsky has pronounced very valuable appointments for psychology, in this article you will find its 45 best phrases . Let us begin.

1. Psychology falls into an impasse when it analyzes verbal thought in its components, thought and word, and studies them isolated

Vygotsky explains that dialogue is an important psychological tool in the development of the child's thinking. Children grow and develop, and as this happens their basic language becomes more complex .


2. The teacher must adopt the role of facilitator, not content provider

The student is the one who must build the learning, the teacher only accompanies him along the way.

3. The defect alone does not decide the fate of the personality, but the social consequences and their socio-psychological realization. From the perspective of the future, pedagogy is an immense source of possibilities in the formation of man and his future

Unlike Piaget, who considers that learning occurs individually. Vygotsky thinks that learning happens thanks to social interactions , with the support of someone more expert.

4. Experience teaches us that thought is not expressed in words, but rather realizes itself through them

Language is essential for thinking, believes Vygotsky . The cognitive development of children happens thanks to informal and formal conversations with adults.


5. The brain is not only an organ capable of conserving or reproducing our past experiences, but it is also a coordinating organ, creator, capable of reworking and creating elements of past experiences with new norms and approaches

Both Piaget and Vygotsky think that we are active learners, not passive learners.

6. There is no better learning than that of one's experience

Experiential learning is, without a doubt, one of the most powerful forms of learning.

7. Human learning presupposes a specific social nature and a process by which children access the intellectual life of those around them

Vygotsky's theory focuses on how social interaction influences learning

8. The culture is adapted to the typical man, normal, to its constitution, the atypical development conditioned by the defect can not be rooted in the culture in a different and indirect way as it takes place in the normal child

A phrase of Lev Vygotsky that invites deep reflection.

9. A thought can be compared to a cloud that throws a rain of words

The relationship between language and thought is clear, says Vygotsky . Language is key in human development, since it facilitates the exchange of knowledge.

10. Knowledge that does not come from experience is not really knowledge

Experience is key to our learning and is necessary for the cognitive development of people.

11. To understand the language of others it is not enough to understand the words; it is necessary to understand his thinking

Vygotsky, thought and language are intimately related. Learning occurs in a communicative and social environment.

12. Modern psychology - in general - and child psychology - in particular - reveal a propensity to combine psychological and philosophical problems

A reflection of Vygotsky on what is psychology.

13. People with intense passions, who achieve great feats, who have strong feelings, great minds and a strong personality, rarely arise from good boys and girls

Bright minds defy social impositions.

14. Learning is more than acquiring the ability to think; is the acquisition of numerous skills to think about a variety of things

Language significantly improves our cognitive development.Complex mental activities have their origin in basic social activities

15. Our parents transmit what previous generations have discovered

Our parents are facilitators of our learning and transmit knowledge , because cognitive development is based on social interactions, with the support of someone more expert.

16. The conduct performed is an insignificant part of the possible behavior. Man, at every moment, is full of unfulfilled possibilities

Culture puts limits to our actions and thoughts.

17. If we give students the possibility to talk with others, we give them frames to think for themselves

Vygotsky has always been a strong advocate of collaborative learning and worked for more on the influence of the sociocultural environment on cognitive development.

18. A word devoid of thought is a dead thing, and a thought that is put into words is but a shadow

A phrase with a certain ironic touch on thought and language.

19. What a child can do today with help, he will be able to do it himself tomorrow

Regarding collaboration with someone more expert. Vygotsky, in clear relation to the fact that adults facilitate the learning of children.

20. Ignoring the problem of consciousness, psychology closes itself in access to the study of the complex problems of human behavior. It is forced to limit itself to only clarifying the most elemental links of the living being with the world

In order to solve the problems, they must be observed in their entirety.

21. When the psychological nature is not properly understood, the relationships of thought with the word in all its real complexity can not be clarified in any way.

Like the previous sentence, in order to solve a problem you have to be objective.

22. The problem of the psychological nature of consciousness is constantly and intentionally eluded in our psychology. Everyone tries not to see it, as if the new psychology did not exist

An appointment about psychology that gives rise to reflection.

23. Learning is like a tower, you have to build it step by step

Lev Vygotsky, this quote expresses his concept of scaffolding.

24. Problems arise from theories

The difficulties make us mobilize and put our intelligence to the test, they are moments of growth.

25. A need can only be really satisfied through a certain adaptation to reality

Culture largely determines our needs.

26. The true direction of the development of thought is not from the individual to the social, but from the social to the individual

In contrast to Piaget, Vygotsky will be remembered for his contribution to the social vision of learning

27. The most admirable thing is that the consciousness of language and social experience arise contemporaneously and in an absolutely parallel way

The construction of language and social experience they are intimately related.

28. Discourse and action are part of the same complex psychological function, which is aimed at solving the problem in question

Dialogue is an important psychological tool in problem solving.

29. Educational agents can facilitate learning, but the student must build it

Vygotsky referring to the potential of the zone of proximal development . Educational agents are facilitators of knowledge that help us in cognitive development. Vygotsky is one of the greatest exponents of social constructionism.

30. Through others we become ourselves

Vygotsky states that individuals learn through social interactions and that collaborative learning is a necessary tool for cognitive development.

31. Language is the tool of tools

One of Vygotsky's slogans about psychological development.

32. The mind can not be independent of a culture

There are no people as isolated individuals

33. The child begins to perceive the world not only through his eyes but also through his speech

The language allows to create a worldview.

34. Pedagogy must be oriented not towards yesterday, but towards the morning of the child's development

Pedagogy understood as a vector of development.

35. What happens between subjects and objects?

A reflection on the way in which human beings become agents, that is, to be aware of their intentions.

36. To understand the higher functions of behavior we must discover the means by which the human being learns to organize and direct their behavior

Vygotsky distinguishes between higher psychological processes and basic ones.

37. We instruct ourselves in the same way in which we instruct others; by using the word as a tool

A reflection on learning.

38. We become ourselves through others

Our environment shapes us.

39. The structure of speech is not a simple reflection of the structure of thought, because words can not be put by thought as made-to-measure garments

One of Vygotsky's reflections on the relationship between language and thought.

40The history of the development of signs leads us to a much more general law governing the development of behavior

The transformation through language is one of the parcels of mental development.

41. Learning to direct one's mental processes with the help of words and signs is an integral part of the concept formation process

The concepts appear to develop with each other.

42. Experience tells us that thought is not expressed through words, but is generated in them

Thought is not something entirely separate from language

43. Everything that is known about psychic development indicates that its essence is in the change of the interfunctional nature of consciousness

The development of psychological functions involves many different processes

44. Behind the words is the grammar of thought, the syntax of meanings

The interesting thing about language is what is beyond words, since that is what gives them meaning.

45. The interesting thing about the human mind is the way in which it transforms and yet remains

There is a balance between what changes and what remains stable.


TOP 20 Lev S. Vygotsky Quotes (April 2024).


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