You may have noticed that the articles in the "Feeding Lambs" section of Elder's Digest emphasize the importance of children interacting with adults in order to bond to the adults, the church and the Lord. Until a few years ago, you were far more likely to read about the importance of children being quiet and listening.
Here is the story of the man who changed our understanding of how children learn best, and how we can effectively help them learn, L. S. Vygotsky (1896-1934).
Before the 1917 Russian Revolution, most Russians were illiterate, but the Jewish community was the exception. Consequently the government decreed that no more than 3% of a university's students could be Jewish.
Lev Semenovich Vygotsky was completing his secondary schooling in Belorussia. As he graduated, the government changed the procedure for entering university. Jewish students would be selected by casting lots. When Lev Semenovich heard this, he was sure he had lost the opportunity for higher education. Amazingly, he won the lottery. In 1917 he graduated from the University of Moscow with a degree in law.
He went back home to teach. Also he organized a psychology laboratory.
In 1924 Vygotsky presented a lecture at the Second All-Russian Psychoneurological Congress in Leningrad. His presentation was electrifying and totally different from the leading psychology ideas of the day.
Pavlov was a prominent Russian psychologist at that time. You probably remember him. He trained dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell by giving them food at the same time. Later they would salivate just at the sound of the bell. Is it possible that he advised the new Russian government to control their people just like he had controlled his dogs? History from the time of the Stalinist purges would suggest that.
Vygotsky's brilliant performance at the Congress got him an invitation to help reorganize the Psychological Institute in Moscow.
Vygotsky was 28 years old and already dying of tuberculosis. But he accepted the challenge. One of his major objectives was to find practical ways to educate children from illiterate homes. He even went beyond this by researching ways of helping children who were hearing impaired, mentally retarded or learning disabled.
This was still the early years after the revolution when many young intellectuals wanted to raise the level of all the people in the country. Vygotsky gathered around him a group of disciples who helped with his research.
During the last 10 years of his life he accomplished a superhuman amount. Before he died of tuberculosis in 1934, he produced approximately 180 works. Within two years after he died, the Russian government banned his material. When a more open political climate returned, Vygotsky's disciples resumed publishing his works.
What were his theories that sent shock waves which continue around the world today? Here are a few of them:
1. Learning begins in a social setting. Intellectual development is not initiated by genetic factors, but by opportunities for social interaction.
2. Learning takes place faster and better with lots of adult interaction. This concept, for which Vygotsky may be best known, is called the zone of proximal development. In other words, children learn best when they are learning in proximity to helpful adults.
3. A major understanding growing from Vygotsky's work is related to intelligence. Since the early years of the 20th century, intelligence was thought to be determined at birth. I.Q. scores were considered to be relatively fixed. But Vygotsky's teachings have led to the understanding that intelligence depends on interaction with others. Children who have a wealth of time and attention from adults and more capable peers have rich opportunities to develop intellectually.
It was not until the mid 1960's that the first translations of Vygotsky's works arrived in the West. That was just when the education world was becoming excited about Piaget's ideas. Nobody paid attention to new material from Russia. Then teachers in the United States during the 1970's were begging for help as segregation ended and ethnic students poured into classrooms. Educational researchers began to read Vygotsky and saw the key the teachers needed.
Today we can say that the most exciting educational innovations of the last fifty years have grown out of the work of this brilliant Russian Jew.
Active learning groups instead of bored children trying to sit still.
Teachers who see themselves as learners together with the students rather than experts who pour knowledge into brains.
Everyone is dependent on prior knowledge for learning something new. Children who have a wealth of time and attention from adults and more capable peers have rich opportunities to develop intellectually.
These are the concepts that show us how important it is for children to feel a sense of inclusion in church by participation and involvement.
Virginia L. Smith, Ph.D., is Director of the Children's Ministries Department at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventist.
