Review of 'Vygotsky's legacy: a foundation for research and practise', by Margaret E. Gredler and Carolyn Claytor Shields, New York, The Guilford Press, 2008, 242 pp., £24.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-59385-491-1

Abstract

Lev Vygotsky is, of course, one of the great names of educational psychology, but the authors of this publication assert that the majority of his work is largely missed by the psychology reading population. Both Gredler (Professor of Educational Psychology and Research at the University of South Carolina) and Shields (Associate Professor of Education at Winthrop University) believe that many people are familiar with some aspects of his work, e.g. the Zone of Proximal Development but not a great deal more from his career as a developmental psychologist in Soviet Russia. For instance, Vygotsky work encompassed child and adolescent development and he hypothesised that 'Personality reaches the final stage during adolescence with the development of the capacity for self-reflection' (p. 168). This publication provides a systematic and thorough unveiling of many of Vygotsky's "forgotten" work. There are four parts to the book: • General Principles • Major Cultural Signs • The Cycle of Development • Some Implications of Vygotsky's theory