Lev Vygotsky Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Lev Vygotsky - Term Paper Example Noticeably intelligent and articulate as a young boy, Vygotsky was dubbed the "little professor" (Wertsch, 1985, p.4). The family lived amidst an explosion of politics, philosophy, and art as well as prejudice, hunger, and disease. Growing up during the Russian Revolution, a time of tremendous social, cultural, and economic upheaval caused Vygotsky great personal difficulty at the same time it liberated him to look at philosophical and societal issues with fresh eyes. Tuberculosis struck Vygotsky at age twenty-six. Forewarned of an early death, Vygotsky worked at a feverish pace to produce over 180 studies, articles, and books (Blanck, 1990). Vygotsky was such an impassioned speaker that throngs of scholars, unable to gain entry into the crowded halls in which he spoke, gathered outside the windows in the hope of capturing his lectures. Wherever Vygotsky traveled in Russia, people left poetry and garlands of flowers by the wayside. Such accounts describe a unique mind and sensibility that affected and even cast a spell on thousands (Van der Veer and Valsinger, 1991). ... 1). Vygotsky excelled academically, spoke eight languages, and was able to teach far ranging subjects such as literature, Russian, education, psychology, logic, aesthetics, and art history (Blanck, 1990). With close collaborators, Alexander R Luria and Alexei N. Leontiev, Vygotsky formed a famous "troika" (Kozulin, 1990), or what John-Steiner (1997) calls a "thought community" (p.207) that became a driving intellectual force in Russia. Vygotsky borrowed ideas from different disciplines to form his learning theory. Psychology and education are the fields in which he made his major contributions although he possessed no formal training in either. It may be that Vygotsky's unique vision was predicated on his ability to look at established ideas in a new way. This may also account for the wide appeal of his work. Blanck (1990) believes that ... it was precisely his newness to the field coupled with his strong insights from other fields (philosophy, linguistics, semiotics, historical mate rialism) that illuminated for Vygotsky fresh answers to perplexing questions (pp.38-39). Vygotsky was coincidently born the same year as Piaget, and like Piaget, his learning theory exerted a profound influence, even creating a paradigm shift, on the way in which we view human development and learning. Vygotsky was a deep thinker, capable of integrating complex philosophical ideas into a unique vision of his own. Vygotsky investigated how humans think, learn, and function within the context of society. Vygotsky's broad-ranging inquiry across discipline, methodology, and ideology, conceived so long ago and squarely situated within the social realm, continues to motivate and inspire the

What is superconductivity and what practical applications does it have Essay

What is superconductivity and what practical applications does it have (radiotelescopes, MagLevs, etc) - Essay Example Their application makes use of the properties rendered to them by electric and magnetic reactivity that is exploitable in major engineering projects. As briefly indicated in the applications segment, it is clear that superconductivity phenomenon offers a wide range of application solutions that increase efficiency and safety. According to the Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer (BCS) theory, electron pairing phenomena near the Fermi level then inside Cooper pairs occasions some rare form of interaction that stabilizes the crystal lattice of the material in question (Creswick et al, 1995). The three scientists behind the discovery were led to this discovery by the existence of a band gap on the Fermi level which was then extrapolated to the interpretation of crystal lattice phenomenon. Further research that included the isotope effect was applied in conjunction with the critical temperature observation of a physical state that exhibited superconductor features finally led to the discovery credited to Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer who won the Peace Nobel Prize in 1972 (hyperphysics.edu, n.d). This happens when the material is subjected to the temperatures specification that supports the superconductivity phenomena. Electron pairing of this phenomenon obeys quantum mechanics principles where lattice vibrations cause them to attract each other in what is referred to as phonon interaction. This happens in type I semiconductors that consist of about thirty pure metals of the periodic table. Type I superconductors obey the BSC theory and only experience superconductivity below the critical temperature (Tc). The exact temperature for which each of these superconductor materials exhibit this zero electric resistance phenomenon is referred to as critical temperature (Tc) and it varies from one material to the other. To achieve the critical temperature for any of these materials in order to acquire the near