Tools of the Mind: The Vygotskian Approach to Early Childhood Education (2nd Edition),   ISBN:9780130278043

Customer Rating: 

I used this book as part of my professional development for the past school year. As an educator of young special needs children, I found activities based in theory which I've already implemented successfully in my classroom. It's not an easy read and will not give you "10 Easy Ways to Implement Vygotsky Into Your Classroom"; you'll need to dig a little, but it will be worth your while!

Customer Rating: 

Great for understanding the Vygotskian philosophy.

I liked the comparisons and contrasts to Piaget and other popular early childhood philosophies.

Customer Rating: 

This is an excellent resource. I think it is a tragedy that Vygotsky's educational and developmental philosophies have taken this long to be distributed in America and taken seriously. We would have a completely different educational system and level of achievement in our public schools were the teachings in this book made the norm and mastery of it was required before anyone got ahold of our young children in schools (or in the home in the role of parents generally or homeschooling parents). There is nothing I would have wanted to know before purchasing the product because I was familiar with Vygotsky theories from graduate studies in clinical psychology. Again, an excellent book. So much more relevant and quite frankly, accurate and helpful than any methods based soley on child-led learning and/or Piaget.

Customer Rating: 

...look no further than this book. Even though reading Lev Vygotsky's own words in MIND IN SOCIETY is irreplaceable, most of us teachers have little time or patience to wade through that theoretical complexity.

Thus, Bordrova and Leong give us an excellent way to both understand V's theory and how it applies to each set of early childhood age ranges. Personally, I the infant and toddler sections are the most valuable because embellishing intersubjectivity at the earliest possible point of development will increase the child's ability to navigate and learn within an increasingly complex social setting.

Glorious text.