Soviet child psychologist who studied play with Vygotsky and created the developmental education system with Davydov
Born in 1904 to a Jewish family in the Poltava region, he graduated from the pedology department of the Leningrad Pedagogical Institute and from 1929 studied children's play with Lev Vygotsky. After the pedology institutions were abolished he taught primary school from 1937; after the war he taught military psychology until, facing a hearing on 'cosmopolitan errors' in 1953, he was retired to the reserve. From then until his death he worked at the Institute of Psychology of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences on the periods of child development, play and learning activity, work counted among the cornerstones of activity theory. The developmental education system he built with Vasily Davydov from 1959 extended the idea of the zone of proximal development to the whole school curriculum.
Also known as: Daniil El'konin
Activities and affiliations
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1929–1937
Soviet Union state institutionsLecturer in pedology, Herzen Pedagogical Institute, Leningrad
Education -
1953–1984
Soviet Union state institutionsLaboratory head, Institute of Psychology of the Academy of Pedagogical SciencesMain
Science and technology
Career Timeline
- 1927Graduated from the pedology department, Leningrad Pedagogical Institute
- 1929Research on children's play with Vygotsky
- 1937Primary school teacher after the ban on pedology
- 1940Candidate degree in pedagogy
- 1953Cosmopolitanism hearing cancelled, retired to reserve; joined the Institute of Psychology
- 1959Began the developmental education experiment with Davydov
- 1962Doctor of psychology
- 1968Corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Pedagogical Sciences