Vygotsky emphasized that people's psychological development is restricted by the laws of social culture and historical development. Based on this principle, Vygotsky's concept of "teaching" can be divided into broad sense and narrow sense. Teaching in a broad sense means that children master the means of spiritual production through activities and communication, which is spontaneous; Teaching in a narrow sense is a purposeful and planned form of systematic communication, which "creates" children's development.

He divided teaching into three types according to different stages of development: before the age of 3, children's teaching was self-styled, and children studied according to their own syllabus; The teaching of preschool children is called spontaneous response, and teaching is possible for children, but its requirements must belong to children's own needs before they can be accepted; The teaching of school-age children is reactive teaching, which is a kind of teaching according to social requirements, with learning from teachers as the main form. The teaching of preschool children aged 3-6 is between the first and second types of teaching, which Vygotsky calls "spontaneous-reactive". Vygotsky also pointed out that spontaneous teaching will gradually transition to reactive teaching in the pre-school education stage, and this transition will change with the development of children's age. Younger children will tend to teach spontaneously, but on the whole, what children can do in the learning process of young children is only what suits their interests.

Vygotsky believes that teaching must conform to children's age characteristics. Therefore, teaching should follow the age characteristics of children and carry out activities around their age characteristics. Kindergarten teaching should be more so, based on understanding children's unique learning psychology and learning process.