Work Of Vygotsky Research Articles

Проблема анализа данных в культурно-историческом исследовании

<p>The article discusses the main ideas of the cultural-historical theory of social environment as a source of development from the point of view of the possibility of "refocusing research on development" and the transition from descriptive (empirical) ways of analysing experimental data to explanatory ones. In this article, based on Vygotsky's works, it is shown: 1) how the general idea of social environment as a source of development can be further conceptualised with the concepts of "social situation", "social situation of development" and <em>"perezhivanie"</em> and 2) how the analytical model created on this basis can become a concrete tool for analysing the experimental data. The cultural-historical genetic-analytical model developed by the author and experimentally validated is presented as a general framework for analysing experimental data in accordance with the general requirements of the experimental-genetic method. The second part of the paper presents a cultural-historical analytical matrix based on the model, which allows the data to be analysed in terms of revealing internal processes of development. The genetic-analytical model allows the analysis to capture the aspect of universality. A matrix based on this model (and therefore retaining the aspect of universality) can be used to analyse a particular social situation in terms of the specific conditions in which this universality manifests itself.</p>

Idealism, materialism, and Vygotsky's cultural historical theory.

Vygotsky straddled the period of the Russian Revolution and found himself facing the Marxist materialist ideology of the Soviet Union with the need for a new method of psychology. Ironically, the Soviet Union's need for a Marxist based method of psychology coincided with Vygotsky's prior research on methods of interpretation which were inspired by Hegel and primarily based on the role of consciousness and culture. As a result of Vygotsky's pre-revolutionary work and inspiration from Hegel clashing with the post-revolutionary need for a new methodology for psychology, Vygotsky developed his Cultural Historical Theory. In presenting his new theory, Vygotsky attempted to resolve a fundamental ideological conflict between idealism and materialism. Furthermore, Vygotsky worked to create an effective new research method by drawing inspiration from Gestalt psychology, Hegel, Marx, and Engels. The result of Vygotsky's efforts was a theory based on psychology of consciousness and mind rather than a biology-based psychology focused entirely on analysis of stimuli and responses. In analyzing Vygotsky's theory, it is useful to draw inspiration from Vygotsky's criticism of pure empiricism, and to be inspired by Vygotsky's demonstration on how deeply rooted differences between societies may be bridged by finding unexpected commonalities within opposing ideologies.

УЗЕЛ РАЗВИТИЯ: ОТ М.К. МАМАРДАШВИЛИ К Л.С. ВЫГОТСКОМУ. ОПЫТ ПЕРСОНОЛОГИЧЕСКОЙ КОМПАРАТИВИСТИКИ

This study delves into the examination of three models developed by Lev Vygotsky, namely the instrumental act model, the zigzag model of meaningful action, and the model of psychological age dynamics. The objective is to uncover the common features among these models and to attempt their productive synthesis. The first model introduces the concept of indirect movement and highlights the dual nature of the mediating link, X, which acts as both a thing and a meaning. The second model, influenced by K. Levin, emphasizes the emergence of a distinct plane of meaning within which the acting subject navigates and constructs their path. The third model focuses on the subject's development through the progressive evolution of their field of meanings. These models are compared with a series of graphical models of development proposed in different contexts by Merab Mamardashvili and subsequently reconstructed and generalized by Andrey Paramonov. While these models exhibit similar trajectories to Vygotsky's works, notable differences arise. Mamardashvili's model incorporates a visual representation of the stage involving the “turning inside out” of the life field through a selected symboltool, resembling the concept of catharsis in “Psychology of Art,” albeit not explicitly expressed in Vygotsky's models. Overall, Vygotsky's and Mamar dashvili's models are seen as complementary to each other. The aim is to integrate these models based on shared elements, resulting in a comprehensive model illustrating the movement of the Self and serving as an example of symbolic mediation as opposed to signmediation.

Emergence of Meaning Amidst a Tension Between Forms and Contents.

In this paper, I propose an analysis of the tension between forms and contents as a condition of emergence of meaning. I refer to Vygotsky's earlier work "Psychology of Art" as an inspiration, to develop my own model. This leads me to present an analysis of how forms overcome contents in a monological way, but also in a dialogical perspective. I also present two windows of emergence capturing the dynamics occurring in the temporal boundary before the stabilization of a new form (what happens between the form deconstruction and the emergence of a new form). I apply it to how elders experienced the pandemic and its aftermath, using the analysis of discourse of elders participating in a group-intervention and in an action-research project. This enables me to partially respond to some of the challenges identified by Greve (2023, this Special Issue) -an author I was asked to comment-, but also to go beyond his propositions.

Схема теории Льва Выготского. Часть I

<p>The relevance of referring to Lev Vygotsky's works and discovering the unknowable in them is a natural phenomenon that accompanies brilliant works of science, literature, art, etc. Discoveries are accidental and non-accidental at the same time, so they are either accepted immediately or pass the "corridor" of criticism. The history of the formation of Vygotsky's psychology is also the history of our way of understanding Vygotsky. The aim of the article is to reveal what Lev Vygotsky himself might not have highlighted. We have tried to penetrate into the logic, the scheme of his thinking. It is possible to carry out the reconstruction in different ways, as evidenced by the experience of the world "vygotskopovedeniya". In this article we argue the hypothesis about the logic of triangulation by L.S. Vygotsky. Triangulation acts as a method of analyzing the psyche with the help of "units of analysis of the whole". In our opinion, L. S. Vygotsky analyzed the psyche as a triangular dynamic network. The network structure allows to reveal new, logically substantiated connections between its elements. He constructed a logical "construct" allowing to confirm it empirically. The basis of the network is formed by trinities of mental functions and connections between trinities, when the same function is included in different trinities. A trinity is formed and in it`s development represents a synthesis of the elements forming it. Each mental function is a whole and reflects in itself a larger whole, i.e., the psyche. It is in the structure of the trinity network that this is most clearly traced. The analysis undertaken by L.S. Vygotsky undoubtedly belongs to the post-nonclassical type of scientific rationality.</p>

Ecological systems theory and second language research

“Context” has been increasingly featured and acknowledged in second language (L2) research because L2 teaching is recognised to be shaped by the environments in which it is situated. Numerous theoretical perspectives were introduced to L2 research that aim to capture the contextual forces at work in teaching and learning, including but not limited to Activity Theory, Complexity Theory, and Sociocultural Theory. Activity Theory holds that a learner's motives (human needs directed towards an object) are highly malleable, subject to the influence of such contextual variables as institutional rules, community, tools and artefacts available (see Leont'ev, 1978, 1981 who popularised Activity Theory from Sergei Rubenstein's founding and also Engeström's more current work in 1999). Complexity Theory, which has been widely adopted in both physical and social sciences, originates from physics (Martin et al., 2019). Complexity Theory was later introduced into L2 research by Diane Larsen-Freeman who posits that language learning is not only a process but a volatile and emerging system that is shaped by components of the system (e.g., learners, teachers, schools) engaging in constant and vibrant interactions (Larsen-Freeman, 2014). Sociocultural Theory highlights the sociocultural contexts where learning takes place (Lantolf, 2000; Vygotsky, 1978). Informed by a social constructivist view of learning, key concepts such as scaffolding (e.g., teachers’ support for learners) are put forward. In particular, Vygotsky argues that communication plays an indispensable role in language learning. Extrapolating Vygotsky's work to L2 research, Swain (2006) claims that languaging, dialogues among learners to discuss issues in L2 learning, is an important process of learning a L2.

Weathering the storm: Learning strategies that promote mathematical resilience

Most learner achievement studies tend to focus on identifying individual characteristics, ignoring the learning strategies that promote mathematical resilience. The focus of the study is on the assets embedded in an individual and their interplay with the environment. It is expected that resilience plays a deciding role in learners’ foreground with the potential to affect learner mathematics achievement in constrained environments positively. This study, framed within the socio-ecological perspective of resilience, explored how disadvantaged learners learn mathematics in a disadvantaged environment in the Further Education and Training band in South Africa. A total of nine (five boys and four girls) Grade 12 learners learning mathematics in disadvantaged environments from Johannesburg West and Johannesburg Central districts were purposively selected and one-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with them. This thematic report pays attention to the qualitative phase of a broader study that employed a sequential exploratory design that draws from the work of Vygotsky, Carroll and Skovsmose. The framework focuses on the dynamic interactions between learners and the connection between the home and the school. Accordingly, the findings revealed two interrelated themes, namely foreground and growth strategies. These themes make apparent the connection between the context and the interpretation of the context by an individual as translated into decisional processes. Implications for teachers are discussed.

A Cultural-historical Pedagogical Model as a Potential Developmental Tool in Schools

South Africa consistently lags behind other nations on international benchmarking tests of literacy, mathematics and, especially, science as illustrated in the low achievement outcomes on the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) tests. Research in the 21st century has shown that learning science at an early age is a predictor of scientific literacy later in life. The low science achievement in South Africa is impacted by several variables, however, one important aspect of students’ failure to acquire science reasoning skills lies in how they are taught science. Drawing on the work of Vygotsky, Hedegaard, Freire, and Feuerstein, this paper reports on an intervention using a novel pedagogical model to teach science in grade two classrooms. A comparative case study is presented where one teacher is trained in the novel pedagogical model and one is not trained to use this model. Both teachers teach in the same school and the demographics of the children in the two separate classes studied are similar. Findings indicate that where the novel pedagogical model is used, the teacher uses more scientific, abstract concepts in her lesson; she links the abstract to the children’s everyday concepts and, perhaps most significantly, she illustrates to students why they must learn the content she is teaching them.

АНАЛИЗ КОНСУЛЬТАТИВНЫХ ОБРАЩЕНИЙ СОВРЕМЕННЫХ РОДИТЕЛЕЙ, ВОСПИТЫВАЮЩИХ ДЕТЕЙ ДОШКОЛЬНОГО ВОЗРАСТА

Statement of the problem. The authors study the possibilities of organizing and providing psychological, pedagogical, methodological and consulting assistance to families with children, taking into account new social conditions, based on the analysis of advisory inquiries from modern parents raising preschool children. The purpose of the article is to identify the specific difficulties of modern parents in upbringing, education and development of preschool children and to substantiate effective consulting models, including preventive ones, contributing to the improvement of parental competence. Research methodology. The research consists of scientific concepts reflecting the general and specific patterns of mental development of children, presented in the works of Vygotsky L.S., Leontiev A.N.; Smirnova E.O., Ovcharova R.V., characterizing the communication and relationships of preschool children with adults from their environment; the works of Varga A.Ya., Spivakovskaya A.S., Gippenreiter Yu.B., substantiating the importance of psychological support of the family to ensure the full mental and personal development of a child. The main method of research was the content analysis of parents’ inquiries to the psychological service of the KSPU named after V.P. Astafyev for advice on upbringing, education and development of children. The analysis of 335 remote inquiries of parents raising preschool children was carried out. Research results. The study of parents’ requests allowed us to identify typical groups of inquiries, as well as their share ratio. The most typical requests are related to appearance of negative behaviors in a child, ensuring the development of positive personal qualities of a child, better organization of a child’s life, transition of a child to new social conditions. There is a large proportion of inquiries when parents simply show interest in the characteristics of the age development of a child and effective methods of raising him/her. Conclusion. The need of modern parents for professional and non-commercial assistance in raising children is growing. Based on the analysis of typical inquiries of parents, it is proposed to make changes in the nature of the provision of advisory assistance to parents, to give it a preventive character, which will help to provide parents with psychological education on the main age characteristics of a child, to prevent destructive actions in the process of raising children.

Towards a pedagogical model for teaching through rather than merely with technology: A cultural historical approach

The global impact of COVID-19, a pandemic that has seen much of the world resort to stringent lockdown rules and the closing of schools, poses challenges for teaching/learning as what was originally a face to face endeavour, has now become an online activity. I have argued in a national newspaper for the distinction between teaching with technology and teaching through technology. In this exploratory article, I engage with this distinction and move towards developing a model of online pedagogy that can lead to learning, in the absence of face to face engagement. The article argues for a pedagogical model capable of delivering content in the absence of a face to face teacher and illustrates this through data from an online intervention with my Honours students. The case study described is exploratory in nature and seeks to understand how an intervention can be set up to effect acquisition, rather than seeking to provide evidence for the success of such an intervention. I draw on the work of Vygotsky (1978) and Hedegaard (1998) to provide a picture of developmental pedagogy that leads to cognitive development. The article argues for how it is possible for online pedagogy to achieve developmental learning by providing findings that indicate how one can teach through technology.

Vygotsky and Psychology as Normative Science.

The political and revolutionary character of Vygotsky's theory consists not only in the project of a psychology based on the principles of Marxism, but in the idea of the primary role of practice as the source of the development of theoretical research itself. In the Vygotskyan analysis of the differences between normal and pathological in psychological processes, the normative character of psychology emerges, imposing patterns of behavior and personality beyond the specific social and cultural contexts in which they were developed. After the turning point of the monograph by Van der Veer and Valsiner (Understanding Vygotsky: A quest for synthesis, Blackwell, 1991), and the new knowledge derived from the publication of the Notebooks, edited by Zavershneva and Van der Veer (Vygotsky's notebook: A selection, Springer Nature, Berlin, 2018), recent historical studies on Vygotsky's work show that, faithful to this perspective, the Russian psychologist investigated the dialectical relationship between theory and practice particularly in the areas of pedology and defectology where the risk of a normativity, imposed from above and mediated by psychology, was very high.

Vygotsky’s decolonial pedagogical legacy in the 21st century: back to the future

ABSTRACT This largely theoretical paper traces the continued influence that the work of Vygotsky has in studying teaching/learning in schools. The advent of the 21st century has led to a call for novel pedagogical models to enable children think in ways pertinent to our technologically based societies. Currently, the 4th Industrial revolution is playing out against the backdrop of climate change, a rise in right wing movements, and a call for decolonial education to challenge the hegemony of a colonial worldview. This paper presents an argument for how Vygotsky and the Neo-Vygotskian’s work does not require a novel pedagogy, but rather, that we reclaim its relevance for the 21st century, illustrating how the concepts underpinning it can be used to decolonize contemporary pedagogy. The paper foregrounds aspects of Vygotsky’s work and draws on Hedegaard’s further developments to argue for a decolonial pedagogy that arises from this knowledge base. The problematic addressed in this paper relates to schooling in the 4th Industrial Revolution and suggests that schooling today must be about more than the acquisition of academic content; it must be geared toward developing critical, collaborative forms of thought capable of transforming both the child and the world. In this paper, I argue for the foundation of such a schooling in the work of Vygotsky and the Neo-Vygotskians, by articulating a decolonial pedagogy grounded on this body of work.

Exploring a Vygotskian Theory of Education and Its Evolutionary Foundations

AbstractDespite his popularity in educational discourses, Lev S. Vygotsky tends to be read mainly as an educational psychologist or learning theorist. His potential contribution to a theory of education remains largely undiscussed. The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is often misunderstood as a sort of “educational tool,” which severely reduces the richness of the concept emerging from Vygotsky's works. In this essay, Aline Nardo argues that acknowledging the evolutionary underpinnings in Vygotsky's thinking would enrich an educational discussion of Vygotsky. This substrate in Vygotsky's educational works, she argues, has been strikingly underappreciated, and her analysis seeks to address this gap by building upon the analogy between Vygotsky's Marxist negation of a Darwinian adaptation paradigm and his conceptual differentiation between learning and development in order to draw out the pedagogical dimension of the ZPD. Pedagogical interaction, in an evolutionary reading of Vygotsky, is qualitatively different from peer interactions, as it is connected to development rather than learning. This perspective, Nardo concludes, has important implications for the role of the teacher and a definition of “the pedagogical.”

Rethinking our Work with Leaders: Using Developmental Threshold Zones in Coaching

The current paper brings together three bodies of work, each of which contributes to a new approach to learning and development, and identifies three elements that can be used with leaders in coaching: security, stories, and scaffolding. In particular, it looks at how Developmental Threshold Zones (Drake, 2018a) can be used to enrich the coaching process and outcomes with leaders. The first section explores attachment theory and its contribution to understanding how leaders secure themselves relationally. The second section explores narrative coaching and its contribution to understanding how leaders develop and move through change. The third section explores Vygotsky's (1934/1987, 1978) work on zones of proximal development and its contribution to our understanding of the scaffolding leaders need into order to grow. Each section contributes to the our understanding of how to use Developmental Threshold Zones (DTZs) and how it can be used in coaching to facilitate transformative experiences for leaders using their own stories.

Investigating the Double-Move in Pedagogy in a Grade 4 Namibian Science Classroom: A Cultural Historical Analysis

This paper investigates how a teacher in a rural school in Namibia teaches science. Of interest to us is the nature of the classroom discourse in constructing scientific knowledge that is meaningful to students. We draw on the work of Vygotsky (1978) in order to understand teaching/learning as dialectically entailed and to understand the notion of scientific and spontaneous concepts as distinct from science concepts, and operationalise his pedagogical theory utilising Hedegaard’s (1998) notion of the double-move in pedagogy as fundamental to meaningful engagement. Through a detailed analysis of one teacher’s pedagogical discourse we show how the linking of scientific and spontaneous concepts can either facilitate or hinder learning. Our analysis points to the importance of co-constructing meaning in the class, between teacher and taught and illustrates how analogies and metaphors can fail to create meaning in a classroom if the teacher does not recruit the learners’ own everyday concepts.

Play as the leading activity of the preschool period

Cultural-historical psychology identifies play as the leading activity in preschool development. Vygotsky's (1967, 1978) seminal work outlined two categories of leading influences: play makes a foundational contribution to the development of semiotic mediation, and it involves active appropriation of social roles and rules and other integral aspects of social organization. Leont'ev's (1981) concept of appropriation and Bakhtin's (1981) concepts of heteroglossia and ideological becoming are used to elaborate and extend Vygotsky's original work, particularly with regard to creativity in preschool play. The paper concludes with a consideration of the pedagogical implications of the cultural-historical view on play, including the use of play to cultivate understanding of the arbitrary nature of signs and the appropriation of the social roles and organizational patterns of society.

Escolarização de alunos com deficiência no Brasil: uma análise sob a perspectiva dos estudos de Lev Vygotsky

Neste artigo objetiva-se investigar o processo de escolarização de pessoas com deficiência no Brasil, aproximando tal fenômeno a alguns pressupostos teóricos da obra de Lev Vygotsky, sobretudo aos escritos dispostos nos “Fundamentos de Defectologia”. Trata-se de um estudo bibliográfico, em que se buscou compreender os processos de escolarização das pessoas com deficiência no Brasil, a fim de discutir os fundamentos, que embasam o processo de inclusão escolar. Os resultados apontaram para um processo histórico de segregação das pessoas com deficiência, que se manifestou de diferentes modos: privação no interior de instituições especializadas, submissão ao silenciamento e ao abandono. Com base nos estudos da defectologia que, por sus vez, consideram o desenvolvimento humano na e pela coletividade, destacou-se a relevância da inclusão escolar, visto que, o processo de humanização ocorre por meio da apropriação cultural. Frente a esta perspectiva, conclui-se que a escola ganha destaque como um espaço privilegiado para a transmissão dos saberes historicamente sistematizados pela humanidade.

Vygotsky, education, and teacher education

ABSTRACT The work of Vygotsky is widely used in teacher education and other education-related literature, in discussion of sociocultural perspectives, and in relation to themes such as second language acquisition, the teaching of mathematics, and approaches to teaching and learning. Much of this work gives the impression that Vygotsky’s work is unproblematic. This paper challenges that view. It is argued that Vygotsky’s descriptions of learning and teaching draw on sociocultural themes but that the theoretical account he proposed to explain those descriptions is disputable. The possible implications for thinking about child development, learning, teaching, and teacher education are then considered.

Troubling Territories: Discomfort in Co‐Construction

AbstractThe Valuing Voices project (funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation) offered an opportunity to reconsider the territorial boundaries of learning in the arts by a group of teachers, artists, pupils and university lecturers. This article will consider the importance of the troubling or discomfort exposed within the processes of learning over the life of the project (before it was paused due to the 2020 CO‐VID 19 pandemic). There is considerable interest in defining zones of discomfort as a means of understanding the importance of resilience and determination in learning. Much of this stems from the work of Vygotsky, who described zones of proximal development. His work has subsequently been applied to learning activities in general and his particular interest in learning in art has been overlooked. Paul Hamlyn Foundation recognised the challenges of developing effective teachers of art and wanted to provoke some alternative opportunities by funding a number of projects across the UK. Valuing Voices was one of these which grew from an existing alliance of schools (catering for a range of additional needs), a number of artists (visual, sound and movement) who had previously only worked in mainstream educational settings and university staff specialising in art education. An earlier project had facilitated some dialogue within their traditional roles, but Valuing Voices set out to explore something more challenging as everyone involved became part of a co‐construction team. Much is written about the processes of collaboration, teamwork, communities of practice and related models of multiple learners operating together. This article sets out the additional lessons learned by all Valuing Voices participants occupying the zone of learning originally described by Vygotsky, where there was no ‘knowledgeable other’ to enable and further the learning process and all must deal with feelings of inadequacies and immense uncertainties. This was produced in recognition that little literature has been published on the process of co‐construction itself. The structure adopted here sets out the issues, the development of the two‐year project and the emotional and cognitive aspects explored along the way.

Linguagem e formação de conceitos: uma leitura a partir da escola de Vigotski

O presente estudo é fruto de uma pesquisa de mestrado que objetivou evidenciar, dentro da obra de Vigotski, a importância conferida à linguagem no processo da formação de conceitos. Trata-se de um estudo de natureza teórica, realizado mediante pesquisa bibliográfica, sendo dividido em dois momentos principais. No primeiro, ao retomar o legado marxiano do autor, apresenta-se o papel desempenhado pelas categorias trabalho e linguagem para o processo de formação da consciência. Tal discussão se faz necessária para abordar, no segundo momento, as características da linguagem e como se dá o processo de formação dos conceitos. Tal reflexão servirá de base para sinalizar, à luz da teoria de Vigotski, a importância do professor e da escola no processo de humanização do homem.