DEVELOPING AGENTIVE SUBJECTS IN SCHOOL: A RUSSIAN CASE STUDY OF EDUCATIONAL CHANGE FROM BELOW. In B.Selau & R. Fonseca Cultural Historical Approach: Educational Research in Different Contexts. Chapter 8. pp. 171 - 190 (original) (raw)

Vygotsky and Sociocultural Approaches to Teaching and Learning

Handbook of Psychology, Second Edition, 2012

Even though he was writing over 80 years ago, the work of the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky is still very relevant to educational psychology today, especially his theories on the interrelationship of individual and social processes in learning and development. In this chapter, we look at Vygotsky's historical background and describe the development of his theoretical framework and methodological approach, focusing on his reliance on the dialectical approach of Marx and Engels. Central to Vygotsky's work is the examination of the unification of thinking processes with language processes. Vygotsky spends most of his last and major work Thinking and Speech describing the nature of verbal thinking -the entity that issues from that unification, and its key role in the development of higher psychological processes. We describe a central, but little known, aspect of his work, the internal system of meaning that is created through the use of language in social interaction and that is central to concept formation. Having described Vygotsky's theory and methodology, we provide an overview of ways that researchers following in his tradition have applied them in practice, particularly in literacy and second language learning research.

The Many Facets of Vygotsky: A Cultural Historical Voice from the Future

Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 1995

Jerome Bruner had it right: Vygotsky speaks to us from the future (Blanck 1990). A odd statement for Bruner to make, considering that Vygotsky died in 1934, and much of his work was lost in the destruction of the Soviet Union during World War 11. How then can an obscure Russian psychologist, only a few of whose works have been translated into English,' capture such a powerful hold on current psychological thinking about the interrelationship between the development of mind and its embodiment in social interaction? That he captured such a hold is evident in the growing popularity of symposiums on his work, as well as recent publications not just in the field of psychology but in anthropology, art, literature, and sociolinguistics. How do we explain the sudden surge of interest in Vygotsky's research, beginning in the last decade or so, and more puzzling, why has he not acquired as much prominence in American psychological circles as he has enjoyed in European and South American circles? The purpose of this theme issue is to explore answers to these questions while featuring some of the most current research on Vygotsky's theories. Not only will readers encounter new perspectives on relatively familiar topics (e.g., the zone of proximal development), but whole new areas of Vygotsky's thinking with respect to aesthetics, pedagogy, and discourse processes will be revealed. The issue also reveals different perspectives taken from Vygotsky's works in other countries. Each article highlights the particular cultural approach of authors who belong to diverse scholarship traditions. We have chosen to keep the narrative style and the format that match each author's cultural reality. Individual voices emerge by our choice to adhere as closely as possible to the original language in which the discourse was elaborated. By translating faithfully to match the authors' intent, we hope these articles will inform the reader about diverse ways of integrating Vygotsky's perspectives into the body of research and action inspired by cultural-historical theory of human development.

Vygotsky's theory in the classroom: Introduction

There seems to be a certain mystery in the current popularity of Vygotsky's ideas. Why does a theory developed in Moscow a few years after the Russian Revolution capture the imagination of European and American educators at the beginning of the 21 st century?

Vygotsky under debate: two points of view on school learning

Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2013

Vygotsky's name has never been so evoked as it is at the present time, yet the educational scientific community faces an awkward situation. On the one hand, his works have been used as the basis for certain socioconstructivist school reforms that he would surely have completely disapproved of (Vygotsky, 1934/1987, p. 211). On the other hand, the recent collection of his writings (Yvon & Zinchenko, 2012) and other works (Brossard, 1999, 2004; Schneuwly, 2008b) lead us to another interpretation, in which the internal evolution of didactic content is at the forefront of Vygotsky's precepts. Therefore, although it is unpleasant, we are confronted by different points of view on Vygotsky's work that need to be investigated and exposed. This article sets out to achieve that objective.

���Vygotsky���s Neglected Legacy���: Cultural-Historical Activity Theory

Review of Educational Research, 2007

The authors describe an evolving theoretical framework that has been called one of the best kept secrets of academia: cultural-historical activity theory, the result of proposals Lev Vygotsky first articulated but that his students and followers substantially developed to constitute much expanded forms in its second and third generations. Besides showing that activity theory transforms how research should proceed regarding language, language learning, and literacy in particular, the authors demonstrate how it is a theory for praxis, ...

Evaluation of Teacher's Classroom Practices in the Context of Vygotsky's Cultural-Historical Theory

ÖThe effective continuation of the learning process depends on the teacher's interaction with children. Teachers must be facilitative in this interaction process while guiding children's learning. This study focuses on determining how teachers' classroom practices are reflected in the learning environment in the context of Vygotsky's cultural-historical theory. The study was designed as a case study from qualitative research models. All six teachers who constituted the study's data set worked in the same preschool education institution. Each teacher was observed for five days during the half-day period at the school using the non-participant observer technique. The observations were followed according to the "Teacher Observation Form" prepared by the researchers. This form included five headings: "Use of Language", "Use of Mediators," "Shared Activity," "Zone of the Proximal Development," and "Play." Content analysis was used to analyze the observations. As a result, it was concluded that teachers need to be informed about Vygotsky's cultural-historical theory in terms of theory and practice and that they need to share practices in the theory infrastructure.