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, thereby offering the potential to overcome some of the most profound problems that have plagued both educational theorizing and practice.

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Developmental psychology in the Soviet Union

“Vygotsky’s Neglected Legacy”: Cultural-Historical Activity Theory:

Introduction Harry Daniels, Michael Cole and James V. Wertsch Part I. Vygotsky in Context: 1. Vygotsky in context: 1900-35 Rene van der Veer 2. Vygotsky's demons David Bakhurst 3. An interesting resemblance: Vygotksy, Mead and American pragmatism Anne Edwards 4. Vygotsky, Mead, and the new sociocultural studies of identity Dorothy Holland and William Lachicotte, Jr 5. Vygotsky on thinking and speaking Vera P. John-Steiner Part II. Readings of Vygotsky: 6. Terminology in L. S. Vygotsky's writing Boris Meshcheryakov 7. Mediation James V. Wertsch 8. Vygotsky and culture Michael Cole and Natalia Gajdamaschko 9. Thought and word: the approaches of L. S. Vygotsky and G. G. Shpet Vladamir Zinchenko 10. The development of children's conceptual relation to the world with focus on concept in pre-school children's activity Mariane Hedegaard 11. Inside and outside the Zone of Proximal Development: an eco-functional reading of Vygotsky Amelia Alvarez and Pablo del Rio Part III. Applications of Vygotsky's Work: 12. Pedagogy Harry Daniels 13. Sociocultural theory and education of children with special needs: from defectology to remedial pedagogy Alex Kozulin and Boris Gindis 14. Putting Vygotsky to work: the change laboratory as an application of double stimulation Yrjo Engestrom.

The Cambridge Companion to Vygotsky

A greater acknowledgment of relational interdependence between individual and social agencies is warranted within conceptions of learning throughout working life. Currently, some accounts of learning tend to overly privilege social agency in the form of situational contributions. This de-emphasises the contributions of the more widely socially sourced, relational, and negotiated contributions of both individual and social agency. As these accounts fail to fully acknowledge the accumulated outcomes of interactions between the individual and social experience that shape human cognition ontogentically and that also act to remake culture, they remain incomplete and unsatisfactory. In response, this article proposes a consideration of the role for individual agency (e.g., intentionality, subjectivity, and identity), the ways in which it is socially shaped over time and serves to be generative of individuals' cognitive experience, and its role in subsequently construing what is experienced socially. This agency...

/pdf/relational-interdependence-between-social-and-individual-5b21fl9s62.pdf

Relational Interdependence Between Social and Individual Agency in Work and Working Life

Lev Vygotsky was one of the most talented and brilliant of Soviet psychologists. Despite his tragically early death at the age of 38 his accomplishments are enormously impressive: he played a key role in restructuring the Psychological Institute of Moscow; set up two research laboratories in the major cities of the USSR; founded what we call special education; and authored some 180 works. His innovative theories of thought and speech are important not just for psychology but for other disciplines also. Yet even though his ideas have increasingly won popularity there remains a strong need for an accessible introduction to the man and his work. In Lev Vygotsky: Revolutionary Scientist Lois Holzman and Fred Newman have written a clear introductory text suitable for undergraduate students. In so doing they have taken the opportunity to set straight the misunderstandings and misuses of Vygotsky's ideas. and his work

Lev Vygotsky : revolutionary scientist

A dynamic systems model is proposed on the basis of a general developmental mechanism adopted from the theories of J. Piaget and L. S. Vygotsky, more particularly a mechanism based on the concepts assimilation versus accommodation and actual development versus zone of proximal development. In the model, action and experience have a distributed effect on contents (skills, knowledge, rules, action patterns, etc.) ordered along an abstract developmental distance dimension. After a mathematical treatment of the model, an overview is given of empirical evidence on continuous and discontinuous change. The dynamic model is then applied to the classic Piagetian and the neo-Piagetian models, models of continuous and discontinuous domain-specific change, and to models of cognitive strategies, transitions, microdevelopment, and inter- and intraindividual variability.

Developmental psychology in the Soviet Union

Citations

“Vygotsky’s Neglected Legacy”: Cultural-Historical Activity Theory:

The Cambridge Companion to Vygotsky

Relational Interdependence Between Social and Individual Agency in Work and Working Life

Lev Vygotsky : revolutionary scientist

A dynamic systems model of basic developmental mechanisms: Piaget, Vygotsky, and beyond

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