Lev Vygotsky CulturalHistorical Approach to Human Development Higher

Lev Vygotsky • Cultural-Historical Approach to Human Development • Higher Mental Functions. Tool-Mediated Human Activity • Social Content of Development, Psychological Age • “Instruction is good only when it proceeds ahead of development"

Cultural-Historical Approach to Human Development • Human conscience as a product of cultural historic development. Conscience is not given to human beings; it has its genesis and history of development. • The laws of child development in ontogenesis differ the laws of ontogenetic development of animal kinds • Vygotsky not only declared those principles but concretized what was a specificity of human mental life and its development: Doctrine of higher mental functions; Law of higher mental functions development.

Higher Mental Functions. Tool-Mediated Human Activity • Specificity of human mental development: Higher mental functions (HMF) have being formed during one’s lifespan. HMF are cultural and social and oppose to natural mental functions that are inborn. There are two main hypotheses in the background of Vygotsky’s doctrine of HMF: 1) On mediate nature of HMF and their special structure, and 2) On HMF origin (the law of development of HMF). • HMF are the product of social historic development and their occurrence is determined by the features of human life and human labor activity. Signs and meanings mediating the HMF are psychological tools of human mental activity functionally similar to labor tools. • Examples of HMF: logical thinking, voluntary memory, voluntary attention. Psychological tools: verbal meanings, math signs, mnemotechnic means • HMF are characterized by their “double sociality” – by structure (mediated by social sign and meaning) and by origin (occur only in the process of communication and collaboration with other humans

Higher Mental Functions. Tool-Mediated Human Activity • The Law of HMF Development : Each HMF appears on the stage twice: firstly as collective, social activity, that is as interpsychic function, and secondly as individual activity, as internal manner of a child thinking, as intrapsychic function. • Two lines of HMF Development: 1) Internalization of mental functions; 2) Development of meanings • Internalization of mental functions: Transition of a sign from external into internal plan • Development of meanings. Three stages: 1) sincrets; 2) complexes; 3) concepts.

Psychological Age: Social Content of Development • Psychological age as a unit of analysis of development. Two constituents of a psychological age: Social content of development and age-specific psychological new formations. • “Nearest” and “distant” relations of a child to society. • Relations “child – social adult” where an adult is a representative of social requirements, norms, and social meanings of activity. • Relations “child – close adult” and “child – peer”, forming individual-personal relations. • Psychological age as a new type of personality formation, which occurs first time at that age stage and determines child conscience, his/her interrelations with environment, whole dynamics of development during that age period • Age-related crisis

Interrelation of Instruction and Development • “Instruction is good only when it proceeds ahead of development" • Zone of Proximal Development • Instruction as a “Moving force” of Development. • Instruction, which “proceeds ahead of development”, or “developing instruction” provides a child with samples of HMF • “Developing instruction” has to be performed inside the Zone of Proximal Development; System of scientific concepts has to become a main content of developing instruction • Sensitive periods

Contribution of Lev Vygotsky to understanding of human development • • • Doctrine of structure and dynamic of psychological age as a unit of child development analysis; Doctrine of cultural-historical nature of human mind and definition of human mental development specificity as formation of HMF; Criteria of child mental development: occurrence of HMF and agespecific new formations, changes of systemic and sense construction of conscience; Law of HMF development as process of sign and meaning internalization; Statement about leading role of instruction for child mental development; Criteria of developing instruction (instruction in zone of proximal development, content of instruction as system of scientific concepts

Main directions of criticism • • • Opposing of natural and higher mental functions Excessive keenness on sign structure; intellectualization of child development Insufficient taking the role of real child activity into account Lack of operationalization of main concepts (such as “social content of development”, “zone of proximal development” et al. Implicit domination of traditional representations about human mind and mental functions

Post-Vygotskian developmental psychology: Main lines General points • A. Leontiev: • Human development as a special form of development, appropriation of social-cultural experience • Development as overcoming replaces development as adaptation: initial helplessness of a human child makes adaptation impossible as there is nothing to adapt. • Main paradox of human development: from helplessness to power. Helplessness at the very beginning opens unlimited possibilities of development through the potential of appropriation and overcoming • Role of child activity in development. Leading activity.

Post-Vygotskian psychology: Main lines Role of communication in development • A. Zaporozhets, M. Lisina • Functions, structure, and regularities of child communication development. • Functions: transmission of cultural experience, organization of common and shared activity; formation and development interpersonal relations; social cognition and self-cognition. • Each age stage is characterized by its own specific form of communication. The criteria for differentiation of those forms are: time of occurrence, role in the system of real child activity, communication needs, motives, and tools.

Post-Vygotskian psychology: Main lines Problem of periodization of mental development • A. Leontiev: two criteria – child’s place in the system of social relations and type of child’s leading activity • L. Bozhovitch: two other criteria – social content of development and personality new formations • D. Elkonin: periodisation as a regular alternation of periods with primary development of child affective sphere, his personality, and periods with primary development of operational, intellectual sphere Leading role of instruction for child mental development D. Elkonin, V. Dawydow: Theory of developing instruction

Main directions of criticism • • • Opposing of natural and higher mental functions Excessive keenness on sign structure; intellectualization of child development Insufficient taking the role of real child activity into account Lack of operationalization of main concepts (such as “social content of development”, “zone of proximal development” et al. Implicit domination of traditional representations about human mind and mental functions

Main directions of criticism • • • Opposing of natural and higher mental functions Excessive keenness on sign structure; intellectualization of child development Insufficient taking the role of real child activity into account Lack of operationalization of main concepts (such as “social content of development”, “zone of proximal development”, et al. Implicit domination of traditional representations about human mind and mental functions

Galperin about Vygotsky • “In my view, he was the only real man of genius in the history of Russian and Soviet psychology. He was also a child of his time. To those in the West who are so enthusiastic now about Vygotsky I want to say that they are considerably delayed in turning to him. In the meantime, we have made some progress, not so much from a theoretical point of view, but, I should rather say, from a historical one. In the West this process must, apparently, still be experienced; but eventually, they will also become disappointed in Vygotsky” (1972/1986)

P. Galperin • “If we view the mind as orientation activity and if we know the changes that an action undergoes in becoming a mental action, it is indeed possible to see attention in this way, and we shall be able to view the problem of attention in a different light and more optimistically. • To see the mind as orientation activity means to approach it not from the standpoint of the "phenomena of consciousness, " but from the standpoint of its objective role in behavior” (1957/1989)

Galperin’s approach introduces the following new elements: (a) the approach considers the nature of human mental life, its coming into existence, and its further development in the context of philogenetical, anthropogenetical and ontogenetic processes; b) it considers the system of psychological conditions, which enable knowledge and skill formation with desired and prescribed outcomes. According to Galperin’s approach, mental action is a functional structure that is continually being formed throughout an individual’s lifetime; c) mental action can and should be considered as the result of a complex, multimodal transformation of initially external processes performed by means of certain tools. In other words, from a nomothetical point of view, concrete mental actions and images are the results of the internalization of external processes.

The nature of mental actions • What does it mean to act mentally? • Why is it possible in one case and impossible in the other case? • Two different mechanisms may underlie a lack or even an absence of ability to act in mental plan: 1) macro-genetically, a child's mental plan may be underdeveloped (Gal’perin, Piaget) and, hence, causes his inability to act mentally within specific spheres of reality; 2) micro-genetically, the mental actions that are the prerequisites for learning specific content may not have been formed at all (or may have been formed with inappropriate and insufficient properties) in the course of a student's past experience (Galperin). • Mental action is a functional structure that is continually being formed throughout an individual’s life. • Using mental actions, human being plans, regulates, and controls his/her performance by means of socially established patterns, standards and evaluations.

GENERAL STRUCTURE OF THE GALPERIN'S PSYCHOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK 1. Conception of SUBJECT OF PSYCHOLOGY 2. Conception of HUMAN MENTAL LIFE EVOLUTION (philogenetic, anthropogenetic, ontogenetic aspects) 3. Conception of PLANNED STAGE-BY-STAGE FORMATION OF MENTAL ACTIVITY (PSFMA Theory) 4. Conception of TYPES AND FORMS OF HUMAN MENTAL ACTIVITY

Primary and secondary properties of human actions (by Galperin, 1992) Primary properties 1. Composition of action's objective content. 2. Extent of differentiation of problem situation essential elements from non-essential. 3. Level of action internalization. 4. "Energetic" (speed and enforcement) parameters. Secondary properties 1. Reasonability. 2. Generalization. 3. Consciousness. 4. Criticism.

m e t s y s A M : The PSF s m e t s y s b u s r u o f s e d Inclu conditions that ensure adequate motivation for the subject's mastering of the action; conditions that support consecutive transformations of intermediate forms of action (materialized, verbal) and end-transformation into the mental plan; conditions for cultivating, or "refining through practice", desired properties of mental action; conditions that provide formation of necessary orientation base of action;

Structure of Complete Orientation Basis of Action 1. Representation of action final product. 2. Representation of intermediate products. 3. Representation of general plan of final product achievement. 4. Representation of plans of intermediate products achievement. 5. Representation of tools of action being formed (orientation & execution tools). 6. Representation of plan and tools of control and correction of action execution. 7. Representation of entire structure of complete orientation basis of action.

Stages of mental action formation (by Galperin, 1967/1992) 1. Stage of formation of motivation base of action. 2. Stage of formation of orientation base of action. 3. Stage of material (materialized) form of action. 4. Stage of external socialized verbal form of action (overt speech). 5. Stage of internal verbal form of action (covert speech). 6. Stage of mental action formation and final change, characterized by action's automatization and simultaneouzation.

Conditions for cultivating, or refining through practice, desired properties of mental action (by Galperin, 1972/1989) • General logical types of problem situations • General psychological types of problem situations • Special object types of problem situations • Principles of variation of problem situations

e h t f o S N O I T A C I L H P C A AP O R P P A S ’ N I R GALPE Looking through the history of Galperin's approach: - a period of great optimism regarding the effectiveness and efficiency of the approach (1950 s – early 1980 s). It seemed to be possible to transform radically the methods, as well as the traditional results, of the learning/teaching process using this approach. As has been convincingly demonstrated by hundreds of experimental and applied studies, a whole set of main objectives that are the goal of any schooling effort have been fulfilled through this approach.

e h t f o S N O I T A C I L H C A APP O R P P A S ’ N I GALPER These are: guaranteed acquisition of the curriculum content by the majority of learners without prolonging the time allocated and additional cost; crucial reduction of a gap between knowledge acquired and its application into practice; transfer of the knowledge acquired to new situations; learning motivation increase.

APPLICATIONS of the GALPERIN’S APPROACH Studies concerned the very different kinds and types of schools (primary, secondary, vocational, special schools). Subjects (learners) were ordinary, disabled and gifted children of different ages (from 5 to 18). Specific domains were also very different: writing and arithmetic, native and foreign languages, math, scientific and humanitarian disciplines, drawing, music, physical training. At last, psychologically heterogeneous structures were the objects of planned stage‑by‑stage formation: separate specific domain mental actions and connected with them concepts and representations; groups and systems of actions and concepts; actions, which underlie cognitive as well as metacognitive strategies and heuristics.

APPLICATIONS of the GALPERIN’S APPROACH If to compare the 60 s - 80 s’ and later publications one could easily discover a significant decrease of a wave of optimism concerning the PSFMA’s application. Moreover, anyone being familiar with a current school education situation can hardly discover the PSFMA's extensive real practical applications in contemporary schools as well as in schools of the nearest past. Certainly, there was and there is a lot of interesting experiences in different parts of the world, which demonstrated and do demonstrate success, failures and problems of the PSFMA's practical usage; however a scale of the use is rather limited.

DECREASE OF EFFICACY OF LEARNING/INSTRUCTION (DELI) PHENOMENON UP MP SS = 300% MP (supervised by UP) MI MI (supervised by MP) MI SS = 21% ☺☺☺ SS = 120% ☺☺ SS = 65% ☺ ? ? ?

What is the reason? Besides the obvious social‑economic and social‑psychological reasons that stand behind implementation of any psychoeducational innovations there exists one more reason of a theoretical nature concerning the ways and means of the Galperin's approach using. Historically, it has been established that in most psychological researches performed along the lines of the approach discussed, the substantial pedagogical results of planned stage‑by‑stage formation of mental actions first came to the fore.

What is the reason? However the proponents' enthusiasm about really unusual and hopeful results had a reverse side: it led to the serious misunderstanding of the status of the Galperin's approach. Sometimes the approach is interpreted not as a general description of laws and regularities, by means of which one may try to explain the concrete dynamics and results of human mental activity formation, but rather as a set of technologies and prescriptions how to teach. Indeed, such an interpretation distorts the reality and transforms the approach to some "absolute" knowledge like a sort of the “philosophers' stone”.

e h t f o S N O I T A C I L H C A APP O R P P A S ’ N I R GALPE One should not to forget that any scientific research ("pure“ scientific research or practically oriented) is always based on a certain system of abstractions accepted. A direct use of research methods, created on the basis of such abstractions, has a number of fundamental restrictions.

e h t f o S N O I T A C I L H C A APP O R P P A S ’ N I GALPER

e h t f o S N O I T A C I L H P C A AP O R P P A S ’ N I R GALPE It is to link, on the one hand, general laws and regularities of formation of subject mental activities as a nuclear part of any learning/teaching process and, on the other hand, specific individual and socialpsychological characteristics of the learners as well as concrete characteristics of the concrete schooling (teaching, training, etc. ) situation. The elaboration of such a procedure occupies an intermediate position between fundamental psychological knowledge and real process of schooling.

Three-model scheme of instructional situation • Psychological model • Psychological-pedagogical model • Technological (procedural) model

Three-model scheme of instructional situation • Psychological model The psychological model includes (1) model of knowledge and skills planned to be acquired as a set (a system if possible) of definite learner's mental actions and concepts; (2) description of macro- and micro-structure of the learner's various level orientation that has to underlay the newly-formed mental actions; (3) description of age-related- and individual peculiarities of students, and (4) description of age-related- and individual peculiarities of students, and (5) description of age-related- and individual peculiarities of teachers (6) description of the system of psychological conditions to provide the action formation with planned properties.

HETERARCHICAL STRUCTURE OF HUMAN ORIENTATION "Subject’s" side "Object’s" side ======================= VALUE orientation Objective hierarchy of things, processes, events SENSE orientation Hierarchy of product and sub-products of action GOAL orientation Hierarchy of action tools and means EXECUTION orientation

Three-model scheme of instructional situation • Psychological-pedagogical model The main function of the psychological-pedagogical model is: • projection of the psychological model's demands on the concrete objective and subjective conditions of learning/teaching process, • working out the organizational forms of conducting instruction and their presence during a lesson; • scheduling classroom- and homework (if any), individual, small group and collective forms of learning activities; • design a role of available technical aids of teaching (including computers if and when necessary) and their desired facilities, etc.

Three-model scheme of instructional situation Technological (procedural) model The last, procedural, or technological, model includes: • detailed description of the teaching process with distribution of classes according to form and time with a precise description of the goal of each class' fragment and means of its goal achievement; • complete list of teaching methodological documentation such as: schemes, different kinds and types of both learning and checking tasks; • description of the order of application of technical aids and other materials specified for different types and kinds of instructional situations.