Sociocultural Approaches to Learning and

Sociocultural Approaches to Learning and Development John-Steiner Mahn

Vygotsky’s core argument: interpersonal processes are transformed into interpersonal processes.

“genetic approach” and dialectic: study how a thing comes to be, not just the result of development

“external devices like talk and charts and writing are windows in the evolution and appearance of cognitive constructs.” Connect with work on webbing, getting access to what experts are doing. (Newman, Griffin, Cole 1989)

Functional systems: integrated networks of symbolic systems, able to respond to new challenges. This is the substrate on which interpersonal -> interpersonal. Watching as learners appropriate new psychological tools “Appropriation of symbol systems"

-> Vygotsky and Piaget both reject stimulus-> response (behaviorist); Piaget says the response was there first, allowing sensitivity to the stimulus. Vygotsky focuses on interpretation (hermeneutics!)

The search for method is central; the process is constantly becoming part of the subject. 

Central focus on how thought and speech become intertwined

“Internalization is conceived of as a representational activity” 

-> So schools should be a place where the cultural use of symbolic systems is heightened and clarified. A focal point for the arts and sciences.  -> How can we use technology to scaffold computational culture?

ZPD joins learning and development

Vygotsky sees Piaget as claiming “maturation is viewed as a precondition for learning but never the result of it."

Brown: How do “divergent classrooms become learning communities”?

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This context is so important: Vygotsky  “faced the social task of educating the overwhelmingly illiterate population following the tremendous upheavals that transformed the Soviet Union”

Important foundation for Maker Education:

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