Vygotsky and Education: Instructional Implications and Applications of Sociohistorical Psychology

by Luis C. Moll

Overview

The seminal work of Russian theorist Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) has exerted a deep influence on psychology over the past 30 years. Vygotsky was an educator turned psychologist, and his writings clearly reflected his pedagogical concerns. For Vygotsky, schools and other informal educational situations represent the best cultural laboratories to study thinking. He emphasized the social organization of instruction, writing about the "unique form of cooperation between the child and the adult that is the central element of the educational process." Vygotsky's emphasis on the social context of thinking represents the reorganization of a key social system and associated modes of discourse, with potential consequences for developing new forms of thinking. This volume is devoted to analyzing Vygotsky's ideas as a means of bringing to light the relevance of his concepts to education. What does Vygotsky's approach have to offer education? Distinguished scholars from various countries and representing several disciplines discuss the essence and significance of Vygotsky's work, analyze the educational implications of his thoughts, and present applications in practice, addressing educational issues such as school organization, teacher training, educational achievement, literacy learning and development, uses of technology, community-based education, and special education.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521360517
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/30/1990
Pages:	452
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.40(d)

Table of Contents

Preface; Acknowledgments; Introduction Luis C. Moll; Part I. Historical and Theoretical Issues: 1. Vygotsky: the man and his cause Guillermo Blanck; 2. The historical context of Vygotsky's work: a sociohistorical approach Alberto Rosa and Ignacio Montero; 3. Congitive development and formal schooling: the evidence from cross-cultural research Michael Cole; 4. The voice of rationality in a sociocultural approach to mind James V. Wertsch; 5. The social origins of self-regulation Rafael M. Diaz, Cynthia J. Neal and Marina Amaya-Williams; 6. Vygotsky, the zone of proximal development, and peer collaboration: implications for classroom practice Jonathan Tudge; Part II. Educational Implications: 7. Teaching mind in society: teaching, schooling, and literate discourse Ronald Gallimore and Roland Tharp; 8. A ygotskian interpretation of Reading recovery Marie M. Clay and Courtney B. Cazden; 9. Vygotsky in a whole-language perspective Yetta M. Goodman and Kenneth S. Goodman; 10. The development of scientific concepts and discourse Carolyn P. Panofsky, Vera John-Steiner and Peggy J. Blackwell; Part III. Instructional Applications: 11. Changes in a teacher's views of interactive comprehension instruction Kathryn H. Au; 12. Learning to read and write in an inner-city setting: a longitudinal study of community change Gillian Dowley McNamee; 13. Writing as a cosial process Joan B. McLane; 14. Creating zones of possibilities: combining social contexts for instruction Luis C. Moll and James B. Greenberg; 15. The zone of proximal development as basis for instruction Mariane Hedgegaard; 16. Detecting and defining science problems: a study of video-mediated lessons Laura M. W. Martin; 17. Assisted performance in writing instruction with learning-disabled students Robert Rueda; Name index; Subject index.

Editorial Reviews

"Luis Moll has done an invaluable job in compiling and editing Vygotsky and Education, a major volume of original papers focusing on the educational implications of Vygotsky's psychological theory....Moll's introduction to the volume is an unusually informative and useful treatise in its own right. It elucidates several key issues in Vygotsky's thought in a way that goes clearly beyond the typical standards in the genre of introductions." The Quarterly Newsletter of the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition

"Vygotsky and Education is a useful book; it gives a true picture of Vygotskian scholarship in the West including its achievemnts, failures, and questions posed for future research." Alex Kozulin, American Journal of Psychology

From the Publisher