ABSTRACT

This thoroughly updated third edition provides students with an accessible overview of Vygotsky’s work, combining reprints of key journal and text articles with rich editorial commentary. Lev Vygotsky provided the twentieth century with an enticing mix of intellectual traditions within an attempt to provide an account of the social formation of the mind. His legacy is an exciting, but at times challenging fusion of ideas.

Retaining a multi-disciplinary theme, Introduction to Vygotsky, 3rd edition begins with a review of current interpretations of Vygotksy’s original work. Harry Daniels goes on to consider the development of Vygotsky’s work against a backdrop of political turmoil in the developing USSR. Major elements explored within the volume include the use of the 'culture' concept in social development theory, the development of means of describing social life, the concept of mediation, and implications for teaching, learning and assessment


This book will be essential reading for Vygotskian students in developmental psychology, education and social sciences, as well as to students on specialised courses on cultural, cross-cultural and socio-cultural psychology, philosophical psychology, philosophy of science, history of psychology and Soviet/Russian history.

chapter |34 pages

Introduction to the Third Edition

chapter 1|24 pages

The Development of Vygotsky's Thought

An introduction to Thinking and Speech

chapter 2|14 pages

Mediation

chapter 3|27 pages

Putting Culture in the Middle

chapter 4|47 pages

Studies of Expansive Learning

Foundations, findings and future challenges

chapter 5|19 pages

Unresolved Tensions in Sociocultural Theory

Analogies with contemporary sociological debates

chapter 6|24 pages

Talk in Institutional Context and Institutional Context in Talk

Categories as situated practices 1

chapter 7|23 pages

Researching Pedagogy

A sociocultural agenda 1

chapter 9|11 pages

Cognitive Ecology

chapter 10|9 pages

The Unity of Intellect and Will

Vygotsky and Spinoza

chapter 11|28 pages

Vygotsky's Stage Theory 1

The psychology of art and the actor under the direction of perezhivanie

chapter 12|13 pages

Teaching–Learning and Development as Activist Projects of Historical Becoming

Expanding Vygotsky's approach to pedagogy