Milda Bredikyte
Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, LUES, Vilnius

Development of Self-regulation in Play
Narrative play and learning approach developed at the Research Laboratory of Play (Oulu University, Finland and LUES, Lithuania) will be introduced. The approach combines children’s narratives, play, exploration and learning in a specific way in which all the activities are embedded in the context of jointly constructed story line. Vygotsky’s ideas about children’s play, development, creativity and imagination are behind the narrative play and learning approach.

The presentation will analyze how narrative play activities support the formation of self-regulation and collaborative learning in young children. The results from two projects – “Development of Self-regulation in Play” and “Narrative environments for play and learning” will be discussed.

---

Thor Ola Engen
Innland Norway University of Applied Sciences

Metacognition and reading strategies in a Vygotskian perspective
The paper addresses the concepts of metacognition and (reading) strategies, the origin of which are usually traced back to the 1970s. However, the paper argues, that conscious awareness, which Vygotsky introduced in the early 1930s, is another term for the same concept, so that the concept history of metacognition in reality not only goes further back, but also should recognize Vygotsky as one of the founding fathers. In the literature it is further assumed that students already at the end of the elementary stage make use of a repertoire av linguistic, cognitive and metacognitive skills – included reading strategies – in order to construct meaning in reading. According to Vygotsky, however,  “… conscious awareness [metacognition] enters through the gate opened up by scientific concept” (Vygotsky 1987, 191), meaning that metacognitive skills develop as a function of student’s work with academic or scientific texts. Thus, the assumption that students as early as the elementary stage make use of metacognitive skills is problematic

---

Przemysław Gąsiorek
Uniwersytet A.Mickiewicza w Poznaniu, Wydział Pedagogiczno-Artystyczny w Kaliszu

An adult in child's perezhivanie and the formation of higher mental functions

Higher psychological functions are one of the basic concepts of cultural-historical approach of L. S. Vygotsky. Their formation, as a transition from the interpsychic to the intrapsychic, is one of the key values in the development of the person. The most important role in this process play adults and their reflection (and refraction) in child’s perezhivanie. The purpose of the presentation is to analyze this phenomenon, especially from the perspective of contemporary changes in the relationships of children and adults. These changes are visible in the three elements of higher psychological functions: mediation, consciousness and free will. The presentation will be an attempt to answer the following questions: Is it possible to formation of higher mental functions without adults? What adults should be characterized to develop higher mental functions?

---

Dorota  Gołębniak
Collegium Da Vinci w Poznaniu

Re/imaging  teachers’ professionalism. Socio-cultural perspective?  

By reapplying Wittgenstein’s notion of the collision between the ‘experimental methods and conceptual confusion’ (1958), my aim is to point out the barriers that obstruct the transition from “(CHAT) theory to practical change” based on the model of teachers’ professional education in Poland - a model which facilitates the illusion of method-centred teaching (favouring direct application of pre-established theoretical constructs). The model in question fails to prevent situations where teachers fall into the trap of resorting to simple solutions and tools which their trainings or on-line resources present as scientific. 

Since change in this regard is necessary, my proposal is to use transformative learning concepts as possible strategies of moving ‘beyond instrumental, missionary mindset’ in teachers’ professional education, along with work on ‘deeply held assumptions’ and culturally conditioned beliefs, which is best articulated by David Didau in his fundamental question: What if everything you knew about education was wrong?

---

Ewa Filipiak, Ewa Lemańska-Lewandowska

Uniwersytet Kazimierza Wielkiego w Bydgoszczy

Developing theoretical thinking in early years education children through developmental tasks –
a teaching experiment (ACK Project)
Lev S. Vygotsky’s cultural-historical theory of development did not only affect, in a special way, the understanding of cognitive development of an individual but it also introduced new procedures in research methodology. Procedures that allow one to uncover the potential of development residing in the maturing way of child functioning, in observing his forms of activities and engaged participation in task solution. An original „theory-method” by Vygotsky and connected with in methodological procedures - teaching experiment, genetic experiment - were applied to a research project run in the Department of Didactics and Culture of Education Studies (Developing teaching in early childhood education in line with Lev S. Vygotsky’s concepts - ACK).
In the course of the experiment, conditions to develop theoretical thinking in early years education children were set up by introducing purpose-designed developmental tasks (based on the concepts of Lev S. Vygotsky and V.V. Davydov) directed towards studying problems connected with language, mathematics, science and art. In line with the assumptions voiced by D.B. Elkonin and Davydov (1989), the assignments proposed in the experiment were scientific tasks hidden in problematic situations, with the aim of developing scientific activities in children. The analysis of problem situations was conducted by children in a scientific way. Problem situations that were presented to children required abstract thinking and complex mental operations, such as: comparing, analysis, synthesis, abstraction and generalisation. The necessary condition to realise cognition directed to the development of theoretical thinking was doing tasks by children in a „mental plan”, „in the mind”, in the inner plan. After this presentation the basic assumptions of the experiment will be presented as well as the plan and organisation of research, examples of developmental tasks and conclusions drawn from the research.

---

Pentti Hakkarainen
Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences

Paradigms and methodology of play research

There is clear discrepancy between cultural-historical and dominant western paradigms of play research. I have compared paradigmatic approaches of three play research projects: 1) Lillard et al recent review of research projects, which study the relation between play and child development, 2) Howes et al. study of joint construction of pretend in three different environments and 3) Vygotsky’s methodological – paradigmatic ideas of pedology. The review study looks for hard facts and evidence of causal relation between play and development. Here causality is understood as effective cause relation between variables (play and development). Howes et al. has picked some concepts from Vygotsky (ZPD, joint construction of pretend of adults and children) and mixed them with the paradigm of classic experiment (e.g. use of the same toys in data collection). I argue that Vygotsky’s methodological ideas of play lecture are part of methodological sketch of pedology.

Often western play researchers argue that qualitative descriptive western methodology is identical with cultural-historical methodology. This can only be explained on the basis of insufficient knowledge.

---

Maciej Jabłoński
Uniwersytet Kazimierza Wielkiego w Bydgoszczy

From Vygotsky to Feuersteina. Therapy of cognitive functions in mentally disabled individuals

In the article I will refer to Wygostki's thesis  claiming that the condition of a person's intellectual development can be defined by establishing its two levels- the level of actual development and the sphere of the closest development. The concept of the sphere of the closest development enables to perceive the relation between a teacher/pedagogist/therapist and a student/pupil's  development and the following formula:" only  teaching that is  preceded by development is good" ( Wygostki 1971, p. 531-547). Feuerstein shows how to learn through so-called mediation that assumes that a therapits's intervention while his   student is solving a task is a catalyst of changes of  a given person's understanding  and stimulates them to learn. Thus, mediation  changes cognitive strutures. Mediation teaches an intellectually disabled person concentration and indepedent thinking, which  enables steady increase of efficiency of cognitive structures. Ability to mediate in order to increase efficiency of cognitive structures ( Feuerstein, Lewin-Benham 2012,s. 36). It is thanks to  appropriate mediation that a student will learn how to create his own sphere of the closest learning. Learning the world.

---

Daiva Jakavonytė-Staškuvienė
Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences, Lithuania

Text comprehension abilities of 1st grade pupils in lithuania

Lithuania has been facing the problem of declining text comprehension abilities of primary school children for more than a decade. The majority of pupils will have achieved only low and satisfactory text comprehension levels by the end of the fourth grade, whereas the numbers of pupils who have achieved basic and intermediate levels in reading are considerably lower. The science and practice of the Lithuanian language teaching is searching for answers to this problem, however, there are no placement tests in Lithuania to measure the text comprehension abilities of pupils who have just started school in the 1st grade. The article analyses the data of the survey the objective of which was to determine and evaluate 1st grade children’s level of achievement in text comprehension at the beginning of the school year. The tasks of the research were the following: to examine the share of pupils who are fluent readers and those who are learning to read; to determine the level of text comprehension of those who can already read. The problem of the research was the following: what is the level of text comprehension abilities of 1st grade pupils at the beginning of school year? The scope of the survey was 639 school children (aged 7). The sampling of school children was random based on the method of cluster random sampling whereby classes were selected randomly and all pupils of a certain class were taken for the sample. The survey involved pupils who study in the general education schools where the language of instruction is Lithuanian. The instruments of the survey were two different task sheets. Learners to read were asked to complete tasks of letter recognition and word association to images; whereas fluent readers were asked to complete text comprehension tasks. Each pupil in a class completed one of the two task sheets depending on whether s/he knows how to read or is learning to read. Upon determining that a child knows how to read a further interest was taken to find out who has taught him/her to read. The survey was carried out in October of 2015. The data of the research are significant for the Lithuanian curriculum policy makers as recently there have been debates about the necessity to lower the minimum entrance age to primary education, i.e. to start school at the age of 6 instead of 7.

---

Kravcov Elena Evgenyevna
Russian Academy of Education

Kravcov Gennady
Moscow Orthodox Institute of Saint Johnthe Evangelist / Russia

Культурно-историчские основы построения системы непрерывного образования

Данный доклад состоит из  трех частей. В вводной части обосновывается тот факт, что адекватную теорию психического развития ребенка, которую можно положить в основу системы непрерывного образования, следует искать в трудах Л.С. Выготского. При этом подчеркивается, что Л.С. Выготский предложил неклассическую психологию, главная особенность которой состоит в том, что в ней развитие рассматривается как саморазвитие, что предполагает создание особой логики внутреннего самообоснования движения развития. Особое место, в этом случае, принадлежит сознанию и его изучению.
Вторая часть доклада посвящена рассмотрению онтогенеза сознания. В ней подробно анализируется идея Л.С. Выготского о системном и смысловом строении сознания. В этом контексте рассматривается периодизация психического развития ребенка, предложенная Л.С. Выготским, которая представляет собой воплощение и конкретизацию положения о системном строении сознания. Идея смыслового строения сознания прослеживается как на материале работ Л.С. Выготского, так и на основе результатов той многолетней исследовательской работы, которую вели авторы сообщения.
В третьей части «психологические условия развития смысловой сферы в процессе обучения» рассматривается проблема, связанная с показателями и механизмами перехода от одной стадии развития или темы обучения к другой в контексте культурно-исторической теории Л.С. Выготского.
На основании анализа культурно-исторической теории и соответствующей ей педагогической практики делается вывод о том, что реализация обучения, построенного в логике развития отношения «смысл-значение», позволяет сформировать у детей полноценную волевую сферу, что отражается на уровне и качестве сознания обучающихся.  Особенности построения такого обучения предполагают целенаправленное развитие воображения на разных возрастных этапах. Представлены особенности развития воображения в разных периодах детства и описываются особенности построения образовательных программ, ориентированных на создание условий для развития смысловой сферы.
В конце сообщения показано, как целенаправленное развитие смысловой сферы обеспечивает, с одной стороны, преемственность обучения и, с другой стороны, делает обучение непрерывным.

---

Agnieszka Misiuk
Krakowska Akademia im. A. Frycza-Modrzewskiego, Kraków

Fulfilling selected assumptions of the socio-cultural theory in the preventive and educational program "Look differently”

Teachers, recognizing the importance of social competences for proper development organize classes during which children work in small teams, help themselves and learn to solve problems together. The aim of the speech will be to present the basic conditions resulting from the socio-cultural theory, which may be important for the development of selected social competences of children. They will be presented in relation to the preventive and educational program "Look differently". The research results in which it was checked whether participation in additional, common for children  activities will have an impact on the interpersonal relations prevailing in the classroom and the development of selected social competences of children, will also be discussed.

---

Sławomir Krzychała
Dolnośląska Szkoła Wyższa we Wrocławiu

Dialogical Building of Pedagogical Scaffolding: An Inquiry from the School Tutoring Program in Wroclaw

The differentiated forms of practical use of pedagogical scaffolding can be considered as one of the core elements to understand the organisational school culture. An opportunity to reconstruct a pedagogical scaffolding in the praxis context was the School Tutoring Program introduced in more than 20 junior high schools in Wroclaw in the years 2008-2016. The tutoring was provided for an individualised form of pedagogical care, as a subsidiary part of the expanded curriculum beyond the education in the classroom settle. The teachers themselves conducted tutorials for students.
The study attended teachers-tutors in 12 group discussions and 52 in-depth interviews. Thus we reconstructed four pragmatic forms of involving tutoring in the school's activities.
In the paper, I will present: (1) the teacher-tutors’ learning process; (2) the use of the tutor's activity spectrum from supporting, through dialogical action, to challenging; (3) the dialogical structure of the process of building pedagogical scaffolding. The dialogic tutor-tutee interaction, rather than the level of difficulty of the task itself, is the key to a pragmatic understanding of tutoring, which can be interpreted as scaffolding. In line with this perspective, tutoring can be considered as a dialogical space in which the teachers dialogically create the "instructions" in the form of polyphonic voices as soon as the tutor takes into account: (1) the student's participation and abilities, (2) the structure of the task as a double stimulation, and (3) the student's potential interaction with the task and instruction. I will present the dialogic process of building pedagogical scaffolding on two examples of tutor-tutee cooperation.

---

Thor André Skrefsrud
Inland Norway University Applied Sciences, Norway

Intercultural learning. Exploring encounters in diversity

The paper addresses a pressing obstacle to intercultural learning in European societies today: the tendency to perceive intercultural learning as a process of gaining in-depth knowledge about the essence of different cultures. From this perception, it follows that culture is reduced to a problem that should be solved through communication. Moreover, cultural differences are made predictable through cultural generalisations, which frames intercultural learning within a discourse of control and prediction of the cultural encounter. Drawing on the legacy of Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory however, the paper asks how intercultural learning can be understood in a more dynamic way that incorporates the potentially innovative, unpredictable and creative aspects of the cultural encounter. In the paper, the notion of intercultural learning is explored by discussing contemporary understandings of culture. Moreover, empirical examples of intercultural learning initiatives are drawn from research conducted in Norwegian schools.

---

Joanna Szymczak
Uniwersytet Kazimierza Wielkiego w Bydgoszczy

Teacher’s reflectiveness. The model of developmental teaching vs everyday educational reality

A  proprietary model of developing teachers’ reflectivity in reference to the everyday educational reality is used by the workers of the Department of Didactics and Cultural Studies in Education at Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz in their work with early education students at Reflective Teacher’s Workshops course. The model is an outcome of a research project Early education teachers’ reflection on their work with students (from the perspective of reconstruction research) which was carried out under supervision of professor Ewa Filipiak, PhD. Its theoretical foundations include: phenomenology, constructivism, symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology, Lev S. Vygotsky’s concept of a developmental approach to education, Donald A. Schön’s concept of a reflective practitioner, Ellen J. Langer’s concept of mindfulness and mindlessness, David Tripp’s critical incident theory. Reflectivity and teacher’s reflection in reference to an educational situation, as well as creating appropriate conditions for stimulating the reflection capabilities constitute the key categories of this model.

---

Małgorzata Tyszkowska
Uniwersytet Kazimierza Wielkiego w Bydgoszczy

Vygotsky and Gardner - common direction of thinking about the child development

These two psychological approaches of Lev S. Vygotsky and Howard Gardner (Multiple Intelligences Theory)  have a lot in common. Even though they have lived in two different parts of the world and separated by almost hundred years of studies on human development and education. Looking through the prism of these two concepts we can see education (learning and teaching) in different light. Both concepts maintain the role of culture in the teaching -learning process. Both psychologists have argued that IQ tests give only partial view of the child’s development. Both of them have believed that social interaction is crucial in learning-teaching process. Ninah Beliavsky (2006) claims that „Gardner’s MI theory can be used as a tool for bringing to life Vygotsky’s concept of the Zone of Proximal Development”. It means that joining these two approches we can be  valuable for educational practice. In my speech I will focus on these similarities between Vygotsky’s and Gardner’s concepts.

---

Małgorzata Wiśniewska
Uniwersytet Kazimierza Wielkiego w Bydgoszczy

Tailor-made support – pitfalls, dilemmas and challenges for the teacher in the Zone of Current Development (ZCD) and Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) of children with special educational needs (SEN)

There are many reasons for which it is worth talking about the problem of supporting children with special educational needs in the context of the cultural and historical concept of Leo Vygotsky. These include: creating a laboratory to study the psychology of abnormally developing children, an innovative approach to the study of children reported for consultations, as well as Vygotsky's self-involvement and attitude to a child experiencing learning disabilities.

The problem of supporting children with SEN is now widely discussed, both in literature of the subject and in teaching environments. The speech will bring up the issue of adjusting educational requirements to individual developmental and educational needs and psycho-physical abilities of children. The starting points of the adjustment is often the documentation in the form of: opinions and judgments issued by psychological and pedagogical counseling centers.

In the speech, there will be defined the tasks of the teacher in the Zone of Proximal Development and the Zone of Current Development of a child with special educational needs, in particular children with learning disabilities and deviations, as well as threats resulting from inadequate support, which, using Lew Wygotski's terminology, was defined as the scaffolding excess and deficit.

---

Monika Wiśniewska-Kin
University of Lodz/Poland

Building a scaffolding for the child's abililty to think metaphorically

This article demonstrates the results of the educational project “Stimulating metaphorical thinking”  which was established in some primary schools in a metropolitan environment (Lodz, Poland). The aim of the study was to identify the knowledge of children 8 – 9 and 9 – 10 years old of the following topic: target domain of the metaphorical mapping (FELLOWSHIP) as well as childlike metaphorical accomplishments related to identification similarities and difference between destination domain and source metaphor domain through the process of educational environment construction. In designed didactical intervention operations, the research data came from participated observation, focus interview, and children’s production analysis (graphical visualization, paired-associate learning tasks and tests of unfinished tasks). The research findings show children’s preferences related to translation one metaphor discipline through another one as well as the construction strategies related to children’s knowledge about emotional aspect and feelings. Moreover, the findings suggest the need of broader understanding of educational environments in Polish educational culture.

---

Stine Elisabeth Vik
Hege Merete Somby
The Innland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway

Defectology and inclusive education

Vygotsky played a key role in establishing the discipline of Defectology in the USSR. Although the word defectology (from defectologia) has no direct analogy to Western educational system, it roughly covers the term special education, and partly provides services to the same population as special education in Western countries (Davydov 1995, Gindis 1995:78). Vygotsky’s works within the defectology-area is not well known in the West, and though the term may sound harsh to western pedagogues, Vygotskys work within this field is surprisingly modern even if the terminology is rather old-fashioned (Gindis 1995). In fact, defectology was the main empirical domain from which Vygotsky obtained data for his theoretical concepts, so a greater part of Vygotskys scientific legacy is actually to be found within the defectology area (Gindis 1995).
Vygotsky contributed to the understanding of development of children with special needs basically on two foundations; his general cultural-historical theory of human development (see Vygotsky 1998), and his special theory of disontogenesis (theory of distorted development). His theory of disontogenesis it funded upon two main premises 1: The distinction between primary and secondary defects, and 2: The interfunctional relationship in mental development (Boris and Gindis 2007 p 340). Primary defects refer to an actual biological problem. A secondary defect refers to psychological difficulties acquired through the process of social interaction (Vygotsky 1995) With this latter theory, Vygotsky made a distinct distance to the common assumptions of his time that disability is mainly biological in nature (Kozulin and Gindis 2007). He claimed that the problem of disability is not the biological disability itself, but its social implications.

In this presentation, we argue that the same conception of pedagogy Vygotsky questioned almost hundred years ago still dominates understanding of education for children with disabilities today. Our claim is that education is based on a quantitative principle where children with disabilities are assessed against what we/society perceive as “normal”. In Vygotskys opinion, the psychometrical assessment of his time (IQ-tests) was merely concerned with collecting a static, quantitative amount of negative characteristics, insufficient to differentiate between biological disabilities and socially acquired disabilities (see Gindis 1995, Valsiner & Van der Veer 1993). Vygotsky describes this educational strategy as "negative education" because the starting point is a description of a person’s deficiencies and limitations. Within this framework, the effect of the educational measures will be an assessment according to certain normality criteria. In other words, the effect goal is also a "negative goal" which is based on a description of the deficiencies of the child you teach. Vygotsky (1993) contends this leads to a reductionist pedagogy. Focusing on deficiencies, the consequence becomes an education aimed at reducing the negative.
Vygotsky claims that education for children with disabilities is a qualitative issue and not a quantitative. “A child whose development is impeded by a defect is not simply a child less developed than his peers; rather he has developed differently”(Vygotsky, 1993: 30) His perspective emphasizes the fact that people with disabilities are qualitatively different and that one must meet this qualitative difference with qualitative different education.

On this background, Vygotsky’s contribution in the field of special education was what he described as a “positive differential approach” (Vygotsky 1983, p.122). That is the emphasis of identifying the disabled child from a point of strength rather than a disability (Vygotsky 1993). Vygotsky emphasized tests for strengths and talents, in other words: qualities, not for weaknesses (Davydov 1995). According to Vygotsky, the child with a disability will develop compensatory skills or psychological functions in order to achieve equilibrium. While the defect, or impairment, might disable the child from certain activities, it can also be the source of a development of special features (1993; 34). In this paper, we argue that the theory of Vygotsky’s defectology is of importance to the pedagogues’ potential to recognise and identify the child’s compensatory abilities. A positive differential approach to education for children with special needs will be a contribution to the field of inclusive education

---

Beata Zamorska
Collegium Da Vinci, Poznań

Differentiation of individual perspectives in perezhivanie of social situation of development
The topic is the social situation of development analyzed through perezhivanie, understanding as a prism in which the social environment refracts and determines the trajectory of individual development. On the example of the narrative of the youth, we will look at the perspectives brought to the relations of the individual and the environment by positions in which young people are experiencing (perezhivayet) social reality. We will also debate the adult’s role in shaping the child's activity.

---

Galina Zuckerman
Psychological Institute, Russian Academy of Education/Russia

Genetic – Modeling Experiment: The Elkonin – Davydov educational system

Daniil El’konin and Vassilii Davydov developed an educational system which works as an experimental method to explore and expand the potentials of human mind for elementary children and adolescents in the course of education. This longest formative experiment has been going on since 1958. Fig. 1 presents a macrocycle study by the method which Davydov called genetic modeling: this method "assesses the capacity and efficacy of a project (model) describing the origin (genesis) of concepts as tools of students’ mind".

Fig. 1. Basic components of a genetic modeling experiment in the El’konin-Davydov educational system. Units 1, 3, 5, 7 represent the major steps of the experiment, and units 2, 4, 6 and 8 are its intermediate products.

The history of the approach by El’konin and Davydov to the problem of relations between development and education is seen as a series of macrocycles of genetic modeling experiments. I will talk about two of them:

• constructing the cultural tools for education that develop reflective thinking in the elementary school children,
• constructing the interpsychological forms of education that develop reflective thinking in elementary school children.