The original cultural-historical theory of development by Lev S. Vygotsky inspires researchers all over the world to initiate theoretical and methodological studies as well as to launch development and research projects.

For many years, in the Institute of Education, the Department of Didactics and the Culture of Education Studies, at Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, research has been carried out on the applications of cultural theories of development and activities by L.S. Vygotsky and J.S. Bruner to educational practice and the improvement of the quality of school education.
The concepts are cognitively sophisticated and difficult in reception, thus they permeate to everyday practice not without difficulty. Given this fact, the aim of the team leader was to provide professional support to teachers and reflective practitioners (as well as their educationalists) in reading the concepts expressed by Vygotsky and Bruner, to build their critical space of thoughts on the Change and Development in Education, to encourage them to seek in the socio-cultural theory (CHAT) a language which describes categories crucial for developmental education, and to deepen the understanding of complex situations which they encounter in educational practices. These measures are reflected in works which compose a publishing cycle: With Vygotsky and Bruner in the background. Within this cycle the following publications appeared:

1. Filipiak E. (2011) Z Wygotskim i Brunerem w tle: słownik pojęć kluczowych. Bydgoszcz: Kazimieerz Wielki University Publishing House, p. 123
2. Filipiak E. (2012) Z Wygotskim i Brunerem w tle. Rozwijanie zdolności uczenia. Sopot: GWP, p. 223

Essential research projects carried out in the Department of Didactics and Culture of Education Studies, initiated by prof. dr habil. Ewa Filipiak and her research team (in line with Vygotsky’s approach):

• IMEJ project – Interactive Model of Language Education
• Project on the Development of learning abilities in the primary and junior high schools learners
• Academic Centre for Creativity – Developing teaching in early childhood education in line with Lev S. Vygotsky’s concepts (www.ack.ukw.edu.pl)
• Narrative environment of play and learning (NEPL)

PROJEKT IMEJ – Interactive Model of Language Education in the early childhood education Duration: 2000-2001

Keywords: early childhood education, language activeness, Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), building a framework, language workshops, IMEJ – interactive model of language education, theories of Lev S. Vygostky, J.S. Bruner, R.H. Schaffer, experiment in line with Solomon’s scheme.

The aim of the research was to verify the hypothesis which assumed supporting language activities at early school age by means of purposeful implementation of a system of actions (focusing on language development) to the didactic process. Theoretically, the project was based on an original interactive model of language education (using cognitive-developmental assumptions extracted from J.S. Bruner’s and H.R. Schaffer’s theories as well as Lev. S. Vygotsky’s theory). The assumption the project adhered to was that education supporting language development of a child (i.e. based on awareness of the mechanisms responsible for development, maturation, upbringing) is realized by means of active and engaged participation of a child and a teacher alike in the Zone of Proximal Development. Language workshops were introduced wherein the principles regulating the model of collaboration of the teacher and the child were respected. For example, it was assumed that an important role in gaining language skills should be ascribed to learning and language problem solving in collaboration with and by means of an adult; another principle assumed that the process of language learning was based on self-regulation (from interpsychological regulation to intrapsychological regulation). The empirical verification of the proposed model of language education was conducted in nine forms of the first stage of education in the primary school (three forms in year one, year two and year three).

Control research was carried out in nine forms. The experiment (where Solomon’s scheme was employed) has demonstrated the following: (1) school can be a highly facilitative environment for language development of a child; (2) a child at early schooling age is an active and aware participant of the development of his own language skills. The research is an empirical confirmation of L.S. Vygotsky’s concept that each child, when properly stimulated and supported in their actions by a sensitive adult (teacher), develops competences (knowledge, skills) as far as possible (as regards respecting the consequences resulting from the relation between Zone of Proximal Development and Zone of Actual Development).

The research results, their interpretation and recommendations for educational practice have been published in the following monograph:

Filipiak, E. (2002).Konteksty rozwoju aktywności językowej dzieci w wieku wczesnoszkolnym. Bydgoszcz: Wydawnictwo Uczelniane Akademii Bydgoskiej im. Kazimierza Wielkiego, s. 360

 

The Development of the ability to learn of the primary and junior high schools learners
Duration: 2006-2009
Project MNiSW (Ministry of Science and Higher Education) No 107 037 31/38/75
Project leader: Prof. dr habil. Ewa Filipiak
Research team: Prof. dr habil. Anna I. Brzezińska, Institute of Psychology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań; dr habil. Bogusława D. Gołębniak, associate professor, DSW in Wrocław; Halina Smolińska-Rębas, PhD and Ewa Lemańska-Lewandowska, PhD, Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz.
Keywords: learning abilities, sense of one’s own effectiveness, constructing knowledge (Vygotsky’s and Bruner’s factor), divergent thinking, motivation and learning strategies, categories of operations according to Guilford: knowing, memory, assessment, convergent creating, divergent creating, teachers’ beliefs about a learner
The aim of the research was to diagnose learning abilities, motivation and learning strategies used by primary and junior high school learners. Five hundred learners participated in the study and they were grouped according to age and gender. Their learning abilities were characterized (by means of SOI – Learning Abilities Test) by analising five categories of operations: knowing, memory, assessment, convergent creating and divergent creating, as well as by analyzing the abilities responsible for effective learning, such as: reading skills, mathematical skills, writing skills, creativity. Based on the research results, learning abilities profiles were plotted for each of the groups participating in the research (forms I-III in the primary school and forms I-III in junior highs school), and styles of learning were described. The diagnosis allowed us to determine strong points and weaknesses of the subjects as regards the learning abilities under investigation as well as to propose conclusions and recommendations for educational practice (Filipiak 2009). With the aid of the SMALSI test, learning strategies and ten main constructs connected with motivation to learn were assessed. Strong points and weaknesses of the subjects were also determined for these problems. For the age and gender groups under investigation, result profiles were created and interpreted.
Connected with the project was also an attempt to “enter” into the world of beliefs and personal educational theories of teachers as regards the following issues: (1) learner’s perception (a self-steering learner); (2) assessment of the chances of implementing the concept of reflectiveness in a Polish school; (3) working definition of constructive (sensitive) assessment, personal philosophy of assessment (Filipiak 2009). One hundred fifty randomly selected teachers were involved in the study. They represented early childhood education teachers, forms IV-VI of primary school and junior high school. The theoretical context for the research problems, discussions and the interpretation of the results were cognitive-developmental models proposed by Lev S. Vygotsky and Jerome S. Bruner.
The conclusions stemming from the research were indicative of the need and direction of changes in the education of teachers and learners. They also allowed us to draw up innovative models of education that took into account developing learning abilities for teachers (teacher education oriented towards developing learning abilities in learners and for learners).
1.    Ewa Filipiak (2008) red. Rozwijanie zdolności uczenia się.Konteksty. Problemy, Bydgoszcz: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Kazimierza Wielkiego, ss. 215
2.    Ewa Filipiak (2009) Rozwój zdolności uczenia się uczniów szkoły podstawowej i gimnazjum. Raport z badań. Maszynopis niepublikowany. Przygotowany do druku ze środków grantu MNiSW Nr N 107 037 31/3875, s. 248

PROJECT ACK: Academic Centre for Creativity – Developmental teaching in the early childhood education according to the theory of Lev. S. Vygotsky
Project no 7/POIG/ACK/2014) within the systemic project „Supporting the system of research and research outcomes management” , no POIG.01.01.03-00-001/08.
Duration: 15.XI.2014-15.XI.2015
Programme budget: 2,5 mln Polish złotych
Budget grant for the project: 166,100 Polish zł
Project leader: Prof. dr habil. Ewa Filipiak
Project coordinator: Ewa Lemańska-Lewandowska, PhD
Project participants: Małgorzata Wiśniewska, PhD; Goretta Siadak, MA, Joanna Szymczak, MA; Adam Mroczkowski, MA.
External experts: Prof. Penti Hakkareinen; Milda Bredykite, PhD; Prof. dr habil. Anna Izabela Brzezińska.
Along with the tripartite research group, which created a social network of learning, there were also five teachers-interventionists: Ewa Kapczyńska, Sylwia Chudy, Ewa Bednarek, Hanna Matuszewska and Anna Legutko, as well as twenty two students of Early Childhood Education Programme at UKW.

Keywords: cultural-historical theory by Lev. S. Vygotsky, developmental learning, teaching experiment, zone of proximal development, developmental task, early childhood education, theoretical thinking, problem solving, cooperation, reflection, social network of learning, development transfer, feedback, language of instruction

The main aim of the ACK was to study (to test and disseminate) an innovative model of teachers’/students’ work with a child at stage I of school education (early years in the primary school). This model relies on the assumptions voiced by L.S. Vygotsky in his socio-cultural theory. The model has contributed to the enhancement of the quality of work of both a learner and early childhood education teacher. It has also created an opportunity to construct a social network of learning and authentic co-creation of knowledge in educational measures. Moreover, it has deepened transfer between a Novice (student) and an Expert (teacher). Students’ active participation in the project gave them a chance to shift their philosophy of education, to understand educational change, and to assume the role of change promoter. The proposed model, which is to be tested in educational practice, employs the concepts of developmental teaching, which contribute to the development of the potential of each and every pupil.
As part of the ACK Project, an attempt was made at analysing the development of children’s forms of activities which emerged during solving specially-constructed developmental tasks targeted at a study into language, mathematics, natural science and artistic phenomena. Owing to this study, the development of theoretical thinking arising in children in the first, second and third year of the primary school could be monitored.
The main aim of the planned study was to empirically verify the hypothesis which assumed the possibility of implementing an innovative model of teacher’s work (and the work of the project student-beneficiary) with a child in his/her stage I of school education – developmental teaching. The research aim was to:

(1)    Study the assumptions of developmental teaching and, in connection with these assumptions, study the teacher’s skills and competences.
(2)    Analyse the context of introducing the developmental teaching model to educational practice at the level of early childhood education (forms I-III)
(3)    Study the assumptions and rules for designing developmental task
(4)    Design a model way of developmental tasks – developing the child’s thinking in various fields of knowledge
(5)    Develop thinking in early childhood education children by implementing original developmental tasks
(6)    Prepare child observation sheet in a problematic situation (during activities)
(7)    Prepare self-evaluation sheet for students (novice teachers) and pupils (developing the skill of meta-cognition)
(8)    Methodological aim – piloting a unique method of teaching experiment.

The research method employed in the Project was teaching experiment organised in line with the theory of social-cultural development proposed by Lev S. Vygotsky. This procedure allows one to uncover the potential for development residing in an evolving functioning of a child and to observe the conditions of development which initiate developmental changes in everyday practices, in real setting or in conditions resembling real setting. It also creates an opportunity to observe active forms of activities and the participation of a researcher in doing tasks as well as in ways of using interventionist’s help. Moreover, it makes it possible to control the quality of motivation and researcher’s engagement in doing tasks.
This methodological procedure was applied to the experiment of developmental teaching organized as part of the ACK project. The process of solving developmental tasks assigned to children in their natural school environment in the five experimental forms (at the first stage of school education) was monitored during the experiment (cf. Fig.).
The process of the development of children’s cognitive activity (theoretical thinking) was monitored with the aid of a purpose-made tool – the Scale of Observing a Child in Task Situation (SOD-SZ), developed by A.I. Brzezińska. The Scale is allotted to register the outcomes of observing children at an early childhood age (from 1st to 3rd form) in task situations, which require cooperation in pairs while planning and doing a task. The behaviour of children and their task activities were registered both electronically and through observation sheets. Transcripts of the recordings were next analysed.

• The following questions allowed us to study the activities undertaken by children:
• What type of activities do the children undertake in order to solve a task?
• What activity and thinking strategies do they use in order to achieve this goal?
• What meaning do they assign to them?
• In what way do they use teacher’s verbal instructions?
• How do they get involved in the situation of being “mediators” (not only human ones)?
• What is their motivation and self-initiated engagement in doing the tasks?

Another method of teacher’s work with a student consisted in building a framework for thinking, understanding, developing the ability to learn, reflectiveness and the ability to evaluate their own work, as well as in developing a sense of achievement and effectiveness. The method required broadening essential competences and skills in the case of students of early childhood education (ECE), who were prepared to construct knowledge with children and to help them in solving problems through cooperation.

The research area, which was purposefully chosen, was early childhood education age and the specificity of teacher’s preparation to work with a child at this educational level, which is believed to be the Foundation of further education. The research was carried out in the socio-cultural paradigm. The key task was to create a tripartite research group which builds a network of social learning.

 

The research was carried out in three primary schools and in five units of forms I-III, from April till June 2015. Ninety six children took part in the study as well as nine researchers (three of them were external experts), five teachers-interventionists, and twenty two students-beneficiaries.
In each of the working teams there was one teacher-interventionist and one expert-researcher from UKW as well as students-beneficiaries – participants of the project.

Ten sessions of developmental teaching were carried out. Four packages were prepared for children: a language package, a mathematical package, a natural science package and an artistic package, which, in total, contained forty two developmental tasks.
 The teaching sessions were audio- and video-recorded; moreover, observation sheets were collected, photographs were taken during the sessions and a portfolio of students’ reflections and products of children’s work were collected. Each audio recording was transcribed. Observations of the process of children’s activities were registered through SOD-SZ observation sheets and they were analysed during “hot feedback” and “delayed feedback” discussion meetings.

The research results and the analyses of the empirical material allowed us to draw the following conclusions:

1. The research carried out as part of the ACK Project has proved that early childhood education children have a significant intellectual potential. By the same token, the research results have confirmed the hypothesis put forward by W.W. Dawydow that children have essential and untapped intellectual resources. The analysis of the process of undertaking and solving tasks assigned to children during the sessions of experimental teaching in different areas of educational activities (language, mathematical, natural science, artistic) has shown that children at their 1st stage of school education are able to gather information, gain skills and learn new habits at a much higher level than it was assumed by an obligatory programme. The intellectual potential revealed by children participating in this Project is underestimated by the school and the authors of the national curriculum. Children (aged 6-10) demonstrated that they were able to reflect (in terms of language, mathematics, natural science and in the artistic dimension), they experienced mutual learning, self-regulation, thinking about their own thinking and learning.
2. Even such a short period of using developmental tasks has shown children’s readiness to undertake activities in the sphere of theoretical thinking. The tasks assigned to children created space for the development of this type of thinking. While observing and analyzing the process of drawing conclusions and presenting arguments by children, a diversity of strategies used by children and non-stereotypical activities they resorted to could be observed, as well as a growing courage, self-assurance and competence while drawing conclusions, and more and more accurate attempts at argumentation. In the process of drawing conclusions it was observed that children evolved from a description of the undertaken activities to the skill of isolating a problem and naming it (a language, mathematical, nature science or artistic problem); they also reflected upon their own process of knowledge gaining.
3. The children made attempts at self-regulating their own thinking oriented towards problem solving (mathematical, language, natural science, artistic). They experienced and built their understanding of the fact that the first idea is not always the proper one.
4. We can and should form the foundation/basis of theoretical thinking that emerges during solving problem tasks by children at the age of early childhood education. Children (aged 6-10) built valuable knowledge and non-stereotypical, important thinking strategies.
5. Designed in this way experimental procedure allowed us to discover a potential to develop, which resides in the maturing way of child’s functioning; it also allowed us to observe the conditions of development, which initiate developmental change in everyday practices in real circumstances or in conditions resembling them; we could also observe researchers’ active forms of activities and their participation in solving tasks, as well as ways of using the help of an interventionist; we could control the quality of motivation and researchers’ engagement to do tasks.

It was observed that children had problems with eliminating contending behavior (fading away in subsequent sessions). They had problems with undertaking actions in cooperation with peers (from apparent cooperation, especially during the first developmental teaching sessions, and from individual activities to peer and tutorial cooperation). It could be observed that they had difficulties in taking advantage of the help of adults and peers, and with the use of prior knowledge as well as “prior resources” (gradual understanding of the sense of actions undertaken “under control” of an adult and in cooperation with a more competence peer, achieving a sense of meaning of “tacit knowledge” and one’s own knowledge resources). Children had problems with the skills of planning and constructing action strategies undertaken in order to do a task (from action with support to independent actions). Further to that, they had also problems with communication (inner talk, gradual improvement of verbal expression, drawing and formulating conclusions), and difficulties in performing tasks on the “thinking plane”, in “the mind”, on the “inner plane”, which is the necessary condition/essential to realize cognition targeted at the development of theoretical thinking (developing these ways of thinking by means of, for example, formulating research notes). Moreover, children had difficulties in overcoming time pressure while doing a task (with time it was observed that doing a task within the imposed time limit was not an obstacle any more).

Children overcame these difficulties. As they gained experience in the subsequent session of developmental teaching they also gained a sense of competences used in the performed tasks.

In the wake of the Project, Experts from Kazimierz Wielki University prepared a research report, a monography, a colloquium (combined with thematic workshops); ISCAR experts ran the control session and discussion panel with the Students-Beneficiaries, Teachers-Interventionists and researchers from Kazimierz Wielki University (sharing knowledge).
More information on the project and project-based publications are available at: www.ack.ukw.edu.pl

Publications:
Filipiak, E. (ed.). 2015 Nauczanierozwijające według Lwa S. Wygotskiego we wczesnej edukacji dziecka. Od teorii do zmianyw praktyce. Bydgoszcz.
Filipiak, E., Lemańska-Lewandowska, E. (2015a). Raport tematyczny z badań. Model nauczania rozwijającego według Lwa S. Wygotskiego we wczesnej edukacji. Gotowość studentów i nauczycieli. Możliwości aplikacji

The research is continued in the Laboratory for Educational Change – Centre for Research in Learning and Development, a research unit created within the Department of Didactics and Culture of Education Studies.

Narrative environments for play and learning (NEPL)
Erasmus+ Project
KA2 STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP PROJECT no 2015-1-LT01-KA201-013443
Duration: 01.09. 2015- 01.09.2017
Project leaders: Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences in Vilnius -Lithuania
Partners:

• Kindergarten Vilniauslopselis-darzelis Gintarelis in Vilnius - Lithuania
• UNIWERSYTET KAZIMIERZA WIELKIEGO(UKW)/KAZIMIERZ WIELKI UNIVERSITY - Poland
• Zespół Szkół nr 19 im. Synów Pułków w Bydgoszczy – Polska
• University of Helsinki - Finland
• Kaivokselantoimintayksikkö - day care unit, which includes two day care centers ’Kaivoksela’ and ’Jokiuoma’ in Vantaa - Finland
• Vanessa Nursery School in London - UK

Project budget - 241.810,00 EURO
Project budget for Kazimierz Wielki University: 24.310,00 euro

The Project team consists of researchers employed at UKW and affiliated with the Department of Didactics and Culture of Education Studies (part of the Institute of Didactics, Faculty of Didactics and Psychology):

• Prof. dr habil. Ewa Filipiak (team leader)
• Ewa Lemańska–Lewandowska, PhD
• Małgorzata Wiśniewska, PhD

Keywords: Lev S. Vygotsky’s cultural-historical approach, narrative play, narrative learning, environment for narrative play and learning, development, co-regulation and self-regulation
The main idea of the project, based on the cultural-historical concept put forwards by Lev. S. Vygotsky, is to draw up a new model of teacher’s work with a child that would support child’s self-regulation in play and learning.
Members of an international project team (university researchers and teachers practitioners) jointly started to work on a NEPL (Narrative Environments for Play and Learning) guidebook. Early childhood education teachers were engaged in an original narrative play activity recreated in the culture of their own classrooms. Owing to their participation in the project, the teachers developed cultural competences necessary to create a narrative environment for learning, gaining new perspectives for their role in educational situations and creating space for development and learning. The joint activity in a narrative play involved adults and children in constructing and sharing the word of play, full of imagination, wherein participants constantly learn from each other. The participation of adults in children’s play increased activeness and supported children’s development and learning through activities appropriate for their age.
    
In the NEPL project the following goals have been realized:

1. creating appropriate cultural conditions for narrative play and learning in each country (classroom/school) – the result of a new narrative pedagogy;
2. creating and documenting evaluation tools for a narrative play and practices of learning in culturally varied classes (recording and evaluation of interaction in play, relations between co- and self-regulation, using ICT – technology, etc.);
3. drawing up a NEPL guidebook and disseminating the concept of narrative environments for play and learning; training early childhood education and care professionals in all countries participating in the project (workshops, seminars and publications).

All early childhood education teachers participating in the project learned how to plan, organize and implement a narrative play project to the educational process of children at different ages living in different cultural environments: in Finland, Lithuania, Great Britain and Poland. All participants of the project (theoreticians – university researchers and teachers – reflective practitioners) learned how to observe children in narrative play situations, formulated aims for their development and learning, participated in active forms of learning – learning through practical application (learning through action) and through active reflection. This form of learning was directed at the development of new skills and cultural competences of teachers and it triggered critical thinking of one’s own educational activity. The result of an engaged participation in the project is applying the pedagogy of narrative play to educational practices, active participation in drawing up the NEPL guidebook and becoming a tutor for new teachers who wish to implement narrative play to their teaching, as well as creating one’s own narrative play projects.
The realization of the NEPL project has three phases:
Phase I – the international, multidisciplinary research team (Early Childhood, Development, Early Childhood Education, Psychology, Neuropsychology, etc.) jointly prepared the NEPL project guidebook and training materials for narrative learning classes – learning and teacher training as well as the concept of implementing the first narrative project.
Phase II – training study visits realized in each partner countries
The team of practitioners from Finland, following the guidelines proposed by leaders from the international research team, made preparations for the realization of the first narrative project in Kaivokselantoimintayksikkö – the daily care centre. The project research team drew up training materials and the NEPL guidebook, which will be translated and published in four languages: Lithuanian, Polish, Finnish and English.
Phase III – dissemination of the idea of Narrative environments for play and learning implemented in Finland, Poland, Great Britain and Lithuania.
Tasks for the UKW research team in the NEPL Project:

• drawing up the NEPL guidebook
• drawing up a self-evaluation list for teachers, which is to measure teachers’ own progress
• drawing up a questionnaire to administer reflection on the benefits for children, families and institutions
• drawing up a questionnaire for families monitoring a reflection on changes taking place in children’s behaviour
• co-creating a project of a narrative play implemented in the Polish school
• organizing a study visit and a seminar for teachers
• preparing systematic reports.