Sylvia Scribner - Böcker

Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of cognitive development in his own words—collected and translated by an outstanding group of scholars.“A landmark book.” —Contemporary PsychologyThe great Russian psychologist L. S. Vygotsky has long been recognized as a pioneer in developmental psychology. But his theory of development has never been well understood in the West. Mind in Society corrects much of this misunderstanding. Carefully edited by a group of outstanding Vygotsky scholars, the book presents a unique selection of Vygotsky’s important essays, most of which have previously been unavailable in English.The mind, Vygotsky argues, cannot be understood in isolation from the surrounding society. Humans are the only animals who use tools to alter their own inner world as well as the world around them. Vygotsky characterizes the uniquely human aspects of behavior and offers hypotheses about the way these traits have been formed in the course of human history and the way they develop over an individual's lifetime.From the handkerchief knotted as a simple mnemonic device to the complexities of symbolic language, society provides the individual with technology that can be used to shape the private processes of the mind. In Mind in Society Vygotsky applies this theoretical framework to the development of perception, attention, memory, language, and play, and he examines its implications for education. The result is a remarkably interesting book that makes clear Vygotsky’s continuing influence in the areas of child development, cognitive psychology, education, and modern psychological thought.Chapters include:1. Tool and Symbol in Child Development2. The Development of Perception and Attention3. Mastery of Memory and Thinking4. Internalization of Higher Psychological Functions5. Problems of Method6. Interaction between Learning and Development7. The Role of Play in Development8. The Prehistory of Written Language

Sylvia Scribner's research and theory have been monumental in forming the emergent field of cultural psychology. Her studies of reasoning and thinking in their cultural and activity contexts added new concepts, methods, and findings to what many are now viewing as a distinctive branch of psychological studies. She was among the first to combine ethnographic studies with experimental studies in order to determine relationships among indigenous literacy and logical activities and their cognitive outcomes. Mind and Social Practice brings together published and previously unpublished work from Sylvia Scribner's productive and wide-ranging career. The book is arranged chronologically and includes five section introductions by the editors, placing Scribner's work in the context of her life, her commitments, and the political and intellectual events of the times. Her later, more theoretically rich writing is enhanced by an appreciation of her earlier work.