Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Foreword
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- Part 1 Learning and development in play
- 1 A political–pedagogical landscape
- 2 Parallel conceptual worlds
- 3 Teacher beliefs about teaching concepts
- 4 Valued curriculum concepts in early childhood education
- 5 Teacher knowledge of subject matter concepts
- 6 Empirical and narrative knowledge development in play
- 7 Children building theoretical knowledge in play
- Part 2 Cultural–historical theories of play and learning
- Part 3 Learning and development as cultural practice
- Glossary
- References
- Index
2 - Parallel conceptual worlds
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2013
- Frontmatter
- Foreword
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- Part 1 Learning and development in play
- 1 A political–pedagogical landscape
- 2 Parallel conceptual worlds
- 3 Teacher beliefs about teaching concepts
- 4 Valued curriculum concepts in early childhood education
- 5 Teacher knowledge of subject matter concepts
- 6 Empirical and narrative knowledge development in play
- 7 Children building theoretical knowledge in play
- Part 2 Cultural–historical theories of play and learning
- Part 3 Learning and development as cultural practice
- Glossary
- References
- Index
Summary
When we say the child acts on the basis of imitation, we do not mean that he looks another person in the eye and imitates him. If today I see something and tomorrow do it, I do it on the basis of imitation. When the school child solves a problem at home on the basis of a model that he has been shown in class, he continues to act in collaboration, though at the moment the teacher is not standing near him. From a psychological perspective, the solution of the second problem is similar to this solution of a problem at home. It is a solution accomplished with the teachers help. This help – this aspect of collaboration – is invisibly present. It is contained in what looks from the outside like the child's independent solution of the problem.
(Vygotsky, 1987b: 216)INTRODUCTION
Vygotsky (1966) put forward a dialectical view of play in which psychological functioning and external activity mutually constituted each other. Contrary to popular belief, he argued against an intellectualisation of the concept of play, but suggested that the cognitive dimensions of play could not be separated out from the affective dimensions of play (see also Levykh, 2008 for a related discussion of emotions and the Zone of Proximal Development – ZPD). He also argued that development in play could not be removed from the relations between internal psychological functioning and external activity.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Early Learning and DevelopmentCultural-historical Concepts in Play, pp. 20 - 32Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010