Teaching Leo Vygotsky’s Theory of Sociocultural Development with the Use of Literature and Information Technology

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

2015

Abstract

This work continues the tradition of integrative education combining scientific, artistic, and information-technological approaches to teaching. The author teaches the psychological theory of L. Vygotsky and its application to education by analyzing an episode of N. Nosov’s story Schoolboys. Fifty one graduate students who were current or prospective school teachers and took the author’s distance web-based psychology courses participated in the study. Their task was to recognize illustrations of Vygotsky’s psychological concepts in the episode of the story. The results showed: 1) the subject aspect of the text (solving an arithmetic problem) was more comprehensible from the point of view of Vygotsky’s theory than the social aspect (bringing the child up); one and the same theoretical concept was recognized with the smaller probability if it was included into a social context; 2) well familiar/comprehended theoretical concepts were recognized with greater probability than poorly familiar/comprehended concepts; the concept of learning motivation, specifically, intrinsic motivation was the hardest to identify. The author concludes that teaching psychology via fiction stories is seminal for developing the students’ semantic thinking and in-depth social perception. Results of the study will be useful for enhancing instructional strategies to train and educate school teachers.

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