This article discusses one of the central problems of cultural-historical psychology — the relationship between learning and development. We analyze the modern interpretation of L.S. Vygotsky’s ideas in research and practice and show that much of what the author of cultural-historical psychology proposed was somehow left behind by scientists and practitioners, whereas some of his ideas were perverted and even contradict the logic of non-classical psychology. The article emphasizes the need for research and analysis of many pressing problems of modern psychology in the context of cultural-historical psychology. For example, we suggest that the concepts of psychological and personal readiness for schooling should be interpreted in terms of the learning types classification proposed by L.S. Vygotsky. Particular attention is paid to the concept of the zone of proximal development. We point to some inconsistency between Vygotsky’s understanding of this concept and he way it is used in modern education. We believe that limiting developmental learning to the focus on the zone of proximal development to a greater extent reflects the ability to learn rather than provides evidence of development.

The article raises questions about the causes of those problems and difficulties that occur in modern Russian education, and ways to overcome them. The starting point for the authors' thoughts is the problem posed by L.S. Vygotsky of the correlation and interconnection of training and development. The assumption is made that a lot of troubles and difficulties in education are due to the lack of scientifically based didactics. The current theoretical ideas about what and how to teach children go back to the didactics of Y.A. Komensky, built on the basis of worldly experience and evidence of common sense that have nothing to do with scientific didactics. Studies of prominent Russian psychologists — P.Ya. Galperin and V.V. Davydov, as well as theories of training they created, according to the authors of this article, do not withstand criticism in the light of the requirements presented by scientific didactics. The main flaw is seen in the fact that these researchers were staunch supporters of the activity approach in psychology, which, in a sense, is an example of that traditional psychology that was rightly criticized by L. S. Vygotsky, since its method, historically established in natural science, does not even allow approach the study of such psychological realities that are behind the concepts of human freedom, his consciousness, personality, development, will and arbitrariness. The only constructive path in the psychology of education leading to the creation of scientifically based didactics is seen in an in-depth analysis and further development of ideas and principles put forward by L.S. Vygotsky, including, for example, the principle of historicism, the principle of integrity, the idea of a systemic and semantic structure consciousness, the paradoxical identity of communication and generalization. The gate leading to the correct understanding of the cultural-historical approach in psychology may be the position of D.B. Elkonin that the most important and fundamental for creating a theory of child development is the “individual-society” relationship, which in child psychology looks like a real relationship and communication of the child with his mother.

No presente artigo, examina-se, brevemente, a crise por que passava a Psicologia à época em que L. S. Vigotski viveu e construiu sua obra científica. Ela é identificada como a crise que envolvia a definição do próprio objeto de estudo da Psicologia. As diversas tentativas realizadas com o intuito de definir o objeto dessa nova ciência que emergia geraram inúmeras visões, por vezes até antagônicas. Essa multiplicidade de visões, identificadas como diferentes escolas de pensamento a respeito da Psicologia, acabou por transformá-la numa pseudociência, vazia de seu próprio conteúdo. Foi em meio a essa crise que Vigotski formulou e apresentou uma nova e revolucionária visão teórica que rompeu com o reducionismo então vigente. São aqui apresentadas, resumidamente, suas principais ideias e fundamentos acerca do que seria o objeto da Psicologia e sua indissociável relação com o método que utiliza.Palavras-chave: Psicologia histórico-cultural. L.S. Vigotski. Objeto e método de estudo.

In this chapter, we examine the original Vygotskian conception of the zone of proximal developmentDevelopment in the context of developmental educationDevelopmental education and Hedegaard’s contemporary researchResearch related to learningLearning and developmentDevelopment in everyday lifeEveryday life . In 1935, L.S. VygotskyVygotsky published the article, “Problems of educationEducation and mental developmentDevelopment in schoolSchool age.”. That paper attracted attention. At that time, developmental educationDevelopmental education was understood as educationEducation aimed at the zone of proximal developmentDevelopment , that is, as leading developmentDevelopment . This approach to educationEducation and developmentDevelopment raises many theoretical and practical questions. In this chapter, we offer three ideas linked to Hedegaard’s conceptions, which will allow for a reconsideration of the psychological content of the concept of “developmental educationDevelopmental education .” The first idea relates to the understanding of the zone of proximal developmentDevelopment and its transformation to actual developmentDevelopment . The second idea relates to L.S. VygotskyVygotsky ’s division of educationEducation into spontaneousSpontaneous and reactiveReactive one. This idea coincides with Mariane Hedegaard’s analysis and results of her researchResearch . On one hand, she emphasizes the importance of motivatedMotivated learningLearning in a child’s life. On the other hand, she pays great attention to child’s everyday lifeEveryday life and its role in his or her psychic developmentDevelopment . Finally, the third idea relates to the role of consciousnessConsciousness in L.S. VygotskyVygotsky legacyLegacy . There are reasons to believe that the developing nature of educationEducation , according to L.S. VygotskyVygotsky , is directly related to changes in a child’s consciousnessConsciousness .

Consideration of the concept of imagination in the context of cultural-historical psychology led to the conclusion that there are two differently directed processes. One process involves making sense of things in the outside world and the present situation, that is, it means understanding and rethinking external objects and situations. Another process involves the construction of a new image that allows you to see and understand the surrounding reality in a new way. This allows the authors to say that, on the one hand, imagination is aimed at acting with external reality, and, on the other hand, the inner work of creating a new subject of imagination. Based on the analysis of empirical materials studying the development of imagination and creativity, the authors obtained experimental proof of the idea of L.S. Vygotsky that images of imagination are realized in creativity and come to the conclusion about the possibility of purposeful development of creativity in ontogenesis. Authors connect the purposeful development of creativity with theatrical pedagogy, in which training and education are realized with the help of theatrical methods. Theatrical methods, according to the authors, are methods by which you can set an imaginary situation and, at the same time, these are methods that allow the viewer to be included in theatrical action.

In the article, developing preschool education is considered in the logic of game activity. The authors followed L.S. Vygotsky is considered an imaginary situation as the criterion for the game and distinguishes two-positional nature as its essential characteristic. The article proves that the game in cultural-historical psychology has characteristics similar to the zone of proximal development. Developing preschool education is considered from the point of view of creating conditions for the formation and development of bi-subjectivity. According to the authors, developing preschool education should solve three problems - the task of forming psychological readiness for playing activity, the task of learning the game, and the task of using the game as a learning tool. There are two patterns that determine the developmental nature of learning at preschool age - this is the creation of situations in which the child should realize a strong-willed effort and purposeful development of a central psychological neoplasm.

The author analyses the possibilities of transforming human mind in connection with the appearance of “digital civilization” and the development of human sciences, in particular, cognitive and neural ones. The article argues that human sciences can promote human perfection (and will not be used as a means of its degradation) only if they take into account the principal fact: the human being is a natural/artificial creature engaged in activity and culture. In this context the author studies the relationship between individual and collective activity and analyzes different forms of the latter: relative independence of participants, distributed activity, and cooperative activity. Cooperation requires constant communication between the participants. Therefore activity and communication cannot be opposed to each other, as the act of communication matters only in the context of activity, and also because communication itself can be understood as a specific kind of activity. In this connection social constructionism in psychology and other human sciences is criticized.

On July 10, 2018 a discussion seminar "From Joint Activity to the Construction of New Social Communities: Jointness. Creativity. Education. School" was held at the Moscow State University of Psychology and Education dedicated to the 70th birthday of professor Vitaly Rubtsov, Rector of MSUPE. Some of the discussed topics were: "Sociogenesis and the productive nature of joint action", "From co-operation to co-creation: new forms of community in joint activity", "Jointness in play, learning and design activity", "School as the place for developing various forms of child-adult communities and activities". Among the participants of the seminar were representatives of the leading research and educational organizations: Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Psychological Institute of the Russian Academy of Education, Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and others. Here we present the full text of the discussion.

On July 10, 2018 a discussion seminar “From Joint Activity to the Construction of New Social Communities: Jointness. Creativity. Education. School” was held at the Moscow State University of Psychology and Education dedicated to the 70th birthday of professor Vitaly Rubtsov, Rector of MSUPE. Some of the discussed topics were: “Sociogenesis and the productive nature of joint action”, “From co-operation to co-creation: new forms of community in joint activity”, “Jointness in play, learning and design activity”, “School as the place for developing various forms of child-adult communities and activities”. Among the participants of the seminar were representatives of the leading research and educational organizations: Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Psychological Institute of the Russian Academy of Education, Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and others. Here we present the full text of the discussion.

The 'Golden Key' programme is a preschool education programme that is constructed on the basis of Vygotskij's cultural- historical theory. One of the most important aspects of this theory is not just the unity of intellect and affect, but the fact that the relationship between these two changes during the course of development. In infants, affect drives action, whereas by the end of the preschool period, affect and action are mediated by intellect. If affective and cognitive developments are studied as separate processes, then this has the effect in pedagogy of separating nurture and education. In the cultural- historical approach there is a movement from personal meaning to normative, or cultural, sense. Within the pedagogical approach derived from this theory the teacher neither nurtures nor teaches, but lives a joint life with the children. The Golden Key programme is based on a family group, with between 15 and 25 children aged from three to 10 years and their teachers. Parents and family members are also involved in the life of the group. Pedagogical practice is based around a special system of events which helps children develop their initiative and understand their culture. In their first four years the children experience four components of the programme in sequence. In the first year, teachers work on spatial orientation. In the second year, teachers work on time and history. In the third year, teachers work on activities with different materials and in the fourth year, teachers work on children's abilities to analyse and reflect on their actions. By the end of the educational programme all children succeed according to a set of criteria that include the ability to concentrate, to solve problems, to evaluate their own actions, to think logically and to act creatively. Children who have graduated from this programme are noted for their ability and skill and also their level of physical health.

In nonclassical psychology, the experimenter does not occupy a position removed from or in opposition to the object of study. This article analyzes different forms of play with that perspective in mind. The authors discuss the importance of "dual positioning" in play, which allows the child to be the subject of play as well as to take the objective position in which he/she can also control play at will.

Nonclassical psychology has laws that differ from those in classical psychology. Nonclassical psychology uncovers the specifically human course of development and views people as self-regulated individuals. Vygotsky's writings reveal his lifelong engagement with the psychology of art, which for him was the essence of the new nonclassical psychology. The author looks at "play" and "positioning" as two key units in understanding nonclassical psychology.

"In Memoriam Gita L'vovna Vygodskaya (1925-2010)." Journal of Russian & East European Psychology, 48(4), p. 4

The notion of the zone of proximal development in the integral context of Vygotsky's cultural-historical conception and its contemporary maintenance is discussed. This makes possible to consider the problem of the zone of proximal development' measurement in relation to child's communicational peculiarities in a new way. Based on the analysis of communication development in ontogenesis different levels of the zone of proximal development are proposed, and hypothesis about possibility of purposeful changing of the zone of proximal development' limits is advanced.Consideration of the zone of proximal development in the context of cultural-historical conception and psychology of communication permits to solve the problem of correlation of mental and personal development in ontogenesis.