The Psychological Content of Relationship between Sense and Meaning in Cultural-Historical Approach

The paper considers L.S. Vygotsky’s cultural-historical theory and its interpretation in modern psychology. It shows that psychological content of many concepts introduced by L.S. Vygotsky differs greatly from that of the ones used in theory and practice of modern psychological science. The authors state that L.S. Vygotsky’s main idea which shapes the specifics of cultural-historical psychology is the idea of sense primacy in relation to meaning. The analysis of subject content of the concept of «cultural development» allows us to affirm that L.S. Vygotsky understood the essence of learning process somewhat differently from what is now accepted. Learning in cultural-historical psychology promotes the development of will and self-regulation. Meanwhile, learning is seen not as a transformation of the external into the internal (process of interiorization), but as the ability to realize oneself in the outer world. At the same time, an important role in mental development and learning is played by another mental function, imagination

Imagination and Creativity: Cultural–Historical Approach

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

From Joint Activity to the Construction of New SocialCommunities: Jointness. Creativity. Education. School (Roundtable of the methodological seminar supervisedby V.V. Rubtsov and B.D. Elkonin)

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