Vasiliy Davydov: The Founder of Activity Practice in Education

The paper analyzes the conceptual framework of the activity-based content of education that was elaborated by Vasiliy Davydov and implemented in a new design of school subjects. The article shows that, in order to promote activity practice in education, Davydov had to develop three project-oriented notions that he integrated into a single system of activity practice: 1. The notion of the structure of the thinking act – the ‘cell’ of any thinking processes acquired by students; 2. The notion of the concept as a system of actions (i.e. the concepts from school subjects, such as ‘number’, ‘phoneme’) that represents the main content of primary education; 3. The notion of a schoolchild’s learning activity as a form of activity aimed at mastering new types of school subjects. The integration of these three notions was possible due to Davydov’s metacognitive approach that allows one to analyze the concretization of the notions about the thinking act using the materials from different school subjects, in different types of activity. The paper argues that the next step in the development of activity practice in education requires the elaboration of the concept of education as a form of integration of the student’s learning activity and the teacher’s instructional activity.

1. Brushlinskii A.V. Myshlenie i prognozirovanie [Thinking and forecasting]. Moscow: Publ. Mysl’, 1979. 230 р. (In Russ.)
2. Gromyko Yu.V. Metod V.V. Davydova [Method of V.V. Davydov]. Moscow: Publ. Pushkinskii institut, 2003. 416 p. (In Russ.)
3. Gromyko Y.V., Rubtsov V.V., Margolis A.A. Shkola kak ekosistema razvivayushchikhsya detsko-vzroslykh soobshchestv: deyatel’nostnyi podkhod k proektirovaniyu shkoly budushchego [The School as Ecosystem of Developing Child-Adult Communities: Activity Approach to Designing the School of the Future]. Kul’turno-istoricheskaya psikhologiya = Cultural-Historical Psychology, 2020. Vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 57—67. DOI:10.17759/chp.2020160106. (In Russ.)
4. Gusserl’ E. Idei k chistoi fenomenologii i fenomenologicheskoi filosofii [Ideas for pure phenomenology and phenomenological philosophy]. 1. Moscow: Publ. DIK, 1999, p. 210.
5. Davydov V.V. Analiz struktury myslitel’nogo akta [Analysis of the structure of the mental act]. Doklady Akademii pedagogicheskikh nauk RSFSR = Reports of the Academy of pedagogical Sciences of the RSFSR, 1960, no. 2. (In Russ.)
6. Davydov V.V. Vidy obobshcheniya v obuchenii: logiko-psikhologicheskie problemy postroeniya uchebnykh predmetov [Types of generalization in teaching: logical and psychological problems of building educational subjects]. Moscow: Publ. Pedagogicheskoe obshchestvo Rossii, 2000. 480 p. (In Russ.)
7. Davydov V.V., Andronov V.P. Psikhologicheskie usloviya proiskhozhdeniya ideal’nykh deistvii [Psychological conditions of the origin of ideal actions]. Voprosy psikhologii = Questions of psychology, 1979, no. 5, pp. 50—51. (In Russ.)
8. Davydov V.V. Problemy razvivayushchego obucheniya [Problems of developing education]. Moscow: Publ. Pedagogika, 1986. 240 p. (In Russ.)
9. Davydov V.V. Poslednie vystupleniya [Recent performances]. Riga: Publ. PTs «Eksperiment», 1998. 88 p. (In Russ.)
10. Derrida Zhak O grammatologii [About grammatology]. Moscow: Publ. Ad Marginem, 2000. 512 p. (In Russ.)
11. Il’enkov E.V. Shkola dolzhna uchit’ myslit’ [School should teach to think]. MPSI, 2009, pp. 6—55. (In Russ.)
12. Rubtsov V.V. et al. Ot sovmestnogo deistviya — k konstruirovaniyu novykh sotsial’nykh obshchnostei: Sovmestnost’. Tvorchestvo. Obrazovanie. Shkola (Kruglyi stol metodologicheskogo seminara pod rukovodstvom V.V. Rubtsova, B.D. El’konina) [From joint action to the construction of new social communities: Togetherness. Creativity. Education. School (round table methodological seminar led By V.V. Rubtsov, B.D. Elkonin)]. Kul’turno-istoricheskaya psikhologiya = Cultural and historical psychology, Vol. 14, no. 3. pp. 5—30. DOI:10.17759/chp.2018140302 (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)
13. Poluyanov Yu.A., Matis T.A. Formirovanie otsenki na nachal’nom etape uchebnoi deyatel’nosti [Formation evaluation at the initial stage of learning activities] Psikhologicheskaya nauka i obrazovanie = Psychological science and education, 1996, no. 4. pp. 38—45. (In Russ.)
14. Poluyanov Yu.A. Vzaimodeistvie uchitelya i uchenikov v situatsiyakh spontannogo proyavleniya uchebnoi samostoyatel’nosti mladshikh shkol’nikov na zanyatiyakh izobrazitel’nym iskusstvom v sisteme razvivayushchego obucheniya [Teacher-Student Interaction in Situations of Spontaneous Learning Independence in Primary Schoolchildren in Art Lessons within the System of Developmental Instruction]. Kul’turno-istoricheskaya psikhologiya = Cultural-Historical Psychology, 2018. Vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 101—113. DOI:10.17759/chp.2018140310. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)
15. Repkin V.V., Repkina N.V. Razvivayushchee obuchenie: teoriya i praktika. Stat’i [Developing learning: theory and practice. Articles]. Tomsk: Publ. Peleng, 1993. 142 p. (In Russ.)
16. Rubtsov V.V. Rol’ kooperatsii v razvitii intellekta detei [the Role of cooperation in the development of children’s intelligence]. Voprosy psikhologii = Questions of psychology, 1980, no. 4, pp. 79—89. (In Russ.)
17. Rubtsov V.V. Osnovy sotsial’no-geneticheskoi psikhologii [Fundamentals of socio-genetic psychology]. Moscow: Publ. Institut prakticheskoi psikhologii, Voronezh: Publ. NPO «MODEK», 1996. 384 p. (In Russ.)
18. Rubtsov V.V. Sotsial’no-geneticheskaya psikhologiya razvivayushchego obrazovaniya: deyatel’nostnyi podkhod [Socio-genetic psychology of developing education: an activity approach]. Moscow: Publ. MGPPU, 2008. 416 p. (In Russ.)
19. Rubtsov V.V., Margolis A.A., Guruzhapov V.A. Kul’turno-istoricheskii tip shkoly (proekt razrabotki) [Cultural-historical type of school]. Psikhologicheskaya nauka i obrazovanie = Psychological science and education, 1996, no. 4, pp. 79—93. (In Russ.)
20. Selivanov V.V. Teoriya myshleniya kak protsessa: eksperimental’noe podtverzhdenie [Theory of thinking as a process: experimental confirmation] Eksperimental’naya psikhologiya = Experimental psychology, 2019. 12, no. 1. pp. 40—52. DOI: 10.17759/exppsy.2019120104. (In Russ.)
21. Slobodchikov V.I. Sobytiinaya obrazovatel’naya obshchnost’ — istochnik razvitiya i sub”ekt obrazovaniya [Event educational community — a source of development and a subject of education]. In Krylova N.B. (eds.), Sobytiinost’ v obrazovatel’noi i pedagogicheskoi deyatel’nosti sb. statei=Eventuality in educational and pedagogical activity. Moscow, 2010. Vyp. 1 (43), pp. 5—13. (In Russ.)
22. Sushkov S.V. Soznanie i deyatel’nost’ v svete postklassicheskoi interpretatsii sotsial’nosti [Consciousness and activity in the light of post-classical interpretation of sociality]. Gumanitarnye nauki. Filosofiya = Philosophy, 2008, no. 1, pp. 65—70. (In Russ.)
23. Tyukov A.A. Psikhologiya razvitiya v komplekse sovremennoi antropologii [Psychology of development in the complex of modern anthropology]. Sistemnaya psikhologiya i sotsiologiya = System psychology and sociology, 2011, no. 3 (2), pp. 18—38. (In Russ.)
24. Shchedrovitskii G.P. Skhema mysledeyatel’nosti sistemno-strukturnoe stroenie, smysl i soderzhanie [the Scheme of the cognitive system-structural structure, meaning and content]. Sistemnye issledovaniya. Metodol. probl.: Ezhegodnik,1986=System research. Methodol. prob.: Yearbook, 1986. Moscow, 1987, pp. 124—146. (In Russ.)