Beyond the Brain: An Agentive Activity Perspective on Mind, Development, and Learning

176 Pages·2017·4.97 MB·English

by  Igor M. Arievitch (auth.)

Beyond the Brain
Bold Visions in Educational Research
Volume 57
Series Editors:
Kenneth Tobin, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, USA
Carolyne Ali-Khan, College of Education & Human Services, University of North Florida, USA
Co-founding Editor:
Joe Kincheloe (with Kenneth Tobin)
Editorial Board:
Barry Down, School of Education, Murdoch University, Australia
Daniel L. Dinsmore, University of North Florida, USA
Gene Fellner, College of Staten Island, City University of New York, USA
L. Earle Reybold, College of Education and Human Development,
George Mason University, USA
Stephen Ritchie, School of Education, Murdoch University, Australia
Scope:
Bold Visions in Educational Research is international in scope and includes books from two
areas: teaching and learning to teach and research methods in education. Each area contains
multi-authored handbooks of approximately 200,000 words and monographs (authored and
edited collections) of approximately 130,000 words. All books are scholarly, written to engage
specified readers and catalyze changes in policies and practices. Defining characteristics of books
in the series are their explicit uses of theory and associated methodologies to address important
problems. We invite books from across a theoretical and methodological spectrum from scholars
employing quantitative, statistical, experimental, ethnographic, semiotic, hermeneutic, historical,
ethnomethodological, phenomenological, case studies, action, cultural studies, content analysis,
rhetorical, deconstructive, critical, literary, aesthetic and other research methods.
Books on teaching and learning to teach focus on any of the curriculum areas (e.g., literacy, science,
mathematics, social science), in and out of school settings, and points along the age continuum (pre
K to adult). The purpose of books on research methods in education is not to present generalized
and abstract procedures but to show how research is undertaken, highlighting the particulars that
pertain to a study. Each book brings to the foreground those details that must be considered at every
step on the way to doing a good study. The goal is not to show how generalizable methods are but to
present rich descriptions to show how research is enacted. The books focus on methodology, within
a context of substantive results so that methods, theory, and the processes leading to empirical
analyses and outcomes are juxtaposed. In this way method is not reified, but is explored within
well-described contexts and the emergent research outcomes. Three illustrative examples of books
are those that allow proponents of particular perspectives to interact and debate, comprehensive
handbooks where leading scholars explore particular genres of inquiry in detail, and introductory
texts to particular educational research methods/issues of interest to novice researchers.
Beyond the Brain
An Agentive Activity Perspective on Mind, Development, and Learning
Igor M. Arievitch
College of Staten Island, The City University of New York, USA
A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: 978-94-6351-102-5 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-94-6351-103-2 (hardback)
ISBN: 978-94-6351-104-9 (e-book)
Published by: Sense Publishers,
P.O. Box 21858,
3001 AW Rotterdam,
The Netherlands
https://www.sensepublishers.com/
All chapters in this book have undergone peer review.
Printed on acid-free paper
All Rights Reserved © 2017 Sense Publishers
No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming,
recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the
exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and
executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vii
Chapter 1: Introduction 1
The Goals and Starting Points of the Book 1
The Structure and Main Topics of the Book 4
Chapter 2: The Mind Is Not in the Brain 7
A New Wave of Brainism in Psychology and Education 7
Recent Criticism of Brainism 9
Summary of Arguments against Brainism and “Mindless Neuroscience” 20
Chapter 3: The Mind Is the Form of the Individual’s Activity: The Emergence
of the Active Agent 25
Historical Context of Research on Non-Automaticity 28
James’s Concept of the “Efficacity of Consciousness” 30
Dewey’s Notion of Coordination of Self-Guided Activity 31
An Activity-Based Approach to Mind 33
Background of Galperin’s Work 33
The Concept of Orienting Activity 35
The New Type of Causality 39
The Mind Is the Embodied Agent’s Activity, Not the Brain Functioning 40
Comparison to Other Recent Attempts to Introduce an Agentive Approach
to Mind 42
Chapter 4: The Developmental Trajectory of Cultural Mediation (I):
From Joint Activity to Semiotic Mediation 55
Approaches to Semiotic Mediation 57
Vygotsky on Semiotic Mediation 60
Taking a Broader View on Mediation: Pre-History of Semiotic
Mediation 64
From Earlier Forms of Cultural Mediation to Semiotic Mediation:
The “Magic of Signs” 72
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 5: The Developmental Trajectory of Cultural Mediation (II):
From Semiotically Mediated Activity to Psychological Process 77
The Internalization Controversy 77
An Activity-Based Approach to Internalization 81
Focusing on External Activity 81
Mental Processes as Activities 86
Mental Processes Are the Agent’s External Actions 91
Demystifying the Process of Mediation by Cognitive Tools 95
Reframing the Mediation Research 95
Cognitive Tools Are Directed toward External Objects, Not “Inward” 99
Broadening the Non-Mentalist Framework 103
Neo-Piagetian Theorizing of Mental Processes and Internalization 104
The Human Agent: Adapting Organism or Inherently Social Actor? 106
“Internal” Processes as Acting with Social Meanings 109
Summary and Conclusions 112
Chapter 6: The Quality of Cognitive Tools and Development of the Mind 115
Development and Learning: The Relevance of Culturally Evolved
Cognitive Tools 116
The Role of Learning in Cognitive Development 120
Types of Learning 120
Types of Learning and Cognitive Development 132
Implications for Developmental Studies 137
Developmental Teaching and Learning 140
An Illustration: Bloom’s Taxonomy from the DTL Perspective 142
Chapter 7: Conclusion: Overcoming the Contemplative Fallacy by
Adopting the Agentive Activity Perspective 147
References 153
About the Author 169
vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The writing of this book has benefited greatly from the constant support and
encouragement from my colleagues and friends at the School of Education of the
College of Staten Island, CUNY, for which I am very grateful.
My special thanks go to my long time colleagues and friends Andrei Podolskij,
René van der Veer, and Joseph Glick, who provided precious support and advice at
different stages of my professional career.
I am indebted to my academic teachers and brilliant thinkers Alexander Luria,
Alexei Leontiev, and especially Piotr Galperin, who is one of the major inspirational
figures of this book.
My deep gratitude is to Anna Stetsenko, with whom this book had been initially
started as part of our joint project because we share much of the most fundamental
perspectives, approaches, and thinking. We later decided to split the project into
two separate books, due to the wealth of ideas and materials to cover for each of us.
Anna’s input, feedback, and all kinds of support have been vital during the writing
of this book and far beyond.
I am also grateful to my daughter Maria for her help in editing the text of the
book.
vii

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
THE GOALS AND STARTING POINTS OF THE BOOK
This book presents a radical alternative to the rising wave of aggressive brainism and
biological reductionism in contemporary psychology, philosophy, and education.
It addresses major challenges and charts out possible steps in achieving what
constitutes a daunting and elusive goal for contemporary psychology: constructing
a coherently non-reductionist account of the mind by overcoming the entrenched
dualisms which still plague major psychological frameworks and Western thought
in general. It argues that such an account requires a consistently non-mentalist and
non-individualist view of mental (psychological) processes, yet without discarding
the individual mind altogether. In this vein, the book outlines an alternative
agentive activity perspective on mind and development, conceptualizes from this
perspective their relationships to the processes of teaching and learning, and lays
out the important implications of this approach for psychology and education. The
overall approach is based and expands on the recently influential Vygotsky-inspired
framework of cultural-historical and activity theories. It is also generally compatible
with several contemporary approaches, especially interactivism and the embodied
cognition theories; yet it is distinct in its conceptualization of the human mind as
a unique emergent property of human embodied meaningful activities that are not
reducible to physiological processes in the brain.
It is necessary to clarify my usage of several terms from the start. First, by a
consistent account of the mind I mean an account which would go in a conceptually
coherent fashion from a most foundational conceptual perspective on the mind through
elaboration and empirical research of key notions that emerge from this perspective, all
the way to articulating critical implications for an educational vision and practices. Such
a consistent account would also need to include the development of the mind across
three major dimensions – phylogenetic, ontogenetic, and microgenetic dimensions.
That is, it would need to address the evolutionary emergence of the mind, the individual
psychological development, and the functional, or microgenetic, development of
psychological processes (development within a limited period of learning).
Second, by a non-reductionist account of the mind I mean an account which
would reduce the unique characteristics and functions of the individual mind neither
“downwards,” that is, to physiological processes in the brain, nor “upwards,” that is,
to linguistic discourses, social communication, or communal practices.
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