THE LEARNING-PROCESS - VYGOTSKYS THEORY IN THE MIRROR OF ITS INTERPRETATIONS

Vygotsky's ideas, which originated in the scientific debates of the 1920s-1930s, have proved to be relevant for the psychological and educational agenda of the last decade of the twentieth century. Such delayed recognition carries with it an inevitable problem of interpretation. In this paper several such interpretations reflecting changing perspectives in Russian and Western psychologies are discussed. One of these interpretations was perpetuated by the 'psychology of activity' school which until recently dominated the field of Vygotskian scholarship in Russia. Another interpretation focuses on the issue of learning activity' as distinct from learning in a generic sense. This interpretation has direct relevance to the issue of cognitive education currently discussed in Western educational psychology. Finally, there is a humanistic interpretation of Vygotsky's theory leading to the concept of future-oriented education.