[Maths-Education] The Sociological Theory of Piaget and Vygotsky

[Arne =?iso-8859-1?Q?Engstr=F6m?=]

Dear list members,

may I draw your attention to a recently published journal
- New Ideas in Psychology, 2000,18(2-3) -
that probably not usually are read by the list members.
It is a special issue on the sociological(!) works of Piaget (Sociological
Studies, 1995, Routledge).

Those of you who still believe that Piaget has nothing to contribute to the
issue of "the social" in mathematics education will be surprised, (as well
as those of you who do not know that Vygotsky was a behaviorist as late as
1930..... see deVries below.)

In one article on "Contstraint and cooperation algebraic probem solving",
Analucia Schliemann argues that "Piaget's, analysis of the role of social
life and cooperation constitute a rich theoretical approach for
understanding how children come to develop, understand, and use culturally
developed mathematical representations".

A new translation (made by Les Smith, UK) of Piaget's response to Vygotsky
remarks about Piaget's theory is also published.

May I quote from the introduction of one of the papers:

"One might legitimately wonder why discussion of a collection of essays
written between 40 to 70 years ago is appropriate for a journal entitled
New Ideas in Psychology. But the issues Piaget discussed in these essays
are of just as much importance today as they were at the time he was
writing. This is because in these essays Piaget explored the role of social
interaction in the development of knowledge from an epiistemological
perspective."

The journal can be found on:
http://www.elsevier.com/locate/newideapsych

*New Ideas in Pschology, 2000,18(2-3)*
Content:

Kitchener, R.F. Editor's introduction.119-120.

=46urth, H.G. & Youniss, J. Reflections on Piaget's sociological studies.
121-133.

Harree, R. Piaget's "Sociological Studies". 135-138.

The role of social inteaction in Piaget's theory: language for social
cooperation and social cooperation for language. 139-156.

Schlieman, A.D. Constraint and cooperation in algebraic problem solving.
157-169.

Moessinger, P. Piaget: from biology to sociology. 171-176.

Lightfoot, C. On respect. 177-185.

DeVries, R. Vygotsky, Piaget, and Education: a reciprocal assimilation of
theories and educational practices. 187-213.

Sociocultural critique of Piaget and Vygotsky. 215-239.

Piaget, J. Commentary on Vygotsky's criticisms of Laanguage and thought of
the child and Judgement and reasoning in teh child. 241-259.

Mays, W. Piaget's sociology revisited. 261-275.

Via your university library you may also be able to read the article on-line=
=2E

My best

Arne Engstr=F6m


___________________________________________________________

Arne Engstr=F6m Ph D
Senior lecturer
Department of Education
=D6rebro university
SE-701 82 =D6REBRO
Sweden
Phone +46 19 30 38 58
=46ax   +46 19 30 32 59
Email arne.engstrom@pi.oru.se
___________________________________________________________________