Reviewing and elaborating L. S. Vygotsky's view of language mediated development, this work presents an extension of the Russian thinker's developmental psycho-semiotics to an educational psycho-semiotics. Interpreting original discussions of tool-mediation as developmental mechanism, this book addresses the question of what occurs in the interpersonal environment that enables the internalisation of tool and the development of thinking. Filling in a gap in Vygotsky's theoretical framework, it discusses in detail inter-psychological processes as the social origins of changes in the intra-psychological domain.
Besides theoretical descriptions, this book also offers an original instrument for educational research or practitioners' reflection of micro-genetic processes of interaction and change. This instrument is then applied in interpretive analyses of real-life classroom exchanges.

Autorentext

Charlotte Hua Liu, MEd, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education, University of Canberra, Australia. She lectures in educational psychology; mathematics and education; and educational research methods. Her research interests include Vygotsky's educational psychology and philosophy, Jung's analytical psychology, the psychology of language and thinking, and micro educational sociology. As an educator, she has over ten years' experience of working with secondary and tertiary students.

Inhalt

Contents: Psychological semiotics - Vygotsky - Language and thinking - Language as psychological symbols - Mediated development - Theoretical framework - Interpretive instrument - Interpretive analyses.