Vygotsky challenged by cultural changes from the 20th to the 21st century: the challenges of precocious schooling

Abstract

In Russia, in 1898, 40 to 70% of people who have learned to read and write did it elsewhere than at school. Early in the twentieth century children attend school from the age of 8-9 (Berelowitch, 1978). Nowadays, in many countries, reading and writing is taught in the form of a sub-discipline of French: entry into writing occurs very early. In the second stage of preschool age, between the ages of 5 and 7, "it's question of learning to read and write" (Vygotski, 1935/1995, p. 45). Nevertheless, at the preschool age, between 3 and 7 years old, the child "does what he wants but [...] he wants what the guide wants" (p. 36). What are the forms in that case of teaching and learning bearing of development to preschool age? Examples of learning collectives taken in France, Swiss or Quebec classes will be offered for analysis. The methodology makes use of learning collectives' videos. The data is reduced to remarkable events and systematically analyzed. The comparisons between the different learning collectives in different classes show apparent regularities. Longitudinal analysis (on the same students followed during 2 or 3 years), highlights clues of their learning-development. The results are as follows: ritualized activity is dominant; the layout of the teaching/learning situation is the unavoidable support of the work; the school form (Schneuwly & Thévenaz-Christen, 2006) is present but the teaching leans more on the knowledge of the pupils and less on a static program; learning is spontaneous-reactive; the lexicon combines the childish concrete terms and the abstract disciplinary terms; the learning object is studied sometimes sensorial or sometimes cognitively; the materiality (objects, lines and gestures) is a tool used by the teacher, this tool changes according to the students' knowledge acquired.