Anna Stetsenko | |
---|---|
Occupation | Professor of Psychology |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | PhD at Moscow State University |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Developmental Psychology,Urban Education |
Institutions | CUNY Graduate Center |
Website | https://annastetsenko.ws.gc.cuny.edu/ |
Anna Stetsenko is a developmental psychologist known for her important contributions to cultural-historical activity theory,building on the work of Lev Vygotsky,Leontiev and Alexander Luria. Her research centers human development,education,and social theory. [1]
Stetsenko is a Professor of Psychology and Urban Education at the CUNY Graduate Center,and is the Training Area Head for the Developmental Psychology PhD program. [2]
Stetsenko received her PhD in general and developmental psychology from Moscow State University in 1984 [1] . During her time at Moscow State University,she worked with scholars such as Alexei Leontiev and Vasily Davydov. [3] [4] She worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Education in Berlin. [5] She was an Invited Visiting Fellow at the Center of Cultural Studies in Vienna. From 1993 to 1999,Stetsenko was an Assistant Professor at the Department of Developmental Psychology at the University of Bern,Switzerland. [5]
Stetsenko was appointed to the CUNY Graduate Center as an Associate Professor in 1999,and went on to be a full Professor of Psychology and Urban Education. [2] In her ongoing tenure,Stetsenko has published research on agency,personhood,and human development,from the lens of social change. She has served as the principal advisor on more than 20 PhD dissertations. [2]
She serves on the editorial boards for several academic journals,including the Journal of Psycholinguistic Research [6] ,Mind,Culture,and Activity [7] ,and Experimental Psychology (Russia). [8] Stetsenko has published a number of books,including The Transformative Mind:Expanding Vygotsky's Approach to Development and Education. [3] She has contributed chapters to influential books,such as The Essential Vygotsky and The World's Youth:Adolescence in Eight Regions of the Globe. Her writing has been published in English,Russian,German and French. [9]
Stetsenko has been a keynote speaker at the International Society of Cultural and Activity Research Congress [10] ,Literacy Research Association Congress [11] ,and the Nordic Education Research Association. [12]
Stetsenko has received numerous grants and awards from agencies,such as the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Spencer Foundation. In 2009,Stetsenko was awarded a National Science Foundation grant as a co-Principal Investigator for "The Scientific Thinker" project. [13] [14] In 2023,Stetsenko was honored by the American Education Research Association for Lifetime Contributions to Cultural-Historical Research. [15]
Stetsenko studies human development in varied contexts including educational settings. She is known for her contribution to Vygotskian activity theory. Stetsenko's research involves socio-cultural activity theory and its potential positive and negative outcomes within the human development and learning. [16]
She has carried out extensive empirical research on adolescents and social development,closely related to issues of gender,self-concept and motivation. Her works are closely connected with the social-cultural interaction and daily activities of adolescents and children. [1]
In 2017,Stetsenko published "The Transformative Mind:Expanding Vygotsky's Approach to Development and Education". [17] This book explores Vygotsky's theoretical work and discusses contemporary issues in the social sciences. [18] Building on Vygotsky's approach,Stetsenko outlines the transformative activist stance,a perspective on human development that posits that people are shaped by and actively shape their social worlds. [18]
Educational psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of human learning. The study of learning processes,from both cognitive and behavioral perspectives,allows researchers to understand individual differences in intelligence,cognitive development,affect,motivation,self-regulation,and self-concept,as well as their role in learning. The field of educational psychology relies heavily on quantitative methods,including testing and measurement,to enhance educational activities related to instructional design,classroom management,and assessment,which serve to facilitate learning processes in various educational settings across the lifespan.
Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky was a Russian and Soviet psychologist,best known for his work on psychological development in children and creating the framework known as cultural-historical activity theory. After his early death,his books and research were banned in the Soviet Union until Joseph Stalin's death in 1953,with a first collection of major texts published in 1956.
Jean William Fritz Piaget was a Swiss psychologist known for his work on child development. Piaget's theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called genetic epistemology.
Aleksei Nikolayevich Leontiev,was a Soviet Russian developmental psychologist and philosopher and a founder of activity theory.
Activity theory is an umbrella term for a line of eclectic social-sciences theories and research with its roots in the Soviet psychological activity theory pioneered by Sergei Rubinstein in the 1930s. It was later advocated for and popularized by Alexei Leont'ev. Some of the traces of the theory in its inception can also be found in a few works of Lev Vygotsky. These scholars sought to understand human activities as systemic and socially situated phenomena and to go beyond paradigms of reflexology and classical conditioning,psychoanalysis and behaviorism. It became one of the major psychological approaches in the former USSR,being widely used in both theoretical and applied psychology,and in education,professional training,ergonomics,social psychology and work psychology.
The psychology of learning refers to theories and research on how individuals learn. There are many theories of learning. Some take on a more behaviorist approach which focuses on inputs and reinforcements. Other approaches,such as neuroscience and social cognition,focus more on how the brain's organization and structure influence learning. Some psychological approaches,such as social constructivism,focus more on one's interaction with the environment and with others. Other theories,such as those related to motivation,like the growth mindset,focus more on individuals' perceptions of ability.
Constructivism in education is a theory that suggests that learners do not passively acquire knowledge through direct instruction. Instead,they construct their understanding through experiences and social interaction,integrating new information with their existing knowledge. This theory originates from Swiss developmental psychologist Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development.
Cognitive development is a field of study in neuroscience and psychology focusing on a child's development in terms of information processing,conceptual resources,perceptual skill,language learning,and other aspects of the developed adult brain and cognitive psychology. Qualitative differences between how a child processes their waking experience and how an adult processes their waking experience are acknowledged. Cognitive development is defined as the emergence of the ability to consciously cognize,understand,and articulate their understanding in adult terms. Cognitive development is how a person perceives,thinks,and gains understanding of their world through the relations of genetic and learning factors. There are four stages to cognitive information development. They are,reasoning,intelligence,language,and memory. These stages start when the baby is about 18 months old,they play with toys,listen to their parents speak,they watch TV,anything that catches their attention helps build their cognitive development.
The zone of proximal development (ZPD) is a concept in educational psychology. It represents the space between what a learner is capable of doing unsupported and what the learner cannot do even with support. It is the range where the learner is able to perform,but only with support from a teacher or a peer with more knowledge or expertise. The concept was introduced,but not fully developed,by psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934) during the last three years of his life. Vygotsky argued that a child gets involved in a dialogue with the "more knowledgeable other",such as a peer or an adult,and gradually,through social interaction and sense-making,develops the ability to solve problems independently and do certain tasks without help. Following Vygotsky,some educators believe that the role of education is to give children experiences that are within their zones of proximal development,thereby encouraging and advancing their individual learning skills and strategies.
Social therapy is an activity-theoretic practice developed outside of academia at the East Side Institute for Group and Short Term Psychotherapy in New York. Its primary methodologists are cofounders of the East Side Institute,Fred Newman and Lois Holzman. In evolution since the late 1970s,the social therapeutic approach to human development and learning is informed by a variety of intellectual traditions especially the works of Karl Marx,Lev Vygotsky and Ludwig Wittgenstein.
Cultural-historical psychology is a branch of psychological theory and practice associated with Lev Vygotsky and Alexander Luria and their Circle,who initiated it in the mid-1920s–1930s. The phrase "cultural-historical psychology" never occurs in the writings of Vygotsky,and was subsequently ascribed to him by his critics and followers alike,yet it is under this title that this intellectual movement is now widely known. The main goal of Vygotsky-Luria project was the establishment of a "new psychology" that would account for the inseparable unity of mind,brain and culture in their development in concrete socio-historical settings and throughout the history of humankind as socio-biological species. In its most radical forms,the theory that Vygotsky and Luria were attempting to build was expressed in terms of a "science of Superman",and was closely linked with the pronouncement for the need in a new psychological theory of consciousness and its relationship to the development of higher psychological functions. All this theoretical and experimental empirical work was attempted by the members of the Vygotsky Circle.
Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition (LCHC) is a social science laboratory located at the University of California,San Diego (UCSD) since 1978. Scholars at LCHC pursue research focused on understanding the complex relationship between cognition and culture in individual and social development. Such research requires collaboration among scholars from a variety of research disciplines,including cognitive science,education,linguistics,psychology,anthropology,and sociology. LCHC also functions as a research and training institution,arranging for pre-doctoral,doctoral,and post-doctoral training,as well as research exchanges with scholars throughout the world. In addition,LCHC sponsors a journal,Mind,Culture and Activity:An International Journal (MCA),and an open internet discussion group,XMCA.
Katherine Nelson was an American developmental psychologist,and professor.
In sociology and other social sciences,internalization means an individual's acceptance of a set of norms and values through socialisation.
The Vygotsky Circle was an influential informal network of psychologists,educationalists,medical specialists,physiologists,and neuroscientists,associated with Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934) and Alexander Luria (1902–1977),active in 1920-early 1940s in the Soviet Union. The work of the Circle contributed to the foundation of the integrative science of mind,brain,and behavior in their cultural and bio-social development also known under somewhat vague and imprecise name of cultural-historical psychology.
In the framework of the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) the leading activity is the activity,or cooperative human action,which plays the most essential role in child development during a given developmental period. Although many activities may play a role in a child's development at any given time,the leading activity is theorized to be the type of social interaction that is most beneficial in terms of producing major developmental accomplishments,and preparing the child for the next period of development. Through engaging in leading activities,a child develops a wide range of capabilities,including emotional connection with others,motivation to engage in more complex social activities,the creation of new cognitive abilities,and the restructuring of old ones.
Cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) is a theoretical framework to conceptualize and analyse the relationship between cognition and activity. The theory was founded by L. S. Vygotsky and Aleksei N. Leontiev,who were part of the cultural-historical school of Russian psychology. The Soviet philosopher of psychology,S.L. Rubinshtein,developed his own variant of activity as a philosophical and psychological theory,independent from Vygotsky's work. Political restrictions in Stalinist Russia had suppressed the cultural-historical psychology –also known as the Vygotsky School –in the mid-thirties. This meant that the core "activity" concept remained confined to the field of psychology. Vygotsky's insight into the dynamics of consciousness was that it is essentially subjective and shaped by the history of each individual's social and cultural experiences. Since the 1990s,CHAT has attracted a growing interest among academics worldwide. Elsewhere CHAT has been described as "a cross-disciplinary framework for studying how humans transform natural and social reality,including themselves,as an ongoing culturally and historically situated,materially and socially mediated process". CHAT explicitly incorporates the mediation of activities by society,which means that it can be used to link concerns normally independently examined by sociologists of education and (social) psychologists. Core ideas are:1) humans act collectively,learn by doing,and communicate in and via actions;2) humans make,employ,and adapt tools to learn and communicate;and 3) community is central to the process of making and interpreting meaning –and thus to all forms of learning,communicating,and acting.
Lois Holzman is director and co-founder of the East Side Institute in New York,New York,where she developed social therapy methods with Fred Newman. She is known for her research and work on play therapy,social therapy,and criticism of the medical model of mental health. She was instrumental in introducing the ideas of Lev Vygotsky to the fields of psychotherapy,organizational and community development. In 2014,Holzman received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Cultural-Historical Research Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association.
Vera (Veronka) John-Steiner (1930–2017) was a Hungarian-American educational psychologist and activist. She was known for her work on creative collaboration,and her contributions to psycholinguistics,cultural-historical activity theory,cross-cultural education,bilingualism,psychology of women,and cognitive psychology. Her theoretical framework was heavily influenced by the work of Lev Vygotsky. In 2007,the American Educational Research Association honored her with its Lifetime Achievement Award.
Colette Agnes Daiute is an American developmental and educational psychologist known for her research on human development under conditions of adversity and in rapidly changing environments. She studies how the social emotional development of children,youth and adults interacts with circumstances including social displacement,migration,discrimination,and economic inequality.