Methods for Investigating Concepts

Understanding the Dialectical Relations Between Everyday Concepts and Scientific Concepts Within Play-Based Programs

“…Few studies actually seek to map and understand the nature of concept formation within embedded contexts. Foregrounding the functional use of concepts within their naturalistic context (Sakharov 1994) must be taken into account in research. The present study sought to explicitly map and analyse concepts in the context of their use or in the context of their development.…”

“…Vygtosky's methodological approach for developing the strata described in Table 1 was developed with his colleague Sakharov (1994) [adapting a sorting test developed by Ach (1921), and was known as the 'double stimulation' or as the block activity in the West (see Chapter 5 of Vygotsky 1987 for a full description of the method)]. Although critiques of the method have been made in relation to the disembedded experimental nature of the activity that the children engaged in (see Daniels 2001;Kozulin 1990), the categorisations that resulted (Table 1), does provide a beginning point (only) for analysing concept formation within a naturalistic setting (Vygotsky 1994).…”

More Than a Footnote to History in Cultural-Historical Theory: The Zalkind Summary, Experimental Study of Higher Behavioural Processes, and “Vygotsky's Blocks”

“…To begin with, Sakharov (1994) referred to at least six procedures in his description of the circumstances contributing to his and Vygotsky's refinement of the "functional procedure of double stimulation" in children's concept formation studies. Among these, Ach's (1921, as discussed in Sakharov, 1994) and a number of other researchers' studies are discussed at length, as well as Sakharov's and Vygotsky's procedure with blocks called "bat," "dek," "rots," and "mup" (which are not the same as the Hanfmann-Kasanin blocks).…”

“…Unearthing the Summary was a chance discovery that had its beginnings in a habit of mine: rummaging around in footnotes-footnotes, end notes, notes-those marvellous spotlights for illuminating texts. Leonid Sakharov's 1928/1930 paper (see Sakharov, 1994), which was published again in 1994 by Van der Veer and Valsiner, has a good number of notes-20, in fact. And, as is so often the case in unexpected events, it was the last one, Note 20, which reads as follows:…”

“…The principal results of this investigation were presented by Vygotsky at the First Congress on the Study of Human Behaviour, in Leningrad in January 1930 (Section on Psychology, Reflexology and Physiology of the Nervous System). See Vygotsky, L. S. 1930 (Sakharov, 1994) All efforts to trace this monologue were unsuccessful until René van der Veer sent me a copy of the summary of these principal results-the "Zalkind Summary" (see Figure 1). As it seemed that the Summary had not been translated into English, I commissioned a scholar at the University of the Witwatersrand to do so.…”