On March 1, the International Teachers’ Academy of Pre-School Education held the seminar The Notion of “Development of Consciousness” in Cultural-Historical Psychology and Perspectives of Its Use in Practice within the series Cultural-Historical Concept by Lev Vygotsky and Modern Pre-School Education.
Professor Nikolay Veraksa, Chief Research Fellow at the Laboratory of Child Development, and Associate Professor Nikolay Veresov, Monash University, Australia, participated in the seminar as speakers.
Nikolay Veresov raised the question of the notion of consciousness as there is no generally accepted understanding of the concept, and psychology literature features 300+ definitions of this crucial term. Professor Nikolay Veraksa presented his view on the notion of development and focused on its dual comprehension, which involves the necessity to preserve and the necessity to change. The scholars discussed the influence on the child’s consciousness of the internal an external environment, the principles of reflection and deflection, among others.
Further, the question emerged as to why Lev Vygotsky did not include emotional experience to the higher nervous functions. There is evidence that Lev Vygotsky started to write a book on the issue but did not manage to finish it. Thus, modern scholars have an opportunity to develop Vygotsky’s ideas or propose their theory.
4,000+ participants attended the seminar. See the recording of the seminar on YouTube.