Abstract

TOOMELA, Aaro. Vygotskian (but only partly Vygotsky’s) understanding of special education. Educação. Porto Alegre [online]. 2018, vol.41, n.3, pp.347-361.  Epub July 05, 2019. ISSN 1981-2582.  https://doi.org/10.15448/1981-2582.2018.3.31795.

In this article general principles of special education are discussed from the Vygotskian perspective. First it is suggested that for understanding of special education in particular and the psyche and its development in general, structural-systemic epistemology should be applied. To understand special education, psyche and its development should be understood at different levels of analysis. In this paper first life is defined in order to define psyche as a special form of life. Psyche, at the next more specific level of analysis is distinguished into complementary parts, that of individual and its environment. Environment is defined next and theoretically distinguished into four kinds. On this theoretical background, pedagogy and special education are defined. Special education should be based on thorough understanding of the learner at different levels of analysis: according to general stages of development, according to within-stage development, and at the level of the structure of cognition. Two principal targets of the special education and three basic strategies of neuropsychological rehabilitation and special education are distinguished.

Keywords : Special education; Vygotsky; Luria; Strategies; Structural-systemic epistemology.

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