1 Introduction

Given the current scenario in which concerns about education revolve around the loss suffered by students during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is much discussion about the literacy gap, as this reality has not only increased educational deficits, but also worsened inequalities. It is widely known that some schools develop their teaching activities with literary reading focused on content- based practices, using the text without context. In addition, we believe that there is no theoretical basis in schools to develop study activities with literary reading.

We point out the need for educational institutions to have knowledge of and the possibility of using Developmental Learning, which deals with the development of the subject, seeking to transform the theoretical-reflective thinking of students and differing from traditional education.

In traditional education, the system of concepts is oriented towards its assimilation based on the formulation of its concepts and definitions. There is, therefore, an exact relationship of what the student must know. In developmental learning, scientific concepts exist in an easy variant: the action model. The student assimilates the method, its bases, knows how to construct this action and how to argue for it. In Developmental Learning, it is neither convenient nor possible to present ready-made definitions. The formulation of the concept is the result that the student needs to reach at the end of his/her analysis (^{REPKIN, 2020a}, p. 403).

With developmental learning, study actions occur in such a way that the student assimilates the concept, identifies the structure, learns how to construct it, and, at the end, presents his/her analysis of the studied concept. As he/she goes through each study action, he/she learns and develops his/her capabilities.

In this sense, the main objective of the current research is to offer subsidies to rethink the introduction of changes in the school context and to think about study activities in pedagogical practices regarding literary reading, committed to improving the teaching and learning process and to the formation of readers.

In view of this, we understand that the Theory of Study Activity will allow the transformation of teachers' theoretical thinking and, in the future, of literary practices, as we defend the thesis that there is the possibility of consciously developing literary reading practices through Study Activity.

2 Theoretical framework

We can emphasize that the Historical-Cultural Theory is based on the assumption that, in the presence of adequate living and educational conditions, children develop, from the first years of life, distinct practical and intellectual activities, and begin to form ideas, feelings, and moral habits, personality traits (^{MELLO, 2004}). The role of the educator, in this perspective, is that of a mediator, that is, to awaken in students the need to appropriate new knowledge, in addition to mediating the content already elaborated by adults and students, providing the formation and transformations of higher psychological functions⁴ through the acquisition of knowledge.

The research of ^{Leontiev (1978}; 2004) contributes with analyses that aim to understand how this process takes place in different socio-historical situations. Consequently, Activity Theory makes it possible to think about the social meanings and personal senses that objects achieve throughout their socio-historical process and provides a theoretical apparatus to undertake criticism of this constitution. Leontiev (2004) states that for a child to appropriate the objects of human culture, it is not enough for him/her to be placed in front of the objects, but it is necessary for him/her to develop an effective activity, that is, the child must behave actively in relation to them.

To this end, the teacher's work needs to focus on the formation of theoretical thinking, since this plays a fundamental role in the formation of students. According to Leontiev, students must behave actively in relation to objects, being subjects in carrying out teaching activities. The teacher's proposals must generate a need in students upon completing the objective. By satisfying this previous need, a new need will certainly appear, if not, the teacher will not be teaching activities based on Leontiev's perspective. In view of the above, we highlight the importance of Activity Theory in current education, which is able to promote situations that enable the appropriation of scientific concepts and theoretical thinking, as a way of overcoming the formation of bases in empirical thinking (^{ROLINDO, 2007}).

In the context of Activity Theory, human activity takes on the meaning of an objective world, motivated by a desire and resulting in a transformation of the world and the subject who carries it out. ^{Leontiev (1978}) states that

The acquisitions of the historical development of human abilities are not simply given to men in the objective phenomena of material and spiritual culture that embody them, but are only posited there. To appropriate these results, to make them his aptitudes, “the organs of his individuality”, the child, the human being, must enter into a relationship with the phenomena of the surrounding world through other men, that is, in a process of communication with them. Thus, the child learns the appropriate activity. Due to its function, this process is therefore an educational process. (^{LEONTIEV, 1978}, p. 290, author's emphasis).

When we say that children must enter into a relationship with the phenomena of the surrounding world through other people, we are addressing mediation. In this context, we know that it is necessary for the reader to feel the need to read and not do so out of obligation. However, it is in the mediator's role that the stimulus for reading occurs, when choosing a book that you like, a type of reading that satisfies you, to acquire knowledge about a certain subject, and/or to recreate yourself. In this way, the mediator enables access to different types of reading: books of different genres, newspapers, and magazines, and provides the opportunity for contact with different literary works, so that the reader becomes familiar with reading and knowledge.

Reading comes from the Latin word legere (legĕre), which means to gather with the eyes. When we combine it with act, also from the Latin actu, we have movement; the movement of gathering with the eyes, but when we engage with the spoken word, we can also gather with our ears.

[...] Each person brings their existential and social baggage to the act of reading and, based on their horizon of experiences, attributes meanings to the indications offered by the text, privileging some data and disregarding others, creating a network of possible connections between them, in order to obtain a significant result for their comprehensive universe (^{AGUIAR, 2013}, p. 154).

The act of reading is considered a social, historical, and cultural practice, which goes beyond decoding writing, as it involves much more than graphemes and phonemes. Reading involves “a complex operation, that requires the perception of relationships between the text and the context of the author and the reader.” (^{GIROTTO, 2013}, p. 346).

[...] We understand that reading is more than decoding, we can safely assume that children are capable of reading more than just these texts of sentences, single words, and large letters. Children read, above all, with their ears. It is when the teacher, mediating the child's reading with their adult reading, definitely makes the child enter a dense discursive universe, that will certainly contribute to their intellectual formation and world view (^{BRITTO, 1997}, p. 113).

A literary, artistic, or scientific work is the expression of a world view, of a phenomenon of collective consciousness that reaches a degree of conceptual, sensitive, or practical clarity. The world view is not the immediate empirical view, but a possible representation of a given totality posed to the members of a given collective. By providing means (via scientific, artistic, or common sense knowledge, objectified, produced, and appropriated) of overcoming human intelligence and personality, it becomes an instrument of struggle, a cognitive-volitional tool for understanding the immediate and non-immediate expressions of human thought. The worldview, in Lucien Goldmann's sense, becomes a set of aspirations, feelings, and ideas of a social group, that opposes other groups (^{GOLDMANN, 1979}).

[...] Reading is, therefore, appropriating a cultural product, intentionally generated by one or more authors inserted in a given community. It is coming into contact with a historical and social object, ideologically constructed, through which the subject marks his presence in the community in which he lives (^{AGUIAR, 2013}, p. 154).

This transmission of culture can be expressed in various ways, such as in poems, with their repetitions, alliterations, and verses, used to mention the routine of subjects in society. The form of a work is merely an expression of the content of reality, abstract, which is present in the author and which will come to exist in the reader, in the recipient. Literary work is a concrete form that expresses an abstract content. Content and form must be analyzed concomitantly, as they are inseparable (^{AMORA, 2004}).

Based on a Lukácsian theory of literature, the category that deserves attention for understanding a work of art is particularity. Particularity is the central category of aesthetics for Lukács (1968). It is interesting to present a comment by Lenin on the dialectical relationship between the universal and the singular, present in Lukács's book, Introduction to Marxist Aesthetics. With respect to the category of particularity:

Therefore, opposites (the singular is opposed to the universal) are identical: the singular exists only in the connection that leads to the universal. The universal exists only in the singular, through the singular. All singular things are (in one way or another) universal. Every universal thing is a part, or a side, or the essence of the singular. Any universal embraces only approximately all singular objects. Any singular element enters into the universal only incompletely. And so on. Every singular is linked by thousands of transitions to singularities belonging to another genus (things, phenomena, processes). And vice-versa (LENIN, 1932 apud^{LUKÁCS, 1968}, p. 06).

It is important to note that our research has the theoretical basis of Historical-Dialectical Materialism and the foundation of Historical-Cultural Theory, a theory created from the works of Lev Semionovitch Vygotsky (1896-1934) and his study and research group, which included the participation of Alexander Romanovich Luria (1902-1977) and Alexei Nikolaievich Leontiev (1903-1979). According to ^{Lompscher and Hedegaard (1999}):

One of the central topics in cultural-historical theory is the relationship between psychic development and learning, the causes, conditions, laws and regularities of the development of higher (human) psychic functions, and the role and potential of learning and schooling in these processes. In this context, learning is considered as a special activity (^{LOMPSCHER; HEDEGAARD, 1999}, p. 11).

This special activity mentioned by Lompscher and Hedegaard is called Study Activity, which is characterized as being the dominant activity of children who enter school and dedicate themselves to the process of learning content. This period is represented as the Initial Years of Elementary Education. Study Activity arises from the activity of playing (role playing) and everyday communication, because, when starting school, the social situation of their development changes: social relationships change, placing new tasks on them in their condition as a schoolchild, contributing to the development of the child's theoretical thinking from the first years of Elementary School (^{LOMPSCHER; HEDEGAARD, 1999}).

Developmental teaching places the student's Study Activity together with people who are more experienced than him, a mediator of knowledge, in this case the teacher, who:

For this reason, in younger students, the Study Activity is carried out collectively, through dialogue between the students and the teacher and students among themselves, setting in motion study actions aimed at assimilating theoretical knowledge, the content of this activity. [...] Through the actions carried out by the student during the Study Activity, the process of appropriation of socially and historically produced knowledge is set in motion, a process that constitutes the essential condition for the emergence of new formations that characterize intellectual development at school age, such as analysis, reflection and planning of mental actions, which, at the same time as they are being formed, actively participate in the formation of the student's theoretical thinking. In this process, the main qualitative changes in their psyche, consciousness and personality are generated (^{MAME; MIGUEL; MILLER, 2020}, p. 03).

When the child enters school, he/she will be able to develop his/her psyche, now through the dominant activity: Study Activity, a period in which the most important changes occur in the psychic processes and psychological traits of the school-age child's personality (^{MAME; MIGUEL; MILLER, 2020}).

The objective of this dominant activity is to develop theoretical thinking through scientific concepts. Establishing an opposition to teaching that promotes empirical thinking in children, the Study Activity seeks to express a given object in the form of a concept, that is, to understand it in its essence. When carrying out the Study Activity tasks, the student is led to make a movement along the path: first, with analysis, task data, followed by abstraction. Then, from the abstract to the concrete, through analysis, reflection, and planning of mental actions at work. In this way, the subject assimilates new concepts, is able to explain what he is learning, appropriating, through this means, new action procedures, and transforming himself as a subject of his own learning (^{MAME; MIGUEL; MILLER, 2020}).

2.1 Teaching methods designed by Brazilian authors

We will present some teaching suggestions that were conceived by Brazilian authors studying Historical-Cultural Theory and Study Activity Theory, who developed practices for applying experiments based on the developmental teaching methods elaborated by ^{Davidov (1988}), who presented study actions for implementing Study Activity in the classroom. In these actions, the researchers present their views on this practice, pointing out ways for teachers to reflect on the possibility of using Study Activities in disciplinary content.

^{Libâneo (2016}) presents, in his work entitled “Theory of teaching for human development and teaching planning”, some paths for elaboration of the teaching plan, following the assumptions of Davidov. The aforementioned author advises that some procedures be followed for the implementation of the theory:

1. Content analysis: Elaboration of the conceptual core (concept core) of the subject (basic general principle, basic general relationships), which contains the expected generalization so that the student can internalize it and use it to deduce particular relationships from the identified basic relationship. To this end, the genesis of the content's development is sought, that is, the historical process of its constitution, using the research methods and procedures specific to this science;

2. Identification of mental actions, general and specific cognitive skills present in the content and which should be acquired by students throughout the study of the subject;

3. Construction of the network of basic concepts that support this conceptual core, with the appropriate relationships and articulations;

4. Formulation of study tasks, based on problem situations that require the student to assimilate the way of thinking present in the subject (enabling the formation of general and specific cognitive abilities and skills in relation to the subject);

5. Prediction of assessment methods to verify whether the student has developed or is developing the ability to use concepts as mental tools.

^{Libâneo (2016}) states that, in addition to analyzing the content, it is necessary to consider the students' motives and articulation of the contents of sociocultural practices in which they are involved. The reason is highly relevant, because when learning content, students develop their personality more successfully when there is a relationship between the content and the reasons for learning, which implies the need to adapt the content to the students' internal dispositions and interests.

Planning should aim to incorporate sociocultural practices experienced by students in their daily lives, as it is through these practices that social and cultural diversity, values, experiences, and perceptions are manifested, which will be the object of reflection by students through the use of theoretical concepts. Libâneo presents a teaching plan model so that the teacher can have an example of how to formulate this planning.

Source: Table - own elaboration.

Table 1 - Teaching plan model suggested by ^{Libâneo (2016}) 

The author makes it clear that the usefulness of pedagogical-didactic knowledge in teaching planning requires three dimensions: epistemological, psychopedagogical, and socio-historical-cultural.

1. Epistemological dimension: refers to the scientific logic of disciplines, because teaching knowledge implies taking into account the way in which this knowledge is constituted. Having pedagogical knowledge of the content is not just having a “method” to teach the content, but understanding the teaching methodology with the investigative procedures of the science that is taught, from which the mental actions to be formed arise, as well as the problems, examples, explanations, and tasks.

2. Psychopedagogical dimension: refers to the fact that teaching must be aimed at learning, so it is important to take into account the individual and social characteristics of students, their prior knowledge of the subject, their reasons and ways of learning.

3. Socio-historical-cultural dimension: involves integrating into the content the social and cultural practices experienced by students in their daily lives, through which their conceptions in relation to the topics of the subject and the epistemological and cultural obstacles to their learning can be highlighted, allowing them to overcome these obstacles.

^{Sforni (2015}) presents, in the article entitled “Interaction between Didactics and Historical-Cultural Theory”, the didactic principles and teaching actions that are favorable to learning, pointing out didactic guidelines based on Historical- Cultural Theory and Activity Theory. The author chooses to highlight the principles presented by these theorists that contributed to the development of these guidelines. She also reports that, in her study group, several didactic experiments are carried out based on these theories (^{RODRIGUES, 2006}; ^{CAVALEIRO, 2009}; ^{BELIERI, 2012}; ^{OLIVEIRA, 2013}).

Thus, in the aforementioned article, she presents a summary of this entire process and her writing is based on: a) the works of authors of Historical-Cultural Theory (Vygotsky, Luria, Leontiev, Elkonin, Galperin and Davidov); b) the works of Brazilian authors who, supported by this theory, have reflected on Didactics (Moura, Núñez and Nascimento); and c) the data collected during didactic experiments carried out in the classroom by her research group. The author also emphasizes that the data from the field research carried out by this group were decisive in defining the principles they addressed in this article. Therefore, the aforementioned author presents a summary of didactic principles and teaching actions thought up by her and her research group. We can see below the steps to be analyzed when preparing a plan.

Table 2 - Summary of teaching principles and teaching actions 

Marta ^{Sforni (2015}) concludes her article by highlighting that the principles formulated and the actions described in this summary are not the only possible options; they are not definitive, nor do they express the organization of teaching based on Historical-Cultural Theory, but they fulfill the function of signaling possibilities for teaching work in aspects of planning, execution, and evaluation of teaching activity. Ultimately, the author presents a possibility for teachers to reflect on their teaching practices and planning.

Stela ^{Miller (2017}) presents, in her article “Discursive genres, Study Activity and formation of students' theoretical thinking in the context of a humanizing pedagogical practice”, a discussion about the relationship between humanizing pedagogical work with discourse genres and the development of the student's theoretical thinking through study activities.

Miller explains that the Study Activity works with theoretical knowledge of objects, facts, and phenomena of reality, developing the student's theoretical, creative and productive thinking. It occurs through a structure called study tasks (study actions carried out within certain conditions of completion). The author also addresses each of these actions by presenting some examples of their use in the curricular content.

Source: Table - own elaboration.

Table 3- Study actions developed by ^{Miller (2017}) 

Table 3 continuation 

Professor Stela Miller has supervised theses such as that by ^{Helbel (2022}), which uses the chronicle genre, and Kohle (2022), with the diary genre. Both present didactic experiments that suggest the authorial capacity of children, demonstrating the appropriation and objectification of genres of the statement through the Study Activity.

The ideas of the authors presented above are highlighted as a way of reflecting on the possibilities of working with study actions in the classroom. We invite readers to read the cited works in full and search for other articles and books written or supervised by these authors, as they are scholars in the area and have much to offer to those seeking to understand and apply the precepts of this theory in educational institutions.

Methods of action in the Study Activity

1st Action: Discovering the general idea

Action content: Transformation of task data with the aim of exposing the universal relationship of the object studied, searching, discovering, and defining a clear relationship of the integral object.

Objectives of the action: To be the source of the Constitution of the real aspect of the transformed data. To act as the basis and genetic source of the peculiarities of the integral object for the constitution of the universal relationship. To seek the universal relationship that shapes the mental analysis as the content of the beginning of the formation of the concept.

2nd Action: Modeling

Action content: Modeling the universal relationship found in the study material in object form, with letters or graphics.

Objectives of the action: Represent the universal relationship of the object in the process of transforming the task data. Fix the internal characteristics of the object that are not directly observed. Promote the subject's mental activity on the object of study.

3rd Action: Model Transformation

Action content: Transformation of the universal relation model to study its properties in pure form.

Objectives of the action: Discover the properties of the universal object relation. 4th Action: Application

Action content: Construction of the system of particular tasks to be solved by a general procedure.

Objectives of the action: Form the general procedure for solving the study task. Deduce a system of different particular tasks, during the solution of which students apply the general procedure found for solving the study task.

5th Action: Control

Action content: Control over compliance with previous actions.

Objectives of the action: Allow the student to have complete control over the operational composition of actions, as well as control the correct way of executing them.

6th Action: Evaluation

Action content: Evaluation of the general procedure as a result of solving the given study task.

Objectives of the action: Determine whether or not the general procedure for solving the task has been assimilated and whether or not the result of the actions corresponds to its objective. Carry out a qualitative and essential examination of the result of the assimilation of this procedure and the concept formed in relation to the purpose of the task.

Source: Own elaboration.

Table 4 - Diagram of the didactic proposal prepared by the author ⁵  

Table 4 continuation 

We could use this didactic proposal to work on the Fairy Tale genre, for example:

The classic question “what is a fairy tale?” can only be satisfactorily answered if we take into account the various factors involved in its creation, transmission and characterization as a narrative genre. A good starting point is provided by Ana Maria Machado, according to whom the fairy tale would be the popular story, of different origin in relation to the classics, which arose anonymously among the people and was retold for centuries [...] and is also an authorial story, written or narrated according to the accepted model for the fairy tale and evoking the same atmosphere of dream, ideal, and supernaturality (^{MEREGE, 2019}, p. 14).

Proposing the actions of the Study Activity for the creation of stories would allow children to begin developing their capacities for analysis, reflection, and mental planning, presenting this genre to the children, performing each work, so that they have contact with these models that have long been present in society and suggesting the transformation of these models, providing authorial moments for the creation of fairy tales by the class.

3 Final considerations

We believe that the Study Activity Theory allows for the transformation of teachers' theoretical thinking and literary practices. We found that our original thesis is confirmed, as there is the possibility of consciously developing literary reading practices through Study Activity.

We can observe in the didactic proposals presented by these three Brazilian authors, who supervised works (published during the writing of the thesis that originated this article) with didactic experiments with which the use of the Study Activity actions for the transformation of theoretical-reflective thinking is proven, using them in their practices with literary reading, as well as with the didactic proposition presented in the thesis, since the researcher used it in her practice and was able to verify that new needs and new reasons arose from what was initially proposed to the students in her class.

We reaffirm the thesis by suggesting some study actions so that the Early Years teacher can learn about, reflect on, and transform his/her work practice with literary reading in the classroom, being able to use the Study Activity to develop children's abilities and, finally, effectively transform the theoretical thinking of his/her students.

We know that developmental education is aimed at promoting student development and the possibility of forming new theoretical thinking skills. Therefore, it is essential that teachers have knowledge of the Theory of Study Activity and recognize the possibility of organizing their lesson plans, developed based on dialogue, so that they include student participation in the decision-making necessary to conduct classroom activities.