LA ESTIMACIÓN Y LA PREDICCIÓN DE LOS COSTES

Vygotsky (1931) categorised perception, attention, sensory motor-operations, attention, memory and the use of tools and speech as the dynamic system of human psychological functions which helps children’s intellectual development 362

. His theory describes these functions of children’s intellectual development in relation to sign-operation activity. The sign- operation activity is the children’s action with the use of social tools. This implies the use of speech, talk, or action with their social tools. Vygotsky claims that with speech, children internalise the learning activities with the use of tools. This study relates Vygotsky’s statement that children’s Talk or Dialogue with the use of technological tools is stimulated through their psychological functions of perception, attention, sensory motor-operations and memory.

358

Cole, M. John-Steiner, V. Scribner, S. and Souberman, E., 1978. L. S. Vygotsky, Mind in Society: the

Development of Higher Psychological Processes, Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press:

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Piaget, J., 1959. The Language and Thought of the Child, 3rd Edition, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd.

360 _{Rogoff, B., 1990. Apprenticeship in Thinking: Cognitive Development in Social Context, Oxford: Oxford}

University Press. Wertsch, J. V., 1985. Vygotsky and the Social Formation of Mind, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

361

Salomon, G., 1997. Distributed Cognitions: Psychological and Educational Considerations, Cambridge University Press.

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Vygotsky, L.S., 1960. The History of the Development of Higher Psychological Functions. In Development of Higher Psychological Functions. Moscow: Academy of Pedagogical Sciences, RSFSR. Cole, M. John-Steiner, V. Scribner, S. and Souberman, E., 1978. Editors’ Preface, L. S. Vygotsky, Mind in Society: the Development of

Vygotsky argues that the sign-operations activity requires an intermediary link between the stimulus (the child) and the response (the social tools). Then, it creates a new relationship which fulfils a specific function of the individual who must be actively engaged in establishing that link i.e. speech (Cole, et al., 1978)363. This explains the use of Talk with the technological devices and tools to stimulate learning in this study. The Dialogic Framework put in place the said arguments of the two approaches of the Exploratory Dialogue and the Physical Functions Dialogue.

In describing each function in turn, I will briefly explain its form and relationship to children’s psychological processes of learning in order to relate it to the current usage of Dialogue and its contribution to the use of Interactive technological devices and tools in children’s intellectual development in the present day.

Perception and sensory motor-operations

Vygotsky, (1930) argued that perception is part of a dynamic system of behaviour.

Vygotsky’s experiments showed that language and perception are linked at a very early stage of development364. The child perceives the world not only through their eyes but also through their speech. As Vygotsky puts it: “The immediacy of normal perception is supplanted by a complex mediated process; as such, speech becomes an essential part of the child’s cognitive

development”365_{. Vygotsky’s statements implicate the Dialogic Framework’s approaches of}

teaching and learning. This framework stresses children’s psychological functions of perception with the use of Talk or Dialogue through technological devices for learning activities. The approaches emphasises that Talk or Dialogue is important to children, without the use of Talk or Dialogue, children are unable to reason. Talk or Dialogue is part of children’s reasoning development in carrying out daily tasks and gaining knowledge. Precisely in Vygotsky’s argument, children internalise the use of social tools with speech. The framework underpins children’s use speech through the technological devices. They talk, observe and explore the

363

Cole, M. John-Steiner, V. Scribner, S. and Souberman, E., 1978. L. S. Vygotsky, Mind in Society: the

Development of Higher Psychological Processes, Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.

364

Ibid. pp. 33.

365

technological devices spontaneously to solve learning problems. During these processes, children talk and discuss learning activities. This study has found the evidence that Talk is associated with perceptual activities. A research findings made by Price and Rogers (2004) shows that the experiences children gained from the ‘Let’s Get Physical’ activity learning offered great diversity and perceptual information which reflected in different environments and discoveries. The activities provide the opportunity for children to physically collect the data by themselves and re-represent the outcomes digitally. This evidence is discussed in turn.

Attention and memory

Vygotsky claims that attention is as important as perception to the human’s psychological functions, underlying the use of tools. Vygotsky mentioned Koffka’s, (1924) claims that when a child perceives something, he or she is able to establish the importance of his/her perceptual field. Koffka wrote: “The child is able to determine the ‘centre of gravity’ of the perceptual field. Thus, the behaviour is not regulated solely by the individual element within it. The child evaluates the importance of these elements, singling out new figures from the background and widening the possibilities for controlling his or her activities”366

. Having that said, the

Framework allows children to establish their observational field of activity undertakings with the use of technological tools. When they are exploring learning activity, their attention is focused over the connected tools and elements in the activity. With this attention in mind, children foresee the next action of the learning accomplishment. For example, the activity learning games proposed in the Dialogic Framework require children’s critical thinking in planning and executing the tasks with group member and teacher, searching for information and producing results with the technological devices. The evidence for this type of learning has been shown by Price and Rogers in their learning activity games ‘Let’s Get Physical’ on children’s awareness. They argued that children are aware of what they do at many different

366 _{Koffka, K., 1924. The Growth of the Mind, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London. Cited in Cole, M. John-Steiner, V.}

Scribner, S. and Souberman, E., 1978. L. S. Vygotsky, Mind in Society: the Development of Higher Psychological

observational levels. They argue that children put special attention and focus on the activity367. As a result, the Dialogic Framework applies to this type of activity, learning with Talk. The activity learning allows for multiple perceptual levels which enable children to access more information through different senses. The activity learning games provide a richer reflection about the world. Children are focussed on the contextually relevant information and activities. Accordingly, the activity learning provides more attention in highlighting any aspects of the physical world in certain locations.

Play

In Vygotsky’s theory of play, the use of social tools and social interaction are crucial to a child’s cultural development. In play, for example, Vygotsky argues that children treat imagination and play as their process of development. Vygotsky identifies that the

psychological functions and social interaction, the use of social tools, the speech, and play are linked in children’s learning development. During these processes, children internalise their higher psychological functions for the ‘stimulus –response relation’ with the artificial stimuli. The ‘stimulus–response relations’ explain the use of social tools arouse learning activities. The Dialogic Framework emphasises the Talk or Dialogue as the main medium in mediating the use of technological devices, the teacher’s guidance and the internalization of their psychological functions. The mediation is conversation, discussion and dialogue between the teacher and the children with technological devices and tools for learning achievement. Therefore, these processes are the ‘stimulus –response relation’ with the technological tools. The technological tools arouse intellectual learning attainment. Vygotsky asserts that children unconsciously treat imagination and play as their process of development and play is an advanced development for a child. Children imagine themselves as being part of the adult’s activities or project themselves onto someone else, rehearsing their future roles and values through play368. The Dialogic Framework, underpins learning activity games, in which children play and learn collaboratively

367 _{Price, S. and Rogers, Y., 2004. Lets Get Physical: The Learning Benefits of Interacting in Digitally Augmented}

Physical Spaces. Computers & Education 43, 2004: pp. 137–151.

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with the teacher’s help. Hence, they obtain the inspirations, abilities and attitudes required for learning. Moreover, the activity games allow children’s behaviour to develop for their learning achievement. Children play with the objects and spaces which exposes their intellectual thinking for results with the technological devices.