The conceptualisation of cognitive tools in learning and teachnology: A review <s> Cognitive tools in the history of psychology and learning design origins in Soviet psychology <s> This game has an adjustable support to be worn around the torso of a player. A resilient ball is tethered to the support with a flexible cord. The length of the flexible cord is adjustable to a suitable length for allowing the ball to be hit in a forward stroke by a person wearing the adjustable support, passed partially around the torso of the wearer and be hit in a reverse stroke. The adjustable support and the tether may be formed from a single, flexible cord with one loop for adjustment around the torso and a second loop for adjustment of the length of the tether. This game allows a single player to maintain a volley with alternate forehand and backhand strokes. <s> BIB001 </s> The conceptualisation of cognitive tools in learning and teachnology: A review <s> Cognitive tools in the history of psychology and learning design origins in Soviet psychology <s> Contemporary social problems typically involve many complex, interrelated dimensions--psychological, cultural, and institutional, among others. But today, the social sciences have fragmented into isolated disciplines lacking a common language, and analyses of social problems have polarized into approaches that focus on an individual's mental functioning over social settings, or vice versa. In Mind as Action, James V. Wertsch argues that current approaches to social issues have been blinded by the narrow confines of increasing specialization in the social sciences. In response to this conceptual blindness, he proposes a method of sociocultural analysis that connects the various perspectives of the social sciences in an integrated, nonreductive fashion. Wertsch maintains that we can use mediated action, which he defines as the irreducible tension between active agents and cultural tools, as a productive method of explicating the complicated relationships between human action and its manifold cultural, institutional, and historical contexts. Drawing on the ideas of Lev Vygotsky, Mikhail Bakhtin, and Kenneth Burke, as well as research from various fields, this book traces the implications of mediated action for a sociocultural analysis of the mind, as well as for some of today's most pressing social issues. Wertsch's investigation of forms of mediated action such as stereotypes and historical narratives provide valuable new insights into issues such as the mastery, appropriation, and resistance of culture. By providing an analytic unit that has the possibility of operating at the crossroads of various disciplines, Mind as Action will be important reading for academics, students, and researchers in psychology, linguistics, cognitive science, sociology, literary analysis, and philosophy (http://books.google.com/books?id=73Vv7Y3vf14C&printsec=frontcover&hl=fr#v=onepage&q&f=false) <s> BIB002 </s> The conceptualisation of cognitive tools in learning and teachnology: A review <s> Cognitive tools in the history of psychology and learning design origins in Soviet psychology <s> Lev Vygotsky created a theory of psychological development that has become increasingly influential in recent decades. The theory is viewed by some psychologists and pedagogues as alternative way to understand the development of children and adults in a way that differs substantially from the dominant psychological models that have long been widely accepted, including Piaget. <s> BIB003
Vygotsky's approach to human psychology, developed in the context of an early twentieth century science he found to be in crisis, introduced many new and important concepts. A central idea of his new psychological theory was a focus on the existence of internal and external tools that transform the structure of mental functioning (Cole & Gajdamaschko, 2007; BIB003 . Without these tools, Vygotsky insisted, we can't bridge the gap between genetically inherited, mainly reactive functions and complex, cultural functions. Cultural functions, or as Vygotsky called them, higher psychological functions, are mediated by tools, and the inclusion of tools into their structure allows us to explain the crucial role of culture and history in psychological development BIB003 ). Vygotsky's focus on mediation, the central notion of his views of learning and development, represents a departure from other psychological and educational theories. He argued that the inclusion of cultural tools in the process of psychological growth can alter the trajectory or pattern of development, enabling a learner to solve much more sophisticated problems and empowering her with the wisdom of previous generations via the meaning of the tool (Vygotsky, 1930 (Vygotsky, /1997 . External and internal tools are instruments that learners use to modify and regulate their behaviour, and the analysis of these tools is an essential element of Vygotsky's approach to understanding human development. In the developmental process, Vygotsky explains, pre-existing mental processes are joined and transformed by culturally designed tools that are internalised through social interaction. The resulting higher psychological functions are viewed by Vygotsky as self-regulated processes that are cultural, historical, and social in their origin. Just as the introduction of a new type of machine into a workplace can lead to a radical reorganisation of work and division of labour, internalisation of psychological tools into mental functioning can radically reshape learners' thinking. BIB001 claim contrasts sharply with psychological theories, especially Piagetian theory, which focuses on the developing child as an individual agent. For Vygotsky, culture, via the mediation of tools, is fundamentally integrated within a person's mental function and does not merely facilitate or overlie their natural development. As BIB002 put it, to understand the role of culture and society in human development we must study "the irreducible tension between agent and mediational means" (p. 25), where the tools empower but simultaneously impose their own constraints on the mental functioning of the learner. Current conceptualisations of cognitive tools in the field of learning technologies are rooted in, but different from, the Vygotskian theory of cognitive tools. For Vygotsky, cognitive tools are omnipresent and inevitable means by which thinking is shaped by culture, and the question is not whether the use of cognitive tools is desirable but rather whether the cognitive tools being internalised by learners are the most suitable for promoting their cognitive development. For several decades, Vygotskian educational researchers have evaluated and redesigned the cognitive tools used in Russian schools and in so doing have significantly shaped the Russian curricula. For example, Davydov and Tsvetkovich (1991) noted the problem inherent in having children develop the concept of number as a by-product of counting operations, as is usually the case in traditional mathematics classrooms. In Vygotskian terms, counting is a cognitive tool  . When children identify numbers by counting, they interpret them only as positive integers, and this persistent misconception hinders their later understanding of fractions and irrational numbers. In Davydov and Tsvetkovich's curriculum, which has been established in Russia for many years, the concept of number is grounded in the operation of measurement rather than the operation of counting. Furthermore, in their curriculum, children progress from comparing the length (or other dimension) of nearby objects to comparing things that can't be physically aligned next to each other using a portable, intermediate object (e.g., an eraser), and finally to measuring objects using any smaller object as the unit of measurement. A measurement is expressed as the ratio of the length of an object to the length of measurement unit. Grounding the concept of number in the cognitive tool of measurement allows for the possibility, in later grades, of a fraction instead of a whole number emerging as the measured quantity. Crucially, this means the later introduction of multiplication, fractions and irrational numbers does not require learners to reconceptualise the meaning of number. This example shows how having learners internalise a different or redesigned cognitive tool can alter how easily they, years later, acquire more advanced concepts.