The Vygotskian Contribution to the Construction of a General Theory of Human Learning

During the 1990s, trying to account for the complexity of the learning process of adult learners, Étienne Bourgeois and Jean Nizet realized that the conceptual frameworks available to explain such a process widely rest on an epistemology that establishes a priori essential differences between child and adult learners. As a response, they committed in developing a general approach to human learning that were coherently inscribed in a general theory of human functioning and development. Appropriating the conceptual system of Piagetian constructivism, they developed a solid and fruitful account of human learning. This account, however, is not free of problems and poses new challenges. In this chapter, we briefly present two of those challenges (the supposed distinction of declarative and procedural knowledge, and the problem of authentic cognitive novelty) and propose Lev Vygotski’s work to overcome them. We focus particularly on the Vygotskian conceptions of concept and internalization, and we illustrate these conceptual contributions with examples of our work in teaching and research in both deaf education and teacher training. The chapter finally presents the integrated Vygotskian-Piagetian model we have adopted in our ongoing effort to account for human learning, which we hope will be useful for researchers and educators.