Activity Theory—Lev Vygotsky, Aleksei Leont’ev, Yrjö Engeström

Abstract

LINK IS TO WHOLE BOOK. Commonly, various systems and institutions undergo a change in order to improve practices or make them more effective. However, there are few systematic theories that can be used in research to both study the changes and contribute to change and transformation of practice. Activity Theory can be used to study developmental change in systems and institutions such as hospitals and schools. It applies both a historical and a situational perspective; both an individual (micro) and a systemic (macro) perspective. In this chapter, we explain the history of Activity Theory and how it can be used in practical terms to understand change and development in general, and inquiry-based science teaching in particular. Activity Theory has developed within the sociocultural approach to learning and development (Vygotsky, 1978;Wertsch, 1991, 1998), and pays attention to historicity, the present situation, to the individual, and the collective system. Research with human participants will to some degree involve intervention, and “the introduction of research instruments into practice, including dialogue between researcher and participants, is itself change-inducing” (Wardekker, 2000, p. 270). Activity Theory is about learning and change and is a suitable research and development approach in order to address the gap between theory and practice.