The problem of the transition from “naive” to scientific concepts: conceptual change approach and Vygotsky's cognitive development theory

The relevance of the paper — discussing an area of modern cognitive psychology, namely, conceptual change approach. It examines the origins of this approach: 1) the transition from «naïve» to «scientific» thinking in children as an applied task of primary and secondary school education; 2) the basic concepts and theoretical principles of this approach, such as «domain specificity» and «misconception».

The goal. The study emphasizes the problems of implementation and theoretical analysis of the transition from one type of thinking to another, which the representatives of conceptual change approach/theory are faced with.

Methods. The analysis of the «naive» concepts as integral systems («everyday theories») allows us to highlight the fundamental difference between the two strategies of analyzing the transition to scientific concepts described by L.Vygotsky.

Results and conclusions. According to the first strategy, the scientific concepts supplant the everyday ones; the forms of everyday thinking (such as game) can be used to maintain weak original forms of scientific concepts. The opposite strategy, especially emphathized by L.Vygotsky, regards the process as not just a substitution, but a specific transformation of everyday theory. The closest approach to such transformation understanding is Elkonin-Davydov developmental education theory, which, nevertheless, implements this logic in a contradictory manner.

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