forward for Dorothy Robbins

Mike Cole (mcole who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu)
Sun, 13 Jun 1999 07:53:01 -0700 (PDT)

Dear Friends,
There will be a conference in Moscow from October 19-22, 1999 held at the
Vygotsky Institute of Psychology, Russian Humanitarian University. It is
hoped that you will think about participating. The title is:
Stages of Psychic Development. The basic idea of the conference regards
discussions of different understandings of "periodization" within various
paradigms of psychological development. However, the basic underlying theme
of the conference is a simple sharing of ideas among colleagues. Regarding
Vygotsky and El'konin, there will be discussions on how their theories of
"periodization" of child development can be activated from the perspective
of viewing children with two ages...their real age and their potential age,
and what that means in terms of curriculum development. There will also be
discussions of different areas of periodization of development with adults.
Since the fall of Communism there have been few books on Western psychology
translated into Russian, and there needs to be more in- depth discussions
regarding Western psychology. It is hoped that people from the West will
want to come to Moscow to share with Russians their knowledge of
psychologists such as Piaget, Erikson, Freud, Steiner, Fromm, Frankl (and
hopefully many others). This conference will be small, with the chance of
dialogue and networking with Russians. You could be in a position of helping
share your knowledge, as well as opening up more dialogue between the West
and Russia. At the same time, there will be opportunities for you to see
innovative schools in Russia (e.g. School 91, the Golden Key, Master School,
Institute of Psychology and Pedagogy regarding defectology, and others). I
can certainly state that the approach to the Golden Key school (3-10 years
of age), and the Master School (11-15 years of age)is one of the most
progressive ideas you will surely see in education. It is the idea of Elena
Kravtsova (grandaughter of Vygotsky, and Director of the Vygotsky Institute
of Psychology), and is practiced in over 40 schools across Russia. I have
visited various schools based on this model, both in Moscow, Krasnayarsk and
soon Rovstov-on-Don, and have been overwhelmed at the success I have seen,
and think you would be interested in this as well. Even if you are not
directly involved in primary or secondary education, I think this experience
would be most interesting for you and your colleagues. As well, there will
be a chance to talk to well known psychologists here in Russia, and the
opportunity of being a part of the founding of a new Vygotsky Society, which
will be housed in the Vygotsky Institute of Psychology at the RHU. I can
assure you that it is very safe to be in Moscow. I have felt totally safe
here every minute, even returning home alone on the metro at night.
You will be met at the airport and will be taken care of during the
conference, to be returned to the airport. I am hopeful that you will be
interested in attending this conference. For further questions please
contact myself, or Vladimir Spiridonov at: rc who-is-at rc.iitp.ru
Dorothy Robbins
Moscow
June 13, 1999
(*will not be away from Moscow June 20-30th, returning in July)

_______________________________________________________________
Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com