Observation of practices in V. V. Davydov's laboratory school suggests that students proceed from concrete example to abstract generalization--rather than from abstract to concrete, as Davydov has claimed. (GDC)

Research conducted at the Institute of General and Pedagogical Psychology of Moscow, and based on the premise that the development of thought processes is a direct product of the social environment, is described. As a corollary to this premise, Piaget's view that the development of the thinking process occurs in orderly fashion is questioned.…