Toward the end of his life, the Russian psychologist L.S. Vygotsky turned away from his earlier work that he has become famous for only to sow the seeds for a new theory. In this theory, affect was to play a central role, there was to be a primacy of social relations, and anything mental (mind, thought, self, other, knowledge) was an event rather than a thing. This is essentially a transactional perspective. In this book, the author articulates a transactional psychology of education drawing on the works of G.H. Mead, J. Dewey, G. Bateson, F. Mikhailov, and E. Ilenkov. All theoretical positions are developed out of videotaped exchanges, thereby giving concrete character to every psychological concept articulated.

Wolff-Michael Roth is Lansdowne Professor of Applied Cognitive Science at theUniversity of Victoria. His transdisciplinary research is concerned with knowing andlearning (cognition) across the lifespan, in formal and informal educational environments,workplace, and leisure settings. His body of work includes, among others, 60+co/authored and edited books, over 470 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and more than200 book chapters.