Developmental Learning Theory (DLT): an interview with Bronislav Alexandrovich Zeltserman

Abstract

Bronislav Alexandrovich Zeltserman (b. 1947) is the founder and leader of the Riga Group (Latvia). This interview with Zeltserman was conducted between August and November 2022, opening the 1st International Round of Interviews with leading representatives of DLT. More than conventional or pre-formatted questions and answers, this interview turned into a dialogue that lasted almost three months, during which the interviewee was able to thoughtfully reconstruct the whole process of the genesis, development, and consolidation of the four fundamental pillars of DLT in the Republic of Latvia (the Riga Group, the journal Vestnik, the Pedagogical Center “Experiment”, and the Innova School). The way the group harmoniously integrated the assumptions of D. B. Elkonin, V. V. Davidov, V. V. Repkin and co-authors with the foundations of STA-m(Systemic-Thought-Activity methodology), conceived by G. P. Shchedrovitsky and co-authors, laid the groundwork for the birth, in the late 1980s, of a new variant of the psychological and didactic system D. B. Elkonin, and V. V. Davidov.