Chapter 6: No Variables in Classroom: Understanding Learning by a Qualitative Analytical Tool

As a rule, numbers, measures and variables are related to a truly scientific work. Viewed this way, there is a tendency to use statistical data to answer research questions that do not fit quantitative approaches. In the majority of researches in Human Sciences, for example, there is the need to answer questions about subjects, meanings, processes or to describe events, practices and beliefs. Therefore, to take measures without an interpretative work guided by a theory seems to be limited to understanding certain kinds of human phenomena.

Valsiner (2014a) raises the discussion about the problem that psychology becomes an arena for a “complex social game of a fashion of appearing scientific” with many works concerned with measures and variables. The problem with this is the limitation to grasp important issues in Psychology studying the nature of human beings. Considering that human beings are an open system in constant interaction with their environment, Valsiner (2014a) claims that Developmental and Cultural Psychology concerns have an issue in common, that is, how to capture the emergence of new phenomena? Moreover, Cultural Psychology of Dynamic Semiosis (CPDS) has the specific focus on understanding the emergence of new phenomena through the construction, use and maintenance of signs. In this context, it is necessary to develop qualitative methodologies that enable us to capture complex phenomena related to the dynamic interaction of human beings in their sociocultural context, making meaning in and about the world.