An activity is defined as a system of interacting components that is driven by some shared objective. For example, a school is an activity system involving teachers, students, buildings, curricula, projectors, computers, codes of conduct, requirements for attendance, implicitly defined goals and more, driven by a shared objective of developing the child's knowledge. Here, **activity theory** helps us better understand this complex interdependency of components. It is not a predictive theory, but an analytic framework that makes sense of activities and goes beyond solely the individual or cognitive processes of the participants (it is a [[Sociocultural theory|sociocultural theory]]). To use it we can take a system of interest, decompose and organise the components into the following categories: subject, object, tools, rules, community and division of labour. ![[Pasted image 20250809132122.png]] Though activity theory is not solely about this decomposition. Rather, it is a prerequisite after which we can explore the interactions, relationships and tension between the system components. In particular, it aids in discovering contradictions such a school where the objective is to foster creativity, but our tools are standardised tests focused on declarative knowledge and community norms that motivate grades. The reconciliation of such contradictions leads to [[Wiki/cards/Expansive learning|expansive learning]]. ## Unit of analysis ![[Activity theory's unit of analysis]] ## Expansive learning ![[Wiki/cards/Expansive learning|Expansive learning]]