[Xmca-l] Re: Films of developmental education

[Huw Lloyd]

Hello Elina,

That's quite a heritage to grow up with.   And its fabulous of you to share
this history.

One fairly significant motive I have in pursuing this line of study is an
awareness that it is actually do-able.  To run a school under these
principles and foster real developments, not to waste children's time with
robotic tasks or to discourage contemplation.

The film(s) might help with that.  There are some "tough minded" teachers
for whom watching films of this sort may be enough to question their
conviction in rote teaching methods.  The other side to the coin is the
tortuous (and torturous) administration that goes into schools.  One only
needs to attend to teacher based list-serves to realise that they have only
time (and motive) for bread-crumb sized problems, "has anyone got a
template for the make-and-sell part of module xyz" etc.  If one teacher
does some real design work, there'll be one hundred more asking for a copy.
 What's the point in design if the aim is to pass exams?

The films help too in grounding my (our) studies of this aspect of the
theory (learning activity).  At present my point of enquiry is with respect
to a technical definition and deeper appreciation of motive.  I sense that
Zinchenko had things to say about how the structure of activity (and
motive) shows up in memory and I am looking forward to working through
those papers.  There is, fortunately, some good material -- more, at least,
than my problematising can presently cope with.  :)

Mediation and memory are central parts of my PhD research.  Davydovian
principles play a significant part (creative appreciation of mathematical
objects etc) although I am somewhat at arms length with his germ cell
notion.

The youtube film of "2 x 2 = x" that Mike posted ends rather abruptly, so I
suspect you have a longer more complete version of this film.  I'm most
happy to see about creating versions of the film(s) with subtitles.  I'm
handicapped by not speaking Russian, but I think I can find helpers...

Best,
Huw








On 24 April 2014 18:13, Elina Lampert-Shepel <ellampert@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello Huw,
>
> The movie was made in PS17, Kharkov Ukraine in 1968. I was in first grade
> when it was produced in my school...:-)
>
>  PS 17 was a lab school along with PS 91 in Moscow, only 2 schools in the
> USSR at that particular time that were developing and implementing
> Elkonin-Davydov curriculum.  The publication was a tribute to Kharkov
> laboratory,  I consider Repkin and Dusavitskiy to be my teachers. They both
> worked with me as well as Vasiliy Davydov and Boris Elkonin when we were
> developing teacher education model grounded on cultural-historical
> psychology and activity theory in Moscow in the 1990s.
>
>
> I believe I have a CD with the movie if you can't locate it. It is in
> Russian, not sure if there is a version with English subtitles. Please let
> me know if you find one.
>
> There are tapes of classroom instruction made in PS 91 in Moscow. I may
> ask for additional tapes, but my sources are all in Russian.
>
> What makes you interested in 2x2=x?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Elina Lampert-Shepel, Ed.D.
> Associate Professor
> Director, Teacher Residency Program
> Touro College
> 43 West 23rd Street, Room 810
> New York, NY 10010
> elina.lampert-shepel@touro.edu
> 212- 463-0400 ext.5480
> 917-541-1593 (cell)
>
> ellampert (Skype)
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Apr 23, 2014 at 3:10 PM, Huw Lloyd <huw.softdesigns@gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
> > I have a current live enquiry with a member of staff at the library of
> > congress with respect to a film titled "2 x 2 = X".  This is following
> the
> > remarks in Repkin (2003, p.83):
> >
> > "the Kharkov television studio shot the film 2 x 2 = x, which was
> broadcast
> > with success on the programs of Central Television. *"
> >
> > "* This documentary was the first public introduction of Developmental
> > Education.  A copy of the film is now available in the Library of
> Congress.
> > -- Ed."
> >
> > The librarian has been unable to find it yet, however.
> >
> > Does anyone know of further details, such as when the film was made?
> >
> > Also, more broadly, is anyone aware of other sources of films on
> > Elkonin-Davydov "Developmental Education"?
> >
> > Best,
> > Huw
> >
> > Repkin, V. V. (2003) From the History of Research into the Problems of
> > Developmental Teaching in Kharkov.  *Journal of Russian and East European
> > Psychology*, 41(5), pp. 77-96.
> >
>