[Xmca-l] Re: Also NY Review of Books

Wed May 13 07:36:21 PDT 2015

Ulvi, I teach a course called Prior Learning: Theory and Practice which engages adult students in a process of  documenting and describing their out-of-school learning (from work, community service, family, travel, even reading, performing, whatever) into portfolios to apply for college credit for courses they would not therefore take... I don't know if this is quite what you are thinking of, but I do see it as very much a process of pedagogiical tailoriing that supports students'  metacognition and reflective skills as they reconceive their experiences as learning. I have written about my experience with it in the most recent PLAIO (Prior Learning Assessment Inside OutL at plaio.org. 

________________________________________
From: xmca-l-bounces+jkindred=cnr.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu [xmca-l-bounces+jkindred=cnr.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu] on behalf of Ulvi İçil [ulvi.icil@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2015 1:39 AM
To: Andy Blunden; eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Also NY Review of Books

"So our minds and our bodies are a living subject-object contradiction".

Can anybody point out to a parallel in education what Andy indicated? e.g.
tailoring a content to a particular student characteristics. I think this
needs to be one of the core points of pedagogy as the science of teaching
and learning. For instance, content knowledge and a transformed form of it,
made teachable and learnable for the student by the teacher.

Ulvi

On 13 May 2015 at 04:43, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:

> Allow me to make an interpretation of the quote which makes sense of why
> Sacks would talk about neurons when introducing the topic of individuality.
> The contradiction is one inherent in all living beings, and in human
> beings in particular.
> Our neurons connect only to other neurons, our own eyes, our own stomach,
> our own hands. I can only see what falls on my eyes, I can only digest what
> is in my stomch and hold only what is in my hand. But our minds are not
> confined in this way under the skin. On the contrary. What is see is not in
> the eye, but is a material object; what I digest and gives me life is a
> product of industry, what I hold in my had is an artefact - the object of
> my desire is objective, material. The content of mind is objective and
> irreducibly social. But the form is that of a biological organism.
> So our minds and our bodies are a living subject-object contradiction.
> Individuality is not the same as "individualism." To be an individual does
> not imply selfishness, independent thinking, neo-liberal delusions or
> anything of the kind. It is simply to be an organism. An individual
> constituent of the human race, which becomes a social being.
> Andy
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> *Andy Blunden*
> http://home.pacific.net.au/~andy/
>
> On 13/05/2015 5:47 AM, Kindred, Jessica Dr. wrote:
>
>> Hmm. I think Oliver Sacks has been very much about the individual AND the
>> social, and that the gift of seeing the individual instead of the disease
>> and despite the disease and within the disease and shaped by the disease
>> has been his hallmark. I also think he is grappling with his own
>> individuality, and we would be helped to see him as a developmental being
>> grappling with developmentally appropriate issues as he does two things he
>> really has not done before: to come out as gay and to come out as having a
>> fatal diagnosis.
>> And yes, Leif! Seeing Voices is the best Oliver Sacks with such great
>> appreciations of Vygotsky and Luria-- very much an appreciation of the
>> social and cultural dimensions of development.
>> When I met Dr. Sacks at a Narcolepsy Network benefit a few years ago, I
>> introduced myself as a great fan and reader of his books, and as one
>> sharing in his love for Vygotsky and really appreciating the way that he
>> incorporated Vygotsky. That was just before his Hallucinations book, which
>> includes a chapter on Narcolepsy, an interest launched by his engagement
>> with the topic through interviews with my twin sister who has narcolepsy
>> and many others... acknowledged on p. 293. So when I met him, I also
>> introduced myself by saying that he probably recognizes me, since I look
>> just like my twin sister... and the blank look on his face was explained to
>> me only months later when I heard an interview of him talking about his
>> proposagnosia, an aspect of his neuronal individuality that makes him
>> unable to recognize faces.
>>
>>
>> Jessica Kindred, Ph.D.
>> Instructional Staff, Psychology
>> The College of New Rochelle
>> School of New Resources, Brooklyn campus
>> 1368 Fulton Street
>> Brooklyn, NY 11216
>> 718 638 2500
>> jkindred@cnr.edu
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: xmca-l-bounces+jkindred=cnr.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:
>> xmca-l-bounces+jkindred=cnr.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Leif
>> Strandberg
>> Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2015 2:50 PM
>> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
>> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Also NY Review of Books
>>
>> That does not sound like Oliver Sacks at all :-(  I prefer to read his
>> Seeing voices (1989) again. Where we meet both Vygotsky and Luria and the
>> whole perspective in which human sociality and culture come to the fore.
>> Leif
>> Sweden
>> 12 maj 2015 kl. 17:12 skrev Robert Lake <boblake@georgiasouthern.edu>:
>>
>>  Yes Greg I was bothered by that statement too. Especially when he
>>> acknowledges Luria's work earlier in his career.
>>> Robert
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>