Re: orchestration/culture

Cary Anthony Buzzelli (cbuzzell who-is-at indiana.edu)
Thu, 8 Feb 1996 13:09:03 -0500 (EST)

I'm intrigued by the comments of Mike Cole and Ellice Forman. I have
begun looking at classroom discourse, with a particular interest in
its moral implications, and find their notions of orchestration
helpful. The different metaphors (e.g. teacher as coach, conductor, etc)
seem to provide many ways of looking at what a teacher does, and how,
and what the children do and how. As an early childhood educator
and teacher educator, these metaphors help me appreciate the various
things teachers and children do in a classroom, particularly one
where children may be engaged in individual projects, group work, or
in a more sturctured experience with the entire class.

So, I wonder how the we can look at the various ways teachers are with
children (e.g. coach, etc) and understand them as distinct, but
that, when taken together them may form a coherent classroom
'text'.

Cary Buzzelli
Indiana University