Authority, Scripts, rules

Bill Barowy (wbarowy who-is-at lesley.edu)
Mon, 17 Nov 1997 19:15:48 -0500

Thank you David. I finally have an ethernet connection here at lesley -
one more step to becoming 'real' in the information age! (Sarcasm) No
phone yet.

You prompted me to remember that folks who have been thinking about
cognitive apprenticeship also include experts roles in modeling and
coaching. Helping with tasks, articulating and reflecting on goals and
thought processes to bring them to a social plane, and enabling
exploration... All this seems to fall under zoped...

But I think this is not what I am looking for. When one student says to
another 'Mr. Driscoll would be very dissapointed', summoning the authority
of the absent Mr-Driscoll-the-teacher, as a means of influencing the other
student, he also seems to be conjuring a script - "this is how you behave
when Mr D is around. "

All this may be obvious to the folks here who have been writing about rules
and scripts - the Mr D. episode certainly seems what Yrj=F6 terms a
secondary cultural artifact. The classification doesn't help me however.
It seems 'up there' in the theory. I think what i am looking for is
closer to the level of breaking out what is cognitive appretnticeship - one
ensemble of expert practices. I suppose I am trying to 'break out' what
are authoritative roles in classrooms.

So I think i have narrowed the question:
What might be an ensemble of practices (analogous to the breakout of CA)
in an more authoritative interaction?

I imagine the folks who have studied recitational scripts in classrooms
might have noted something. Rolfe - do you understand what I am struggling
with?

Bill B

>On Mon, 17 Nov 1997, Bill Barowy wrote:
>
>> To make a long story short, I wish to explicate social
>> positioning/authority aspects of some activity system interactions that
>> have a timescale of hours. Far from being a tabula rasa, my 'irreverant'
>> nature might place too much personal attitude in the description! Would
>> you know of background reading that might balance my efforts? I'd
>> appreciate any references you might email.
>>
>> Bill Barowy, Associate Professor
>> Technology in Education
>> Lesley College, Cambridge, MA 02140
>
> Congratulations on the new position, Bill. I wish you could be at
>LCHC lab meeting, today. I will be talking on 14 dimensions of Fifth
>Dimension field notes that I abstracted mostly from Mike Cole's book. One
>of these dimensions concerns the role of Experts, divided into six
>different practices: directive/authoritarian, passive/equalitarian,
>helper, zpd used, zpd described and compared with non-zpd approach, zpd
>identified by the term used in the literature. In the first three field
>notes that I coded, the first five practices were apparent. My point is
>not that I have anything definitive to say on the topic at this point, but
>that the field notes contain a wealth of information on it.
> David
> David

Bill Barowy, Associate Professor
Technology in Education
Lesley College, 29 Everett Street, Cambridge, MA 02138-2790
_______________________
"One of life's quiet excitements is to stand somewhat apart from yourself
and watch yourself softly become the author of something beautiful."
[Norman Maclean in "A river runs through it."]