[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

[xmca] Elkonin's dominant activity



In Nikolai Veresov's translation of Elkonin's Toward "The Problem of Stages
in the Mental Development of Children" there are numerous references to
dominant activity, which is a key contribution towards the hypothesis
Elkonin presents.

"The activity of formal learning, (79) i.e., that activity through which
the child acquires new knowledge and for which a system of instruction
should provide proper guidance, is the dominant activity in this period.
The intellectual and cognitive forces of the child are actively molded
during the course of this process. The primacy of formal learning (80) is
also reflected in the fact that is this activity that mediates the whole
system of the child's relations with surrounding adults (down to personal
contact (81) with family)."

What is meant by dominant here?   For instance,

i)  Are these activities considered to take place exclusively for a given
time duration, i.e. that two activities do not take place in parallel for
the subject, such that the dominant activity is present for longer?

ii) Is it inteneded that the dominant activity does not wax or wane prior
to being subsumed by a new dominant activity, which the quotation suggests?

iii) Is it meant that circumstances that afford this activity's involvement
are shaped primarily by this activity?

iv) Or is it meant that all social circumstances are percieved in terms of
this activity?

Can anyone point me to papers that cover this in more detail?

Thanks,
Huw
__________________________________________
_____
xmca mailing list
xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca