orchestration/culture

Mike Cole (mcole who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu)
Thu, 8 Feb 1996 08:40:37 -0800 (PST)

Hi Ellice-- Your comments re application of dialogical approaches to
classroom discrouse and the term from Jay of orchestration resonate
with our local discussion about culture in the classroom. I have begun
to think of different metaphors for classroom organization as descriptions
of cultural systems a la Boas-- , e.g. a structured whole with its own
peculiar "morphology of actvities-- consider the implications of the
metaphors of teacher as orchestra conductor, teacher as coach, teacher
as transmitter of basic skills.

If we grant such "structured wholeness" to classroom cultures, is it
possible to construct a useful system of descriptions for the different
patterns?
mike