I've begun reading Kenneth Wilson=92s tome, _Redesigning Education_, and it
already seems clear that, considered as a whole, systems must create
mechanisms for improving themselves. However, he points out that creating
productive learning=97contexts in which an initial model may be transformed
into another model by both teachers and students has never been a valued
product in the time and content driven reality of modern schools; a reality
in which a predefined and segmented curriculum must be sequenced and
delivered within its predetermined temporal frame. As Bill intimates,
funding becomes increasingly problematic as divergence from this established
routine increases.
I've been concerned for some time, following Alex Molnar, that the business
world is increasingly at work in schools, providing simplistic and logically
inconsistent rationales, coupled with an increasing array of predatory
practices, to which academics appear to have few constructive responses or
viable alternative visions; at least visions that translate well into the
world of schools. The resulting =93anything goes=94 environment requires the
establishment of an intellectual foundation for social practices that differ
from those typical of an industrial society at least.
To make a long story shorter I agree the curriculum field represents a very
productive and timely area of inquiry in this regard and would love to see
CP applied to it. Now I have to wait for my order of Mike's book to arrive.
Regards, Rolfe
PS: Speaking of orders. Bill, I've searched for Allan Collins _Toward a
Design Science of Education_ on and off for awhile and could never find it.
Not in the UCLA library certainly and even Amazon books appears to have no
listing in that massive database of theirs. Could you provide a full cite
and/or ISBN?
PPS: Eva's introduction of the problem of 'translation' as addressed by
Gibson, Latour, and Steiner (three authors who have influenced me very much)
seems germane to this topic as well. Much of this remains unclear to me
since they seem to be concerned with different kinds of systems, Steiner in
particular extolling the virtues of the future subjunctive as token of, and
actor in, our species' emergence from biological constraint. Perhaps,
assuming Jay is willing, when expanding upon the topic of biological
mediation he might also address the notion of slippage?
Rolfe Windward (Science/Technology Curriculum & Teaching)
e-mail: rwindwar who-is-at ucla.edu _or_ 70014.646@compuserve.com
"We get into the habit of living before acquiring the habit of thinking.
In that race which daily hastens us towards death, the body maintains
its irreparable lead." -Albert Camus