Dear Peter and everybody-
Since I experience Davydov's approach first hand (I was a student in his 91
Moscow school), I think your point is very-very interesting. I think Davydov
tried to develop "professional practice" voice among students rather than
"personal". By "personalized voice" I mean using school curricula for
understanding and transforming the world like Friere's famous motto,
"reading and writing word to read and write the world." Davydov wanted to
develop "universal theoretical thinking" in the students. His idea was that
the academic curricula have to become everyday practice for the students.
So, for example, kids would involve in math not because math is useful for
their lives and lives of their communities but because they become member of
community of math practice.
However, since Davydov believed that authentic theoretical thinking is
universal practicing theoretical thinking in one area would "spill out" into
another area. Historically, under Soviet regime it was true to some degree:
many famous Soviet mathematicians and physicists became dissidents and had
high interests in social sciences and humanities.
I try to demonstrate the difference between "personalized teaching" and
"practicalized teaching" on the website
http://ematusov.soe.udel.edu/cultures/Teaching.htm
What do you think?
Eugene
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Peter Moxhay [mailto:moxhap@portlandschools.org]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2003 1:10 PM
> To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> Subject: RE: personalizing voice
>
> Jay wrote:
>
> > I wonder if anyone here can identify math textbooks or curricula that do
> > stimulate more of the kind of dialogue Eugene is talking about, where
> > students can take critical stances toward mathematical inquiry and its
> > relationship to other aspects of social life?
>
> Davydov's mathematics curriculum for the primary grades is an
> interesting example of an inquiry-based curriculum, though it is
> certainly not of the "math and society" type. It seems to me, though,
> that it provides ample scope for the "personalized voices" of students:
> the primary form of classroom interaction is whole-class discussion in
> which the contributions of all participants, including the teacher, are
> evaluated on an equal basis. It develops children's critical stances
> towards mathematics to a very high level, though probably not in
> the same sense as people have been discussing here.
>
> Peter
>
>
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