Eugene wrote:
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>>
>> Eugene (and everybody):
>>
>> Very very interesting interpretation of Davydov. (I've visited School
>> No. 91 and
>> would like to hear more about your experience there some time.)
>
> Wow, I would like to hear your impressions. When did you visit it? Was
> it
> still under Davydov's rule (which means before 1983)? Please share you
> impressions!
I was there much more recently, in 2000. I went with Boris Elkonin and
one
of Davydov's master teachers & curriculum authors, to learn more about
the elementary math curriculum, in particular. Actually, School 91 was
the
last of three "Developmental Instruction" schools I visited. My
impression
was that the school was truly exceptional due to its long history as an
experimental
school (back to D. B. Elkonin in the 1950's?) and because many of the
teachers
were not ordinary teachers but curriculum creators, etc. I heard
elsewhere that,
unlike the other schools I visited which drew students from the local
population,
School 91's population included many students of highly educated
parents who
specially lobbied to send them them (in Soviet days, this included
dissidents).
So, although I was thrilled to visit this "historical" school, it was
not as interesting to
me as the other schools I visited where the population of teachers and
students seemed
closer to what I was used to in the U.S.
Also, Eugene, can you fill me in on the history of School 91 after
1983? When Davydov
had his troubles in the 1980's, did the experimental curricula just
stop? If so, when were
they revived?
> Peter, I'm actually interested in "lischnost'noe" learning. The
> problem is
> that in English it becomes either as "identity-based" learning or
> "personalized" learning. Since I hate the notion of identity, I turned
> to
> "personalized" learning. I'd appreciate if you help me to articulate
> what
> "lichnostnoj voice" can mean for English speaking community. Thanks a
> lot
> for raising this issue!
Eugene, I think it would be extraordinarily helpful to try and get
across in English
what you mean by "lichnostnoi" voice. No doubt others on this list can
help more
than I can. Can I start by asking whether you think the Russian concept
of
"lichnost'" ("personality") is sufficiently understood by your
non-Russian colleagues?
My understanding comes only from Davydov's Teoriya Razvivayushchego
Obuchenie
(and references therein to Leontiev and Rubinshtein). Davydov writes
about lichnost'
(personality) as having to do with the tension between conformism and
nonconformism: how
does a person express what is different about himself or herself, only
not from
the point of view of the person's "external image" (what I wear, how I
talk) but the
personal "internal image." Lichnost' is related to creativity, and to a
person's striving
to create something that has not been created by anyone else,
corresponding to
the person's "unrepeatable" situation in life.
How do you understand "lichnost'"? (And do you consider "lichnostnoi
voice" to be
a separate concept?)
Peter
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Sep 01 2003 - 01:00:07 PDT