Re: abstraction

From: Elina Lampert-Shepel (ens7@columbia.edu)
Date: Sun May 01 2005 - 19:36:55 PDT


I am in disequilibrium with the wide range of spielraum... :-)
In fact, as I think of it now, I should be thankful to Hegelian
principle of ascending from abstract to concrete for any math
problems I've ever solved. This principle was a curriculum design
method for El'konin-Davydov math and language curriculum. The
children would discover what was called "the generalized
principle", for example, multiplication, and then through the
series of tasks students would test how the principle would work
with concrete types of numbers, for example two-digit numbers, etc.
That allowed to build the curriculum around children's inquiry and
it gave a chance for children to learn how to learn, become the
agents of Learning Activity.

The question I always had was how concrete should be your initial
knowledge of "abstract" and "concrete" to initiate the process of
"ascending". Should there be any knowledge of concrete at all at
the beginning? Or will it phenomenologically emerge in the process
of ascending? What defines the process of ascending? I found it
quite fascinating when using a Hegelian-Vygotskian unit of analysis
in the context of a phenomenological qualitative study. This is my
context so far...
Elina

Quoting Mike Cole <lchcmike@gmail.com>:

> spielraum --wonerful word, Michael!! I guessed "room to play" and
> came up
> with all of these interesting
> alternatives.
> mike
> -----------------------------
> bargaining range -- der
>
Verhandlungs*spielraum*<http://www.iee.et.tu-dresden.de/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/wernerr/search.sh?string=Verhandlungsspielraum&nocase=on&hits=50>
> circle -- der
>
Spielraum<http://www.iee.et.tu-dresden.de/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/wernerr/search.sh?string=Spielraum&nocase=on&hits=50>
> clearance -- der
>
Spielraum<http://www.iee.et.tu-dresden.de/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/wernerr/search.sh?string=Spielraum&nocase=on&hits=50>
> *(Technik)*
> decision space -- der
>
Entscheidungs*spielraum*<http://www.iee.et.tu-dresden.de/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/wernerr/search.sh?string=Entscheidungsspielraum&nocase=on&hits=50>
> elbowroom -- der
>
Spielraum<http://www.iee.et.tu-dresden.de/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/wernerr/search.sh?string=Spielraum&nocase=on&hits=50>financial
> margin -- der
>
Finanzierungs*spielraum*<http://www.iee.et.tu-dresden.de/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/wernerr/search.sh?string=Finanzierungsspielraum&nocase=on&hits=50>
> to
>
give<http://www.iee.et.tu-dresden.de/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/wernerr/search.sh?string=give&nocase=on&hits=50>free
> play to
>
something<http://www.iee.et.tu-dresden.de/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/wernerr/search.sh?string=something&nocase=on&hits=50>--
> einer Sache freien Spielraum gewähren
> to
>
give<http://www.iee.et.tu-dresden.de/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/wernerr/search.sh?string=give&nocase=on&hits=50>someone
> line enough -- jemandem freien Spielraum lassen
> headroom -- der
>
Spielraum<http://www.iee.et.tu-dresden.de/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/wernerr/search.sh?string=Spielraum&nocase=on&hits=50>
> *(Technik)*
> latitude -- der
>
Spielraum<http://www.iee.et.tu-dresden.de/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/wernerr/search.sh?string=Spielraum&nocase=on&hits=50>
> leeway -- der
>
Spielraum<http://www.iee.et.tu-dresden.de/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/wernerr/search.sh?string=Spielraum&nocase=on&hits=50>
> margin -- der
>
Spielraum<http://www.iee.et.tu-dresden.de/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/wernerr/search.sh?string=Spielraum&nocase=on&hits=50>
> permissible limits -- der
>
zulässige<http://www.iee.et.tu-dresden.de/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/wernerr/search.sh?string=zul\ssige&nocase=on&hits=50>Spielraum
> *(Technik)*
> play -- der
>
Spielraum<http://www.iee.et.tu-dresden.de/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/wernerr/search.sh?string=Spielraum&nocase=on&hits=50>
> to
>
play<http://www.iee.et.tu-dresden.de/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/wernerr/search.sh?string=play&nocase=on&hits=50>--
> freien Spielraum haben
> range -- der
>
Spielraum<http://www.iee.et.tu-dresden.de/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/wernerr/search.sh?string=Spielraum&nocase=on&hits=50>
> reach -- der
>
Spielraum<http://www.iee.et.tu-dresden.de/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/wernerr/search.sh?string=Spielraum&nocase=on&hits=50>
> room -- der
>
Spielraum<http://www.iee.et.tu-dresden.de/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/wernerr/search.sh?string=Spielraum&nocase=on&hits=50>
> scope -- der
>
Spielraum<http://www.iee.et.tu-dresden.de/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/wernerr/search.sh?string=Spielraum&nocase=on&hits=50>
> swing -- der
>
Spielraum<http://www.iee.et.tu-dresden.de/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/wernerr/search.sh?string=Spielraum&nocase=on&hits=50>
> tether -- der
>
Spielraum<http://www.iee.et.tu-dresden.de/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/wernerr/search.sh?string=Spielraum&nocase=on&hits=50>
> tolerance -- der
>
Spielraum<http://www.iee.et.tu-dresden.de/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/wernerr/search.sh?string=Spielraum&nocase=on&hits=50>
> *(Technik)*
> a wide range -- ein weiter Spielraum
>
>
> On 5/1/05, Wolff-Michael Roth <mroth@uvic.ca> wrote:
> >
> > Hi all,
> > further to my earlier note about our (Western) tendency to
> celebrate a
> > certain form of abstraction--Piaget, too, celebrated this
> particular
> > form.
> >
> > Hegel asked the rhetorical question, "Who thinks abstractly?"
> and then,
> > after saying in French "Sauve qui peut" answers his question,
> "Only the
> > uneducated." You can find his piece on the net. But
> essentially,
> > Marxist philosophers and psychologists picked up on this and
> speak of
> > ascension from abstract to concrete, from the general knowledge
> of the
> > uneducated to the detailed and particular, contextualized
> knowledge of
> > the specialist.
> >
> > My sense is that the expert is expert because s/he has many
> ways for
> > concretely realizing the possibilities in the general (genetic
> > developmentally, the abstract of the uneducated is always prior
> to the
> > concrete of the expert). Our phenomenologically oriented
> research
> > framed expertise in terms of Spielraum, room to maneuver, which
> > increases with experience and familiarity of the subject|object
> unit
> > (e.g., Roth, Lawless, & Masciotra, 2001).
> >
> > More to this point, a phenomenological analysis of my own
> mathematical
> > experience shows that I mastered the unknown problem as it
> became
> > increasingly concrete and less abstract (Roth, 2001). It would
> be
> > interesting for me to go back and rewrite the piece now from
> the CHAT
> > perspective on concrete and abstract.
> >
> > I hope others, too, will read this months article and write on
> this
> > interesting issue.
> >
> > Michael
> >
> > Roth, W.-M. (2001). Phenomenology and mathematical experience.
> > Linguistics & Education, 12(2), 239–252.
> > Roth, W.-M., Lawless, D., & Masciotra, D. (2001). Spielraum and
> > teaching. Curriculum Inquiry, 31(2), 183–207.
> >
> >
>

Elina Lampert-Shepel
Assistant Professor
Graduate School of Education
Mercy College New Teacher Residency Program
Mercy College
66 West 35th Street
New York, NY 10001
(212) 615 3367

I have on my table a violin string. It is free. I twist one end of
it and it responds. It is free. But it is not free to do what a
violin string is supposed to do - to produce music. So I take it,
fix it in my violin and tighten it until it is taut. Only then it
is free to be a violin string.
               Sir Rabindranath Tagore.



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