>>What are the pedagogical implications of individual differences
>>from an activity theory perspective?
and
>>How do others deal, practically & theoretically, with individual diff's?
Theoretically, I think about these issues in terms of Bakhtinian dialogism
and as ontogenetic/microgenetic issues of affect, motivation, and sense
making.
Like you, I try to structure multiple ways into the topics or practices
that my courses deal with. I also try to structure multiple and flexible
forms of assessment, so that different patterns of engagement can be
valued.
In part, I work to create opportunity spaces for students to connect course
material to their lives. For example, when I have students study
conversation, I ask them to record and analyze a conversation that they or
people they know participated in. When I want students to engage in
analysis of texts, I draw their attention to lots of different texts
(product labels, signs, ads, instructions, and tape jackets as well as
articles and books) and let them choose what texts to analyze. When I want
to talk about how instructions often fail, I ask them first to recall and
share experiences they've had where they had trouble with instructions.
These kinds of strategies to address the personal textures of a class work
very well in some cases and not so well in others (which seems reasonable
given the bewildering complexity of forces that operate among students and
a teacher over a series of classes situated in multiple streams of
personal, institutional, and cultural histories).
Paul Prior
p-prior who-is-at uiuc.edu
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign