Re: Bewilderment, ambiguity, and understanding
Jay Lemke (JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU)
Tue, 09 Apr 96 23:52:53 EDT
Robin, some of your bewilderment may come from a real difference
between the two main 'brands' of 'constructivism'. One of these,
call it cognitive constructivism or individualist constructivism,
descending mainly from Piaget for present purposes, emphasizes
that the learner makes the meaning, and so the learning. The other
one, for whom people claim Vygotsky as totemic ancestor, could be
called social constructivism. It emphasizes that HOW the learner
makes meaning and learns is THRU interactions with others and
the use of socially-culturally-historically generated tools
(language, genres, techniques, artifacts, strategies, etc.). In
practice nobody leaves learners alone to see what meanings they
would make without others and tools-from-others, and most of what
they have to make meaning _about_ IS others and the products of
others' activity. But since people make different meanings out of
what may look to us (but obviously not to them) as 'the same'
situation, we need to take into account the unique agency (or
at least the unique configuration of situation-with-individual)
of individuals in making meaning (and meaningful doing all sorts
of activity).
None of this provides a prescription for teaching, though people
sometimes like to pretend that what they want teaching to be
can be deduced from these views about what learning is. The
real question is still what we _want_ learning to be, and I
have answered that one in another message, at least for me,
and for now. JAY.
JAY LEMKE.
City University of New York.
BITNET: JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM
INTERNET: JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU