> Applebee's curriculum would displace content-
>>driven schooling with schooling that involves students in the
>>"socially constituted traditions of meaning-making that are valued
>>in the cultures of which they are a part" (p. 9). That is, they
>>will learn content by making it a central topic of their
>>conversations, and participate in those conversations through their
>>appropriation of the conventions that have traditionally structured
>>speech in particular disciplines. *These conventions are not
>>imparted to students explicitly* [emphasis added]
>> but become part of the tacit
>>knowledge that students develop of the social rules that structure
>>communication in academic disciplines.
A subsequent message from Betty Zan expresses the same stance toward
direct instruction:
>I would not for a moment deny that a gret deal of cultural transmisision takes
>place in the classroom. My objection is when knowledge that must be
>constructed is taught through direct instruction--and then children are blamed
>if they didn't "learn" it!
>
I suppose the issue is one of terminology, but because language is the
means we have to think together, I'll push the point, especially since
it's at the heart of a by-now longstanding debate that I had thought was
behind us. I see nothing wrong with direct instruction. Isn't
explication direct instruction? Isn't providing a definition direct
instruction? Isn't telling it how it is direct instruction? I often ask
for direct instruction and I am grateful when I get it. The issues that
underlie the concerns of Applebee and Betty Zan, I think, are ones of
when, of what, how much, and for whom direct instruction is appropriate
in a given task context. These seem to me to be extremely interesting
and important questions that we can't take up together as long as we
keep direct instruction out of the kit of good pedagogical resources.
- Judy
Judy Diamondstone
Graduate School of Education
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
10 Seminary Place
New Brunswick, NJ 08903
diamonju who-is-at rci.rutgers.edu
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