Re: Externalization and non-existence
maria judith (costlins who-is-at ism.com.br)
Wed, 17 Dec 1997 13:57:09 -0300
Michael E. Erickson wrote:
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> Maria Judith,
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> The observation of children's speech & communication is a crucial one.=
As
> a practioner of many years of teaching young children as well as adult=
s,
> I've learned, as you have, to pay attention to the deeper structures a=
nd
> thoughts of such communicators. It's true that yg children tend to par=
rot
> syntax as well as lexical references without really understanding the
> deeper soically contructed meanings, and it's up to us, as teachers a=
nd
> learning facilitators, to discover just what is meant and intended so t=
hat
> we can move them to even deeper and higher forms of cognitive and affec=
tive
> levels.
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> To illustrate, a old joke--much truth is said in jest:
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> A yg girl asked her father, "Where did I come from.
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> The father feeling really embarrassed began with the birds 'N bees and
> proceeded to explain the anatomical differences of the sexes and the en=
tire
> act of procreation. As he began to get more explicit in his descriptio=
n of
> conception etc, the little girl's eyes began to get wider and wider and=
the
> father began to get more and more uncomfortable, expalining the facts =
of
> life. When he finsihed, he asked if his daughter now understood where s=
he
> came from.
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> The daughter nodded, yes and then add, "The girl down the street said s=
he
> came from California!"
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> As teachers we always have to understand that* performance precedes
> competence*. And, that we always have to ask what is the child really
> asking of us. The words used do not always have the same referent or
> significance---the difference between novice and expert is an entirely
> different level of cognition.
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> A prot=E9g=E9 of Vygotsky, Alexander Romanovich Luria's (1902-1977)
> cross-cultural studies of adult activity in Uzbekistan document that mi=
nd
> is, in actuality, an artifact rather than a natural system that is
> universal, static or immutable. He found that sociohistorical
> factors--particularly, schooling--enhance thinking by moving neophytes =
of
> all ages from one form of cognition to another, higher form. He showed =
that
> people progress from the function-relational, thematic thinking of the
> illiterate, nonschooled child/adult (contextualized representation) tow=
ard
> the more categorical, taxonomic thinking of the literate, schooled
> adolescent/adult (decontextualized rationality). As he notes:
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> The significance of schooling lies not just in the acqu=
isition
> of new knowledge, but the creation of new motives and f=
ormal
> modes of discursive verbal and logical thinking divorce=
d from
> immediate practical experience.
> Further, he states:
> Education, which radically alters the nature of cogniti=
ve activity,
> greatly facilitates the transition from practical to th=
eoretical
> operations. Once people acquire education, they make i=
ncreasingly
> greater use of categorization to express ideas that obj=
ectively
> reflect reality.
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> As the children become more proficient in langauage they move as you kn=
ow
> from imitation to novel expression and deeper understanding because the
> development of mind and sign is from the "outside" to the" inside" and =
then
> re-externalized again in communication with others and self.
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> This is why I find teaching/learning such a joy. I hope this perspec=
tive
> on externalization/internalization aspect helps in the discussion.
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> Michael E.Michael, thank you for your response. We have the same joke i=
n Brasil,=20
we say at the end that th yg girl came from Bahia. We work with Vygotsky=20
and Luria also. The crucial problem is how difficult it is to have a=20
special attention for each student when you work in a class of 35 or=20
more children. But we try. My students at the university are going to be=20
these teachers, and they already work, may be you would call them=20
trainee, I don't know. They try to put the subject they want to teach in=20
a way the children can understand, a little as Jerome Bruner teaches. We=20
have also to pay attention to the internalization that happens without=20
we can observe in the case of shy children, for example, because they=20
don't like to make any externalization. This is another perspective for=20
the discussion. maria judith