Re: some joint activity re contextless reading?

Gordon Wells (gwells who-is-at oise.utoronto.ca)
Sun, 28 Mar 1999 10:35:24 -0500

ematusov who-is-at udel.edu writes:
> I think the core of COL is critical
>thinking and acting. Louis Holzman points in her recent books on radical
>schools that the notion of COL is too passive (why we so much prioritize
>learning over acting?!) and she introduces the notion of "revolutionary
>activity." I think that she makes a very good critique of COL.

I agree with Eugene. Describing a classroom as a community of learners
perpetuates the idea of learning as a separate activity and as an end in
itself. I personally prefer to talk of a community of inquiry. Bereiter
and Scardamalia refer to a knowledge building community. In both cases,
the attempt is to emphasize the student+teacher's active and collaborative
engagement in making and doing in relation to issues of interest and
concern to them.

Gordon Wells
OISE?University of Toronto