Hi Mike and Donna and others,
Just a tiny query: Instead of top-down or bottom-up, would either or both
of you go for what a lot of people use in various cognitive models nowadays:
interactive activation among parallel distributed processes? It has always
seemed to me to be a natural frame for models that address the
cultural-historical. Plus, it casts light on the variability all the way
down/up/and sideways that practice must face and might appropriate.
Peg
_____
From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
Behalf Of Mike Cole
Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2005 10:07 AM
To: Donna Russell
Cc: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: Re: [xmca] change in education
Dear Dr. Russell
I hope it is clear that I, too believe that there are teachers out there who
care deeply about their student, will do anything they
can (including working a lot of overtime and spending their own money) to
make their students lives potentially more
productive........ Where, perhaps, we differ, is about whether the sorts of
changes we are discussing, changes that
might be called "developmenal" in that they involve qualitative shifts in
the system of education, can be achieved entirely
through bottom up processes operating in a part of the social order. With
respects to all sorts of developmental phenomena
(I take learning to read to be one), it seems like a combination of top down
and bottom up processes (a dialectical process,
perhaps)? are needed.
That said, might you consider having your article, "A paradigm shift: A case
study of innovation in an educational setting" be
linked to the xma "papers for discussion" page for discussion when the LCA
discussion has run its course (we have still
not fully incorporated Bernstein, whose work strikes me as very important to
the discussion). The paper is relevant in lots of
ways to XMCA, I think. What do you think?
On another matter, if you would not mind, I would find it easier to refer to
you as Donna since you sign your name that way. The
use of honorific titles in this medium exacerbates the tendencies to create
hierarchies where they need not exist. There are certainly
wide variations in expertise, but they are multi-dimensional in the highest
degree. For example, you have expertise as a classroom
teacher while I have never been one and do not believe that I have any right
to give advice to teachers about how to teach under the
conditions of their work, which I find far too difficult to deal with. So
let me consider you an expert from whom I can learn, especially
when, as you have done, you make your voice heard to the benefit of this
community of learners.
mike
On 7/30/05, Donna Russell <donnar@yhti.net> wrote:
hi dr cole
i believe there are teachers out there- i was one and i work with them- who
care very deeply about their students- they will do anything that works to
make their students' lifes potentially more productive including fighting
against the political climate, understanding the changing dynamics of their
classrooms and the financial constraints- i work to help them - change in
education will happen- i believe- in classrooms- as a bottom-up process- in
the types and qualities of the interactions of teachers and their students-
that is the engine that drives a program of change-
i use chat to understand classrooms because when i became a doc student in
ed psych it was the only research methodology that made sense to me as a
teacher- i had an ephiphany when i read engestrom's book- i knew it would
allow me to make sense of the interactions of the dynamics of a classrooms
i have published several times-i did publish a short case study analysis of
a real change in beliefs an urban classroom- i have attached this article to
an email to you- i was published in the online internation journal of
instructional technology http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Dec_04/index.htm
i really do not feel qualified to post it to xmca i have only had my phd
for 2 years- i have presented many times (including computer supported
collaborative learning and i will present a paper at iscar) but i have only
published 5 times in the past 2 years since i started at umkc.
if you feel that this article or another would be of interest please let me
know -i have sent a much more in-depth article in regards to my research
design to mca last september- but i am not sure of its status- perhaps it
would be of more interest -
thanks so much for your response
donna
Donna L. Russell, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Instructional Technology
Curriculum and Instructional Leadership
Suite 309
School of Education
University of Missouri-Kansas City
Kansas City, MO 64110
(cell) 314.210.6996
(office) 816.235.5871
russelldl@umkc.edu
http://r.web.umkc.edu/russelldl/
----- Original Message -----
From: Mike <mailto:lchcmike@gmail.com> Cole
Sent: Saturday, July 30, 2005 10:23 AM
Subject: Re: [xmca] change in education
Hi Donna--
I totally agree concerning the POTENTIAL of using CHAT for design of
educational
activities, but its a hard look at the barriers that the Kozulin (sorry for
the mis-spelling of the file name)
discussion of Davydov's curriculum made me think about in light of the
discussion about barriers to
changes in adult behaviors needed to produce the kinds of interactions that,
theoretically, could be
developmentally generative.
For example: "To put it bluntly, if a student in the 1970's were to take a
strictly conceptual-theoretical
attitude toward the study of Soviet history (history is one domain that
davydov's ideas were and are
being applied to), he or she would most probably be purged from the school
as a dissident and if old
enough could end up in Siberian exile."
Now apply this statement to the CURRENT situation in the US. We do not have
the Russian tradition
of sending people to far-off dangerous environments to rid society of them,
but we certainly have our
ways of disciplining dissidents. That currently includes people who believe
in evolution in many parts
of the country and very specifically, it applies to the writing of textbooks
about American history. At
present the wife of the vice-president, who has a say in such matters,
amazingly, has decreed that
only textbooks that teach the "traditonal history of the US" should be
allowed. That traditional history
tells us that Davy Crockett was a hero, forgets that in WWII it was the US
and Britain who created a
deliberate policy of targeting civilians as legitimate targets for
destruction, which our massive
airforces carried out in places like Dresden and, famously, Hiroshima and
Nagasaki (anniversaries
coming up).
I am awaiting with great interest the insights of people in the discussion
who have, correctly, linked real
changes in education to the need for teachers to change. But if the effort
stops there, history has some
very clear lessons for us about how far the well intentioned changes will
go.
Good luck in your work! If we want to understand history, trying to change
it is a pretty good heuristic. Where
have you published resarch on developing AT models of innovation in diverse
settings? Perhaps we could
post for discussion and all learn something from it.
mike
On 7/29/05, Russell, Donna L <russelldl@umkc.edu > wrote:
Hello Everyone
In reference to the article sent my mike cole on kozlyn and davidoff on
change in education:
I have previously taught for 14 years in a variety of classrooms including
St. Louis Public schools. I have a background in instructional design and
educational technology. I currently study how teachers implement change in
their classrooms- primarily their use of technology - using activity theory.
Here at UMKC I am implementing research of urban classrooms in the Kansas
City school districts..
I sincerely believe that there is a potential for a paradigm shift in
education by developing constructivist-based learning environmnents based on
cog theory and embedding advanced learning technologies in a meaningful and
an authentic manner. It has been my experience that these educational
experiences are productive in suburban, rural, and urban schools. However,
there are many barriers for teachers who wish to innovate in urban
settings.
I attempt through my SC research design to develop AT-based models of
effective innovation in diverse educational settings so these models can be
used to develop profesisonal development programs in varied educational
settings so educators can innovate successfully and serve their increasingly
diverse students productively.
Donna
Donna L. Russell, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Instructional Technology
Curriculum and Instructional Leadership
309 School of Education
University of Missouri-Kansas City
Kansas City, MO 64110
russelldl@umkc.edu
(office) 816.235.5871
(cell) 314.210.6996
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