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Re: [xmca] Can the Right Kinds of Play Teach Self-Control?
An interesting twist as I used this paper in a class of student teachers
here at Brooklyn College:I was excited to bring in Bodrova from the New York
Times. I thought I could encourage critical thinking about the troublesome
'frame' in which the article presented this exciting work with play. I
overestimated my abilities to encourage critical thinking about the piece
... but comments from the students after class made me think that these
teachers-to-be may included more dramatic play in their classrooms because
they read these ideas in the Times.
Beth
On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 7:23 PM, Jay Lemke <jaylemke@umich.edu> wrote:
>
> David and all,
>
> Briefly, the dynamic, in the sense of the mechanisms at work, may be much
> the same, but the degree of residual choice, or freedom-in-practice, remains
> considerably greater. Call is power-within-the-system as opposed to
> power-over-the-system, which, I agree, individuals in general, regardless of
> social class lack. That's why collectives are more formidable in resisting
> or changing the system. A deep question I think is whether the marginalized
> or the middle class in fact play this role. The former, I think, find it
> harder to organize and participate in collective action over longer time
> spans, but if they do are more likely to initiate major changes. The latter
> aggregate in search of their interests more often and easily, but are less
> likely to do more than negotiate relative advantage within the existing
> system. Here too one sees, I think, the implied powers of burgher and
> pauper. (Genuine princes are in a much more paradoxical position!)
>
> JAY.
>
> Jay Lemke
> Professor (Adjunct)
> Educational Studies
> University of Michigan
> Ann Arbor, MI 48109
> www.umich.edu/~jaylemke
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sep 27, 2009, at 10:36 PM, David H Kirshner wrote:
>
> But there is a world of political difference among controlling
>>>
>> yourself, carrying out commands, and controlling others.
>>
>> Jay,
>> Not to dispute the critical stance of your concerns re self-regulation,
>> I wonder to what extent the politicization of the issue obscures its
>> dynamics. Even the wealthy scion inheriting position and power has to
>> learn to navigate in an existing system "he" (most likely, he) hasn't
>> created. The rewards for self-control undoubtedly are much greater and
>> much more readily forthcoming for the prince than the pauper. But isn't
>> the dynamic the same?
>> David
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu]
>> On Behalf Of Jay Lemke
>> Sent: Sunday, September 27, 2009 11:26 PM
>> To: lchcmike@gmail.com; eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
>> Subject: Re: [xmca] Can the Right Kinds of Play Teach Self-Control?
>>
>>
>> As a footnote to my worries about the politics of teaching "self-
>> control", and in response to Mike's note about re-framing in cognitive
>> psych discourse, a thought or two about "executive function".
>>
>> There is a value connotation in this term, from "executive" in its
>> sense of high-status individual in a managerial role (cf. "Executive
>> MBA program" or "Executive Summary" not to mention "Executive
>> Washroom"!).
>>
>> And it's not so semantically distant from the putative denotative
>> meaning of the term: the function of executing decisions. The history
>> comes, I believe, from computer programming and computer processor
>> design, where the executive function carries out the commands of the
>> program.
>>
>> So there is a sort of root cultural meaning-message here: "it's good
>> to be in charge" conflated with "self-control is good". But there is a
>> world of political difference among controlling yourself, carrying out
>> commands, and controlling others. Or as I argued in my other post,
>> learning how to control yourself to act your part in someone else's
>> drama.
>>
>> It may be obvious but perhaps still worth noting that there's also a
>> difference between the meaning of "self-control" or "self-regulation"
>> as the basic and necessary ability to focus your own attention and
>> action in order to get something done beyond the single instant vs.
>> their meaning as conforming to the norms of behavior set by others. In
>> free cooperative or collaborative activity, where group norms are
>> agreed and remain subject to challenge by all and to revision, this
>> latter difference fades. But how often does that happen in schools? or
>> any late capitalist institution?
>>
>> JAY.
>>
>>
>>
>> Jay Lemke
>> Professor (Adjunct)
>> Educational Studies
>> University of Michigan
>> Ann Arbor, MI 48109
>> www.umich.edu/~jaylemke
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sep 27, 2009, at 9:22 AM, mike cole wrote:
>>
>> I am pushed to get ready for classes monday, Ageliki.
>>> I would be glad to discuss the issue I referred to as re-framing
>>> within the
>>> context of the discussion of learning sciences and vygotsky just to
>>> keep it
>>> in the bounds of time constraints-- have you read that discussion?
>>> Otherwise
>>> my comments will make no sense.
>>>
>>> Within that context, I might start with executive functioning as a
>>> "neuroscience term," the discourse on 0-3 and ways to make babies
>>> brains
>>> develop more quickly (see xmca discussion of brain and
>>> education),and the
>>> linkages to no-child-left behind. Seems a long way from Kharkov in
>>> the late
>>> 1930's, or 1990's, or the recent (to the NYTimes) discovery of
>>> Vygotsky.
>>>
>>> mike
>>> Sun, Sep 27, 2009 at 9:15 AM, Ageliki Nicolopoulou <agn3@lehigh.edu>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi Mike,
>>>>
>>>> Can you explain a bit what you mean by re-framing and why you see
>>>> it as an
>>>> issue of re-framing?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Ageliki
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> **********************************************
>>>> Ageliki Nicolopoulou
>>>> Professor
>>>> Department of Psychology, Lehigh University
>>>> 17 Memorial Drive East
>>>> Bethlehem, PA 18015-3068
>>>>
>>>> Personal Webpage:
>>>>
>>> http://www.lehigh.edu/~agn3/index.htm<http://www.lehigh.edu/%7Eagn3/inde
>> x.htm
>>
>>>
>>>>> Departmental Webpage: http://www.lehigh.edu/~inpsy/
>>>> nicolopoulou.html<http://www.lehigh.edu/%7Einpsy/nicolopoulou.html>
>>>> **********************************************
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> mike cole wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Thanks Peter-- I was just about to forward this story. Apart from
>>>>> its
>>>>> considerable intrinsic interest to members of this group, it seems
>>>>> relevant
>>>>> to the prior discussion the origins of learning sciences and the
>>>>> ways in
>>>>> which re-framing can operate to change the terms of discourse.
>>>>> mike
>>>>> On Sun, Sep 27, 2009 at 7:36 AM, Peter Smagorinsky <smago@uga.edu>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> September 27, 2009 The NY Times Magazine Section
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The School Issue: Preschool
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Can the Right Kinds of Play Teach Self-Control?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> By PAUL TOUGH
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
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