Re: [xmca] Fwd: Purposes and processes of education

[mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com>]

The comments on learning to be intent observer fit Rogoff data.
For small hunter-gatherer societies, I am guessing that something like
apprenticeship is in a limited number of domains. Shamanism, midwifery come
to
mind, but what else is plausible?

Once we get to agriculture, the situation changes a lot, of course.
mike

On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 11:27 AM, Worthen, Helena Harlow <
hworthen@illinois.edu> wrote:

> Hello --
>
> The majority of hours of teaching and learning in the construction trades
> apprenticeship programs take place in on the job training. A
> plumber/pipefitter may have 1,000 hours of classroom training over 5 years
> but may put in over 1,000 hours per year of OJT over that same 5 years. The
> ratios of OJT to classroom are about the same for other trades.
>
> I would agree with what Vera says about underdevelopment of observational
> skills. It takes practice both to learn how to watch someone work and to
> learn how to work in a way that someone watching can learn from. This is a
> set of practices that some journeymen are conscious of and others are
> oblivious to.
>
> Helena
>
> Helena Worthen
> Clinical Associate Professor
> Labor Education Program University of Illinois
> 504 East Armory, Champaign, IL 61820
> 217-244-4095
> hworthen@illinois.edu
> communicate/coordinate/cooperate/collaborate
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
> Behalf Of Vera Steiner
> Sent: Monday, January 18, 2010 12:59 PM
> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> Subject: Re: [xmca] Fwd: Purposes and processes of education
>
> Hi,
> There is a lot of apprenticeship education going on in Southwestern Native
> communities, whether in farming,
> pottery or jewelry  There are still multigenerational families known for
> their excellence in some of these crafts. The transmission of skills in
> these domains requires observational as well as verbal teaching/learning.
> The underdevelopment of observational skills in most Westernized schools by
> their  frequent exclusive focus on verbal teaching  is a questionable
> practice. It narrows the curriculum, the role of parents as contributors to
> education and learners' preparation for laboratory sciences.Including
> observational learning in our theories and curriculum is hard to achieve in
> these times of narrow, test-driven education, but these limitations are
> part
> of the challenges that fuel the energy of xmca participants.
> Vera
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Tony Whitson" <twhitson@UDel.Edu>
> To: "mike cole" <lchcmike@gmail.com>
> Cc: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>; "huyi"
> <huyi1910@hotmail.com>
> Sent: Sunday, January 17, 2010 9:47 PM
> Subject: Re: [xmca] Fwd: Purposes and processes of education
>
>
> >I should be going to bed now (NYC time zone), or else turning around work
> >from advisees that I'm behind on; but this topic has got me going.
> >
> > Now I'm remembering one of my favorite short stories by the great 20th
> > century writer Lu Xun. I'm not remembering the title, but it depicts an
> > evening dramatic performance in a Chinese village. I am sure that this
> > sort of event has been going on for centuries. It would be a mode of
> > instruction for the young people; but it would be an activity that was
> not
> > happening solely or primarily for that "instructional" purpose. It was
> for
> > antertainment and socialization for adults, but the "instructional"
> > function would have also been salient, if not necessarily "deliberate."
> >
> > It seems to me one question here has to do with the degree to which it
> > matters if the activity is conducted specifically for its "instructinal"
> > value.
> >
> > On Sun, 17 Jan 2010, mike cole wrote:
> >
> >> I think this speculation is correct, Tony and lets hope someone can help
> >> us
> >> know:
> >>
> >> "I would bet that they have been used over the centuries as media for
> >> transmitting culture orally, through stories told by illiterate
> grown-ups
> >> to
> >> children who were not being schooled."
> >>
> >> Deliberate instruction is clearly not co-incident with literacy and
> >> schooling (30+ children to one adult, print mediated). Infants are
> >> deliberately (if not-so-effectively) instructed by parents.
> >>
> >> This is a great example of the belief that to study learning and
> >> development
> >> one has to study the history of these forms of change at several
> >> different
> >> scales of time and synchronic scale.
> >>
> >> Wow.
> >> mike
> > _______________________________________________
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> > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >
>
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