Re: [xmca] Given Tablets But No Teachers, Ethiopian Kids Teach Themselves

[Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net>]

I am troubled by the question, Mike, because so much is swinging on 
interpretation of words which apparently signal disputes over entire 
concrete concepts (theories of learning) which lie out of sight behind 
the question.

Insofar as we confine ourselves to "the temporal scale of events that 
involve teaching/learning" we put out of sight the developmental life 
course of a person, so an answer I might give is subject to 
misinterpretation, because I would hold that one of the features of what 
we call development is that it is meaningful only within the temporal 
context of a person's development into a citizen. That does not negate 
the irreducible fact, however, that, like every other process, it takes 
place "minute by minute," "event by event" or "situation by situation."

So with those qualifications, if we have just been through an episode 
with a young child, in the course of struggling with a particularly 
stubborn learning difficulty, and we say: "I think we made a development 
there," what we mean is that the child did something under our stimulus 
which he could not have done without it, but we have reason to believe 
that henceforth he will be able to do it without our assistance, that 
is, outside the classroom context which made it possible. I guess there 
are moments, aren't there, when you know that, without waiting to see 
what the child is like the next day. Sometimes I look back onmy own life 
and can see that I made a development on a certain day, but I don't 
think I knew it then.

Andy

mike cole wrote:
> Andy-- I am concerned, among other things, with the question of 
> whether and under what conditions it is useful to make a distinction 
> between learning and development and in particular whether, at the 
> temporal scale
> of events that involve teaching/learning a form of change those 
> adopting a Vygotskian view would designate as development is possible.
>
> If not, then I suggest that the notion of zone of proximal development 
> is a non-starter. Criticizing those who mistake a zone of proximal 
> development from a zone of proximal learning seems somehow irrelevant 
> unless development can be said to occur in teaching/learning interactions.
>
> mike


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