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

[mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com>]

Sorry the question troubles you. Seems like we at an impasse, Andy.

No point of the two of us flailing around on xmca. We can chat about it
when we get a chance.

mike


On Sat, Nov 3, 2012 at 5:39 PM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:

> 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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