I don't know if anyone here is familiar with the CLASS teacher observation protocols, developed by Robert Pianta & colleagues at U of Virginia, and now becoming more popular among classroom researchers (those who manage to survive in the miasma of corporate dominated "research"). My bilingual education research group in the South Texas borderlands has been using CLASS as a preservice teaching tool, and we're poised (we hope) to begin using it with teachers (our former students) The attachment is a policy brief with a brief overview of the CLASS, which includes an emotional support component. There has been a steady flow of new research pubs using CLASS in the past 5 years. Pete Farruggio -----Original Message----- From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Larry Purss Sent: Friday, September 13, 2013 1:45 AM To: Mike Cole; eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Direct link to article for discussion Jennifer and Rebecca I read your article with anticipation, and was reflecting on my level of interest as a counselor working in public schools. The central question posed in your title, "Where do we locate social and emotional learning in schooled environments?" is a profoundly relevant question within historically situated *school discourse" I want to open my comments by referring back to an article Jennifer wrote ten years ago which shows this question continues to remain relevant over time. Jennifer wrote, "Indeed, we are participant observers of the processes of the human mind; ourselves always embedded within it and experiencing the world filtered through it. And to make matters more complicated, the cognition and emotion couplet is ITSELF a moving target., changing through the use of cultural tools, creating new tools, and shifting again; a messy and potentially regressive process, rather than a linear or teleological one....What we are actually dealing with [theory of consciousness] is both a revolutionary (Vygotsky, 1978) and a dialogical (Bahktin, 1981; 1986) process of cognitive/emotive/discursive change over time. A process fuelled by the activity of human agents engaged with cultural tools and situated through social and historical relations" The current article continues this quest tracking the elusive moving target of the cognition/emotion couplet which is now being played out across all public schools. I want to explore the second section of the article which clarifies and foregrounds the conceptual terms [unity, word meaning, perezhivanie,] as units of analysis I also want to explore the third section which extends the cognition/emotion couplet through exploring feeling, emotion, and affect and *verbal feeling. However, I know others will return to these critical aspects of the paper, therefore I will foreground section one which opens the dialogue on the current ways social/emotional learning is approached as a subject matter. Jennifer and Rebecca mention that social-emotional learning has been met with a strong critique on multiple fronts. I wonder if any of these fronts are visible within public school settings, or if the fronts are mostly visible within university departments? I experience conversations in schools focusing on *skills* and *programs* to teach these discrete skills. The article mentions by 2003 there were over 200 distinct programs had been created to ADDRESS SEL, with multiple moving targets [reduce bullying, teach character education, or as stand alone programs to teach SEL skills. an alternative approach, as mentioned in the article is the implied assumption that by Kindergarten social emotional development SHOULD be well developed so is NOT a relevant subject matter for K to 12 schooling. I would concur that these are the typical responses to address or answer "Where do we locate social-emotional learning in school environments?" However, this article does offer another approach which I hope we will explore further. I want to quote the last paragraph of section one: "Clearly there is a need to develop approaches to social and emotional education that reduces the emphasis on behavioral skill sets and individual assessments and, instead, develop methods for linking social and emotional IDEALS with social practices in schools (Hoffman, 2009) Among other things, this would require "connecting the language of research more REALISTICALLY and more humanely with the language and EXPERIENCE of emotion in teaching and learning, and not substitute one for the other" (p.546). IN this context of schooling, a Vygotskian perspective may be a much needed and radical response" I highlighted the word *ideal* as this word implied SHARED IDEALS. On page 202 of the article Jennifer and Rachael emphasize Vygotsky saw schools as locations to develop not only *competencies* but also DISPOSITIONS TOWARD ETHICAL ACTIONS. At the CENTER of THIS process was the social environment of the school as the location for social emotional learning. I see this appeal to SHARED IDEALS and the question of how we collectively develop SHARED EXPLICIT IDEALS as a central question which Jennifer and Rachael address and give their "answer". If the arena or stage is not individual virtue, or collectively FORMED rules, but rather developing *dispositions* how do we traverse the notions of classroom teacher *autonomy* . I want to acknowledge my appreciation for opening this space to explore this shifting, turning, crisscrossing theme of the unity of cognition & emotion. The heart of the paper is conceptual elaboration and clarity and the article does this brilliantly. However, I chose to highlight the actual current historical situation in many schools. Larry On Thu, Sep 12, 2013 at 3:53 PM, mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com> wrote: > For those of you who missed it, here is the article for discussion on > the xmca website. > mike > > > http://lchc.ucsd.edu/MCA/Journal/pdfs/20-3-vadeboncoeur.pdf >
Attachment:
CLASS_PolicyBrief_single.pdf
Description: CLASS_PolicyBrief_single.pdf