RE: Agency and Motive/Goal

vera p john-steiner (vygotsky who-is-at unm.edu)
Tue, 31 Oct 1995 17:48:33 -0700 (MST)

I agree with Gordon that part of the teacher's responsibility is to
orchestrate discussion so that both expansions and weaving themes together
take place. The latter is governed by some overall plan, goal, motive
that is part of offering a course. If we do not seperate the mental and
activity in a dualistic way than this does not have to be
troubling. It reminds me of Vygotsky's description of children first
labeling drawings after they finished them vs. planning a drawing
giving it a title and then executing it.
Goals may be situated in different parts of integrated activities;
by examining our past activities we learn how to motivate/plan our future
ones. Is this too simplistic?
Vera

Vera P. John-Steiner Department of Linguistics
Humanities Bldg. 526
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131
(505) 277-6353 or 277-4324
Internet: vygotsky who-is-at triton.unm.edu
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