David H Kirshner
07/18/98 02:44 PM
To: schmolze who-is-at students.wisc.edu @ internet
cc:
Subject: RE: Appropriation, Part 2 (Document link not converted)
Thanks Mike and Nate.
Nate, as Arievitch and van der Veer describe it, Gal'perin was
specially interested in accounting for _distinctively_ human
aspects of learning. In this respect there seems to be a definite
hierarchy in that the "material" and "ideal external" modes of
appropriation are available to all life forms (including humans),
but the "ideal internal" mode is restricted to humans.
My real problem, though, comes in trying to relate this tripartite
notion of appropriation to the simpler sort of explanation given
in the Construction Zone. According to that account, appropriation
occurs as a mismatch of interpretations, where the novice and
expert both believe and (more importantly) _act_ as if there is
shared understanding. In that way, the child appropriates the
culturally specific "ways of being" with respect to the culturally
mature interpretations as a first step in the internalization process.
In answer to my own question, then, for Gal'perin there are stages
of increasing independence on the part of the child, where first
the activity itself is materially enacted. Then the child internalizes
the activity within the supporting social enclave, and finally the
internalization can be enacted without supporting props. To recast
my question, then, this whole scenario from the original mismatch
onward seems to me to be entirely human-bound. Non-human
animals don't _have_ mismatches of interpretation. It may be true
that they can enact certain forms of activity mentally, only with
support of environmentally present artifacts. But crucially, this
isn't a social environment, wherein shared or taken-as-shared
interpretations have meaning/relevance. So, I seem to be missing
a crucial link between Gal'perin's theory of appropriation and the
more usual interpretation features in the Construction Zone.
Or am I merely displaying anthropocentric biases?
Mike, does an elaborate notion of artifact help here?
David Kirshner
schmolze who-is-at students.wisc.edu on 07/17/98 06:26:21 PM
To: xmca who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu@internet
cc: (bcc: David H Kirshner/dkirsh/LSU)
Subject: RE: Appropriation, Part 2
In recently reading Vygotsky's text on "defectology", he mentioned a child
can do socially (collective) what s/he can not do individually. Vygotsky
mentioned this in the chapter on the collective. He was talking about
working with children w. cognitive/ learning disabilities. In this context
he did not appear to be arguing his famous line what a child can do
socially
today, s/he can do individually tomorrow. He used the collective for the
child w/ a cognitive disability in the same way he argued for Braille for a
child who is blind. Vygotsky's argument appeared to be when biology puts
up
a road block culture needs to find another way.
This appears to fit into the Gal'perin definition of appropriation. My
understanding of Vygotsky's thinking about the collective is a child could
achieve an intellectual level in the collective that might not be possible
individually. I am also reminded of Bruner's concrete-graphical-abstract
postulate that he posed originally in "Toward a Theory of Instruction". At
the time he viewed it in a stage like fashion. In his book "Culture of
Education" he argued, concrete-graphical-abstract were different ways of
knowing the world, not necessarily intellectual stages.
I personally like Gal'perin definition that makes up the three levels of
activity he called appropriation. I think the danger is the same as the
Bruner example, looking at it in a stage like way. I don't know if this
definition of appropriation gives a less human version of learning in the
ZPD. My personal feelings are it gives a more human view of the ZPD.
Abstract or what is called higher order thinking is more valued in some
communities or contexts than others. Without a broader view of
appropriation I think its less human not more.
Nate
Nate Schmolze
http://www.geocities.com/~nschmolze/
http://www.geocities.com/~nschmolze/default.htm
schmolze who-is-at students.wisc.edu
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