Vygotsky like Lewin can be put in a box of taking other's ideas.
For example Vygotsky attributed the ZPD to McCarthy, an
American, the cultural law of development to Janet, lower and
higher mental processes to Darwin and Durkheim's, and the unity
of affect/intellect to Lewin and the Gestalt psychologists.
This was the feeling I got from reading Van Der Veer & Valsiner,
but it only tells half the story. Gal'perin I believe, argued
Vygotsky verged on almost a pathology in that looking at a
picture he could only see the meaning - 4 sides, colors - but no
personal or cultural sense. But if he was asked to describe the
picture to another he noticed all these details that no one else
could see.
For example, the only thing McCarthy demonstrated was that
children who were reared in adult speech environments had better
speech patterns than children in child-child speech enviroments
(daycare centers), but Vygotsky saw this as the broad concept of
the Zone of Prozimal Development. I think at least for
Vygotsky, he saw things in others ideas that they never saw
themselves.
Nate
-----Original Message-----
From: Phillip Allen White <pwhite who-is-at carbon.cudenver.edu>
To: xmca who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Date: Sunday, March 07, 1999 3:15 PM
Subject: Re: like a Jeopardy question
>On Sun, 7 Mar 1999, Diane HODGES wrote:
>
>> in the 1930s, Lewin visits the US hoping to suck up some with
Dewey, 'cause
>> Dewey is hot in Europe...Lewin runs into Washington, hooks up
with John
>> Collier, appointed as Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
specifically to deal
>> with
>> racism and the conditions of the reservations.
>>
>> Lewin tags along. "Watcha doin' John? Huh? Whatcha doin' now?
Hey. Can I use
>> that? Hey. Can I quote you on that?" and Collier & Dewey
worked on
>> developing progresive schools for Indian-americans;
>
> well, this just stood me on my head! (a sometimes comfortable
>place to be)
> because it is Collier who coined the term 'action research',
which
>he wanted done by the classroom teachers who were teaching
>Indian-americans - and Lewin later used for community action
groups in
>the late forties / early fifties.
> another odd connection is that Collier attended Janet's
classes at
>College de France (or perhaps the Sorbonne and Janet was in
>correspondance with Vygotsky in the twenties) at the turn of
this century,
>and when Collier returned to New York became involved in
community action
>groups and even organized the first multicultural celebration
in this
>country - circa 1910.
>
> connections - Forster was right - 'only connect'.
>
>thanks diane and Nate for the additional information - so
illuminating
>
>phillip
>
>phillip white pwhite who-is-at carbon.cudenver.edu
>
>
>/////////////////////////////////\
>
> A relation of surveillance, defined and regulated,
> is inscribed at the heart of the practice of teaching, not
> as an additional or adjacent part, but as a mechanism that
> is inherent to it and which increases its efficiency.
>
> Michel Foucault / Discipline & Punish
>
>\///////////////////////////////////////
>
>
>