Nate's quoting of Cole & Cole continues to bother me, and it will until I
write out some reaction.
"Overall, the picture that emerges from extensive research on schooling
provides only minimal support for the idea that schooling changes the
cognitive processes associated with middle childhood in any deep and
general way. In those cases in which schooling has been found to affect
cognitive performance, the effect appears to be restricted to rather
specific information-processing strategies or to a specific context that is
relevant primarily, if not exclusively, to school itself (Cole&Cole,
1990)."
Bill said:
"It leaves me waiting for the other shoe to drop. In a way, I'm not
surprised at Coles' statement, since Vygotsky's notion of cognitive
development relied upon the zoped, and schools rarely seek to establish the
conditions to determine zopeds. It may follow partially as a consequence
of the day to day preoccupation with teaching, as work activity, rather
than teaching in support of learning, as learning activity, in turn, in
support of development."
I was also left with that feeling of, "the other show to drop", but in a
somewhat different way. I very much agree with the quote if we are talking
about cognitive processes as abstractions which I saw Mike as discussing,
but what I was waiting for was how cognitive processes are incorporated
into some sort of system (culture, context etc.). In Cultural Psychology I
got that feeling, a feeling that while we can not talk of this process
ocurring in western culture (schooling) and not another, those processes
still have to ascend to culture, context etc. The diversity of this
ascending was for me the "waiting for the other shoe to drop".
For me, the core of Vygotsky's theory is dialectics and the Zoped must be
seen in that context if it is to become valuable. I see a danger in
abstracting the cognitive or assuming the concept is solely cognitive. The
ZPD in my opinion is a social/cognitive dialectic.
"Development seems to be a hard word for people to understand, and it seems
to be a hard thing to accomplish as an approach with the economy and
ecology of public education in the U.S. What can be done to establish the
actual developmental level of a child? While problem solving interviews
can provide useful insights into a child's (actual) development, we don't
have the education work-force to establish it or other means as a standard
practice, nor do we have even the narrowest spread of understanding about
why such things as interviews are more useful than standardized testing.
Then it is contrary to common sense to see what child can perform in the
presence of a more experienced other - does that not also depend upon the
other?"
As for the other I would say yes. I think the ZPD also has its downside as
in the problem solving interviews that Bill mentions. Delpit spends some
time discussing this with Native American teacher candidates whose
communication or lack they of are often interpreted in very negative terms
by the interviewer. As has been discussed previously on the list going
through the zone can be destructive as well as positive.
"Teaching, as work activity, resists change. Without operationalized moves,
routines, and scripts to make mass education possible, our teachers and
school administrators could not cope. Mass education is to cognitive
development as farming is to gardening. The farmer surveys the landscape
and determines when to water and cultivate, how the corn is doing in this
field or that. More scientifically oriented farmers make measurements of
soil acidity and composition, record how much water and fertilizer has been
administered, and compare with previous crops. They don't have time to
look at each plant."
One professor, an Englishman, told me Americans are not farmers but
peasants. The difference being the farmer participates in economic
activity whereas for the peasant it is very much about the relationship to
the land which makes them very inefficient and conservative. He pointed
out that the U.S. "founders" came from England's peasant stock not the
farmers, but as we have seen we are becoming more like farmers with the
death of the family farms. The point being that the scientifically
oriented farmers, like the educational scientists miss the point that for
peasants, gardners and students alike it is not primarily about
cognitive/economic activity but rather social-cultural activity.
Someone on this list a long time ago mentioned something to the fact that
the problem with education was it was modeled after psychology rather than
anthropology. I often wonder how anthropology as a model would permit us
to reason differently about education.
Nate
I think the Coles know all this and more.
Bill Barowy, Associate Professor
Technology in Education
Lesley College, 31 Everett Street, Cambridge, MA 02138-2790
Phone: 617-349-8168 / Fax: 617-349-8169
http://www.lesley.edu/faculty/wbarowy/Barowy.html
_______________________
"One of life's quiet excitements is to stand somewhat apart from yourself
and watch yourself softly become the author of something beautiful."
[Norman Maclean in "A river runs through it."]