Subject: Re: [xmca] change in education
Hi Nancy-- You quote jw as follows:
A change in cultural tools may often be a more powerful force of
development than the enhancement of individuals' skills" (Wertsch, 1998, p.
38, Mind and Action).
I will check out the surrounding text, but screen-wise, your question evokes
the following question:
If mediated action, that is, action mediated by tools (in a social context)
is a basic unit of analysis
which it is for Jim, what does the reference to individual's skills mean?
mike
>From Carol
Yes this is a ticklish one, because JVW doesn’t even use context in his
unit of analysis in the 1998 book. But I am not sure whether the reference
to the individual is a problem for him, because he doesn’t work with an
individual/social antinomy.
On 7/31/05, Ares, Nancy < nancy.ares@rochester.edu
<mailto:nancy.ares@rochester.edu> > wrote:
Another tiny query,
I wonder how considering change at the level Donna and Mike are having us
think about could be informed by the following:
"A change in cultural tools may often be a more powerful force of
development than the enhancement of individuals' skills" (Wertsch, 1998, p.
38, Mind and Action).
This speaks to units of analysis issue that seem to be important, and to
interactions among levels or spheres of activity. Some hang their hats on
educational, digital, networked, etc. technologies as ways to distribute
knowledge, activity, and power differently in education. Though the politics
of education continue to operate as they have for generations, what do
others think about the possibilities of new technological capabilities
fostering what Peg Griffin offered, "interactive activation among parallel
distributed processes," being revolutionary? Can communication channels'
being multiplied and diversified disrupt old-school politics?
Nancy
Nancy Ares
Assistant Professor
Teaching & Curriculum
The Warner Graduate School of Education
and Human Development
University of Rochester
P.O. Box 270425
Rochester, NY 14627
585-273-5957
fax 585-473-7598
> ----------
> From: Peg Griffin
> Reply To: Peg.Griffin@worldnet.att.net
<mailto:Peg.Griffin@worldnet.att.net> ;eXtended Mind, Culture,
> Activity
> Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2005 2:19 PM
> To: mcole@weber.ucsd.edu <mailto:mcole@weber.ucsd.edu> ; 'eXtended Mind,
Culture, Activity'
> Subject: RE: [xmca] change in education
>
> <<File: ATT844592.txt>>
> Hi Mike and Donna and others,
>
> Just a tiny query: Instead of top-down or bottom-up, would either or both
> of you go for what a lot of people use in various cognitive models
> nowadays: interactive activation among parallel distributed processes?
> It has always seemed to me to be a natural frame for models that address
> the cultural-historical. Plus, it casts light on the variability all the
> way down/up/and sideways that practice must face and might appropriate.
>
> Peg
>
> _____
>
> From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu <mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu>
[mailto: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu <mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu> ]
On
> Behalf Of Mike Cole
> Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2005 10:07 AM
> To: Donna Russell
> Cc: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> Subject: Re: [xmca] change in education
>
>
>
> Dear Dr. Russell
>
>
>
> I hope it is clear that I, too believe that there are teachers out there
> who care deeply about their student, will do anything they
>
> can (including working a lot of overtime and spending their own money) to
> make their students lives potentially more
>
> productive........ Where, perhaps, we differ, is about whether the sorts
> of changes we are discussing, changes that
>
> might be called "developmenal" in that they involve qualitative shifts in
> the system of education, can be achieved entirely
>
> through bottom up processes operating in a part of the social order. With
> respects to all sorts of developmental phenomena
>
> (I take learning to read to be one), it seems like a combination of top
> down and bottom up processes (a dialectical process,
>
> perhaps)? are needed.
>
>
>
> That said, might you consider having your article, "A paradigm shift: A
> case study of innovation in an educational setting" be
>
> linked to the xma "papers for discussion" page for discussion when the
> LCA discussion has run its course (we have still
>
> not fully incorporated Bernstein, whose work strikes me as very important
> to the discussion). The paper is relevant in lots of
>
> ways to XMCA, I think. What do you think?
>
>
>
> On another matter, if you would not mind, I would find it easier to refer
> to you as Donna since you sign your name that way. The
>
> use of honorific titles in this medium exacerbates the tendencies to
> create hierarchies where they need not exist. There are certainly
>
> wide variations in expertise, but they are multi-dimensional in the
> highest degree. For example, you have expertise as a classroom
>
> teacher while I have never been one and do not believe that I have any
> right to give advice to teachers about how to teach under the
>
> conditions of their work, which I find far too difficult to deal with. So
> let me consider you an expert from whom I can learn, especially
>
> when, as you have done, you make your voice heard to the benefit of this
> community of learners.
>
> mike
>
>
>
> On 7/30/05, Donna Russell < donnar@yhti.net <mailto:donnar@yhti.net> >
wrote:
>
> hi dr cole
>
>
>
> i believe there are teachers out there- i was one and i work with them-
> who care very deeply about their students- they will do anything that
> works to make their students' lifes potentially more productive including
> fighting against the political climate, understanding the changing
> dynamics of their classrooms and the financial constraints- i work to help
> them - change in education will happen- i believe- in classrooms- as a
> bottom-up process- in the types and qualities of the interactions of
> teachers and their students- that is the engine that drives a program of
> change-
>
>
>
> i use chat to understand classrooms because when i became a doc student in
> ed psych it was the only research methodology that made sense to me as a
> teacher- i had an ephiphany when i read engestrom's book- i knew it would
> allow me to make sense of the interactions of the dynamics of a classrooms
>
>
>
>
> i have published several times-i did publish a short case study analysis
> of a real change in beliefs an urban classroom- i have attached this
> article to an email to you- i was published in the online internation
> journal of instructional technology
> http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Dec_04/index.htm
>
>
>
> i really do not feel qualified to post it to xmca i have only had my phd
> for 2 years- i have presented many times (including computer supported
> collaborative learning and i will present a paper at iscar) but i have
> only published 5 times in the past 2 years since i started at umkc.
>
>
>
> if you feel that this article or another would be of interest please let
> me know -i have sent a much more in-depth article in regards to my
> research design to mca last september- but i am not sure of its status-
> perhaps it would be of more interest -
>
>
>
> thanks so much for your response
>
>
>
> donna
>
>
>
> Donna L. Russell, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor
> Instructional Technology
> Curriculum and Instructional Leadership
> Suite 309
> School of Education
> University of Missouri-Kansas City
> Kansas City, MO 64110
> (cell) 314.210.6996
> (office) 816.235.5871
> russelldl@umkc.edu <mailto:russelldl@umkc.edu>
> http://r.web.umkc.edu/russelldl/
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> From: Mike Cole
>
> To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu <mailto:xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
>
>
>
> Sent: Saturday, July 30, 2005 10:23 AM
>
> Subject: Re: [xmca] change in education
>
>
>
>
> Hi Donna--
>
>
>
> I totally agree concerning the POTENTIAL of using CHAT for design of
> educational
>
> activities, but its a hard look at the barriers that the Kozulin
> (sorry for the mis-spelling of the file name)
>
> discussion of Davydov's curriculum made me think about in light of
> the discussion about barriers to
>
> changes in adult behaviors needed to produce the kinds of
> interactions that, theoretically, could be
>
> developmentally generative.
>
>
>
> For example: "To put it bluntly, if a student in the 1970's were to
> take a strictly conceptual-theoretical
>
> attitude toward the study of Soviet history (history is one domain
> that davydov's ideas were and are
>
> being applied to), he or she would most probably be purged from the
> school as a dissident and if old
>
> enough could end up in Siberian exile."
>
>
>
> Now apply this statement to the CURRENT situation in the US. We do
> not have the Russian tradition
>
> of sending people to far-off dangerous environments to rid society
> of them, but we certainly have our
>
> ways of disciplining dissidents. That currently includes people who
> believe in evolution in many parts
>
> of the country and very specifically, it applies to the writing of
> textbooks about American history. At
>
> present the wife of the vice-president, who has a say in such
> matters, amazingly, has decreed that
>
> only textbooks that teach the "traditonal history of the US" should
> be allowed. That traditional history
>
> tells us that Davy Crockett was a hero, forgets that in WWII it was
> the US and Britain who created a
>
> deliberate policy of targeting civilians as legitimate targets for
> destruction, which our massive
>
> airforces carried out in places like Dresden and, famously,
> Hiroshima and Nagasaki (anniversaries
>
> coming up).
>
>
>
> I am awaiting with great interest the insights of people in the
> discussion who have, correctly, linked real
>
> changes in education to the need for teachers to change. But if the
> effort stops there, history has some
>
> very clear lessons for us about how far the well intentioned changes
> will go.
>
>
>
> Good luck in your work! If we want to understand history, trying to
> change it is a pretty good heuristic. Where
>
> have you published resarch on developing AT models of innovation in
> diverse settings? Perhaps we could
>
> post for discussion and all learn something from it.
>
> mike
>
>
>
> On 7/29/05, Russell, Donna L < russelldl@umkc.edu
<mailto:russelldl@umkc.edu> > wrote:
>
>
> Hello Everyone
>
> In reference to the article sent my mike cole on kozlyn and davidoff
> on change in education:
>
> I have previously taught for 14 years in a variety of classrooms
> including St. Louis Public schools. I have a background in instructional
> design and educational technology. I currently study how teachers
> implement change in their classrooms- primarily their use of technology -
> using activity theory. Here at UMKC I am implementing research of urban
> classrooms in the Kansas City school districts..
>
> I sincerely believe that there is a potential for a paradigm shift
> in education by developing constructivist-based learning environmnents
> based on cog theory and embedding advanced learning technologies in a
> meaningful and an authentic manner. It has been my experience that these
> educational experiences are productive in suburban, rural, and urban
> schools. However, there are many barriers for teachers who wish to
> innovate in urban settings.
>
> I attempt through my SC research design to develop AT-based models
> of effective innovation in diverse educational settings so these models
> can be used to develop profesisonal development programs in varied
> educational settings so educators can innovate successfully and serve
> their increasingly diverse students productively.
>
> Donna
>
>
> Donna L. Russell, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor
> Instructional Technology
> Curriculum and Instructional Leadership
> 309 School of Education
> University of Missouri-Kansas City
> Kansas City, MO 64110
> russelldl@umkc.edu <mailto:russelldl@umkc.edu>
> (office) 816.235.5871
> (cell) 314.210.6996
>
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>
>
> _____
>
>
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