Re: [xmca] FW: The functional method of double stimulation - and some photographs

P
Great to get this. I tried at the weekend to see how you were, but you were
out.

I am about to contact Nicoleen for the 2nd time, and will let you know
directly I hear something.

Jaki's results are back--with 16 pages of corrections. But at least they
are finally back from the second examiner.

I am now drowning in work on four projects.

On Thursday I am to have a two hour meeting with the Kellogg Foundation
about the bibliotherapy project proposal. Wish me luck.

Rush, rush
Love
C

On 29/05/07, Paula Towsey <paulat@johnwtowsey.co.za> wrote:
>
> Dear Ana
>
>
>
> Thank you for your suggestion that I forward this email to the group. The
> blocks I used for my cross-sectional study were made by Stoelting Co.
> (USA),
> according to the specs. provided by Jacob Kasanin and Eugenia Hanfmann
> (+/-1936/37).
>
>
>
> My research exercise, 'In Search of Vygotsky's Blocks: exploring cev, bik,
> mur, and lag in South Africa', was conducted for my M. Ed. (Psychology in
> Education) by course work and research report at Wits University.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paula Towsey [mailto:paulat@johnwtowsey.co.za]
> Sent: 28 May 2007 04:47 PM
> To: 'ana@zmajcenter.org'
> Subject: The functional method of double stimulation - and some
> photographs
>
>
>
> Dear Ana
>
>
>
> To introduce myself: my name is Paula Towsey and I followed, with a great
> deal of interest, some of your conversation about the method of double
> stimulation - Vygotsky's Blocks - on the XMCA in March. I conducted
> research with this method last year but wasn't able to join in with your
> conversation because I wasn't on the XMCA mailing list in March. I am now
> -
> but am writing to you separately because the topic is no longer current on
> XMCA. I do hope that by writing to you directly I'm not breaking any XMCA
> protocols!
>
>
>
> In reading between the lines, Ana, it seems to me that the pathway you
> followed with the method of approach with the blocks at the University of
> Belgrade was more directly linked - for historical and geographical
> reasons,
> perhaps - in source to Sakharov's approach. The sources I was most easily
> able to find flowed mainly through Hanfmann and Kasanin via Kozulin's
> translation of Thought and Language (1986): suffice it to say here (though
> I
> can send you more) that I noticed a difference between Sakharov's 'script'
> (1994, Van der Veer & Valsiner, Eds.) and H&K's (1937,42) in giving
> subjects
> the option to find all the mur blocks and checking to see if they were
> 'correct' at this stage, or in allowing them to continue to sort the
> blocks
> according to the given strategy (eg, colour, or shape, or oscillations
> between the two!).
>
>
>
> It also seems that it was a lot more difficult for me to be in search of
> Vygotsky's Blocks - for historical, political and geographical reasons
> (I'm
> in Sunny South Africa) - than it was for you and your lucky colleagues at
> Belgrade, but the apparent elusiveness of the blocks added much intrigue
> and
> speculation for me! In many respects it was a singular journey for me,
> working things out, tracing the provenance and the implications for
> analysis, because there was no one in South Africa that I could find with
> expertise or knowledge about the blocks. And so, there was nobody to talk
> to!
>
>
>
> For a light-hearted entree, I've attached four photographs from my
> cross-sectional study of 60 subjects.
>
>
>
> The 3-yr-old photograph depicts a three-year-old subject's 'house', which
> she unhesitatingly described as belonging to the Big Bad Wolf (!). He
> made
> his re-appearance quite a number of times during her session!
>
>
>
> The S810M photograph depicts this eight-year-old subject's charmingly
> exaggerated placement of the cev, bik, mur, and lag glasses, by
> remembering
> where the groups of blocks had been on the board. Lovely!
>
>
>
> In the S1505F photograph, the subject had noted that by stacking the
> blocks
> the way she had yielded different sizes - small, medium, and large. What
> she had been looking for, though, was a pattern of two stacked blocks of
> the
> same diameter, coupled with two which were not. She said that this
> pattern
> worked for the squares and the trapezoids, but not with the circles, the
> triangles or the irregular shapes. The 15-year-olds kept me on my toes!
>
>
>
> In the last photograph, this adult subject (SX09M) said "I've got an idea.
> The common thing between these shapes is that the triangles come in four
> different sizes" (this despite there being five triangles). He explored
> this further, sorted the blocks correctly, and then explained: "How I
> deduced this categorisation is that the common thing in the triangles is
> that they are the ones which seem to differentiate on the height and the
> size. And so there's this in the circular ones as well - they also have
> that characteristic." He had then extrapolated this principle to the
> other
> blocks and solved the problem - statistically and mathematically - by
> analysing the characteristics of groups of blocks to establish where the
> areas of commonality lay, which would form the basis for sorting the
> blocks.
> Wow!!
>
>
>
> Ana, I did check out your Wiki, but I am sure you have made your additions
> to it by now and that there is a new one. Please could you let me know
> where I could find it, or if I just need to type in 'doubstim' into a
> search
> engine? Also, do you think Martin would be interested in seeing my
> results?
> Would you be? I'd be happy to send you any of my work or answer any
> questions that you (or Martin, or any of the interested XMCAs) might have
> -
> just let me know!
>
>
>
> Thank you - and I do hope you have the time to drop me a line soon.
>
>
>
> Very sincerely
>
>
>
>
>
> Paula
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> xmca mailing list
> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>
>
>

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