RE: [xmca] double-stimulation method

Hello Paula:

This is the aspect of your post that I would like to focus on:

4. providing a snapshot of a 'complex'
Yes, they - the blocks - do. What is sometimes a bit difficult for me to
impart to colleagues who haven't worked with the blocks is that reading
about them, and then conducting an exercise with them, are very (very)
different experiences. I suspect this to be true of most research
instruments - the thing about the blocks, though, is that the solution is
deceptively simple - especially when you have found out what it is by
reading about it. In fact, this element - trying to keep the actual
solution a secret - got me into trouble in one of my first submissions to a
major publication - precisely because I was hoping there would be some
readers out there who wouldn't want to be told the whodunit - but would
prefer to work it out for themselves.
But, to return to the 'snapshot', as you can see from my comments in point
number three, a snapshot of complexes is gained - sometimes there are
combinations of them and what makes lots of the analysis really challenging
is working out what is developmental, what is complexive in adults, and
what
is idiosyncratic in everyone. Does this make sense, Eric?

Once again the idea of complexive thinking provides a structure that is
flexible. Problem solving at any age can bounce from syncretic to diffuse
to statistical to matching to chains and finally to conceptual. The
measure of what constitutes conceptual thinking, in my humble opinion, lies
with the word being the unit of analysis. The beauty of Vygotsky's
complexes is that he states them as methods of achieving activities and not
as stages of development that build upon each other. A person at any age
may illicit any of the complexes by themselves or in unison with another
complex. I believe what needs to be sorted out is what cultural structures
illicit what complexes and what cultural and historical methods best
contribute to conceptual thinking. David Kellogg was correct when he
stated that the Japanese powerhouse of elementary education should
certainly be studied in depth to hopefully answer these questions.

eric

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Received on Wed Oct 8 11:07 PDT 2008