Re: [xmca] The Russian Method

["Mike Cole" <lchcmike@gmail.com>]

I am surprised that no one responded this note from a few months ago since
it is relevant to a number of ongoing discussions.

Alexander. We have had a lot of discussions recently about issues of
translation and your thoughts would be most welcome.

A good deal of local attention has gone toward the work of Vasilii Davydov,
yet I do not see his emphasis on the teaching of theoretical concepts, or
use
of a "germ cell" method in your list of current Russian ideas. For example,
in English, this work is carried out by Jean Schmittau, and, I hear, has
been
attended to seriously by Catherine Sophian.

I do see combinations of Davydov and emphasis on the organization of
peer group activity in the earlier work of Rubtsov and the current work
of Tsukerman, whose work has appeared in English.

There have also been a good number of translation in Soviet Psychology
(now J. of Russian and East European Psych. and Russian Education).

Since the time of Bronfenbrenner's work in the 1960's, vospitanie has
ordinarily been translated as "upbringing." Not a popular term in English.
How do you translate it??

Thanks, Dana, for this note.
mike

On Sun, Oct 26, 2008 at 3:22 PM, Dana Walker <Dana.Walker@unco.edu> wrote:

>
> Our faculty recently spent a week with a group of Russian educators from
> Novosibersk, from the College of Psychology of Pedagogy. I thought some of
> you might be interested in comments made by Sasha Sidorkin, Director of our
> School of Teacher Education, in his blog, subsequent to their visit.
>
> Dana Walker
> Assistant Professor
> University of Northern Colorado
>
>
>
> Friday, October 24, 2008
> The Russian Method
>
> The group of Russians just left UNC a couple of days ago; they were here
> for
> a conference on teacher education. The visit was a lot of fun; we went to
> different places and talked about our work. I got to translate 9
> presentations, which again brought me to the problem of translation. If
> Russian psychology can be translated (Vygotsky and Leontyev, for example),
> its educational theory and practice remains almost completely unknown in
> the
> English-speaking world. Rooted in the same Progressive education ideas of
> the early 20-th century, Russian educational tradition then developed
> largely independent of the West, and produces both the most authoritarian
> forms of education, and some of the freest and most creative. The problem
> is
> what the Russian educators use a completely idiosyncratic terminology and
> conceptual frameworks that are hard to translate. I discovered it very
> early
> in my American career, because virtually nothing from my Russian
> publications could be used for my American dissertation. I had to start
> from
> scratch. The literal translation just does not make much sense. For
> example,
> English does not have a word for Russian vospitaniye. It is a term for the
> part of educational theory and practice that is not about knowledge and
> skills, but is about attitudes, dispositions, and character. Vospitanie is
> sometimes defined as helping a person to grow, and in a sense, wider than
> education. Another problem is that Russian theorists tend to use awful
> jargon, which does not make much sense in Russian either, and certainly
> does
> not help people understand the discoveries Russian practitioners made. So,
> OK here is my attempt to summarize the Russian method in a few lines:
>
>   1. Transformation of peer culture into an educationally sound community.
> This is, of course, not a new idea; it was known to Jesuits for sure, and
> to
> many Progressives; it was and is used by Boy Scouts and many other children
> groups. The difference is that the Russians for the first time figured out
> a
> way of creating such peer communities without religious undertones, and
> make
> it inclusive. They also created a number of techniques that can be
> reproduced ­ the communities do not depend on a charismatic leader.
> Apparently, this works in both the K-12 and Higher Education world. The
> student communities can be integrated with the academic learning. Adults
> and
> children build relational network which them create additional motivation
> to
> learn.
>   2. The next discovery did not come until late 50-s. An educational
> community needs a project, a goal larger than itself. It is hard to provide
> such a goal for children and adolescents, because they are largely excluded
> from production, nor do they need to sacrifice themselves in a war, or help
> others. If religion is out also, it is not easy to find a project that
> would
> require working together. A number of Russian educators stumbled upon the
> same idea: they used techniques borrowed from the Russian theater actor
> training tradition (Stanislavsky, Meyerhold, Mihail Chekhov), and from some
> cultural forms of Russian intelligentsia. They invented the so-called
> collective creative activity ­ something between improvisational theater,
> an
> elaborated game, or an invented celebration. It is hard to explain, and was
> not really explained well in the literature, but this strange activity
> provides enough social glue to hold these communities together. I suspect
> the exact configuration of the collective creative activity depends on the
> Russian cultural stereotypes and traditions, so it is not easily
> exportable.
>   3. The Russians re-discovered group therapy methods. Basically, if you
> consistently discuss with kids the relational side of things, it helps to
> accelerate the community development. Again, over the years, these
> techniques were standardized to a point where almost any competent adult
> could do it.
>   4. And finally, just in the recent decades, it became apparent that the
> method works better if weaker dozes, where communities are not as strong
> and
> tight, but still "good enough" to allow for the level of safety,
> engagement,
> and satisfaction to keep most children happy.
>
> I am not sure if any of this makes any sense, but here it is. Is there a
> potential book here?
>
> http//:sidorkin.blogspot.com
>
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