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RE: movement / learning Re: [xmca] schools kill creativity?

I think Bruner recognised that the earlier modes of representation continue alongside later developing ones but surely most (if not all) symbolic forms of representation depend on the earlier modes and are supported by them. Hand gestures help listeners to remember what someone has said better than if the speaker has to sit on her hands (see Jacobs and Garnham, 'The role of conversational hand gestures in a narrative task', Journal of Memory and Language, Volume 56, Issue 2, February 2007, Pages 291-303) and we pick up a lot of additional information from the movement qualities which go with speech (facial expression, variations in emphasis, tension, pace etc.) so while speech can be transcribed as a series of symbols, a huge amount is lost in the process. As Tony pointed out - speaking involves much more than speech - Merlin Donald argued that 'language skates on the surface of a mimetic culture'. We may be able to focus on what happens above the ice much of the time but we still rely on it to hold us up!

Rod


-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Tony Whitson
Sent: 03 October 2009 16:28
To: mike cole
Cc: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: Re: movement / learning Re: [xmca] schools kill creativity?

Yes, I think that is how Bruner treats it.

On Sat, 3 Oct 2009, mike cole wrote:

> But enactive is not seen as instrumental to symbolic, Tony, but a prior
> "stage" isn't it??
> mike
>
> On Sat, Oct 3, 2009 at 7:11 AM, Tony Whitson <twhitson@udel.edu> wrote:
>
>> On Sat, 3 Oct 2009, mike cole wrote:
>>
>>  And ditto re movement and learning. An idea that Wade Boykin
>>> championed many years ago, but he was not listened to.
>>> mike
>>>
>>
>> As I read this, I happen to be working with Bruner's developmental series
>> of enactive, iconic, and symbolic representation.
>>
>> Bruner, J. S. (1964). The course of cognitive growth. American
>> Psychologist, 19(1), 1-15.
>>
>> It's amazing how when I'm as intensely involved now in what I'm writing,
>> everywhere I turn I see things that mesh this closely.
>>
>>
>

Tony Whitson
UD School of Education
NEWARK  DE  19716

twhitson@udel.edu
_______________________________

"those who fail to reread
  are obliged to read the same story everywhere"
                   -- Roland Barthes, S/Z (1970)
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