Re: [xmca] Leading activities and central lines of development

[Larry Purss <lpscholar2@gmail.com>]

Hi Mike
The article posted was very helpful.
In your elaboration of the metaphor of scaffolding you wrote, "To capture
the important way in which adult understanding of goals structures the
sequence of activities, we would need to add architects and foremen to the
building process that scaffolding indexes."
This was a powerful image for clarifying the scaffolding metaphor.

On p.56 of the article you are summarizing the outcomes of a child [Kalani]
participating in a playworld.  You wrote,

"He moved from being able to perform a task with help, to being able to
perform a task alone, to being able to help a peer. He moved from REJECTING
adult help to INITIATING requests for it and even to accepting it
nonchalantly. At the time that his behavior could be said to be random or at
least not controlled by arithmetic concepts, he was also quite fidgety and
paid attention to whatever else was going on in the room.  He even left the
scene from time to time.  When he was succeeding, he stayed on task and had
to be reminded when it was time to leave."

Mike, when I read this paragraph I recognize the movement [e-motion] of
children INITIATING requests for adult engagement [and the adults
responding] as a foundamental aspect of zo-peds. This captures the
dialogical emergence of what Andy refers to as "collaborative projects".  My
phrase from attachment frameworks  says you must "collect the child before
you direct the child" Play and learning interpsychological [intersubjective]
processes points to zo-peds as containers or spaces which are transforming
through time.

As I work in schools [as control structures] I believe the adults must
become more sensitive to the child who is rejecting adult help. [attachment
theory and the centrality of affiliation explores this theme].  Our behavior
models, mental health models, and cognitive conceptual models  must bring to
the forefront this fundamental recognition of "initiating adult guidance" as
the development of emerging agentic capacity [volitonal control or
self-determination] within collaborative zo-peds.

Larry

On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 8:57 PM, mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com> wrote:

> Larry-- Both David and Martin have been working over some time to get
> straight and communicable the role of the idea of "central line of
> development" a la LSV. The set of leading activities in the article you
> site, is i believe, Elkonin's reworking of Vygotsky ideas from late in
> LSV's
> life. Maybe its all in LSV, others in the discussion will know.
>
> For the ways in which we at LCHC got into this discussion, see
> http://lchc.ucsd.edu/People/MCole/childrens.pdf
>
> There are other relevant papers at lchc.ucsd. edu.
>
> I believe that the intense work on these issue by XMCA members of the past
> couple of years holds a lot of potential for sorting out the cluster of
> concepts involved in this discussion.
>
> mike
> PS-- In so far as the sequence of activities serves as an "external"
> version
> of Piaget's stage theory,
> which in some presentations one could suspect was the case, the leading
> activities will be age linked.
> The errors into which that view leads you have been expounded in some
> detail
> by, for example,
> Artin Goncu and Suzanne Gaskins.
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 8:33 PM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:
>
> > Larry, I am not familiar with Mike and Natalia's paper, and they
> obviously
> > will speak for themselves. But I think that the central or leading
> activity,
> > and certainly a central or leading *motive* is not the same thing as
> > "central line of development," which refers to that activity which
> promotes
> > development towards a structural change in the psyche of the developing
> > person. This may or may not be present in any given situation, for a
> child
> > playing a game or a grad student participating.
> >
> > Andy
> >
> >
> > Larry Purss wrote:
> >
> >> Help with a question
> >> Recently Andy asked a question about clarification of the concept of
> >> "central lines of development.
> >> I  have been reading the article by Mike Cole and Natalia Gajdamaschko
> and
> >> there is a section with the heading
> >> "Heterogeneity of 'Leading' Activity in the Course of a Single Game
> >> Episode"
> >>
> >> Tmike and Natalia suggest there were several "leading" activities
> >> POTENTIALLY present, each associated with differentage periods.  Leading
> >> activities such as:
> >> - need to be loved and accepted
> >> - play
> >> - learning
> >> - peer interaction
> >> - work
> >>
> >> My question is if these leading activities may not be age specific.
>  Each
> >> of
> >> us may be centrally motivated by a particular leading activity which
> >> fluctuates from moment to moment in activity.  In the example in the
> >> article
> >> an undergraduate, Jill Silverstein, was writing field notes of the fifth
> >> dimension activity.  Mike and Natalia when interpreting the fieldnotes
> >> suggest Jill initially had a central motive of affiliation while play
> was
> >> the leading activity for the children.  There was a confusion about the
> >> rules of the game and the adult entered into the game and learning at
> that
> >> moment became a central motive.
> >>
> >> There were many  transitions in motives during the game  and Mike and
> >> Natalia summed up this section by stating,
> >>
> >> "As this example makes clear, not only are the girls able to be a "head
> >> taller" but a "head shorter" in the course of a single stretch of a
> joint
> >> game play mediated by the computer game and each other" [p.275]
> >>
> >> This statement points to notions of volition [agency] which are fluid
> and
> >> interchangeable when contained within supportive contexts [interweaving]
> >>
> >> How does this observation fit with the notion of a CENTRAL line of
> >> development? Is it possible that there is more heterogeneity in the
> lines
> >> of
> >> development than implied in the concept "central"?  Could the concept of
> >> central lines of development be describing historical forms of
> >> development which develop in particular settings when 5 year olds enter
> >> school environments?
> >>
> >> I may still be confused and misinterpreting Mike and Natalia's position
> >> but
> >> I am trying to understand if some of the more basic leading activities
> >> [such
> >> as affiliation] remain central WHEN THREATENED but become implicit and
> >> taken
> >> for granted when the person is secure and contained.  If there is some
> >> merit
> >> to this position then issues of security and attachment needs may recede
> >> into the background and other leading activities come to the foreground
> >> when
> >> basic attachment needs are met.  However when there is a perceived
> threat
> >> to  basic security needs then earlier leading activities or motives also
> >> return at any age.
> >>
> >> Larry
> >> __________________________________________
> >> _____
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> >> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> >> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> > --
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > *Andy Blunden*
> > Joint Editor MCA: http://lchc.ucsd.edu/MCA/Journal/
> > Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/ <http://home.mira.net/%7Eandy/<http://home.mira.net/~andy/>
> >
> > Videos: http://vimeo.com/user3478333/videos
> > Book: http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857
> > MIA: http://www.marxists.org
> >
> >
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