Category Archives: Things to remember

Vygotsky and squirrels

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vygotsky.jpgI’m reading the Cambridge Companion to Vygotsky and trying to make sense of my notes on Boris Meshcheryakov’s chapter on Terminology in Vygotsky’s writings. Here’s my version of his explanatory chart (which I can’t persuade WordPress to render legibly) – and a worked example involving squirrels.

Natural form of behaviour. I look out of the window, see the squirrel, smile, go back to my computer.
Sign-mediated/social/primitive. I look out of the window, see the squirrel, think of a funny photo that Gill took of a squirrel, smile, go back to my computer. (There’s a mediating sign, created by another but neither of us considered using it for this purpose).
Sign-mediated/social/higher. I look out of the window, see the squirrel, think of a funny photo of a squirrel that Gill took to make me smile, smile, go back to my computer. (Gill has used signs to influence my behaviour).
Sign-mediated/individual/primitive. I look out of the window, see the squirrel, think of a funny picture of a squirrel that I took, smile and go back to my computer. (One of my signs unexpectedly mediates my behaviour.)
Sign-mediated/individual/higher/external. I look out of the window, see the squirrel, think of a funny picture of a squirrel that I took, smile and go to look for pictures of squirrels on Flickr. (I use a sign to modify my behaviour and thoughts.)
Sign-mediated/individual/higher/internal. I look out of the window, see the squirrel, think of a funny picture of a squirrel that I took, smile and start to devise in my head a funny card about a squirrel that I could create for Gill.
So that is six situations in which externally I do exactly the same thing (although my return to the computer is delayed in the final case) but my mental function is different.

Community

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I’ve just been reading an article which I think will be very important for the structure of my thesis, because it outlines the key elements of a sense of community. From what I have seen of my data, I think that where the learning goes wrong is when these elements of community go wrong.

McMillan, D. W. (1996). Sense of community. Journal of Community Psychology, 24, 4, 315-325.

‘I view Sense of Community as a spirit of belonging together, a feeling that there is an authority structure that can be trusted, an awareness that trade, and mutual benefit come from being together, and a spirit that comes from shared experiences that are shared as art.’
Two points of reference are constant in sense of community theory – the member and the community.
Spirit (membership). Us separated from them. Emotional safety that encourages self disclosure and intimacy. Sense of belonging, and confidence and acceptance, and loyalty and entitlement. Friendship, connection with others, and an audience.  The first task of a community is to make it safe to tell ‘the truth’. Can a member tell their truth, can the community accept this truth safely and can they respond with courage? People disclose more when they feel safe. Boundaries These make emotional safety possible. Boundaries have benefits for members. They allay fears about who can be trusted. They define the logistical time and place settings of the group. Boundaries also distinguish the appropriate subject matter for group discourse. Sense of belonging The member acts on faith that they belong. They bond with those whom they believe want and welcome them. The community responds to the individual’s faith with acceptance. Paying Dues Communities need to test new members. They need to know whether a member will make available the time, energy and financial commitment to be an effective member. With rights and privileges come responsibility.
Trust (influence) Trust develops through a community’s use of its power. The community must solve the problems rising from the allocation of power. People must know what they can expect from each other. This involves the development of community norms, rules or laws. A community must have a way to process information and make decisions. Decision makers must have authority. Authority should be based on principle rather than person. Group norms allow members and authority to influence each other reciprocally.
Trade Members find ways they can benefit each other and the community. Bonding begins with the discovery of similarities. Perceive homogeneity facilitates group interaction. Once differences are discovered and needs and resources inventoried, then bargains can be negotiated. The medium of exchange in a community social economy is self disclosure. The most risky and valuable self disclosures involve the sharing of feelings. They begin by sharing feelings that they have in common, they then share positive feelings about each other. Once they have a base of understanding and support, they can begin to share criticisms, suggestions and differences. A community cannot survive unless members make fair trades with each other.
Art (shared emotional connection in time and space) Spirit with respected authority becomes trust, which is the basis of creating trade. Together these elements create a share history that becomes a community’s story symbolised in art. This point links in with history and with developing a shared language. Symbols, stories and other symbolic expressions represent the part of a community that outlives its members. Art supports spirit, and thus the four elements of community are linked in a self-reinforcing circle.

Unit of analysis

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I think I may have grasped the point of activity theory. It’s about looking for common units of analysis with which you can analyse and compare a great variety of stuations. I think.

Which leads me to ask what my unit of analysis is. I got caught up earlier in whether the unit of analysis in a FirstClass conference was the word, the sentence, the sense unit, the posting… I therefore lost sight of more theoretically linked units of analysis.

My supervisors have been trying to push me towards this by pointing out that it is contradictory to focus on the group and the individual and that my theoretical framework should lead me to focus on one or the other. Which I did take on board. But on reflection, I think they were making a much broader and more basic point than I had previously grasped. Which is often the case.

Chris Mitchell

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Met Chris at the Designs for e-learning conference in London last week and his work is really relevant to what I am doing.

What’s more, his presentation (of which he’s sent me a copy, thanks Chris) provoked a series of interesting questions. I therefore won’t blog about his presentation, as I have the full details of that elsewhere, but just note down some pointers from the Q&A session which may prove useful in future.

  • The first few days of a conference are very important – they are what gets it going.
  • What size should a group be to work successfully?
  • Is age important? Are younger people more comfortable giving short answers?
  • Can you give information about how the course was set up? Its pedagogy? Its requirements? Its assessment?

Models of education

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(Based on  B. Lin, C. Hsieh / Computers & Education 37 (2001) 377–386 )

Objectivist learning model
Learning is a change in the behavioral disposition of an organism that can be shaped by selective reinforcement. The goal of learning is to understand objective reality and modify behaviour accordingly. The goal of teaching is to transmit knowledge from the expert to the learner.

Constructivist learning model
Knowledge is created, or constructed, by each learner. The mind is not a tool for reproducing an external reality, but rather it produces its own, unique conception of events.
Individuals learn better when they are forced to discover things themselves rather than when they are instructed. Learning occurs when an individual interacts with objects.
Cooperative learning model
Learning emerges through interaction of individuals with other individuals. Learning occurs as individuals exercise, verify, solidify, and improve their mental models through discussion and information sharing. Knowledge is created as it is shared, learners have prior knowledge they can contribute to the discussion, participation is critical to learning.

Cognitive information processing model
Learning involves processing instructional input to develop, test, and refine mental models in long-term memory until they are effective and reliable enough in problem-solving situations (Schuell, 1986). Learners differ in terms of their preferred learning style and instructional methods that match an individual’s learning style will be the most effective (Bovy, 1981). Prior knowledge is represented by a mental model which is an important determinant
of how effectively the learner will process new information.

Sociocultural learning model
There is no one external reality. Students should participate on their own terms. Instruction should not deliver a single interpretation of reality nor a culturally biased interpretation of reality.
Computational model
Beliefs, desires, and other intentions are stored in minds as information. Not only knowledge, but also beliefs and skills are bits of information that become meaningful when they are organized into symbols, patterns, and relationships.

Engestrom

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Engeström, Yrjö , (2001) ‘Expansive Learning at Work: toward an activity theoretical reconceptualization’, Journal of Education and Work, 14:1, 133 -156

“Gregory Bateson’s (1972) theory of learning is one of the few approaches helpful for tackling this challenge. Bateson distinguished between three levels of learning. Learning I refers to conditioning, acquisition of the responses deemed correct in the given context—for instance, the learning of correct answers in a classroom. Bateson points out that wherever we observe Learning I, also Learning II is going on: people acquire the deep-seated rules and patterns of behavior characteristic to the context itself. Thus, in classrooms, students learn the ‘hidden curriculum’ of what it means to be a student: how to please the teachers, how to pass exams, how to belong to groups, etc. Sometimes the context bombards participants with contradictory demands: Learning II creates as double bind. Such pressures can lead to Learning III where a person or a group begins to radically question the sense and meaning of the context and to construct a wider alternative context. Learning III is essentially a collective endeavor. As Bateson points out, processes of Learning III are rare and dangerous:”

BATESON, G. (1972) Steps to an Ecology of Mind (New York, Ballantine Books).

General thesis outline

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Just to remind me what my thinking was at this point:

·         Learning is a social activity and therefore it is always situated culturally, historically and socially.
·         Learning communities provide good conditions for learning, because they come together with that purpose in mind and can mobilize aspects of community such as shared purpose, shared history and shared language to support learning.
·         Community is possible online if you view community in terms of purpose, history, language etc rather than in terms of geography
·         Online learning communities have the potential to support collaborative learning
·         However, despite being set up for this purpose and despite the potential benefits of online communication, the learning in these communities may be limited and may not be collaborative
·         I therefore want to know which skills, resources and types of learning support the type of learning which an online community of learners is trying to achieve.

Types of learning

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I keep losing this, and I keep needing it. Forms of learning in a psychologists’ community of practice:

    1. They learn about psychologists’ resources and how to access these 

    2. They learn the skills which are required of a psychologist 

    3. They learn how to behave as a psychologist 

    4. They learn how to think like a psychologist. 

    5. They learn the values of a psychologist. 

    6. They learn about the problems faced by psychologists
    7. 7. They learn the language of the psychologist.