Inuk Mother: You’ll be able to know by watching
This example just reminded me of that card game always played at summer camp, "Mao" or "Chairman Mao" .... where the main rule of the game is that you can't explain the rules, you just have to learn by observation
We argue that an emphasis on learning through intent participation—thoughlikely present in some settings in all communities—fits especially with the practicesof cultural communities that routinely include children in the mature activitiesthat are part of the community’s daily life.
Connection to learning through everyday activities. Also shows importance for intergenerational communities, work, and daily life - a main tenet in social justice movements
In the intent participation tradition, experienced people play a guiding role, facil-itating learners’ involvement and often participating alongside learners—indeed,often learning themselves. New learners in turn take initiative in learning andcontributing to shared endeavors, sometimes offering leadership in the process.In contrast, in assembly-line instruction, experienced people manage learners’behavior and communication. They subdivide the task, often directing but notactually participating in the activity at hand. They serve as experts, and the learners,in turn, are supposed to cooperate in receiving instruction and information andcarrying out assignments.
Here's another great example of intent participation versus school learning.
I wonder how we might move from transmission to facilitation? I think that the classroom described in the Moll, et. al. that we read last week is actually a great example, but it would take a lot of effort to break out of the assembly line mode into a more collaborative, inquiry-based model.
In schools organi-zed in assembly-line instruction, children often use intent participation to learn toengage in or resist the authority relations and the lesson format of the assembly-linestructure itself
Connection with Becker - assembly line instruction teaches students what they need to learn to be the cogs in the machine, not necessarily the content the teacher is trying to teach.
They are initially given supporting tasks and work close enough to observe themore advanced participants; they move to more complex aspects of the activityas they learn (Metge 1984).
Also a theme of LPP (See Case study chapter)
This approach to learning has beenquestioned by sociocultural scholars. Several have proposed instead the idea thatlearning is a process of transformation of participation in ongoing cultural activities
Rogoff sites LW, but I am also thinking of Becker and Resnick here.
If children are integrated in a wide range of community settings, they areable to observe and listen in on the ongoing activities of their community aslegiti-mate peripheral participants(Lave & Wenger 1991).
The differing roles individuals play in society impacts how children are able to observe and accomplish intent participation.
he principal limitation of joint work, therefore, is that youth with less experi-ence or knowledge in the domain are given little support or assistance. Althoughadults modeled expert strategies for novices, this modeling was usually tacit. Theresult was that novices played more peripheral roles throughout the planning pro-cess. This contrasted with YELL and Youth Rising, where activities were designedto foster novices’ participation.
This made me think about LPP with respect to a time-horizon. Clearly the student above felt that this approach was rather suboptimal, but what if it had gone on for a longer period of time? Would that have been sufficient to turn that limited peripheral participation into a truly legitimate peripheral participation, and slowly allow the student to have a more central role?
Alonzo,the Youth Rising coordinator, told me that he wanted organizing to be an attitudethat youth brought to their peer interactions outside of the program and not justsomething they did when they were at Youth Rising.
Another clear example of the importance of identity formation. This is not an exercise in getting the students to come together for a time to work around organizing, but rather, to see themselves as community organizers in their daily life. Very similar to the discussion around the importance of personal stories to get A.A. members to identify themselves as alcoholics, not simply as people who attend A.A. meetings
One conversation revolved around the shared observationthat youth deferred too much to the adult facilitators in small groups.
A consequence of several years in a assembly-line model classroom?
But because so much of the workwas performed collaboratively with adults, youth had fewer opportunities to prac-tice and master skills on their own, which makes it challenging to draw inferencesabout their learning. This does not, however, mean that they did not learn. Rogoffet al.’s (2003) description of “intent participation,” for example, suggests that theprocess of attentively observing an activity is a central part of the learning process.Opportunities to observe, listen to conversations, and engage in shared endeavorswith adults may be meaningful even if they do not lead to independent perfor-mance.
Rogoff would probably argue that joint work helps youth develop identity in ways that the other GP don't because it involves both keen observation of and active participation in the environment.
Practicingfor student club meetings(Youth Rising)
This excerpt (not all highlighted here) lines up nicely with the AA case study. There are new comers who talk less, and when they do are coached by old-timers in how to talk, there is a sense that everyone is there for the same reason, and there is a sense of apprentice-master relationship without a heavy amount of authority - and this kind of modeling isn't always explicit either.
Differences between facilitation, apprenticeship, and joint work.
This table has me thinking about Holland (Chapter 5) when they talk about the directive force of figured worlds.
On page 100 they write, "thoughts and feelings, will and motivation are formed as the individual develops. The individual comes, in the recurrent contexts of social interaction, to personalize cultural resources, such as figured worlds, languages, and symbols, as means to organize and modify thoughts and emotions."
How might the level of youth versus adult engagement impact the individual's development? (Identity specifically, their place in the FW of youth activism). Holland et al argue that recurrent action/interaction in social settings is key to identity formation. It seems a different kind of "youth activist" identity would be formed depending on the type of guided participation most used.
nitially I set out to identify the strategies that adults used to turn responsibilityfor the group over to youth so that it would become youth-led. It quickly becameapparent, however, that Youth Rising and TRUE did not share this goal withYELL. Therefore, instead of approaching my study as a technical question abouthow adults support youth-led activities, I sought to document the variety of ap-proaches to working with youth that I observed and how these related to broadergroup goals and contexts.
Again, this passage has me thinking in terms of our projects, or any kind of research observation. What kind of limits do we place on what we can see if we go in with particular categories in mind versus looking at "what is going on there"?
Unlike in YELL or Youth Rising, in TRUE adultsand youth treated me as a regular participant in the conference planning process—Iwas expected to offer opinions, vote on decisions, and implement necessary tasks
Identity of Researcher-participant blurred in observation at TRUE. Kirshner adds below that this gave particular insight into aspects of division of labor and access. Ties here to being a "participant observer" in our own independent observation projects...if possible, how might "being involved" like Kirshner was, shed new/different light on learning there?
Observers often de-scribe this process as a form ofscaffolding, which implies temporary assistancethat will be withdrawn gradually as the learner assumes greater mastery (in con-trast todistributed intelligence, in which collaboration among actors and tools isan ongoing feature of an activity; Pea, 2003
Kirshner contrasts scaffolding and distributed intelligence, could we also contrast it with Hutchins' "distributed cognition"? They seem very similar.
Instead,adults shared political views with youth, pitched in to complete campaign tasks atkey points, and participated in most decisions. I describe this form of guidance asapprenticeship: Adults were veteran activists who participated in the same en-deavor as novices, while nevertheless structuring activities in ways that were sensi-tive to youths’ skill levels.
Sometimes I read this and think of mutual involvement, and other times I read it and think more of leadership from the adults. I also don't know if I agree of the term apprenticeship as it makes me think of lpp.
instruction builds on the children's interests.
Lave & Wenger would be thrilled since they believe that students have no agency in what they are learning. By bridging the gap between their social worlds and the learning in their classrooms, they can now become participants in learning instead of recipients of information.
digital systems and displays oftenundermine mutual availability and visibility. Removing the visibility ofthe scene of action from the view of others not only undermines co-participation and collaboration at the exhibit itself, but removes thepossibility of others seeing and making relevant sense of what people aredoing elsewhere within the scene. The relevant ecology of action is largelydenied to those who happen to be within the same space. In contrast, it isworth adding that even those who design for fairgrounds and similar venueshave long recognized the importance of making their displays visible to a‘gathering’, allowing others to participate in various ways in the scene ofaction
In our world of constant digitization, it is important to be aware of how technology creates individual and group experiences. If, in order to appreciate the work, you have to participate (i.e. run the controls), you are turning what could have been a group experience into an individual one.
This also reminds me a lot of Marshal McLuhan's ideas on hot and cold media.
The transition point, from periphery into the principal stripof activity, hinges not on the spatial distribution of the participants, or evensimply on the character of the conduct, but rather through the ways thatactions are treated as sequentially responsive and prospectively relevant
And here's a definition of legitimacy - actions are legitimate only when their relevance is shown.
itraises important questions concerning the circumstances or occasions onwhich objects and artefacts are viewed and of the competencies that peoplebring to bear in their recognition and interpretation.
Viewing an artwork (or an exhibit in a museum) is not an experience that happens in a vacuum. People understand what they are experiencing within the context of their own social world and based on interactions with those around them (both those they know and those they don't).
Indeed, whatpeople choose to look at in a museum or gallery, how long they spend withan exhibit, and how they look at and experience particular objects andartefacts may well arise in and through interaction with others – not justthose they may be with but others who happen to be within ‘perceptual rangeof the event’ (cf. Goffman, 1981)
Isn't the "fund of knowledge" one has access a chief thing governing this as well? After all, what is shaping the interest in being in the museum in the first place?
The conduct of others within the same space can feature in how peopleorient, what people choose to look at and how they experience particularobjects, artefacts and events
I'm thinking of this in relation to the classroom discussion in FoK - the students were contributing different knowledges, this influenced (but not totally replaced) the ways that a student would then understand the topic
The discovery of the functionalities of the piece are largely discoveredin and through interaction with others, both people accompanying otherpeople and others who happen to be in the same space.
This makes me think of the observations for everyday activities, learning and navigating an activity through interaction in a given space. Also seems to relate to LPP and FW
designed to display and encourage a way of seeing, of making sense, ofexperience by other
Co-participation within museum setting - relates to Resnick's shared cognition and FoK's emphasis on relationships and context.
Exhibits themselves are thought of as having ‘stoppingpower’ and the interest and pleasure that people gain arises through theirindividual engagement with the art work.
Reminds me of the beginning of Allen's inquiry cycle - must start with a surprising phenomenon to engage the visitor throughout the exhibit. With hopes to provoke interest and pleasure
important issues for ourunderstanding of visual communication. It directs our attention towards theidea of an ‘active spectator’ who constitutes the sense and significance ofobjects and artefacts
This reminds me of something someone (I'm sorry I couldn't find the post) highlighted in the AA chapters. This idea that there are people outside the immediate Figured world (Last week it as AA and those who are family members/friend, here it is the art makers and those who look at/experience the art) that play a role in what goes on in the FW. So cool.
The conduct of others within the same space can feature in how peopleorient, what people choose to look at and how they experience particularobjects, artefacts and events.
this reminds me of the bookstore observation and the types of learning the students had there, as well as how people would react differently depending on what would happen.
Educationally sig-nificant interactions do not involve abstract bearers of cognitivestructures, but real people who develop a variety of interpersonal re-lationships with one another in the course of their shared activity in agiven institutional context."
This is a nice summary of resnick and lave/wenger put together - we learn by participating in real activities together. Moll et. al. adds that the social and cultural context of the learning environment is critically important to consider.
dramatically
I think the "dramatically" here is very important. It is a signal of the ownership the students had of the rules, and establishes them as important actors in their craft. The teacher, while undoubtedly an arbiter of what gets put on the rules, nevertheless allowed the students to have ownership over this part of the process. Definitely a great example of LPP
Our example highlights how, within such a distributedsystem, children can draw on the resources of teachers, materials,and, most important, one another to shape and direct their academicactivities.
Reminds me of Resnick's discussion of tool manipulation outside of school versus the emphasis of pure mentation in school. Also reminds me of the everyday activity observations, so often I saw people using eachother as tools or resources to learn how to effectively do their task. In this case, these students are using the tools available to direct their learning.
She intention-ally allows Aaron to answer the other children's questions, buildson their knowledge with more information, and asks open-endedquestions to bring focus to the group and encourage individuals toparticipate
This example seems to be working along the lines of popular knowledge. That each participant brings in a valid set of experiences and knowledges, particular and unique from anybody else. Relates also to Resnick's points about shared cognition out of school versus the emphasis on individual cognition in schools.
instruction builds on the children's interests. The contentis learned through the different social relations and activities that theteacher facilitates in consultation with the children.
Learning curriculum versus Teaching curriculum - not static or prescribed rather is flexible based on students needs
teacher in these classrooms is that of a mediator, in the Vy-gotskian sense: to provide guidance, strategic support, and assistanceto help the children assume control of their own learning
I really like this conception of Teacher as Mediator, reminds me of the discussions of oldtimer mentorship in AA in Lave and Wenger and Holland et al.
The classroom functions through multiple, mediatedexchanges of knowledge, where the children, as well as the teacher,are active teachers and learners. It is this interdependence of adultsand children, and how they use social and cultural resources for de-veloping thinking, that make such classrooms informative case studiesof distributed cognition
There is no mode of hiearachy, rather everyone working and learning together guided by a mediator (teacher)
"fluid reality" ofthe households, the changes in household composition, residence,jobs, and social relations; it is within this fluidity that the experiencesof families must be understood.
This idea reminds me a lot of Holland et. al. when they first introduced Figured Worlds (FW) as cultural worlds. That so much of what a person is has to do with what goes on in their predominant FWs and further, what makes sense in one FW (language, action, interaction) may make no sense in another - so we can't copy and paste actions/interactions/language/etc. from one FW to the next and expect it to explain anything.
ndeed, help in finding jobs, housing, better deals on goods and ser-vices, and assistance in dealings with government agencies and otherinstitutions is of far greater significance to survival than are the ma-terial types of aid these households provide one another
Funds of knowledge reminds me of Bourdieu's social and cultural capital. But in his work, working class minority families would be looked at as having "low" social capital, but here we can see that the Sanchez family has a huge network that benefits all members of the family. I guess Bourdieu was looking more at the disadvantages these families might face (such as not the best schools, lack of access to better jobs, etc). But funds of knowledge allows us to look at this concept under another light--one that shows that these social connections do have power and meaning, just a different kind than is discussed in Bourdieu's work.
I've changed my thoughts about war. I used to like to play war, butnow it makes me sick
how Trevor changes his views about war indicates his learning. This takes into account a learning curriculum and the teaching curriculum and here in this example we see evidence of both. Trevor learns through his investigation of the book as well as comments from his community of practice, and these learnings are guided by the teacher who is the master (chapter 4, Lave and Wenger)
In both settings weare interested not only in what Erickson (1982) called the "immedi-ate environments of learning," how specific learning contexts are so-cially constituted by adults and children, but in the broader socialsystem that helps define the nature of these environments and deter-mine what tools and resources are available for the participants' ac-tions
It is interesting how this talks about different learning environments not only in school but outside of school similar to chapter two in Lave and Wenger where they specify the theory of learning as an dimensional social practice. Page 47
funds of knowledge
These funds of knowledge are helpful in understanding the community which is being studied and reflect ..."a comprehensive understanding involving the whole person or people that rather than receiving this information it is based on activity with the world..." similar to page 33.
he design of products and environmentsto be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adapta-tion or specialized design.
One way for us to conceptualize this would be to think of designs which do not necessitate access to any particular knowledge which may not be contained in some "funds of knowledge."
Such design oftengoes unseen and unappreciated because, ironically, masterful design results in objects thatseem obvious and simple to use
Apple products are a good example of this.
The environment provides myriad personal choices, withoutany teachers forcing learners to do something unappealing, without curricular constraints
Connecting to the idea of a "safe space" in Social Justice, museums are a safe space for learning - supportive and nonjudgemental
Reminds me of Becker's discussion on low-risk testing and evaluations
the exhibits should facilitate science learning, yet they also need to supporta diverse visiting public in making their own personal choices about where to attend,
Okay, first sentence so it may be premature but I am thinking that another way to state this dilemma is: What happens when CoP collide? And how do we support more than one CoP with the same physical resources?
Once inside, the admissions desk, bathrooms, and coffee cart are immediatelyapprehendable, allowing them to move effortlessly into the main exhibition space.
Maybe at this museum. But I've been to lots of places where the admissions desk especially is not "immediately apprehendable," and I think this can really ruin an experience, especially one that is voluntary. It makes me think of my every day activity of observing people buy/re-fill their metro cards. The machines are NOT apprehendable and often malfunction. The difference is riding the subway is NOT a voluntary option for most people..unlike going to a museum.
Personalization of the identity takes place as the initiate begins to identify with AA members. Through comparing his life to theirs, he sees that other members are like him and he is like them.
Love how this evokes a connection for me into the Lave piece on how these members personalize their own identity from being apprentices and later they become active participants. It shows how situated learning occurs naturally within this specific cultural setting.
The individual's Higher Power may be God, the AA group, or any other conception of something larger than self.
I like this reference to self help, and recognizing the signs of powerlessness, but having the courage to do something about it. I think that this plays neatly into Holland's concept of figured worlds, the alcoholics for instance figure a world of escape into the numbing effects of alcohol, therefore withdrawing from active participation in the real world where there problems are. By recognizing that this is not the way to solve the problem and actively shifting roles, they are able to receive the help that they need.
In AA,pcrsorl:llsffuteo;··an'-tolcrfor the explicit, stated purpose of providing an understanding of alcoholism,
The definition of "understanding" is interesting in this case. It is noteworthy that this is not the understanding brought upon by rigorous analysis and scientific inquiry, but is understanding nonetheless. It seemed to resemble the kind of "understanding" or "learning" evidenced in some of Lave & Wenger scenarios.
No distinct line runs between "social" or "normal" drinker and "problem drinker" or "alcoholic," and different sectors of U.S. society do not agree on what these terms mean.
Connects to Goodenough in the previous chapter: that there is no uniform, constant, or coherent set of meanings that applies equally in every situation. It must be situated culturally and contextually.
A successful writer who finds she writes better with a few drinks, a college student who only gets drunk on the weekends, a businessman who drinks to loosen up in social situations-these people may not consider themselves alcoholics, but those around them may consider them so.
This goes back to my comment from the previous chapter. Who decides what the boundaries for these groups are?
Fundamental to Wenger's theory is the idea that identity is constructed at theintersection of the individual and the social world. By and large, both sociological andpsychological approaches have acknowledged that identity is simultaneously anindividual, social, and cultural phenomenon.
Being of psychology background, these are the theories I learn and choose to explore more about and focus my research on
This finding highlights the critical role of the nature ofthe relationship with the teacher/coach for opportunities both to develop practice-linked identities and to become better at the practice.
Learner and Teacher relationship is crucial - provides access to resources. Similar to the discussion of community, teachers, mentors in Lave and Wenger, and in Holland et al.
From Coach J'sperspective, this was an indication of Gozi being both lazy and a goof-off, while forGozi, this was simply a mistake he had made under the misdirection of a more seniorteammate. Unlike Yaheem, Gozi did not choose to approach Coach J directly to repairthe relationship
Similar to Lave and Wenger's discussion of the Butchers needing to seek out teachers and mentors, the assertiveness to be taught is key.
three levels of analysisthat are required to offer an account of identity, including individuals, social interac-tion, and broader society.
Identity - must consider individuals, social interaction, broader society. This is consistent with previous readings
Our analyses show that relational resources sometimes served as akind of gateway to material and ideational resources (and thus as a gateway tolearning).We als
Is this similar to the politics of power mentioned by Lave and Wagner?
. Our data seem to indicate that the personal relationshipbetween the coach and the athlete was central in determining athletes' access to theother material and ideational resources, as much of the teaching and learningoccurred in one-on-one interactions
Similar to Becker's iron workers?
Octavia displayed this same drive and independence, but at theend of practice she sat down on the grass for about 20 minutes to socialize with herteammates. At this point in the season, Octavia seemed to be participating in thepractice not for others but for herself, so that she might improve her performance.
As she is no longer a "novice," she is not following the rules strictly.
In this interaction, several ideationalartifacts about Octavia and about hurdling were made salient Importantly, sheactively participated in this exchange, deconstructing her own performance.
This is unlike Lave and Wagner's examples. There is an element of competition that requires one to gain mastery, not just participate in the event. Seeing oneself as a success, identifying as a winner, is an important element, similar to identifying as an alcoholic in AA.
In thisinteraction, and in others, the coach conveyed the importance of strong relationshipsbetween the students to creating an environment that supports optimal skill devel-opment and performance.
Interesting to see the effect of an "expert" on the teammates relationships, his guidance as opposed to peers guiding peers in relationships (Holland et. al., chapter 5).
In thisinteraction, and in others, the coach conveyed the importance of strong relationshipsbetween the students to creating an environment that supports optimal skill devel-opment and performance.
Interesting to see the effect of an "expert" on the teammates relationships, his guidance as opposed to peers guiding peers in relationships (Holland et. al., chapter 5).
In thisinteraction, and in others, the coach conveyed the importance of strong relationshipsbetween the students to creating an environment that supports optimal skill devel-opment and performance.
Interesting to see the effect of an "expert" on the teammates relationships, his guidance as opposed to peers guiding peers in relationships (Holland et. al., chapter 5).
Reference group theory (Hyman 1942; Leach and Smith2006; Merton with Rossi 1957; Turner 1956) argues that one of the most powerfulinfluences on individuals' sense of self and behavior is the reference group that theybelong to (Suls and Wheeler 2000), which serves as a context for individuals to analyzeinformation and make decisions.
Similar to Holland et. al., chapter 5; peer influence on relationships.
We believe this key transition that occurs in both schemes is best recast as identification-the formation of a concept of self as an actor in the system.
"culturally devised system" what everything seems to be coming down to
n the early stages oflearning, cultura artifacts, whether objects, words, or figures, serve as obvious mediators of people's activity. We count our fingers, glance at diagrams, and recite rules to ourselves. After practice (and forjh,_e_y<mng, a degree of maturation), however, are . worosoecome i.llnersp(;;;king, and figuresoecomeToiii)s obvious, external form, relying instead on inner means that we can re-produce at will.
Symbolic manipulation vs. contextualized reasoning!
It seems like they are arguing that given enough exposure to context, you will ultimately move into pure mentation - if you measure the cottage cheese enough times, you won't need the measuring cup anymore
nli.e less expert women tended to repeat the words and follow the direc-ons of others. They had less of an overview of romantic relationships; hey had to work harder to come up with responses to romantic situ-1 ations. Not surprisingly, those who were less identified with the world of romance, and for whom it was less salient, also were less expert in / JP.anaging relationships.
This follows the structure of the AA story in chapter 4 - less experienced members first needed to hear others' stories and come to identify with the AA narrative before they could coherently tell their own story.
For the women we studied, the cultural interpretation of romance became salient and compelling as their expertise with romantic relation-ships increased and as they came to form an engaging interpretation of themselves in the world of romance
Within identity processes - reinterpreting the self and their location in the world
Those who ap-peared to be less knowledgeable or less expert closely copied and took direction from others, attended to relatively circumscribed aspects of relationships, and had difficulty generating possible responses to roman-tic situations.
Participatory learning through observations (romance as an apprenticeship) - this identity as something that evolves
The themes of male/female relationships also dominated a vocabulary that the students used to talk about one another.
Within communities of practice - unique vocabularies and norms to be learned
Tlie figured wortaD£ romance acquired motivating force as ---the women developed mastery of it, and their mastery, in turn, depended upon their development of a concept of themselves as actors in the world of romance.
Figured World of Romance - almost like Legitimate Peripheral Participation in Communities of Practice
continual participation
This idea of embodiment through continual participation is a theme that runs throughout all of the readings - and also connects back to LPP.
The learner only becomes a master of a figured world by immersing themselves in it, first peripherally, and then more and more actively (see the descriptions in chapter 4 about the development of individual's AA story). Ultimately, if successful, they come to identify with the world and see themselves as a part of it.
the as-if character of possibility that marks fields (and figured worlds) is not an indifferent, "mental" abstrac-tion1 an "imaginary" in its usual sense, but a social rea"!!ty that lives within by relations of power.
I'm excited to see more discussion about power and privilege in these chapters - I felt like this has been lacking in previous readings
There is, Goodenough con-no uniform, conslstf.nt, or coherent set of meanings-no "cul-ture"-that applies equally in every activity.
Reminds me of the need for culturally responsive pedagogy - the teaching curriculum v. learning curriculum
A figured world is formed and re-formed in relation to the everyday activities and events that or-dain happenings within it.
Reminds me of the reproduction of social contexts from LPP
Fig-ured worlds provide the contexts of meaning and action in which social positions and social relationships are named and conducted. They also provide the loci in which people fashion senses of self-that is, develop
Lave and Wegner don't address this issue of gender and power because their examples are of vocations that are gender specific.
It is certainly not divorced from these happen-ings, but neither is it identical to the particulars of any one event. l!.1§Jm_ abstraction, an extractio
Sounds like "schema" from the psychology world.
In contrast, to insist on starting with social practice, on taking participation to be the crucial process, and on including the social world at the core of the analysis only seems to eclipse the person. In reality, however, participation in social practice -subjective as well as objective -suggests a very explicit focus on the person, but as person-in-the-world, as member of a sociocultural community.
I like this consideration of individuals situated within the social world - it relates to Resnick's consideration of "individual cognition in schools versus shared cognition outside" (pg. 13) and and my own issues with individualism in the context of social justice.
In a theory of practice, cognition and communication in, and with, the social world are situated in the historical development of on-going activity. It is, thus, a critical theory; the social scientist's practice must be analyzed in the same historical, situated terms as any other practice under investigation. One way to think of learning is as the historical production, transformation, and change of persons.
A lot of what I'm getting out of this is that context is crucial. They seem to be arguing that it is easier to understand how learning works by looking at it within the context(s) that it is happening in.
This also connects back to #resnick's ideas about symbol manipulation versus contextualized reasoning.
tries to help the drinker see herself as an alcoholic if she is ''ready.'' [Members] claim that telling their own sto-ries to other alcoholics, and thus helping other alco-holics to achieve sobriety, is an important part of maintaining their own sobriety. [At the same time] telling a personal story, especially at a speaker's meet-ing or on a Twelfth Step call, signals membership be-cause this "is the time that they [members] feel that they belong enough to 'carry the message'.''
This reminded me of Becker's discussion of evaluations in apprenticeships: learners be evaluated repeatedly as they are ready, and that progress is immediately observable (pp. 99-101). It also relates to the larger discussion of the mentor/teacher's role in learning, that they cannot learn for the learner, it is up to the learner to be successful.
A. A. is the reconstructign of identity, through the process of constructing personal life stories, and with them, the meaning of the teller's past and future action in the world.
This quotation also made me think of Resnick's adaptive learning... "school should focus its efforts on preparing people to be good adaptive learners, so that they can perform effectively when situations are unpredictable and task demands change." (pg. 18)
Stories do not just describe a life in a learned genre, but are tools for reinterpreting the past, and understanding the self in terms of the A. A. iden-tity.
Thinking of stories like this made me think back to Becker's provocative use of the word "myth." By using the word he located schools within the long tradition of mythology and storytelling. Essentially, mythology can be understood as just a tool to interpret the past and make sense of the present. Mythology isn't dead or static but is still a really radical tool if used to reinterpret and reconceptualize learning and schools and their relationships - which is what Lave and Wenger are attempting to do with LPP.
(In fact, the two quartermaster chiefs with whom I worked most closely said they pre-ferred to get their trainees as able-bodied seamen with-out any prior training in the rate. They said this saved them the trouble of having to break the trainees of bad habits acquired in school.
Made me think of: "The curriculum necessarily differs substantially from what competent practitioners of the skill or art in question know how to do"
The physical layout of a work setting is an impor-tant dimension of learning, since apprentices get a great deal from observing others and being observed.
I think this goes back to the point about context.
n some sense, they are "trained" but they have no experience. (In fact, the two quartermaster chiefs with whom I worked most closely said they pre-ferred to get their trainees as able-bodied seamen with-out any prior training in the rate. They said this saved them the trouble of having to break the trainees of bad habits acquired in school.
This reminds me a lot of Dewey's ideas of training vs. education:
"Without such formal education, it is not possible to transmit all the resources and achievements of a complex society. It also opens a way to a kind of experience which would not be accessible to the young, if they were left to pick up their training in informal association with others, since books and the symbols of knowledge are mastered.
But there are conspicuous dangers attendant upon the transition from indirect to formal education. Sharing in actual pursuit, whether directly or vicariously in play, is at least personal and vital. These qualities compensate, in some measure, for the narrowness of available opportunities. Formal instruction, on the contrary, easily becomes remote and dead—abstract and bookish, to use the ordinary words of depreciation. What accumulated knowledge exists in low grade societies is at least put into practice; it is transmuted into character; it exists with the depth of meaning that attaches to its coming within urgent daily interests." (Dewey, Democracy and Education, 1916, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/852/852-h/852-h.htm)
An important point about such sequestering when it is insti-tutionalized is that it encourages a folk epistemology of dicho-tomies, for instance, between "abstract" and "concrete" knowledge. These categories do not reside in the world as dis-tinct forms of knowledge, nor do they reflect some putative hierarchy of forms of knowledge among practitioners. Rather, they derive from the nature of the new practice generated by sequestration
I think this is a very interesting point. In some sense, I feel that we are brought up taking these distinctions as obvious, and it is interesting to see it challenged. It also ties perfectly into the Resnick's discussion of "symbol manipulation" in schools versus "contextualized reasoning" outside
There is anecdotal evidence (Butler personal communication; Hass n .d.) that where the circulation of knowledge among peers and near-peers is possible, it spreads exceedingly rapidly and effectively.
I like this concept of a community of learners. This is consistent with the idea that learners see where other learners get confused because they too struggle through the experience. Masters have lost this sensitivity.