‘ More than a load of old triangles’: Cultural-historical perspectives on teacher education and development

1. ‘More than a load of old triangles’:Cultural-historical perspectives on teacher education and development Viv Ellis Oxford Centre for Sociocultural and Activity Theory Research (OSAT) Department of Education, University of Oxford, UK

5. Vygotsky (1896 – 1934): four key ideas • An extension of a Marxist project to explore the social basis for human consciousness by focusing analysis on practical activity • An emphasis on human tool-use and mediation (tools and signs) • An interest in the formation and growth of concepts in relation to the historical travel of ideas, control and mindfulness • A radical experimental method

6. 1. The focus on practical activity ‘The production of ideas, concepts and consciousness is first of all directly interwoven with the material intercourse of man, the language of real life. . . . Consciousness does not determine life; life determines consciousness.’ Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The German Ideology (1845 – 6)

7. 2. Vygotsky (1896 - 1934) and tool mediated action Mediational Means Object Subject

8. . . . But! Vygotsky did not draw triangles; Michael Cole (and others) have

9. 3. Vygotsky on concepts Scientific (academic/examined) Mature/’real’ Spontaneous (everyday/informal)

10. 4. A radical experimental method Vygotsky used double stimulation to reveal the ways in which children made sense of the worlds they are acting in: ‘We simultaneously offer a second series of stimuli that have a special function. In this way, we are able to study the process of accomplishing a task by the aid of specific auxiliary means: thus we are able to discover the inner structure and development of higher mental processes’ (Vygotsky 1978: 74).

11. Explicit mediation in ‘the functional method of double stimulation’ ‘In using this method, we study the development and activity of the higher mental functions with the aid of two sets of stimuli. These two sets of stimuli fulfill different roles vis-à-vis the subject’s behaviour. One set of stimuli fulfills the function of the object on which the subject’s activity is directed. The second functions as signs that facilitate the organisation of this activity.’ (Vygotsky 1987: 127)

12. Leont’ev (1903 - 1979) and the object of activity ‘The main thing which distinguishes one activity from another, however, is the difference of their objects. It is exactly the object of an activity that gives it a determined direction. . . . the object of an activity is its true motive.’ (Leont’ev 1978:) Object as the potentially shared aspect of the social world on which we work together. Three levels of interpretation: Activity Motive Action Goal Operation Needs (but also means for higher goals)

13. Engeström on object Engeström et al 2003: ‘ . . . the object of work: what are we producing and why?’ Engeström 2008: ‘Objects are concerns, they are generators and foci of attention, motivation, effort and meaning. Through their activities people constantly change and create new objects.’

14. TRIANGLE ALERT!!!!

15. Tools:…with what (physical and conceptual resources)– and how (mediation) Object:what problem is being worked on – and why? (object-motive) Subject(s):who does the work? whose agency? Outcome: to what end? Rules: what supports or constrains the work? Community: who else is involved? participants DoL:how is the work shared, who does what and why, how has this evolved?

17. Contradictions, tensions, conflicts, breakdowns – interesting for researchers and opportunities for learning

18. Good theory <-> good practice How can teacher education plan for and stimulate pre-service teachers’ learning so that it goes beyond a conservative cycle of reproduction of existing practices and has a wider impact on the learning of schools at an organisational level and, ultimately, the learning and the life-chances of children?

20. Brief example 1: Teacher development as a ‘twisting path’ • Investigating the conceptual development of beginning teachers through their teacher education partnerships • Peter Smagorinsky • US secondary English student teachers learning ‘in between’ school and university – the problem of ‘gravitating to the norms of the school’ • Case studies of student teachers ‘appropriating tools’ (e.g. the ‘five paragraph theme’) and tracing their conceptual development • Alaster Douglas – ethnographic study in one school • Viv Ellis, Subject Knowledge and Teacher Education (2007)

21. Learning as: ‘…. a constant and often troubling reformulation of the world’ rather than a ‘steady flow of truth into a void’ (Shaughnessy 1976)

22. Brief example 2: Teacher education as breaking out of an abstraction • Investigating and improving‘theory into practice designs’ of pre-service teacher education • Annalisa Sannino • Italian elementary school teacher education leads to student teachers having an abstract concept of children as pupils • Intervention (the 5-D) designed to promote a concrete concept of pupils, a material understanding of pupils as individual children

23. Example 3: Teacher education as practice-developing research or formative intervention • Viv Ellis (DETAIL project, Oxford Internship Scheme) • DWR – Developmental Work Research - involves giving the tools of Activity Theory to research participants to work with in analysing data representing their current practices ['Putting Vygotsky to Work', Engeström (2007)] • Aim is to generate ideas-informed vision of the future of those practices • Engeström and team – health care, post office, education, telecommunications, etc. • Charles Max, University of Luxembourg

24. The DETAIL project (2005 – 2008):Vygotsky meets the New Public Management? • The problem of practice in one school department – the teaching of writing and the use of 'writing frames' • 'Writing frames' heavily promoted in National Literacy Strategy and Secondary National Strategy training • example: ‘I am writing about the issue of . . . . One of the most important points about . . . is . . . . Another important point is . . . . Furthermore, . . . .' etc • 13 years of centrally-prescribed, target-driven, out-sourced policy interventions across England (£3.7 billion)

25. DWR in action: improving teaching and learning in English - process • Data generated in school to represent current practices of the teaching and learning of writing • Data analysed jointly in a 'Change laboratory' (DWR workshop) facilitated by the researcher-interventionist • The conceptual tools of activity theory (represented by the triangle) used explicitly to mediate the analysis with participants • New ideas generated to address contradictions within the activity system; these ideas taken back into practice for further examination at future Change Laboratories

26. A writing frame as ‘mirror’ data in a Change Laboratory

27. Dialogic examination of mirror data in the DWR methodology Change Laboratory 7, Episode 1 (lines 654 – 721) Mentor Well plans … to some extent … I mean it depended on the member of staff, but some plans you know … four bullet points per paragraph, you must address each one of these. Other ones were a bit more fluid and said ‘in this paragraph you should discuss this’. And what came out of it was that most of the students didn’t understand how to write it. Even though they had this writing frame, they didn’t understand how to write it. Because they hadn’t gone through the process of actually thinking // VE Thinking //

28. VE But how did that feel for you as teachers . . . the English department? Because that could be quite embarrassing couldn’t it? Mentor Oh absolutely. VE By saying your very helpful well intentioned plans// Mentor //Which you took ages over// VE //which you took ages over are actually limiting what your students can do. Mentor You know I think for some people it was like well I want them to get this grade so I need to talk about this, and it wasn’t so much about the students independently gaining their own understanding of the text, or developing a skill, it was about some members of staff ‘these are my results’ you know ‘my performance management is going to be based on this, therefore I will give them everything they need to put in a piece of coursework’ … and so be it.

29. DWR in action: improving teaching and learning in English at the level of the social system (the school department) Contradiction 1: 'writing frame' as tool (to support children in becoming writers of new genres) vs. writing frame as rule (with the aim of improving test results) Contradiction 2: Scaffolding as a template for completion vs. scaffolding as a temporary and contingent social relationship

30. DWR in action: improving practice by creating new tools • a rhetorical view of genre – a recognisable pattern of interaction and not a recipe

31. ‘Sediments and buds’: the ‘H’ in CHAT – and the missing ‘F’? Working on what might be … by examining what is and has been

32. Professional creativity – from a cultural-historical perspective . . . when human creativity is defined after Vygotsky (and others) as: • the capacity to respond to complex and changing situations with new ideas (conceptual tools) and potential solutions • a capability that involves perception, analysis and interpretation as well as production and innovation • at both conceptual an practical levels (i.e. praxis)

33. A CHAT research agenda for teacher education? Developing practice/developing theory through re-energising professional creativity Ellis, V. (in press, 2011) ‘Re-energising professional creativity from a CHAT perspective: Seeing knowledge and history in practice’, Mind, Culture and Activity: An International Journal

34. Dr Viv Ellis OSAT Department of Education University of Oxford UK viv.ellis@education.ox.ac.uk