THE FOLLOWING PAPERS MAY BE USEFUL RESOURCES FOR YOUR INQUIRIES


   Misconceptions about a Curriculum-as-Inquiry Framework

In this article from Language Arts, July 1996, Jann Pataray-Ching and Mary Roberson respond to the objection that an inquiry approach to curriculum is simply not feasible. Drawing on actual teaching practices, they provide a frame for critiquing common misconceptions about an inquiry-based curriculum.

Cole and Wertsch consider the similarities and differences between the ideas of Piaget and Vygotsky, particularly with respect to the relationship between individual and social factors.

A website organized by Engestrom at the University of Helsinki.  This link takes you to an account of activity theory and its use as a basis for Developmental Work Research.

 
Lev Vygotsky: Revolutionary Scientist

A chapter from the book of this title by Lois Holzman and Fred Newman


Learning and Teaching "Scientific Concepts": Vygotsky's Ideas Revisited

This paper critiques Vygotsky's emphasis on teaching scientific concepts by definition and argues, instead, for a greater place for linking the learning of scientific concepts both to the practical activities in which they are used and to the written genres in  which they arise.


Scientific Concepts and Reflection

Wim Wardekker suggests that too narrow a view has been taken of Vygotsky's concern to teach scientific concepts.  He argues that scientific concepts were derived through reflection and need to be learned in the same way - as part of an ongoing dialogue.


This is the final chapter of my book, Dialogic Inquiry, in which I review the development of Vygotsky's concept in recent work in sociocultural theory and consider its relevance for thinking about education.



From At-Risk to Excellence: Research, Theory, and Principles for Practice

Roland Tharp, the Director of CREDE, presents an overview of the principles that underlie the Center's mission to improve the education of students at risk of educational failure.


Marilyn Chapman provides a helpful review of the discussion about learning and teaching written genres.

 
Some Questions About Direct Instruction:
Why? To Whom? How? and When?

Part of an issue of Language Arts that considers the role of direct instruction in elementary classrooms.

 
Children entering literate worlds: 
Perspectives from the study of textual practices

Geoff Williams reports on a study of children learning to read and write and on the role of metalinguistic knowledge in the process.

 
Learning through Computer-Mediated Interaction

Richard Kern  discusses an e-mail exchange project between students in the US and France. The project is interesting both because of the formal writing assignments it resulted in, and also because of the critical, cross-cultural analysis that was involved in the process.

This file contains messages in sequence from a discussion on the sociocultural listserv (xmca) about the use of portfolio assessment.  Not everyone was in favor.

  

In this paper, I argue that all learning should be seen as research.  From this perspective, students and teachers, as well as university professors, learn through inquiry as they make meaning through action and discourse in collaboration with others.

XMCA is a listserv for those interested in sociocultural theory and its applications in education, work and other areas.  The link takes you to the mail archive, which is updated daily. All the messages in the discussion on public education are available in the archive for the current month (May 1999).


 

 

Education Review: A Journal of Book Reviews