Vladimir Fomichov (vladfom@yahoo.com)
Sun, 22 Nov 1998 10:21:08 -0800 (PST)
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1998 10:21:08 -0800 (PST) From: Vladimir Fomichov <vladfom@yahoo.com> Subject: [ifets] Development of Vygotsky's Ideas
From: Vladimir A. Fomichov and Olga S. Fomichova (Moscow, Russia)
Associate Editors of the IFETS Periodical
It is a reply to Martin Owen (18 Nov), Bob Leamnson (19 Nov), Jenny
Ure (20 Nov). The relevant fragments of these communications are
given below.
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Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 From: Martin Owen <t.m.owen@bangor.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: [ifets] Fw: Discussion: Old vs. New Technology in Education
b) I am probably an unrecostucted constructivist, who believes that
Vygotsky and the research and philosophical thought which follows on
from
Vygotsky's work seems to map onto my understanding of the world.
.
________________________________________________________________
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 11:33:59 -0500 (EST)
From: Bob Leamnson RLEAMNSON@umassd.edu Subject: [ifets]
technology
Organization: Univ. of Massachusetts ,Dartmouth, North Dartmouth,
MA, USA
. I have also, for some time, been interested in teaching technology
in all its guises, and more from a philosophical point of view than
theoretical. I was encouraged to hear that concerned people (Martin
Owen) are still reading Vygotsky.
I have been equally impressed by the observations and research of
more recent scholars and commentators. Walter J. Ong (Orality and
Literacy) studied the work of Vygotsky and Luria (and others) and made
a strong case for technology making striking cultural changes, some of
which were/are completely unpredictable. He notes that the
writing/reading technology changed the way people spoke and eventually
they way they thought
.
___________________________________________________________
From: ATSJU@garthdee1.rgu.ac.uk
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1998 Subject: [ifets] Bob Leamson's comments
It is so nice when someone from a different perspective gives you some
co-ordinates from their mental map! (Bob Leamson's contribution to
IFETS). The thumbnail sketches of ideas and the actual names of authors
and books are very helpful.
Are there any other books/papers on the theme that people have found
particularly telling? For UK contributors who have difficulty obtaining
American texts it is one of the few ways of following the trends over
there!
Jenny Ure, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland
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Like Jenny Ure, we are always grateful for receiving references to the
publications stating new ideas in the fields of our studies. And we
believe that a lot of people can take benefits of the information set
forth below.
It has been very pleasant for us to get to know from the
communications of Martin Owen and Bob Leamnson that the ideas of the
Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky continue to attract the attention of
specialists in education throughout the world.
Meanwhile, during the nineties a considerable progress has been
achieved in Russia in theoretical and practical development of
Vygotsky's central ideas, including the idea about a profound
influence of mastering the written language (= of learning to read and
write) on the achievement of abstract thinking.
A new, large-scale theory was constructed leading cognitive science
and pedagogical practice FAR FORWARDS along the way of investigating
this idea. It is our Theory of Dynamic Conceptual Mappings
(DCM-theory), which is represented by the moment in 25 publications in
English in the international editions. The main references are given
below. The most part of other references may be found using URLs
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hall/3648/references.htm;
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/7355/science.htm
The DCM-theory may be characterized as a theory of effective knowledge
transfer to people and of developing their abilities of processing
symbolic information (represented by means of natural language and by
pictures). Its central component is an original
informational-cybernetic conception of early positive developing
intelligence of the child: his/her thinking and mental outlook.
The DCM-theory makes several discoveries in Cognitive Science
concerning (a) the preconditions of successful ripening of the young
child's consciousness, of the development of his/her language
abilities, (b) extending in young children and maintaining in
teenagers the ability of metaphoric, figurative thinking.
The scientific atmosphere of the1980s - 1990s has been very different
from the atmosphere of the 1930s. That is why the initial background
for the creation of the DCM-theory was entirely different from the
background of Vygotsky's theory: it was provided by the Artificial
Intelligence (AI) theory, because it suggests a rich conceptual
apparatus for reasoning about cognitive processes.
Due to this connection, the DCM-theory has its own formal apparatus:
it is visual means (various diagrams) of representing conceptual
structures and conceptual transformations (or mappings,
correspondences).
A bright distinctive feature of the DCM-theory is its CONSTRUCTIVE
CHARACTER. It became the basis for elaborating a complex of new
methods of teaching forming a NEW PEDAGOGICAL SYSTEM. It is called the
System of Emotional-Imaginative Teaching (the references are the same
as for the DCM-theory). ). The new methods are destined for effective
developing children's intelligence at lessons of mother tongue,
foreign language (FL), literature, poetry, and art. The methods have
been successfully used during 9 years in teaching English as a FL,
literature, the languages of poetry and painting. The total number of
students exceeds three hundred, the age varies from 4 to 18 years.
The DCM-theory has enabled us to achieve bright and stable pedagogical
results, to find the solutions of several acute problems of modern
preuniversity education.
In order to get "pure results" of investigating the role of developing
language abilities of young children in the ripening of their
reasoning skills and enriching the mental outlook, a 9-year-long study
has been carried out in Moscow on the example of teaching foreign
language (English), literature and poetry in English , theory of
painting in English, communication culture to young children and
teenagers.
That is why the accumulated rich experience may be directly used in
ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES.
One of the most striking and positive results is as follows:
five-nine-year-old Russian children master with great interest and joy
very rich sublanguages of mother tongue and of a FL (English) for
describing the nature and the feelings evoked by the nature. Their
command of FL highly exceeds the level of the FL command determined by
modern text-books of English as a FL for children under ten; e.g., by
popular "Teaching English to Children" (W.A. Scott and L.H. Ytreberg,
London, New York, Longman Group UK Limited, 1994). In particular,
7-8-year olds (3rd year of studies in experimental groups) are able to
read fluently and to discuss in FL unadapted "Alice's Adventures in
Wonder Land" by Lewis Carroll, to describe in FL landscapes and
seascapes.
EXAMPLE.
The students of the second year of studies (their age is 6 - 7 years)
read in foreign language (English) the world-known fairy-tale
"Sleeping Beauty" . In the context of this fairy-tale, young students
are asked to imagine the events meant by the phrase "There were lots
of preparations to be made for the arrival of Royal Baby". Two TYPICAL
home compositions in FL of the students of the 2nd year are given
below. These compositions contain a lot of living beings and ideas not
mentioned in the studied text of the fairy-tale: the compositions are
the results of children's creative work (but not the enumerations of
the studied expressions).
Composition 1 (Polina Rybakova, 8 years old)
A year gone by. Everyone in the Kingdom was awakened by the sounds of
the church bells. People began to gather in the streets. Suddenly
appeared the Royal Cryer. He went along the streets and announced that
the Queen's wish had been granted. The baby-Princess was born that
night and great celebrations would take place in the Royal Palace and
all over the land.
The birds heard that news and delivered it to everyone in the
fields and in the woods. All mice in the fields began to work: they
made a beautiful dress decorated with corn-flowers for the Princess.
But they were very small and they made a very small dress, so it
fitted only Princess' doll. The birds made a little toy bear-cub of
the straw. The animals in the woods began to dance and sing merry
songs. Even the King and Queen heard those songs.
All the children in the Kingdom in white clothes and white flowers
in their hair joined hands and danced around the Palace. The Royal
Cookers prepared an enormous cake and decorated it with red roses'
cream and candles. Every day in the Kingdom was happy.
Composition 2 (Katya Bogomolova, 6 years 10 months old)
A year went by. Everyone in the Kingdom was awakened by the loud
sounds of church bells. The church stood in the centre of the town
near the palace. The church was very high and beautiful. It looked
like the mountain covered with soft white snow. People heard loud
sounds of the church bells and began to gather in the streets. Then
along came a Town Cryer. He said that their Royal Highnesses, the King
and Queen, announced the birth of the daughter, the Princess. The
people began to dance and sing. The children sang the beautiful songs
in the gardens and churches. These songs were full of heavenly joy and
love to God, Jesus and angels up in Heaven above. Beautiful girls
brought to the palace nice flowers.
The animals from the nearest wood came to the palace and brought
the presents to the King, Queen, and little Princess: tasty mushrooms
for the King, beautiful flowers and sweet berries for the Queen, and
one little squirrel as a pat for the Princess. The birds began to sing
their beautiful songs, and the hares, squirrels and rabbits began to
dance. Saint Peter sent the little angel with silver hair down to
Earth to help the Princess in her life. Everyone in the Kingdom was
very happy.
The DCM-theory suggests a number of original but well-studied methods
and recommendations for preuniversity education (the starting age 4-5
years).
One of the most important conclusions is as follows: each average
child at the age five-six can be taught "TO PAINT WITH WORDS";
moreover, the carrying away by the "painting with words" and, hence,
the CREATIVITY can be developed in all average children (children
possessing usual, average abilities).
That signifies that EACH average child gets an INTELLIGENT ACTIVITY
where he/she is a TALENTED, CREATIVELY THINKING PERSON. And that
implies numerous positive consequences for effective developing the
personality of the child.
Our new pedagogical system provides a highly effective theoretical and
practical approach to developing the skills of processing symbolic
information - natural language texts and pictures.
Hence, to our opinion, the DCM-theory and EIT-methods may be
interpreted as possible theoretical and methodological foundations of
preparing children to entering the digital age and becoming qualified,
full-right members of the new information society.
Main References on the DCM-theory and EIT-methods
· Fomichov, V.A. & Fomichova, O.S. (1993): The role of the artificial
intelligence theory in developing new, highly effective methods of
foreign languages teaching. In PEG93: Proc. of the Seventh Intern. PEG
Conf. AI Tools and the Classroom: Theory into Practice. Moray House
Institute of Education, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, July
2nd-July 4th 1993, 319-329. ISBN 0901580 570.
· Fomichov, V.A. & Fomichova, O.S. (1994): The Theory of Dynamic
Conceptual Mappings and its significance for Education, Cognitive
Science, and Artificial Intelligence. Informatica (Slovenia), Vol. 18,
No. 2, 131-148.
· Fomichov, V.A. & Fomichova, O.S. (1995): The artificial intelligence
theory and highly effective methods of teaching young children foreign
languages. Cybernetica (Namur, Belgium), Vol. XXXVIII, No. 4, 321-344.
· Fomichov, V.A. & Fomichova, O.S. (1997a): The potential of the
Theory of Dynamic Conceptual Mappings for teaching children and
preparation of teachers. In: Meeting the Challenge of the New
Technologies. PEG'97. Proc. of the Eighth International PEG
Conference. Sozopol, Bulgaria, May 30th - June 1st 1997. Edited by
Paul Brna and Darina Dicheva. ISBN: 954-9582-01-9. 1997, VIRTECH,
Sofia, 164-170.
· Fomichov, V.A. & Fomichova, O.S. (1997b): New prospects opened by
the artificial intelligence approach for developing children's
thinking and mental outlook. In A.Behrooz (Editor), Knowledge
Transfer, Vol. 2 . Proc. of the International Conference "Knowledge
Transfer - 1997 (KT97)", University of London, 14 - 16 July 1997, 45-51.
· Fomichov, V.A. & Fomichova, O.S. (1997c): An informational
conception of developing the consciousness of the child. Special Issue
"Consciousness as Informational Phenomenalism: An Informational,
Phenomenological, Philosophical, Neural and Quantum-Mechanic View.
INFORMATICA. An International Journal of Computing and Informatics
(Slovenia), Vol. 21, No. 3, 369-388.
· Fomichov, V.A. & Fomichova, O.S. (1998a): A new theoretical and
practical approach to early positive developing child's consciousness.
In Robert Trappl (Editor), Cybernetics and Systems'98. Proceedings of
the 14th European Meeting on Cybernetics and Systems Research. Vol. 1,
Austrian Society for Cybernetic Studies, Vienna, 276-281.
· Fomichov, V.A. & Fomichova, O.S. (1998b): A new,
informational-cybernetic paradigm for the preparation of future
teachers specialized in languages, literature, and art. Proc. of the
International Conference "The Future of the Humanities in the Digital
Age. Problems and perspectives for humanities education and research".
Bergen, Norway, September 25-28, 1998.
· Fomichov, V.A. & Fomichova, O.S. (1998c): Early development of
natural-language-processing abilities as a key to up-bringing of
children without conflicts. G.Ritschard, A.Berchtold, F.Duc, and
A.D.Zighed (Eds.), Apprentissage: des Principes Naturels aux Methodes
Artificielles, Paris, Editions Hermes, 1998.
· Fomichova, O.S., & Fomichov, V.A. (1996): Theoretical foundations of
a new method of teaching children effective information processing.
Informatica (Slovenia), Vol. 20, No. 3, 381-399.
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