why we learn

LeBoskey (2007) provides the reader a concise and coherent summary of self-study, a inner-directed, interactive form of research focused on improvement of self as it relates to education. The goals of this type of research are founded in the goal of enrolling both colleagues and students in the endeavor, as they serve as critic and pupil. The author emphasizes the ways in which self-study differs from reflective practice, conceding that the precepts of the later can be found in the former, yet pointing to self-study’s inclusion of other viewpoints and a bias towards divergent rather than convergent outcomes. That is to say that those indoctrinated in this methodology tend to actively avoid closure, or settlement and choose instead, to continuously transform themselves as educators and professionals.

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Rogoff¹ on Vygotsky and Piaget’s views on intersubjectivity²

For Vygotsky, shared thinking provides the opportunity to participate in a joint decision-making process from which children may appropriate what they contribute for later use. For Piaget, the meeting of minds involves two separate individuals, each operating on the other’s ideas, using the back-and-forth of discussion for each to advance his or her own development. This discussion is the product of two individuals considering alternatives provided socially, rather than the construction of a joint understanding between partners (p. 149).

Very interesting. Rogoff goes on to describe her interpretation, that these two process are not mutually exclusive, that instead they are useful and utilized in different contexts

1. Rogoff, Barbara. (1990). Apprenticeship in Thinking. New York: Oxford University Press

2. an exchange between conscious minds; shared by one or more conscious mind