Bernard Schneuwly

Contradiction and Development: Vygotsky and Paedology

In Vygotsky’s theory, development is conceived of as selfpropulsion creating new higher psychological functions by reorganising lower ones; at the same time, psychological functions being historical-cultural constructions based on semiotic functions, they can come only from exterior. The article shows that the concept of zone of proximal development is the theoretical attempt to bring these two apparently contradictory postulates together. It is the contradiction between internal possibilities and external needs that constitutes the driving force of development.

Institutionalisation of Educational Sciences and the Dynamics of Their Development

The articles in the first issue of the European Educational Research Journal aim to analyse the moving forces of the emergence and evolution of educational sciences as a disciplinary field, i.e. as a social institution that is specialised in the production, discussion and diffusion of knowledge about education. The articles explore the hypothesis that the process of emergence and evolution is strongly interwoven with reforms that take place in the whole educational system, from primary school to university, and more generally with the evolution of social demands coming from the fields of education. They pay particular attention to the relationship between the evolution of educational sciences and professional qualification requirements.

La concepción Vygotskiana del lenguaje escrito

Un supuesto muy extendido en nuestra cultura en general y en la educacion en particular es que el lenguaje escrito es una mera traduccion o codificacion del lenguaje oral. Vygotski sostiene por el ...

Introduction educational sciences in dynamic and hybrid institutionalization

Taylor and Francis Ltd CPDH400501.sgm 10.1080/ 030923042000293661 P edagogica Historica 0 30-923 (pri t)/1477-674X (online) Original Article 2 04 Stichting Paeda og Historica 45-6 00October 2 0 The educational sciences, also known as educational studies, education research, educational scholarship, and sciences de l’éducation, Erziehungswissenschaft, pedagogika, onderwijswetenschappen,2 are today a vast field of research and training. As in other disciplinary fields,3 numerous institutions and communication networks have been created across the globe to ensure the increase and diffusion of knowledge of educational phenomena.

Anaphoric procedures in four text types written by children

Until now, there has been no study which has systematically compared anaphoric procedures used by children in different text types. Studies concentrated on sentence level or analyzed only stories. The present article describes the anaphoric procedures used in four text types (argumentation, explanation, account of a recent personal experience, and story) written by children 10, 12, and 14 years old. It shows that each text type is characterized by specific means to create anaphoric cohesion. From an ontogenetic point of view, one can observe important changes in the explanation. For the other text types, no important differences appear.

Pour un enseignement de l'oral

Enseigner l’oral ? L’enjeu d’un tel enseignement pour la reussite des eleves est reconnu aujourd’hui a l’unanimite. Et pourtant, enseigner l’oral n’a rien d’evident et semble poser d’insurmontables difficultes. Si l’oral est bien present dans le quotidien des classes, il est rarement concu comme un objet scolaire autonome different de l’ecrit. Il s’avere souvent qu’il n’est enseigne qu’incidemment a l’occasion d’activites diverses et peu controlees. Cet ouvrage, aboutissement d’une recherche impliquant chercheurs et enseignants, propose une demarche systematique d’enseignement a travers un travail sur l’oral dans ses multiples formes. Dans cette perspective, il essaie d’abord de definir clairement les caracteristiques des formes de l’oral qui meritent un enseignement de longue haleine. Il montre ensuite comment analyser les capacites orales des eleves dans differentes situations de communication. Il presente enfin les principes qui guident l’elaboration des sequences structurees d’enseignement. Pour illustrer la demarche, un ensemble de sequences didactiques est presente portant sur des situations de communication en public bien distinctes : le debat, l’interview pour une radio scolaire, l’expose devant la classe et la lecture a d’autres d’un conte. Pour chacune de ces situations, le lecteur rencontrera un modele didactique qui regroupe les dimensions enseignables et des dispositifs d’apprentissage destines a des eleves du primaire et du secondaire. Les formateurs et les enseignants qui s’interrogent sur l’enseignement de l’oral trouveront dans cet ouvrage des reperes indispensables pour mieux organiser leur travail en classe, ainsi que de nombreux exemples d’activites et d’exercices en vue de developper les capacites langagieres des eleves. Date de premiere edition : 1998.

The International Bureau of Education (1925-1968): a platform for designing a 'chart of world aspirations for education'

The international conferences and the official publications of the International Bureau of Education (IBE) comprise a platform where a growing number of governments exposed their considerations and concerns with the purpose of building up a better world through education. The resulting recommendations foster the basis of an ‘international code for public education’. The voluminous archives of the IBE comprise a particularly fertile source for understanding ‘the variants and invariants’, and of course also the purposes of school organisations and curricula as promoted by these organisations. The paradoxes of this effort carried out during the first forty years represent both the challenges for its survival and the outline of this article: (a) giving up on all obligations and political statements so as to ensure effective actions at governmental level; (b) documenting local needs so as to establish a world chart; (c) supporting mass schooling through state involvement for promoting individual emancipation; (d) promoting curricula designed on separate subjects so as to guarantee harmonious complete personal growth; (e) advocating scientific objectivity for spreading the methods and principles of New Education; (f) acting upon public schooling, the reserved hunting grounds of nations, for building up international education.

Knowledge for teaching and knowledge to teach: two contrasting figures of New Education: Claparède and Vygotsky

The debate on knowledge in New Education is generally dominated by two opposed Anglo‐Saxon positions held by Dewey and Thorndike. This paper presents another line of division. Claparède and Vygotsky, two representative European figures of New Education are both scientists constructing a theory of psychological functioning, and heavily engaged in school reforms. Their conceptions of knowledge in education are nonetheless contrasted. We demonstrate it in analyzing their work from three points of view: the relationship between education and development; the nature of knowledge to teach; and the kind of knowledge necessary for teacher education. For Claparède, education follows natural development; knowledge to teach has to be useful and linked to everyday life; knowledge for the teacher is essentially knowledge on the child. For Vygotsky, education precedes development; knowledge to teach is systematic, different from everyday knowledge, transforming the relationship to its own psychic processes; knowledge for teachers is knowledge to teach and about teaching. Claparède’s approach can be described as abstract negation of the traditional school; he wants a Copernican revolution, a completely different school linked to everyday life. Vygotsky’s approach can be characterized as determined negation; he wants to build on the traditional school, maintaining and transforming knowledge organized systematically in formal disciplines.

Changes in Mass Schooling: ‘school Form’ and ‘grammar of Schooling’ as Reagents

During the nineteenth century many European countries proclaimed sovereignty of the people and simultaneously founded their national educational systems. In order to provide public schooling, free and compulsory education was established. Political and sociocultural revolutions led to the rise of nation states, based on democratic or democratic-inspired aspirations, that then turned into ‘teacher states’. Mass schooling and the worldwide — and furthermore enforced — dissemination of this schooling model characterise the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. How can one best describe the concrete process of mass schooling? How should it be analysed, and what are the appropriate concepts to do so? How did nations contribute to its dissemination? By tackling these issues from a historical perspective and discussing, in particular, two concepts often addressed for understanding certain aspects of mass schooling — ‘school form’ and ‘grammar of schooling’ — the contributions of this volume shed a new light on the matter.

Bildung and subject didactics exploring a classical concept for building new insights

In the beginning of the 19th century, Humboldt defined Bildung as both process and product of the developing person. In this contribution we discuss how this classical concept may be used for defining subject didactics. We use two complementary approaches to answer it: a historical analysis, and the construction of a theoretical model. 1) Presenting results of a historical research on the process of didactic transposition of grammar in the 19th century, we show that Bildung seems to function as one driving force among others. 2) In reflecting on the respective signification of “learning” on the one hand and “Bildung” on the other hand, it is possible to define three levels of outcomes which (school) subjects have on persons who learn, Bildung being a not necessarily intended, but potential one. Both approaches show that Bildung is indeed a concept that can be used for doing research in subject didactics and for conceiving them as a whole, with a common core and with many differences between individual subject didactics at the same time.