Conscious Instruction

I found Chapter 6 to be incredibly important overall, but I have decided to point out and comment on a few quotes.

It is only crude, direct interference in the formation of concepts -- interference which attempts to move in a straight line along the shortest distance between two points -- that leads to injury. A different form of interference, a more subtle, complex, and indirect method of instruction, will lead this developmental process forward to higher levels.... Conscious instruction of the pupil in new concepts (i.e., in new forms of the word) is not only possible but may actually be the source for a higher form of development of the child's own concepts, particularly those that have developed in the child prior to conscious instruction (pp. 171-172).  
Vygotsky's claim that conscious instruction, instruction that takes smaller steps over a longer period of time and in particular instruction that accounts for students' current concept development, is significant to me. My interpretation of Vygotsky's claim is that instruction, grounded in a qualitative assessment of students' current cognitive constructions, can be a powerful means of moving the child toward higher levels of thinking. By my interpretation, Vygotsky's claim supports what are today called learning progressions and learning trajectories in mathematics and science education (or, at least, learning progressions/trajectories from a particular point-of-view).

While some researchers disagree and take a more quantitative approach, I am interested in learning progressions that are based on our models of students' understanding and of students' cognitive structures. I'm curious to know what Vygotsky would say about this research program, one that seems to be heavily based in a Piagetian-constructivist tradition.

Another key finding from this chapter is that scientific concepts develop. This reminds me again, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, of the idea of concept image introduced by David Tall and Shlomo Vinner. A person's concept image for a given concept is an amalgamation of all things (images, actions, contexts) that come to mind when a person thinks of or hears the name of the concept. Tall and Vinner point out that a given concept's image is never complete -- it is always in motion, always transforming, and without careful consideration of psychological processes when teaching about that particular concept, the pupil's concept image can become distorted.

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