Note on Translation Introduction by Michael Holquist Response to a Question from the Novy Mir Editorial Staff The Bildungsroman and Its Significance in the History of Realism (Toward a Historical Typology of the Novel) The Problem of Speech Genres The Problem of the Text in Linguistics, Philology, and the Human Sciences: An Experiment in Philosophical Analysis From Notes Made in 1970-71 Toward a Methodology for the Human Sciences Index

Speech Genres and Other Late Essays

Over the past 20 years, an increasing number of psychologists and educators have used the notion of scaffolding as a metaphor for the process by which adults (and more knowledgeable peers) guide children's learning and development. The purpose of the present article is to provide a critical analysis of the scaffolding metaphor, with particular emphasis on its applications to the case of atypical learners. In the initial sections of the article, the origins and early applications of the metaphor are sketched. With this as background, criticisms of the metaphor raised by others are reviewed, and a proposal for an enriched version of the metaphor is presented. At the heart of the proposed revision is an emphasis on the communicational dynamics and conceptual reorganization involved in adult-child interactions. With an enriched metaphor as a frame, the next section reviews applications of the scaffolding metaphor to the study of parent-child interactions and teacher-student instructional activities involving children with learning disabilities. The strengths and limitations of this work are evaluated, and proposals are made for how to reap further benefits from applications of the scaffolding metaphor to analyses of the development and instruction of children with learning disabilities.

The Metaphor of Scaffolding Its Utility for the Field of Learning Disabilities

Vygotsky and education: Instructional implications and applications of sociohistorical psychology

this chapter, we examine notions of educational risk in the context of literacy theories and research. Deficit notions about the cognitive potential of individuals from nondominant1 communities have persisted in social science inquiry, particularly where literacy is concerned. The intellectual trails of current conflicting ideas about literacy can be traced in part to theories about the role of literacy in society. For example, the great divide theories of literacy, sustained by a view of culture as social evolution and progress (Cole, 2005), attributed significant differences to the cognitive and cultural development of literate and nonliterate people and their communities (Goody, 1977, 1986, 1987; Goody & Watt, 1963; Havelock, 1963; Ong, 1982).2 This literacy thesis held that there were "categorical differences in cognition and language as consequences of literacy" (Reder & Davila, 2005, p. 171) differences marked by stark dualities used to characterize literate and nonliterate communities: writing versus orality, modern versus traditional, and educated versus uneducated, for example (Collins, 1995, p. 75). As Reder and Davila (2005) have noted, "literacy was presumed to have broad and ubiquitous consequences in such areas as: abstract versus context-dependent uses and genre of language; logical, critical, and scientific versus irrational modes of thought; analytical history versus myth; and so forth" (p. 171). These theories of literacy were challenged for their wideranging dichotomies that perpetuated the hierarchical differences between "types of societies, modes of thought, and uses of language" (p. 171) and reductive notions of culture and thought (Cole & Scribner, 1974, 1977).

Re-Mediating Literacy: Culture, Difference, and Learning for Students from Nondominant Communities.

What is Literacy

This study compares the effectiveness of two interventions that differed in the nature of dialogic interactions among teachers and students in the reading group. One hundred nine children with mild disabilities were instructed by 35 teacher-interns in special education resource rooms. Sixty-three and 46 students, respectively, participated in the two instruction interventions. The analyses indicated that the intervention that produced the greatest effects was the one in which dialogue, social interactions, and scaffolded instruction figured prominently. Limitations and implications of the study are discussed.

Tina Oxer

Papers

Lesson Talk as the Work of Reading Groups The Effectiveness of Two Interventions