The Dialectical Relationship
between
Prior and Present Learning:
Mapping Vygotsky’s
Activity Theory to the
Prior Learning Portfolio Process
Jessica Kindred, Ph.D.
The College of New Rochelle
School of New Resources
Brooklyn, New York
Jessica Kindred, Ph.D.
The College of New
Rochelle
School of New Resources
Brooklyn, New York
Industry Experience
Past
Workplace training
(manufacturing &
transportation
maintenance)
Present
Academic
Experience
Teaching
psychology
Future
Integration
Teaching PLP
Industrial Context
Workplace research and training
1990s: international
competition; new
technologies; focus on
planning; customer /
market orientations
1993: changing job
requirements (college
degree for engineering
and supervision)
1999: outsourcing and job
loss
Academic context:
Developing experiential learning
activities for the classroom
Theory:Practice
• Cultural Historical Activity Theory
Lev Vygotsky (1896 - 1934)
• Prior Learning Portfolio (PLP)
Production, support, and evaluation
Prior Learning Process
Identify knowledge from work
experience and life history
Represent prior learning in
academically relevant ways
Qualify learning as college level
Expertise
work
informal
implicit
intuitive
concrete
performative
practical
experiential
spontaneous
Academia
school
Learning
formal
explicit
explanatory
abstract
declarative
conceptual
representational
scientific
Somewhere between the experience
and the representation is the learning.
Lev Vygotsky (1896 - 1934)
Vygotsky, L.S. (1962). Thought
language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
and
Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in Society.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Activity theory
Historical materialism
Developmental perspective
Dialectical dynamic of thought and sign
Internalization (Transformation of
interpersonal to intrapersonal)
“Schematically, we may imagine thought
and speech as two intersecting circles. In
their overlapping parts, thought and
speech coincide to produce what is called
verbal thought… There is a vast area of
thought that has no direct relation to
speech. The thinking manifested in the
use of tools belongs in this area, as does
practical intellect in general.” (Vygotsky,
Thought and Language, p. 88)
Verbal Thought
thought
Practical
intellect
speech
Academic
intellect
Vygotsky’s Knowledge Kinds
Theoretical Abstraction
Spontaneous
Scientific
Informal
Empirical
Formal
Theoretical
Empirical Generalization
Spontaneous
Everyday
Scientific
Systematic
Informal
Formal
Learned
Taught
Empirical
Theoretical
Dialectical interaction between kinds of
knowledge in the developing mind
“Thought, unlike speech, does not consist of
separate units [...] the whole thought is
present at once, but in speech it has to be
developed successively. A thought may be
compared to a cloud shedding a shower of
words [...] Experience teaches us that
thought does not express itself in words, but
rather realizes itself in them” (Vygotsky,
Thought and Language, p. 250).
Mediation
• of thought by language
• of meaning by other people
• of prior learning by present
context
Scaffolding
• Facilitative role of mentor
toward learner’s generative
reflection and effective
articulation of prior learning
Dialogue
• The role of dialogic processes
in realizing knowledge and
prior learning
–(interview as process of
cultivation)
ZPD
• Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
–typically applied to the assessment
of potential for learning
• Zone of Proximal Reflection
–adapted to the situation of prior
learning as a zone of
active reflection
Generative Reflection of PLP
Prior
Present
Dialectical interaction between times of
knowledge in the developing mind: the
emergence of new learning
PLP: prior internalization
to present reflection
to future externalization