Transcript Functional Scaffolding and Self Scaffolding

Functional Scaffolding and
Self Scaffolding
Mark H. Bickhard
Lehigh University
[email protected]
http://bickhard.ws/
Cognition and Action
• Representation and cognition emerge in
action systems
– Not from passive input processing
• Therefore representation cannot be
created by signet rings pressing into the
wax of the mind, or transduction, or
induction, or any other passive mode
Construction and
Epistemology
• Representation and cognition must be
constructed
• Without prescience, these constructions
must be tentative and selected out if in
error
• That is, an action base for
representation and cognition forces an
evolutionary epistemology
Recursive Constructivism
• In complex organisms, constructions are in
the context of and make use of prior
constructions as resources
• New constructions can involve variants on or
compounds of prior constructions
• They are recursive
• The organism can get better at learning in
some domain in which it has prior experience
Complex Task Requirements
• Some tasks may require complex
constructions to be able to solve them
• Constructive complexity makes it
unlikely that non-foresighted
constructions will happen to hit on the
competent construction
• Constructive tries will be selected out
• And the task may not be solved
Functional Scaffolding
• If some of the task selection pressures could
be blocked, however, that may make some
intermediate constructions viable that would
not otherwise have survived
• Those intermediate constructions, in turn,
may make it possible to traverse a trajectory
of constructions that ends up with a fully task
competent construction
• The scaffolding blocking of those selection
pressures can then be removed
Modes of Scaffolding
• Selection pressures can be blocked by
providing knowledge that the child, for
example, does not yet have
• This is the canonical case in which
scaffolding is thought of in terms of
providing external coordination, for
example, that can then be internalized
Further Modes
• But selection pressures can also be
blocked by:
– Choosing simple cases
– Moving to idealizations
– Breaking problems down into subproblems
– Making use of a resource that may not
always be available
– Etc.
Self Scaffolding
• And all of these modes of functional
scaffolding can be done by the
individual him- or her-self
• Self Scaffolding
• Which is in internal contradiction on the
internalization account
– You cannot provide information to yourself
that you do not already have
A Field of Development
• Self scaffolding is a crucial range of skills to
acquire
• It is involved in knowing how to approach
problems in essentially all domains
– Though it can differ from one domain to another
• The scaffolding of self scaffolding should be a
primary goal of education
• But standard ways of thinking about
education and scaffolding inhibit the
recognition of this
Conclusion
• An action base for cognition forces an
evolutionary epistemology
• Which yields the strong usefulness of
functional scaffolding to aid the construction
process
• Which yields the possibility of self scaffolding,
an important field of development
• A field, not itself a domain, because it varies from one
domain to another - it is not one unified set of skills