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  1. Barbara Rogoff
  2. http://people.ucsc.edu/~brogoff/
  3. UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology
  4. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  5. University of California Santa Cruz
  1. Itzel Aceves-Azuara
  2. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  3. University of California Santa Cruz
  1. Andrew Dayton
  2. Doctoral student
  3. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  4. University of California Santa Cruz
Public
Choice

SGER: Learning through Observing and Pitching In to Community Activities

NSF Awards: 0837898

2017 (see original presentation & discussion)

Grades K-6, Grades 6-8, Informal / multi-age

Children from underserved backgrounds bring many resources to their learning in STEM fields and beyond.  Children from many Indigenous- and Mexican-heritage backgrounds use a sophisticated form of collaboration that is visible even at a micro-scale of fractions of seconds, revealing the foundations of thinking together. Not only is collaboration important for their own learning; their sophisticated collaboration provides a model of learning together for other children, as well as for teachers, program designers, governments, and the public -- all of us.

Sophisticated collaboration is a key feature of a way of learning in many Indigenous-heritage communities of the Americas:  Learning by Observing and Pitching In (LOPI) to family and community endeavors.  https://learningbyobservingandpitchingin.sites.ucsc.edu/

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Discussion from the 2017 STEM for All Video Showcase (58 posts)
  • Icon for: Barbara Rogoff

    Barbara Rogoff

    Lead Presenter
    UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology
    May 14, 2017 | 07:33 p.m.

    As a way of examining the impact of this research, we are interested in knowing if you as a viewer are able to make use of the information in some way. Please post your observations or questions.

     
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    Pati Ruiz
  • Icon for: Jolene Jesse

    Jolene Jesse

    Funder
    May 15, 2017 | 01:53 p.m.

    Hi Barbara-- What great findings! Is there anything we've learned about collaboration among individuals in families that could help us understand how organizations could collaborate more effectively? I realize a three-minute video can only capture the surface, but it seems like you are heading toward principles of collaboration that could work effectively across multiple types of human organizations.

     
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    Pati Ruiz
  • Icon for: Barbara Rogoff

    Barbara Rogoff

    Lead Presenter
    UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology
    May 15, 2017 | 02:54 p.m.

    Thanks for the observation!  One of the things we are learning is that the sophisticated collaboration we find in many Mexican-heritage and Indigenous American families has parallels in larger organizations, such as classrooms, schools, and communities.  The key feature seems to be whether people truly think together or whether they divide (resources, roles) in ways that do not involve thinking together.

     
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    Pati Ruiz
  • Icon for: Barbara Rogoff

    Barbara Rogoff

    Lead Presenter
    UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology
    May 15, 2017 | 03:01 p.m.

    Does that fit with your intuitions?

  • Icon for: Susie Nakamura

    Susie Nakamura

    Graduate Student
    May 15, 2017 | 02:25 p.m.

    Hi Barbara, I appreciate your work in highlighting the value of collective intelligence and collaboration. Based on my observations, it seems that the caregiver, the parents in this case, determines how children engage in learning. Given that the industry is operating on the foundation of individualism and competition, how can we ensure sophisticated collaboration among employees? Even if the children are able to learn the essence and process of collaborative work, I am concerned that their collaboration skills would be shunned once they enter the labor market. Thank you!

     
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    Pati Ruiz
  • Icon for: Barbara Rogoff

    Barbara Rogoff

    Lead Presenter
    UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology
    May 15, 2017 | 03:03 p.m.

    Thanks, Susie.  From our perspective, it is not only the caregiver or other adult that determines how children engage in learning, and not just the children themselves too. -- How people engage together also has to do with the organization of the community more broadly.  Cultural research helps us see some of the organizational or societal features that support or impede certain ways of engaging together.  For example, many representatives of industry are calling on schools to improve the collaborative skills of students, because the organization of industry has changed towards more teamwork.

    I think your comment relates to Jolene's (right above yours).  You might want to weigh in on her comment too?

     
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    Pati Ruiz
  • Luisa Magarian

    May 15, 2017 | 06:23 p.m.

     How fascinating what the detailed millisecond by millisecond observations reveal. It almost looks like something even beyond collaboration, like a unified intention.

     
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    Pati Ruiz
  • Icon for: Barbara Rogoff

    Barbara Rogoff

    Lead Presenter
    UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology
    May 15, 2017 | 11:14 p.m.

    Andy Dayton describes this form of collaboration as seeming like one organism with many limbs. 

    And Omar Ruvalcaba and I have found that many Californian Mexican-heritage elementary school classmates, programming in Scratch together, engage in such sophisticated collaboration that the pairs can move ahead with new ideas together without having to discuss them aloud.  This hardly ever happened among middle-class European American pairs, who spent a great deal of their time wrangling about whose idea to follow.

     
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    Pati Ruiz
  • Icon for: Andrew Dayton

    Andrew Dayton

    Co-Presenter
    Doctoral student
    May 20, 2017 | 12:36 p.m.

    Hi Luisa,

    "Unified intention" is such an elegant way to say this!  I think phrase could work for this micro-genetic collaborative behavior as well as capturing some broader cultural community values (such as Gadugi -- everybody work together -- in Cherokee).

     

    Andy

  • Judith Scott

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 16, 2017 | 03:28 a.m.

    Such interesting work and intriguing findings.  Thanks so much for sharing. 

  • Icon for: Barbara Rogoff

    Barbara Rogoff

    Lead Presenter
    UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology
    May 16, 2017 | 03:50 a.m.

    Thanks, Judy!

  • Icon for: Pati Ruiz

    Pati Ruiz

    Facilitator
    Dean of Studies, CSHNYC
    May 16, 2017 | 07:36 a.m.

    Wow. I really enjoyed your video and your last comment about elementary school classmates programming in Scratch. As a (Mexican-heritage) CS teacher, I wonder how I can use what you learn about the collaboration and engagement in/with learning that these families and community members engage in. How can this form of collaboration be modeled for students who have not experienced this type of collaboration before? Are there patterns of behavior that can be broken down for me to teach explicitly in the classroom when we learn pair programming? What would be most helpful to me is a description of the behaviors that are present for thinking together/ collaborative learning. Can it be taught?

     
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    Helen Teague
  • Icon for: Barbara Rogoff

    Barbara Rogoff

    Lead Presenter
    UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology
    May 16, 2017 | 03:09 p.m.

    Great questions!  We are trying to model this way of collaboration through video.  In the video we present here, fluid collaboration is beautifully shown by the 3 girls making a model balsawood bee together (at 00:36), as well as in the 10-seconds of the Mayan family.  You can see some other videos and the research studies at https://learningbyobservingandpitchingin.sites.ucsc.edu/

    Our research suggests that this way of collaborating is part of a system in which children and youth are included as contributors to valued activities, and their initiative is welcomed. The website mentioned above describes 7 features that together define this approach to organizing learning.

    A resource examining how children's and adults' collaboration can be fostered is available in the Oxford University Press book "Learning Together" (2001).  The research suggests that yes, it can be taught, but it may require a more generally collaborative classroom (or family) structure than is common in middle-class communities.

    In pair programming at the college level, Omar Ruvalcaba has suggested that the common practice of assigning roles may impede the fluid and skillful collaboration of children from Mexican-heritage backgrounds.  That degree of teacher control may stultify the alert, flexible collaborative initiative that we are seeing in our research with Mexican- and Indigenous-heritage students.

  • Francisco Rosado-May

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 16, 2017 | 08:05 a.m.

    Dear Barbara, Itzel and Andy. Thank you for sharing this important an relevant information. I wonder if it will be available to the public at sometime. I would like very much to share it with student at the Intercultural Maya University of Quintana Roo (UIMQRoo).

         The elements presented in the video about collaboration, focusing on children, are also present in young adults. Our university students, most of them Maya, develop great collaborating strategies for different purposes: helping each other to overcome economic situations, emotional situations, learning and constructing knowledge, etc. UIMQRoo has a system that allows students to construct, during their first year at the university, what we call a "safety net". This new safety net is very much needed because socially they had one in their communities. Some students were not aware of the safety net that they had in their communities until they realized how much it was important to them. By having a system that not only allows but promotes and participates in the construction of a new social "safety net", in the community that the students had to adapt because the university is located there, has allowed successful academic performance by the students. Saludos todos y felicitaciones.

     
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    Itzel Aceves-Azuara
  • Icon for: Barbara Rogoff

    Barbara Rogoff

    Lead Presenter
    UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology
    May 16, 2017 | 03:24 p.m.

    Thanks for providing this impressive example of how central this form of collaboration can be in the success of students at the university level!

    We are working on publishing the microanalysis described in this video, as well as several other recent studies.  In the meantime, good resources on this kind of collaboration are available in these publications: 

    López, A., Ruvalcaba, O., & Rogoff, B. (2015). Attentive helping as a cultural practice of Mexican-heritage families. In Y.M. Caldera & E.W. Lindsey (Eds.), Mexican American children and families. (pp. 76-91). NY: Routledge.

    Mejía Arauz, R., Rogoff, B. Dexter, A., & Najafi, B. (2007). Cultural variation in children's social organization. Child Development, 78, 1001-1014.

    Chavajay, P., & Rogoff, B. (2002). Schooling and traditional collaborative social organization of problem solving by Mayan mothers and children. Developmental Psychology, 38, 55-66.

  • Icon for: Vivian Guilfoy

    Vivian Guilfoy

    Senior Advisor
    May 16, 2017 | 09:43 a.m.

    The meaning of the word "collaboration" has diminished in substance and understanding--which is why your work is so important!  While collaboration and teaming are deemed essential in many creative endeavors, it seems that employers, teachers, learners and families often have very different ideas of what it is and how to accomplish it.  Lots of time is often spent on setting the "rules of collaboration," but the end result is often dominance by a few and uneven participation and power. We have a lot to learn from your research.  How are you planning to communicate your results?  Lots of audiences would benefit by looking at and trying out your model.  

  • Icon for: Barbara Rogoff

    Barbara Rogoff

    Lead Presenter
    UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology
    May 16, 2017 | 03:30 p.m.

    I agree that heavy adult control (such as setting rules and roles in collaboration) may get in the way of young people learning how to collaborate and doing so skillfully.  In fact, Lucía Alcalá and I found that children whose parents control their collaboration in household work were more likely to boss rather than collaborate with their partner in a planning task, in middle childhood.

    We are trying to communicate our results through videos like this one and our publications.  More videos and publications are available at https://learningbyobservingandpitchingin.sites.ucsc.edu/

    Your comments are very relevant to the two discussions directly above.  You may be interested to weigh in on them.

  • Lourdes Leon

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 16, 2017 | 10:31 a.m.

    No doubt microanalysis definitely shows the social organization of attention!

    Let's all look finely at  multimodal communication in collaborative interactions.  A wealth of information.

    Thanks for sharing, Barbara!

     

  • Icon for: Barbara Rogoff

    Barbara Rogoff

    Lead Presenter
    UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology
    May 16, 2017 | 03:33 p.m.

    Important point!  Looking closely at video in both exploratory and confirmatory ways is key  for examining how people accomplish collaboration and communication. 

  • Icon for: Helen Teague

    Helen Teague

    Graduate Student
    May 16, 2017 | 01:02 p.m.

    Thank you for including us as observers to your research on Thinking Together. Along with Vivian and Patricia, I am also interested in the ongoing communication of your results. Also, I wonder if you have found applications to global collaboration between classroom families (responsive classroom approach resulting in familial integration)? Thank you very much for your work! Helen Teague

  • Icon for: Barbara Rogoff

    Barbara Rogoff

    Lead Presenter
    UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology
    May 16, 2017 | 03:43 p.m.


    Thanks for your observation that the video allows people to observe these processes!  Viewing video of subtle processes is an important way of examining and communicating information that can be observed but is difficult (not impossible) to describe.  This is why I'm enthusiastic about showing research videos.  When I return to a university where I gave a colloquium years before, often someone says, "I'm still thinking about that video clip you showed us last time, about...."  I doubt they remember what I say so vividly.


    At the same time, we are also finding ways to describe these subtle ways of organizing learning.  A description articulating this approach, and some publications, can be found at https://learningbyobservingandpitchingin.sites.ucsc.edu/


  • Icon for: Barbara Rogoff

    Barbara Rogoff

    Lead Presenter
    UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology
    May 16, 2017 | 09:08 p.m.

    I want to add that I REALLY appreciate NSF for providing this opportunity to showcase the research! 

  • Mary Immordino-Yang

    Researcher
    May 16, 2017 | 03:35 p.m.

    Barbara and team, these are such interesting findings! The implications for development of neural systems for attention and identity/self-awareness are so interesting, too. Given lots of work now on the brain's toggling into different "connectivity modes" for different kinds of cognition/attention (see e.g., Immordino-Yang, 2016 in PIBBS; Immordino-Yang et al. 2012 in Perspectives on PS), could it be that we are seeing the developmental, cultural organization of neural dynamics for thinking in your data? For example, if attention is more "hummingbird-like" and fluid in indigenous people's interactions in learning settings, it would make sense that neural systems involved in self-awareness, including notably the Default-Mode Network, could be contributing more directly to social attention in people  with these norms. This could accord nicely with social psychological descriptions of interdependent/communal self, for example, and would link together findings about self-orientation and attention (e.g. Shinobu Kitayama's work).  

    So many interesting possibilities!

    Mary Helen 

  • Icon for: Barbara Rogoff

    Barbara Rogoff

    Lead Presenter
    UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology
    May 16, 2017 | 05:56 p.m.

    Thanks for the speculations about neural systems, Mary Helen!  I find it interesting to consider the parallels between collaboration among neurons and collaboration among people.

  • Lynette Adelson

    May 17, 2017 | 09:33 a.m.

    Wow!  I watched this after listening to segments on CNN about elementary school bullying, fraternity hazing and our current government administration.  What would our world look like if we all practiced collaboration?

    Lynette

  • Icon for: Lisa Samford

    Lisa Samford

    Facilitator
    Executive Director
    May 17, 2017 | 11:41 a.m.

    This is really interesting. I recall early nonverbal studies involving the cultural differences (and similarities) of infants and young children. Are you planning to extend your research to include other indigenous groups? How about non-parent (elder sibling for example) driven interactions? Are you looking at any other variables (time spent engaging with one another, time spent engaging with machines)? What are your plans for the next stage of your research?

  • Icon for: Barbara Rogoff

    Barbara Rogoff

    Lead Presenter
    UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology
    May 17, 2017 | 01:58 p.m.


    The sophisticated collaboration that we focus on in this video among Mayan family groups in Guatemala with very young children has been found in a number of Indigenous-background groups in different countries of the Americas, in a number of activities.  It also shows up in Mayan families with older children, with fathers as well as mothers (several studies by Chavajay).  Sophisticated collaboration is also found in Mexican background children in California, in triads of near-peers folding origami figures (Mejía-Arauz et al), between pairs of classmates programming in scratch (Ruvalcaba & Rogoff), and between pairs of siblings in a planning task (Alcalá & Rogoff).  Sophisticated collaboration was also found among Navajo children teaching a game to younger children (Ellis).


    We find a pattern of relations between sophisticated collaboration and use of keen attention (of parents as well as children), considerateness in requesting help, initiative in helping at home, guiding (as contrasted with controlling) approaches of parents, and inclusion in family endeavors.


    Next stage of research?  The patterns that we have found in Indigenous-heritage families of the Americas seem to attenuate with decreases in involvement in relatively traditional Indigenous practices and with greater family experience in school and related practices.  That is, Mexican and Mayan children and adults from families with limited experience in Indigenous practices and with 12 or more years of Western schooling show patterns more like European American children and adults from families with 12 or more years of Western schooling.  This loss across generations in important practices may be more likely with some aspects of the pattern; other aspects (such as sophisticated collaboration) may be more resilient. 


    We would like to understand this process of change by examining changes in families.  In addition, it will be interesting to watch the efforts of several US Native tribes to reinstate Indigenous ways of learning, in support of reinvigorating their languages and fostering their children's learning and well-being in more traditional ways.


  • Icon for: Lisa Samford

    Lisa Samford

    Facilitator
    Executive Director
    May 19, 2017 | 10:21 a.m.

    I'm collaborating on a project with the Arapahoe tribe on the Wind River Reservation as they teach the traditional language to K-8 students (and adults), as well as some of the traditions that are also in danger of being lost (sacred and medicinal plants, for example). I'll mention your project to the team leading this.

  • Icon for: Barbara Rogoff

    Barbara Rogoff

    Lead Presenter
    UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology
    May 19, 2017 | 01:11 p.m.

    Great!  They may want to be in touch with Rich Henne-Ochoa, who is also working on this.

  • Icon for: Andrew Dayton

    Andrew Dayton

    Co-Presenter
    Doctoral student
    May 19, 2017 | 04:58 p.m.

    Hello Lisa,

    We are also working with folks at the Cherokee Immersion school in Tahlequah (pK-6) and community-based adult language learning programs in Northeastern, Oklahoma.  We'd love to make contact with anyone involved in this ongoing collaboration to maintain our languages, ceremonies and traditional ways of knowing.

  • Icon for: Lisa Samford

    Lisa Samford

    Facilitator
    Executive Director
    May 19, 2017 | 05:54 p.m.

    We are just beginning to flesh out this project and it's going to be really cool. The core components will include using traditional stories and incorporating augmented reality to "subtitle" in Arapahoe. We're also talking about using AR in a fashion similar to the index cards that were pasted around our home and classroom when I was learning French. We're working with the school district to ID a few cultural projects as well books with AR overlays, etc...we are in the planning and design stage right now and would love to know more about what you are doing and where you are in the process. Our next planning meeting is May 30-31. Perhaps we could speak before then?

  • Icon for: Andrew Dayton

    Andrew Dayton

    Co-Presenter
    Doctoral student
    May 20, 2017 | 12:31 p.m.

    That would be great.  I have some ideas about AR and language instruction also...

     

    Andy

    adayton@ucsc.edu

  • Icon for: Rowena Douglas

    Rowena Douglas

    Facilitator
    Program Officer; Asst. Executive Director; Director for PD
    May 17, 2017 | 03:06 p.m.

    This is fascinating work.  I am struck by how our European American public education discourages such collaboration.  It is true that collaborative learning strategies are widely accepted nationally, but it seems that individual testing, district and school-based competitions and practices work against the premise. 

  • Icon for: Barbara Rogoff

    Barbara Rogoff

    Lead Presenter
    UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology
    May 18, 2017 | 02:45 a.m.

    Yes, and the research shows the important role that thinking together plays in children's learning and cognitive development.

  • Icon for: Rowena Douglas

    Rowena Douglas

    Facilitator
    Program Officer; Asst. Executive Director; Director for PD
    May 18, 2017 | 05:10 p.m.

    You have given me lots to think about and observe.  Thankyou.  I'll watch how families and students work together much more closely in the future, but in reflecting on all the group interactions I have witnessed, I can remember such practices.

  • Icon for: Barbara Rogoff

    Barbara Rogoff

    Lead Presenter
    UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology
    May 18, 2017 | 05:43 p.m.

    Wonderful!  One of our goals is to help people SEE the sophisticated collaboration that is common in a number of Indigenous-heritage and Mexican communities, and to SEE the cultural practices of working together that are common in families and institutions that are based on extensive experience with the ways of organizing learning in Western schooling.

  • Roberto Estrada

    May 17, 2017 | 05:46 p.m.

    Great work Barbara and team! This concept of learning collaboration in the indigenous cultures is fascinating. Thanks for sharing.  

    Roberto Estrada

  • Icon for: Barbara Rogoff

    Barbara Rogoff

    Lead Presenter
    UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology
    May 18, 2017 | 02:46 a.m.

    Thanks, Roberto!  For people who are used to collaborating, this sophisticated collaboration may be just normal, but for people who are used to dividing up resources and roles, it seems to be a paradigm shift.

  • Fast Pete

    Parent
    May 18, 2017 | 10:51 a.m.

    Taking it to the next level, if practical, would be to combine members of one group with members of the other group, introduce the operational object(s) and observe if and what behavior predominates.

     
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    Itzel Aceves-Azuara
  • Icon for: Barbara Rogoff

    Barbara Rogoff

    Lead Presenter
    UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology
    May 18, 2017 | 12:26 p.m.

    Yes, and this would have important practical implications.  We are in the midst of figuring out how to do such a study.  What would you predict, Fast Pete?

  • Jeanne Parker

    May 19, 2017 | 11:30 p.m.

    Thank you, Barbara. It was interesting to read about this project. Best wishes for your future success in working with students.

     

    Jeanne, retired educator

  • Icon for: Barbara Rogoff

    Barbara Rogoff

    Lead Presenter
    UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology
    May 20, 2017 | 12:09 a.m.

    Thanks!

  • Blanca Cruz

    K-12 Teacher
    May 20, 2017 | 11:24 a.m.

     Hi, Barbara interesting to read, thanks. This concepto the collaboración in the indigenous comunity. Congratulations. Disculpa mi ingles no es perfecto.

  • Icon for: Barbara Rogoff

    Barbara Rogoff

    Lead Presenter
    UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology
    May 20, 2017 | 12:18 p.m.

    Gracias, Blanca!

  • Qi Wang

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 21, 2017 | 04:09 p.m.

    Thank you, Barbara and colleagues, for this wonderful video clip! I can't wait to share it with my students in class. 

    Qi Wang

  • Icon for: Barbara Rogoff

    Barbara Rogoff

    Lead Presenter
    UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology
    May 21, 2017 | 04:14 p.m.

    Wonderful!  Some people have asked if they can use this video in classes and conferences -- yes, absolutely!  The whole reason for making the video is to help people see this pattern.

  • Fast Pete

    Parent
    May 21, 2017 | 05:11 p.m.

    I suspect that having composed a group containing one sub-group practicing collaboration and the other sub-group who favor an individualistic approach to a given project, individualistic behavior would eventually rule the day, since that is the path of least resistance.

  • Icon for: Itzel Aceves-Azuara

    Itzel Aceves-Azuara

    Co-Presenter
    May 22, 2017 | 05:00 p.m.

    That is my hypothesis too...I am also interested in seeing under what circumstances the sophisticated collaboration model could prevail the turn taking or division of tasks model

  • Icon for: Andrew Dayton

    Andrew Dayton

    Co-Presenter
    Doctoral student
    May 21, 2017 | 06:36 p.m.

    I wonder about this.  It seems like an open question.  Communities where these practices are more common seem to be quite a bit older -- having withstood the rise and fall of earlier Empires.  So, I suppose we'll see!

  • Icon for: Barbara Rogoff

    Barbara Rogoff

    Lead Presenter
    UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology
    May 21, 2017 | 06:53 p.m.

    I wonder if an experiment mixing people who come from communities that favor collaboration and people who come from communities that favor division would result in short term domination by the dividing individual but long-term success of the collaborative approach.  This is of course all tied up with relative status and domination...

    Anyway, it will be interesting to investigate this.

  • R. PhD

    Researcher
    May 22, 2017 | 02:12 p.m.

    This is  fascinating! As a developmental psychologist, and more importantly, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, I appreciate that you use the term "sophisticated" to describe the ways indigenous families are collaborating.  I wonder how academic testing (usually child alone with pencil & paper) influences the decline you mention associated with 12 or more years of Western schooling. If we measure what we think is important in education, we have a long way to go in incorporating skills such collaboration, empathy and curiosity in what is assessed as a measure of academic achievement in K-12.

  • Icon for: Barbara Rogoff

    Barbara Rogoff

    Lead Presenter
    UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology
    May 22, 2017 | 02:51 p.m.

    Yes, I agree. The prioritization of ranking and assessing individuals appears to get in the way of many important learning goals -- not just learning to collaborate and be curious, but also really learning STEM information and skills and the rest of the curriculum too.  And learning how to learn.

  • Robert LeVine

    Researcher
    May 22, 2017 | 03:24 p.m.

    This is superb as visual validation of cross-cultural variations Rogoff and her colleagues had previously demonstrated. We need more of this to break the ethnocentric illusion that the middle-class American way is always the right way.

  • Icon for: Barbara Rogoff

    Barbara Rogoff

    Lead Presenter
    UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology
    May 22, 2017 | 05:52 p.m.

    Hi Bob, Thank you! Coming from you as one of the leading figures in this field, this means a lot to me!  I think that visual validation, through video, is an extremely important tool for helping people make a paradigm shift.

  • Icon for: Therese Laferriere

    Therese Laferriere

    Researcher
    May 22, 2017 | 04:11 p.m.

    Is a shared problem space a relevant concept here? I had not made the connection earlier but the interaction between children and with adults of Mayan families make me wonder.  

    Great work!

     
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    Itzel Aceves-Azuara
  • Icon for: Itzel Aceves-Azuara

    Itzel Aceves-Azuara

    Co-Presenter
    May 22, 2017 | 04:58 p.m.

    Thank you for your question. Yes, the sophisticated fluid collaboration that the Mayan families show relates to joint problem space theory in the sense that everyone is actively engaged, participate and share meanings and references.

  • Icon for: Barbara Rogoff

    Barbara Rogoff

    Lead Presenter
    UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology
    May 22, 2017 | 06:18 p.m.

    Yes, the idea of a shared problem space is a cousin to our approach, in its emphasis on the process of collaboration.  However, I think there is an important distinction to be drawn, based on the sophisticated collaboration that we have seen among Mexican and Mayan groups, which looks like one organism with many limbs, with partners coordinating so skillfully toward their unified intention that they do not need to make proposals to each other.  They just fluidly engage together toward their goal. 

     

    This sophisticated collaboration was rare among the European American middle-class groups, whose collaboration, when it occurred, usually relied on one person making a proposal and another accepting or revising it.  Similar to the process of collaboration observed by Roschelle and Teasley. 

     

    Our emphasis places shared action as a central feature of collaboration (and also includes talk); Roschelle and Teasley put talk as the central feature (and they also include shared action).

    Thanks so much for your comment!

  • Icon for: Barbara Rogoff

    Barbara Rogoff

    Lead Presenter
    UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology
    May 22, 2017 | 06:25 p.m.

    By the way, some participants in this forum may be interested in the workshop that deepens these ideas, with a focus on Learning by Observing and Pitching In to family and community endeavors.  The workshop is to be held the day before the ISCAR meetings in Quebec, on August 28.  My colleagues and I are organizing the workshop, and it will include research on cultural differences in collaboration and attention.  http://iscar17.ulaval.ca/pages/cultural-histori...

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