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

Academic Experience Integration Industry Experience Past Present Jessica Kindred, Ph.D. The College of New Rochelle School of New Resources Brooklyn, New York Industry Experience Workplace training (manufacturing & transportation maintenance) Past Present Future Academic Experience Teaching psychology Integration Teaching PLP

Theory and Practice Cultural Historical Activity Theory Lev Vygotsky (1896 - 1934) Prior Learning Portfolio (PLP) Production, support, and evaluation

Expertise Academia Learning work tacit implicit concrete performative practical experiential empirical Academia school formal Explicit abstract declarative conceptual pedagogical scientific

Activity Theory Lev Vygotsky (1896 - 1934)

"Every function in the child's cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the individual level; first between people (inter psychological) and then inside the child (intra-psychological). This applies equally to voluntary attention, to logical memory, and to the formation of concepts. All the higher functions originate as actual relationships between individuals." (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 57) learner’s learner

Knowledge Development Externalization Internalization

Challenges of PLP Identify knowledge from work experience and life history Represent prior learning in academically relevant ways Qualify knowledge as college level learning

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, 1962, p. 88)

Implicit  Explicit Verbal Thought thought speech Practical Academic intellect intellect Implicit  Explicit

Vygotsky’s Activity Theory Focus on Mediation: Implicit to Explicit Mediation of thought by language of meaning by other people of prior learning by present context

Vygotsky’s Knowledge Kinds Theoretical Abstraction Spontaneous Scientific Informal Formal Empirical Theoretical Empirical Generalization

Vygotsky’s Activity Theory Scaffolding Facilitative role of mentor toward generative reflection and effective articulation of prior learning

Vygotsky’s Activity Theory Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) typically applied to the situation of new knowledge acquisition Zone of Proximal Reflection adapted to the situation of prior learning as a zone of active reflection

Vygotsky’s Activity Theory Dialectical interaction between kinds of knowledge in the developing mind

Past Learning Experience Scaffolded Reflection Prior Learning Portfolio

References Vygotsky, L.S. (1962). Thought and Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in Society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.