Thinking as Communicating: Human Development, the Growth of Discourses, and MathematizingThis book is an attempt to change our thinking about thinking. Anna Sfard undertakes this task convinced that many long-standing, seemingly irresolvable quandaries regarding human development originate in ambiguities of the existing discourses on thinking. Standing on the shoulders of Vygotsky and Wittgenstein, the author defines thinking as a form of communication. The disappearance of the time-honoured thinking-communicating dichotomy is epitomised by Sfard's term, commognition, which combines communication with cognition. The commognitive tenet implies that verbal communication with its distinctive property of recursive self-reference may be the primary source of humans' unique ability to accumulate the complexity of their action from one generation to another. The explanatory power of the commognitive framework and the manner in which it contributes to our understanding of human development is illustrated through commognitive analysis of mathematical discourse accompanied by vignettes from mathematics classrooms. |
Other editions - View all
Thinking as Communicating: Human Development, the Growth of Discourses, and ... Anna Sfard No preview available - 2008 |
Thinking as Communicating: Human Development, the Growth of Discourses, and ... Anna Sfard No preview available - 2010 |
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abstract actions activity agoras algebraic biggest number chapter claim cognitive cognitivism cognitivist commognitive conflict communication complex concept concrete conflicting narratives construction context count d-objects deeds defined definition discourse on thinking discursive objects endorsed narratives entities Episode example explorations expressions fact formula function human ical implemented individual interlocutors interpretation Interviewer isomorphic Johann Bernoulli krasnal language learner learning disability marbles mathematical discourse mathematical objects mathematicians mathematists means metadiscursive metalevel metaphor metarules Mikhail Bakhtin Mira monological nouns number-words numerical discourse numerical thinking objectification one’s participants patterns performance person phenomena phenomenon practical present procedure produce quandaries question realization trees recursive reifying result rituals role Roni and Eynat routines rules Sapir–Whorf hypothesis sentence Sfard shekel signifier speak substantiation subsuming discourse symbolic talk Talli task teacher term thing tion trying understanding utterances Vygotsky whereas William of Ockham Wittgenstein words