(S1,Ep24) A Tale of Two Stories - David Kellogg on Vygotsky

David Kellogg discusses key challenges to talking about Vygotsky in public-friendly ways (main reason: it's hard, for teachers and learners). Storytelling, he says, can create helpful meeting points between concrete and abstract ideas, provided the stories aren't too misleading. After discussing various difficulties, David offers two stories as a means of explaining Vygotsky's main project. Highlights include:

0:42 - some points of embarrassment

2:34 - barriers to making Vygotsky accessible to non-experts

5:00 - learning & teaching (via Walter Benjamin)

7:48 - esoteric and exoteric knowledge, differences and links

13:03 - more barriers to linking the esoteric and exoteric (maybe)

18:03 - the main reason: teaching is hard (and so is learning)

20:00 - stories as meeting-point between the concrete and abstract (including misleading ones)

25:00 - family stuff: a talented and smart bunch

27:49 - a better way to tell stories (i.e., metaphors) about our brains & development

29:47 - the spinal cord story (Master story 1, with its four levels)

35:36 - the human development/Vygotsky story (Master story 2, with its four stages)

44:00 - Vygotsky said THAT these two kinds of stories are distinct yet LINKED (a mega story, a meta story, a story of stories)

45:35 - Halladay helps to show HOW the two big stories are linked: expansion and projection

50:10 - an illustration, at the language level (using transitions - elaboration, extension, and enhancement)

1:00:29 - neoformations and disrupted lines of development (a follow-up)

1:07:34 - helpful perspectives for parents

1:13:38 - other lines of development

1:17:07 - development crises vs. mental illness (i.e., a crisis that doesn't culminate)

References:

ResearchGate: David Kellogg - http://tiny.cc/dog0vz

"How to Grow My Brain" (Khan Academy) - http://tiny.cc/48b0vz

"Angelus Novus" (Klee) - https://magazine.artland.com/stories-of-iconic-artworks-paul-klees-angelus-novus/