When authentic experiences are “enminded” into disciplinary genres: crossing biographic and situated knowledge

• Published in: Learning and instruction Vol. 10; no. 4; pp. 331 - 359
• Main Author: Tochon, François Victor
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 2000
• Subjects: Authentic Learning; Authenticity; Canada; Cooperative Learning; Disciplinary didactics; Educational Planning; Elementary Education; Elementary School Students; Experience; Foreign Countries; Genre; Groups; Indexation; Intellectual Disciplines; Oral exchange; Premises; Semiotics; Situation models; Speech Skills; Canada; Authenticity; Oral exchange; Indexation; Groups; Situation models; Disciplinary didactics; Semiotics; Genre; Premises
• ISSN: 0959-4752; 1873-3263
• DOI: 10.1016/S0959-4752(00)00003-7

The goal of this article is to show how experience transcends subject-matter planning, and the paradoxical nature of planning for authentic experiences. Subject matters are defined here as disciplinary genres. They are integrated into a new framework for semiotic research into disciplinary didactics (explained in the article) as a prototype discipline. The data that serve as the basis for what the article demonstrates relate to oral communication in elementary-level learning groups (groups of 9-year-olds). An analytic model is presented which indicates the reciprocal influence of the premises for action and situated links in learning. The paper uses the data to verify how authentic experiences diverge from what has been planned. The data suggest that academic experience can only be authentic if it is organised on the basis of premises that serve as springboards for conceptual relations that are innovative and thus difficult to set criteria for.