[From Chris Cherpas (970318.1423 PT)]
[re: Bruce Gregory (970318.1550 EST)]
[re:Rick Marken (970318.0820 PST)]
Rick Marken:
Practical applications of PCT all seem to be based on the assumption
that we can just look at behavior and see what variables a person is
controlling. This assumption misses what I think is the greatest insight
of PCT (and PCP), viz., that behavior is the control of perceptions that
an observer cannot see by just looking at behavior...
Active use of The Test should be a fundamental aspect of _all_ practical
applications of PCT.... You have to actively Test your guesses about
what is controlled until you find out what is actually controlled
by _that_ particular person in _that_ particular situation.
cc:
I agree. Applied to education, one would expect that conducting
the Test would be a critical part of effective teaching programs,
implemented by teachers and/or computer-based proxies. And I assume
there is a distribution in the population of teachers as to how good
they are at performing the Test, as well as in the population of
computer programs designed to perform this function. How can we
tell if someone or some program is good at performing the Test?
The answer which makes sense to me is... some version of the Test.
Bruce Gregory:
The point I would make is that teachers can benefit from: (1)
knowing that each student is controlling his or her own
perceptions; and (2) you can't tell exactly what they are
controlling without a great deal of testing.
cc:
Agreed.
Bruce Gregory:
I think this perspective (PCP) has the potential to make a
great deal of difference for teachers and students even if
the teacher does _not_ decide to test for the controlled perception.
cc:
Huh? On what basis would the teacher decide to _not_ Test?
Bruce Gregory:
Simply knowing that you are dealing with autonomous control systems
(despite Bill's reservations that we really don't know this)
entails a fundamental shift in classroom practice.
cc:
I thought Rick made clear one fundamental shift in classroom practice
which PCP entails:
Rick Marken (repeated from above):
Active use of The Test should be a fundamental aspect of _all_ practical
applications of PCT
cc:
Bruce, what fundamental shift in classroom practice are you talking about?
Best regards,
cc
(ps: I heard James Brown was really into PCP)
