THEORETICAL ORIENTATION OF THE STUDY
3.3 Principles of activity theory
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realise and reproduce themselves by generating actions and operations (Artefact, 2015). The remaining four principles are: human activity is endlessly multifaceted in views, traditions, and interests (multivoicedness of activity system); an activity system takes shape and gets transformed over lengthy periods of time (historicity of the activity system); contradictions as the driving force of change in the activity system; and cycles of expansive transformations in activity systems. The third-generation activity theory offers a useful perspective, by expanding the field of vision from the inner workings of an individual activity system to the relationship between two or more activity systems (Westberry, 2009).
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According to Naidoo (2011) goals direct how individuals interact with the world, but they do not characterise human activity. Objects motivate and direct activities and around them (objects), and human activities are coordinated and crystallised when completed (Kaptelinin & Nardi, 2012a).
Considering FA as an activity system, the object which directs the assessment process is to enhance students’ learning through the provision of feedback. Again, in the mathematics classroom the interaction of individuals within the activity system is structured and organised around the object.
3.3.2 Hierarchical structure of an activity system
According to Hasan and Kazlauskas (2014) an activity must always be understood in the context of its cultural and historical environment. In 1981 Leontiev saw activities in a hierarchical system as goal-oriented actions and underlying operations (see Figure 3.4). This implies that activities comprised actions or a chain of actions, and these actions comprised operations. Leontiev created a distinction between immediate goals and overall goals of activity, by representing activity as a three-tiered hierarchy – activity, actions, and operations. The overall motive which transforms the object (purpose) into an outcome at the highest level of the hierarchy is the activity. Westberry (2009) asserts that "activity is composed of actions of which individuals are consciously aware and they are often associated with skills and knowledge". She further notes that the actions in the structure are composed of operations which are automatic routines influenced by conditions in the settings.
Hasan and Kazlauskas (2014) illustrated these abstract concepts by using the example of changing gears when learning to drive. The authors reported that in the first lesson in learning to drive a manual transmission car, the object (purpose) is to practice changing gears without even starting the engine. The person learning to drive is instructed to make conscious actions with the goal of moving the clutch and gear-stick as required. Hasan and Kazlauskas (2014) explained that the learner does not have to think 'How do I move my hand or foot?', these are unconscious operations determined by the conditions (the position of the gear-stick, and so on), and once mastered, new activity begins. In the case of FA the activity is the collaboration of students in the mathematics classroom to accomplish a task, and one of the actions is the provision of oral feedback and adjusting instruction to address learning gaps by the teacher educator; when students reflect on the feedback received, this leads to correction of mistakes through self-regulation, which is the
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operation. This hierarchical system, where activities comprise actions or chains of actions and these actions comprise operations, is depicted in Figure 3.4.
Figure 3.4: The hierarchical structure of an activity system (adapted from Hasan and Kazlauskas, 2014, p. 10).
Naidoo (2011) explained that the border between activity and actions is always indeterminate, because there is a likelihood of movement in both directions. According to Naidoo, while Figure 3.4 represents the hierarchical nature of an activity, it also intimates the reciprocal nature of the activity, action, and operation. Kuutti (1996) reported that activity may become action and action may become an operation. This implies that the hierarchical structure of an activity system is not permanent, due to the fact that all levels have the potential to be changed. Table 3.1 provides some examples of the varying structure of an activity. This is to provide an initial grasp of how the levels work and to concretise the framework for the reader. It defines characteristics of motivation, goals, and conditions within a contextual scenario.
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Table 3.1: Example of activities, actions, and operations Activity level
(Motivation)
Working on group assignment
Planning a party
Action level (Goal)
Arranging a meeting.
Navigating through the internet for academic literature and evaluating pieces of literature.
Writing of the solution
Decorating the venue with balloons and decorations.
Ordering of food.
Transporting the food by car.
Operational level (Conditions)
Typing of agreed information.
Selecting appropriate wording.
Blowing up balloons.
Pinning up decorations.
Telephoning the caterer to order the food.
Changing gears when driving to pick up the food.
Source: Adapted from Naidoo (2011).
3.3.3 Tool mediation
Mediation is one of the fundamental concepts of Vygotsky’s theory and emphasises the influence of culture on an individual’s mind and action (Li, 2015). According to Anastasakis (2018), Vygotsky's idea of mediation was mostly concerned with psychological tools that mediate specific mental operations, rather than physical tools that mediate activity as a whole proposed by Leontiev's framework. It is obvious that the concept of mediated tools is significant, because tool mediation breaks down the boundaries between an individual's mind and their culture and shows how individuals use and create these tools (Thorgeirsdottir, 2015). All key distinctive features of humans, such as language, society, culture and the use of tools, involve mediation (Kaptelinin &
Nardi, 2012a). Kaptelinin and Nardi (2012a) state that human relationships with the “objective”
world are mediated by tools, which shape the way people interact with reality and reflect the previous experiences of people as well as their knowledge of how the tools should be used (see Figure 3.5). The authors further indicated that tools not only shape the external behaviour of the individual, they also influence the mental functioning of the individual.
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Figure 3.5: Three-way mediated interaction between subject, object, and community (adapted from Kaptelinin and Nardi, 2012a, p. 34).
In this study, the subject – MTEs – engage and interact with the students at whom the activity is directed (community), with the aim of accomplishing the object of the activity. The object of this study is teacher educators’ practice of FA to enhance the teaching of mathematics as well as all learning activities within the mathematics classroom, and each of the interactions within the structure is mediated. The relationship between the subject and community is mediated by rules of behaviour, which are explicit or implicit norms and conventions governing the social interaction, while the relationship between community and object is mediated by the division of labour. The subject is directed towards the designated learning activity (object) by artefacts.
3.3.4 Internalisation and externalisation
The principle of internalisation and externalization, according to Kaptelinin and Nardi (2012a), states that human activities are distributed and dynamically redistributed along external and internal dimensions. In other words, human activities contain both internal and external components. The concepts of internalisation and externalisation refer to the processes of mutual transformation between internal and external components of activity (Kaptelinin & Nardi, 2012a).
According to Frambach et al. (2014) “the process in which individuals continuously influenced and formed by their environment is defined as internalization”. Frambach and her colleagues argued that individuals constantly engage in internal reconstructions of external operations. In contrast, externalisation concerns itself with the process where individuals construct and shape their environment: a continuous creation of new tools for transforming the social and cultural
Object Subject
Community
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environment (Frambach et al., 2014). According to Kaptelinin and Nardi (2012a) external components become internal during the process of internalisation; for instance, when a child uses his fingers (external) to count (internal). In externalisation the opposite process takes place; for example, when a person uses paper and pencil (external) to capture an idea (internal).
Externalisation and internalisation are motivated and mediated by artifacts.
3.3.5 Development
This is the last principle that underpins activity theory. The principle of development states that activities develop over time, and consequently requires that activities should always be analysed in the context of their development (Anastasakis, 2018). In activity theory development is both an object of study and a strategy in research (Kaptelinin & Nardi, 2012a). As an object of study, Kaptelinin and Nardi (2012a) assert that it constitutes a multifaceted phenomenon that can be analysed at different levels, while as a research strategy development requires analyses of the object of study in the dynamics of its transformation over time. An example here is when each teacher educator reviews the object of assessment over time, and combines different assessment tools to encourage mathematical development within each student; this constitutes development as a research strategy in activity theory.