Abstract
Contradictions have been recognized as important factors in learning (conceptual change), because they require students to engage in deep reflection that leads to accommodation and learning. However, unless contradictions are thought from the perspective of the subject of activity, we do not gain a good understanding of how contradictions might mediate learning. In the present chapter, I provide an exemplary analysis a meeting in which a scientific research team presents its results to an informed audience. I show that with hindsight, there are contradictions in the mathematical models that the scientists use and the interpretations that they produce, which go unnoticed from that meeting right to the ultimate publication of the results of their work. I distinguish these logical contradictions from inner contradictions, which reflect the fact that any activity undergoes continuous evolution.
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Notes
- 1.
Even many scholars who avow adherence to cultural-historical activity theory – where inner contradiction is a central aspect – often confuse these with the logical contradictions .
- 2.
The example can be found in the context of studies that draw on or make reference to cultural-historical activity theory .
- 3.
The life history of salmon includes several stages: (a) fertilized eggs hatch into (b) alevin or sac fry that quickly evolve into (c) parr that become, after staying from 6 months to several years in fresh water, (d) smolt at the time when the fishes migrate to the ocean.
- 4.
By saying pigment, Shelby uses a synonym for the rhodopsin/porphyropsin composition of the photoreceptors, that is, the two “opsin” forms that together absorb the light.
- 5.
Although separated by only 250 km, the climates at the hatchery and the university laboratory are considerably different with several degrees differences in summer and winter average temperatures.
- 6.
In the hatchery, the slide was actually not necessary as everyone was familiar with the location of the other participating hatchery and its location despite its distance (about 700 km by air and 1,400 km on the road).
- 7.
Teachers might notice or set up such a “contradiction” with students in the hope that they will recognize it as such and, therefore, will be encouraged to learn.
- 8.
In particular cold conditions, salmon have been reported to remain in the freshwater environment until their eighth year following emergence from the egg.
- 9.
In the eye, the two classic photoreceptor cells are rods and cones. Rods are very sensitive and work at very low light levels, but do not allow color distinction. Cone cells have their maximum sensitivity at different wavelengths. The research concerning the changes in porphyropsin (A2) was done with rods. However, some of the research in this laboratory focused on cones, which, in the fishes investigated, are sensitive in the red and green (red/green double cone), blue, and ultraviolet parts of the spectrum.
- 10.
- 11.
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Roth, WM. (2014). On Contradictions in Data Interpretation. In: Uncertainty and Graphing in Discovery Work. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7009-6_6
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