Situated Action

This book is addressed to all those in the field of education or related fields, including teachers, teacher-trainers, consultants, and researchers, who are interested in exploring the question, What does it mean to know, to learn and to teach? Contrary to popular conceptions, an enactive perspective assumes that knowing and learning are not disembodied operations that take place solely in a person's head. Rather, they are a function of the whole person who is firmly situated in the world and who acts in the world to transform it, just as she is transformed by it. The dynamic and transformational nature of knowing and learning are reflected in the relationship between the person and her world, a relationship that evolves through acting in and with the world rather than abstracting oneself from it. Knowing develops as a function of the person's availability, that is, her full involvement and presence in the here- and-now. The aim of education is thus to foster the development of this relationship in a never-ending quest for deep interiority with the world. Drawing on their experiences as teachers, curriculum developers, students, Zen practitioners, karateka, bicyclists, hobby mathematicians, and gardeners, the authors provide many concrete examples of what it means to think about knowing and learning in terms of enaction and how teachers and curriculum developers who take enactivism seriously might go about designing and implementing lessons.

"Educ Ther Patient/Ther Patient Educ 2012 4(1): 1-10
Article original/Original article
Transmettre le savoir technique ou développer l’action : une approche de l’énaction et la méthode ASCAR en ETP

Transmitting technical knowledge or developing action: An enactive approach and the ASCKAR method in TPE

Domenico Masciotra1⋆, Denise Morel2 et Juan Ruiz3
1 6730 rue Chambord, Montréal, Québec, H2G 3C3 Canada
2 5135 rue Belisle, St-Hubert, Québec, J3Y 6E4 Canada
3 Service d'endocrinologie, diabétologie et métabolisme, CHUV, CH-1011 Lausanne, Suisse
⋆ Correspondance : masciotra.domenico@gmail.com
Reçu : 23 Juillet 2011
Accepté : 24 Octobre 2011
Résumé
Introduction : L’action en cours, ce que fait effectivement le patient en situation pour traiter certains symptômes, se différencie du savoir technique, c’est-à-dire de l’action codifiée, mise en texte (images, mots, de schémas, paroles, vidéos, etc.) qu’il apprend dans des cours d’éducation thérapeutique. Méthodes : Deux approches de l’ETP en découlent : l’approche techniciste et l’approche énactive (en action). Les deux approches sont contrastées à partir d’une analogie entre l’apprentissage de la natation (en dehors de l’eau et dans l’eau) et l’apprentissage de la gestion du diabète (dans les cours d’éducation thérapeutique et dans la vie quotidienne). L’approche techniciste prête foi en l’efficacité des savoirs techniques et scientifiques et privilégie une formation thérapeutique qui se donne pour objectif de les transmettre au patient. On peut se demander jusqu’à quel point l’acquisition de ces savoirs techniques influent sur les actions réelles du patient dans sa vie quotidienne. L’alternative à l’approche techniciste est l’approche énactive : elle est centrée sur la personne diabétique qui évolue en faisant face aux situations de la vie quotidienne dans et par l’action. Résultas : Une méthode ASCAR — acronyme formé de la première lettre des cinq concepts suivants : Action, Situation, Connaissance, Attitude et Ressource — est proposée avec pour objectif de permettre à la personne diabétique, accompagnée des soignants-éducateurs, d’enrichir et d’élargir son expérience afin de progresser vers une prise en charge de sa vie et conséquemment de son diabète. Dans cette perspective, la finalité de l’ETP devient, au-delà des autosoins et de l’autoadaptation, la réalisation de soi.
Abstract
Introduction: Ongoing action, that is, what a patient in situation actually does to treat certain symptoms, can be distinguished from the technical knowledge whereby action is codified, that is, rendered as text (images, words, schemas, speech, videos, etc.) that the patient is taught in therapeutic education courses. This distinction suggests two different approaches to therapeutic education, one focused on the acquisition of techniques and the other on the development of action. Methods: The two approaches are elucidated through an analogy between learning how to swim (outside the water or in the water) and learning how to manage one’s diabetes (in a therapeutic education course or in everyday life). The first approach presupposes the efficacy of technical and scientific knowledge and favours a type of therapeutic education in which the primary objective is to transmit that knowledge to the patient. It remains questionable, however, just to what extent the acquisition of such knowledge affects the real actions of the patient in her everyday life. An alternative to the technical-scientific approach is the enactive approach, which focuses on the diabetic as a whole person who evolves in the process of acting in situation, that is, by actively dealing with her real-life situations. Results: The authors propose the ASKAR method — the term ASKAR is an acronym referring to the five components of experience: Action, Situation, Knowledge, Attitude and Resource — as a tool to help the diabetic person, with the support of her caretakers, to enrich and enlarge her experience so that she may become increasingly responsible for managing her life and consequently her diabetes. From this perspective, the aim of patient therapeutic education stretches beyond that of self-care and self-management to embrace true self-realization.
Mots clés : situation / énaction / méthode ASCAR / approche techniciste / transmission du savoir
Key words: situation / enaction / ASKAR method / technical-scientific approach / knowledge transmission
© EDP Sciences, SETE, 2011"

To characterize the contents of emotions experienced by elite table tennis players during high-stakes matches and the situational elements that contribute to these experiences.A four-case study.Three top-level table tennis players from the French Men's Table Tennis Team volunteered to participate in the study. Four matches were studied. Procedures involved: (a) videotaping high-stakes table tennis matches, (b) conducting self-confrontation interviews with players after matches, (c) transcribing the players’ actions and self-confrontation data, (d) decomposing their activity into elementary units, and (e) identifying typical contents of emotion and typical emotional situations.The contents of players’ emotions varied during matches. The pleasant or unpleasant tone of emotional content was linked to the set result and the interpretations of the unfolding situation. However, other elements of the competitive interaction (score configurations, judgments about the strokes performed) had a strong emotional coloration. Certain similar events (e.g., bad sensations during stroke performance) were frequently coupled with similar emotional content (e.g., displeasure).Until quite recently, the predominant focus in sport psychology has been on pre-performance emotions, with far less attention paid to the subjective emotional experiences that occur during task execution. This exploratory study provides initial empirical support for the notion of bi-directionality in emotion–performance relationships [Hanin, Y.L. (Ed.). (2000). Emotions in sport. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics; Hanin, Y.L. (2003). Performance related emotional states in sport: A qualitative analysis. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research [On-line Journal], 4(1). Available at: http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/1-03/1-03hanin-e.htm].

We describe a perspective and a framework for understanding the role of nonemotional cognitive feelings in proving theorems. We begin with a brief discussion of the nature of affect, emotions, and nonemotional cognitive feelings. We see kinds of situations as mentally linked to kinds of feelings that then participate in enacting behavioral schemas to yield actions.

Proposes a situated activity theory view of collaborative knowledge work. Activity theory is argued to be particularly relevant in the context of knowledge work since the body of knowledge is a historically accumulated social construction. Situated activity theory makes a distinction between activities, tasks and encounters, the first two following the traditional distinction between activity and action in activity theory.