Double stimulation and prolepsis: tools and talk
involves the concepts double stimulation and double stimulation.
Double stimulation is the process in which persons are facing a complex problems (first stimulus) in the actual situation that cannot be solved with the tools and skills already at hand, but need new auxiliary means (second stimulus) that can help solve the problem (Van Oers, 2014).
In de PDL relfection and inquiry are the two key assignments the students have in every theme. Within theme 'classroom management' the task for the students was to analyse the social structure in the classroom and the way their teaching might innfluence that structure and the culture of the classroom. The educational task of reflection and inquiry on his practice may have been the first stimulus for Rob. The first stimulus in a way created the problem to be solved: how to manage the classroom in an authentic way.
The second stimulus then would be the theory Robs finds helpful to formulate his view on education in general and hence his own direction for solving the problem of classroom management. To be specific: Luc Stevens' theory, based on Deci and Ryan's three basic psychological needs relation, autonomy, competence. For Rob it became clear that he was a teacher that regarded his relation with the students as the core of his teaching.
The question now is however: how did Rob came accross his auxiliary means? What triggered him to start reading Luc Stevens (and others)? My answer would be that within the learning community the students an I formed the interaction that took place funcioned as 'prolepsis'.
In this case what might have happened is that by means of peer support Rob was challenged to connect his classroom management problems with theory and an explicate his view on education, so that he eventually could define a direction for his professional development that fitted that view.“Prolepsis refers to communicative move in which the speaker presupposes some as yet unprovided information (…) a challenge that forces the listener to construct a set of assumptions in order to make sense of the utterance.” (Stone, 1993, p. 171)