Rejecting the Gestalt View of "Tacit Knowledge"

The difference between how Polanyi talks about tacit knowledge, and the way Vygotsky talks about internalization is this, I think. Vygotsky rejects the Gestalt view of development because this view sees development and learning as concentric circles, with learning being the smaller circle inside development. Learning takes place and informs development in really complicated ways that can never be truly deciphered. I think from what I've read of Polanyi so far, he would agree with this Gestalt view.

Vygotsky on the other hand, sees the relationship between learning and development differently. Learning is ahead of development and pulls development up. So, people grow into the intellectual life around them. This also explains his theory of the zone of proximal development. You have your actual development (independent problem solving), and you have your zone of proximate development (what you can do when being mentored by others, or when working collaboratively).

Contrast this with (Binet??'s) view or other psychologists, that you shouldn't try to teach someone something until they are developmentally ready. I detest this view, frankly. When I am in a conversation and someone says: "Well that's developmental" -- I interpret that to mean they are saying the student can't learn. That the student isn't ready to learn until something else out of the control of learning takes place. I disagree with this.

On the other hand, the really nasty downside to my view is that smart teachers end up with smart students at the end of the semester. Period. This sounds kind of arrogant, but I think it is true. Teachers who are inventional and innovative have students who are the same. Teachers who are prescriptive and circumscribe what students are allowed to do, have students who tame down everything they do. These students learn less in the course of a 16 week semester.

In my study, I am looking at "tacit knowledge" but more as internalization than the way that Polanyi describes it.