- 1 The Jātaka is a collection of folktales that is part of the Buddhist texts in the Khuddaka Nikāya (...)
1Traditionally, every male Tai Lue villager has been received as a novice (pha) in a Buddhist monastery once in his life. By entering the monastery, the youth undergoes preparation to behave in a certain way in society. During his training, he must learn to read Tham (the old Tai Lue script), which will allow him to memorize Buddhist texts that he will need to recite at the monastery or in village ceremonies. This script is a central, symbolic element of Lue identity. During their novitiate, the youths learn to read this script in several stages. First, they must learn akkhara (the letters of the alphabet), and then the combinations of the letters that form syllables. After learning to read words, followed by groups of words, the novices progress to read entire texts. Next comes an important stage in reading instruction that the monks call tham nong (and refers to the reading style and melody). Tham nong is both a method for memorizing texts as well as a tradition when reading the Vessantara Jātaka1 during a public ceremony known as Bun Pha Vet. Each of these stages of reading instruction is a progression towards a ‘total’ thought style specific to the monastic institution and the village. This reading is not simply an end in itself, but allows the essential work of memorization, a major didactic objective for the practice of recitation during rites.
- 2 The session and its analysis originated in a thesis that included an ethnographic study over sever (...)
- 3 The Polish and Israeli physician, biologist and sociologist Ludwik Fleck introduced the concept of (...)
2The session2 that we analyse in this article concerns learning to read and memorize a text. The analysis of this instruction practice aims to understand the way in which novices acquire a certain thought style (Fleck, 2008). According to Fleck,3 “Like any style, the thought style… consists of a certain mood and of the performance by which it is realized. A mood has two closely connected aspects: readiness both to selective feelings and for correspondingly directed actions” (p. 99). According to Fleck’s definition, we can understand thought style as a state of mind–a way ‘to see as’ that determines an individual’s actions or way of acting. We thus sought to study the development of the state of mind that determines the practices of Lue novices. To this end, we used the model of didactic equilibration as we believe that this approach allows an understanding of the specific didactic milieu of monasteries. First, we will lay out the theoretical concepts in the didactic equilibration model as they relate to Buddhist monasteries (A. Joint action theory in didactics and how it relates to monasteries). Secondly, we will analyse an example of the practice of learning a text within the monastery by applying the didactic equilibration model (B. Adequate reading: example of a milieu-text in the didactic equilibration process). Our goal in using this model, which was developed based on research in educational institutions, is to test its relevance in conditions outside its usual milieu.
3Before presenting the concept of didactic equilibration, it is helpful to introduce the theoretical concepts required to understand it. Following Sensevy (2011), we use the model of a game that has three levels: the didactic game, the learning game and the epistemic game.
- 4 The capital letters indicate entities that can include any social status on the condition that one (...)
4The learning practice we will analyse takes place within an institution. In the joint action theory in didactics (JATD), a ‘game’ is a way of modelling this practice. In the monastery, transmitting knowledge is a way to ensure the continuity of the rites of both the religious and village community and, beyond that, to safeguard the permanence of a certain thought style. The goal of the didactic game (to use the terms of our model) is to efficiently transmit knowledge including reading, memorizing, reciting, acting appropriately in a rite, making a sermon, etc. in order to allow ceremonies to be carried out adequately. To learn this knowledge, monks and novices must jointly act in a particular way that is specific to the monastery. There are specific ways of teaching in a monastery that are certainly not found in a public school; however, a number of shared characteristics in terms of didactic activity can be identified in any milieu or institution. We can group the variety of human learning situations within the same category of action. As JATD views it, learning to swim, to dance or to read Tham, while different types of learning practices, share a common principle: the transmission of knowledge involving cooperation between the entity ‘Teacher’ and the entity ‘Student’.4
5Taking this further, the JATD concept considers that in any type of didactic game, there are in fact three entities: Teacher, Student and Knowledge. In this conception of the didactic action as a game, the two players–in our case, the monk and the novice–will work together to try to ‘win’. In order for the novice to win, he must employ strategies given or suggested to him more or less intentionally by the monk. As for the monk, he only wins on the sole condition that the novice gains the desired power of action. The novice needs to succeed in improving his ability to act in his environment. One difference between the two players is that one (the monk) knows what the other (the novice) does not. The monk possesses strategic insights that he cannot communicate to the novice, instead seeking that the novice acquires knowledge through his own initiative.
6A didactic phenomenon highlighted by Brousseau (1998) is the necessity of devolution. “Devolution is the act by which the teacher makes the student accept responsibility for the learning situation (an adidactic situation) or a problem and the teacher accepts the consequences of this transfer” (Brousseau, 1998, p. 303). At some point, the student is faced with a situation of autonomy in which he/she has to be able to ‘play’ without the help of the teacher. Devolution occurs in various learning practices in monasteries. We illustrate this phenomenon in the example below through the introduction of a ‘plot’. This approach aims to create a storyline that organizes the didactic elements in a narrative form.
7Here we observe the bonze (Buddhist monk) guiding the general rhythm of the group reading by reading the text first and then having the novices repeat after him.
Plot
The scene ‘Learning to read Tham’ presents the bonze (tu) Onkeo and 12 novices (pha noi), initiates in the monastery since January 2010, in a room beneath that of Kuba Kham Ngoen, the monastery abbot. The learning aim–based on an extract from the Karaniya Metta Sutta (Buddha’s discourse on loving-kindness)–is both to learn to read Tham and to be able to recite this text by heart in order to conduct private ceremonies requested by villagers seeking mongkhon (happiness, well-being, etc.) such as in the milieu of a sut ban (house blessing).
The bonze has written on the board a text of five lines in Tham from the Karaniya Metta Sutta. After everyone is seated, Tu Onkeo begins to read the text. The novices repeat it after each pause. The bonze makes them repeat the text seven times in a row. Then he gives the role of reader to the novice Pha Sio, sitting in the first row on the left. The other novices repeat after this reader all the way to the end of the text. Pha Sio is corrected by the bonze on the pronunciation of a word. Next, the student next to him, Pha Udone, begins the reading. The bonze frequently corrects his reading, both when the pronunciation is inexact or when a word is not read correctly. With an authoritative tone, the monk corrects the reader, pronouncing the word for him. When the reader makes the mistake again, the bonze corrects him by shortening the word to indicate the syllable where the error was made (e.g. ‘apatitio’ is corrected by ‘kitio’). After the third reading, the bonze leaves for a few minutes. The novices continue the reading, correcting each other. Tu Onkeo comes back to observe the reading several minutes later.
8The students in this session pick up the rhythm and the tone as the words on the board are read out. The bonze hands over the role of reader to a novice, who imitates the musical rhythm (tham nong) introduced by the teacher. The reader guides the rest of the group by pausing exactly at the same words previously indicated by the bonze, signalling when the others should repeat the text. In this way, the groups of words are repeated consecutively. The objective of adequate memorization requires such devolution of learning to the students.
- 5 The word ‘reticence’ is defined here as capacity of being reticent, with reticent meaning “not say (...)
9In a didactic game, not providing certain information is proof of a form of reticence (Sensevy and Quilio, 2002).5 To allow the Student to produce a winning strategy of his/her own initiative, the Teacher avoids transferring his/her knowledge by not supplying a direct solution to the problem. This reticence, or restraint, entails concealing part of one’s knowledge and can also involve the teacher not immediately replying to a student’s prompts. Not responding or immediately reacting to a student’s request is an intentional way to create a situation in which the student is obliged to develop using his/her own initiative. In JATD, this is designated a ‘learning game’. It is characterized essentially by the influence of the performance of the teacher on the performance of the student, meaning that the teacher acts in a certain way on the student in order to enable him/her to respond adequately in a certain milieu.
10In a learning session, successive moments occur that are introduced and then concluded with various elements (an instruction, an event, an object, etc.). Using a theatre metaphor, these moments can be described as scenes. In research language, a new scene would thus correspond to a new learning game resulting from the necessity to advance learning.
- 6 The milieu can thus be a text, a forest, water, one’s body, etc.
11One way to describe this learning game is to identify the milieu and the new contract. The milieu should be understood as “all that acts on the student or on what the student is doing” (Brousseau, 1998, p. 32),6 and the contract refers to the patterns of action this game involves. A learning game is thus based on the reciprocal functions of a contract and a milieu embedded in a process of didactic equilibration.
12An example may serve to better illustrate this learning game. The monk makes a novice read a text. The novice is not able to read two words (pamana vantani). The monk makes the student repeat these words after him (the first learning game). But he still cannot read these words correctly. The teacher thinks he has identified the source of the failure. So he changes the contract and asks the novice to read the first word, pamana (the second learning game). This word continues to pose problems. Then the monk further decreases the reading to just the first two syllables of the word (the third learning game). After several attempts, the novice finally manages to read pamana, but still struggles with pamana vantani. So the monk decides to have him repeat the words after another novice who has mastered reading these two words (the fourth learning game). Through repeating in turns with this partner, the novice succeeds in reading pamana vantani.
- 7 To keep the descriptions to a minimum in the milieu of this article, the two other learning games (...)
13Here there are four clear scenes, or learning games, that succeed each other. In the first, the milieu consists of two words, and the contract is to repeat the words after the teacher. A second learning game follows the first, with the monk changing the contract by asking the novice to repeat only the first word after him. At the same time, he changes the milieu by reducing it to one word. Faced with the continued failure of the student, the teacher decides to make him read only the first two syllables. In this way, he again adapts the milieu, as well as the contract, since the pattern of action in the game is now to repeat two syllables rather than the whole word after the teacher. In the end, the novice succeeds in correctly reading pama and then pamana.7 However, his reading of pamana vantani is still not satisfactory. In the fourth learning game, the bonze decides to bring in a second novice who has better mastered the reading of these two words. The monk thus changes the contract one last time by asking the first novice to take turns reading the word by repeating after the other novice. The milieu reverts back to that of the first learning game: i.e. the two words pamana vantani. This last game is the ‘winning’ game, as the novice succeeds in adequately reading the two words.
14A learning game always includes the capacity to acquire something through playing the game: this capacity is determined by the social milieu of the game.
15In JATD, the epistemic game refers to the student’s direct relationship with knowledge, beyond works recognized in his/her given culture (Sensevy, 2011, p. 123). The JATD specifies two types of practice: the source epistemic game and the emerging epistemic game. The source epistemic game refers to scholarly practice in the society. A scholar is “the one who, in the social sphere, knows (how to do) something as a practical specialist of this thing” (Sensevy, 2011, p. 127). For example, the practice of the bonze as an ‘expert’ in recitation is a scholarly practice, or a knowledge practice. Knowledge practice as defined by Sensevy is “based on the power of action, which integrates language in order to speak about and justify the practice, and which implies the resolution of a problem” (p. 132). The source epistemic game is thus a “game that models a knowledge practice” (p. 132). It allows an examination of the link between scholarly practice (or knowledge practice) and the capacity of the students. So what is the scholarly practice that determines learning and the level of the students’ capacity?
16The capacity of the students, real or potential, is also modelled in a bottom-up approach of emerging epistemic games that demonstrate a capacity to acquire through play in a learning game. The emerging epistemic game is defined as a “game that models a knowledge practice that can be inferred from a didactic activity” (an activity which is itself modelled in the form of a learning game) (Sensevy, 2011, p. 132). The emerging epistemic game of classroom practice can thus be associated with a source epistemic game, which models a standard scholarly practice.
17In this way, making students work on the pronunciation of two words is effectively a learning game guided by the teacher. The source epistemic game models the practice, which consists of reciting the text as part of a ceremony. Through the learning practice, the novice must become capable of reciting the text in the manner of a bonze. The learning involves progressively adopting the elements of this practice, elements that we model using the concept of emerging epistemic games. The adequate pronunciation of two words is one of these elements.
18This presents the theoretical concepts in our approach, although we would like to explain in more detail the concept of didactic equilibration, which cannot be understood without the notions of milieu and contract. In this, our model was based on that of Sensevy (2011, p. 195).
19First, we will present the model as defined by Sensevy. Later, we will add our own comments regarding didactic equilibration as used to model the progression of knowledge acquisition as observed in a monastic milieu.
Table 1. Didactic equilibration
‘Initial’ rational system
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‘Final’ rational system
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Strategic system of the didactic contract
Supplied by the existing didactic contract relative to the problem encountered. Background established by previous joint action.
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Problem: More or less resistant milieu
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Strategic system of the milieu
Necessitated by the treatment of the problem encountered. Emerges from joint action within the milieu
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Available action potential
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Process of mesogenesis
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Virtual action potential
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Current thought style
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ASSIMILATION ACCOMODATION
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Virtual thought style
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20Sensevy (2011) accompanies this model with the following explanations:
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Learning, in a didactic institution, always concerns learning within and by a contract that can be considered as resulting from previous joint action, which establishes a background for the current action. The contract can be considered the existing strategic system available to the students to work on the problem (in the most general sense of the term) presented to them – the problem that ‘activates’ this contract.
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It is against the backdrop of this contract, both epistemic and transactional, that the students interact with and act on the problem, within the milieu that the problem actualizes for them. This is shown by arrow (1).
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Solving this problem involves the activation of a strategic system related to the configuration of the milieu – a system that at this point is only virtual. This strategic system will be developed during the learning practice, within the joint action. This is shown by arrow (2).
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A comparison of the two systems (contract system and milieu system) reveals a distance, which is variable, between the available action potential and the virtual action potential of the students – i.e. the potential students should reach through learning. One way to characterize this distance is to identify the resistance the milieu generates to assimilation through the contract. This is shown by arrow (3).
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The process of mesogenesis, which here involves the development of a didactic milieu in which and by which the student gradually begins to act adequately, is characterized by a process of assimilation of the milieu by the contract, and the accommodation of the milieu to the contract. This is shown by arrows (4) and (5).
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This process of assimilation – accommodation, a process of didactic equilibration, depends on the contract – milieu distance mentioned in (d). Mesogenesis, in its required links with the contract, can be seen as a description of this process of didactic equilibration. This is shown by arrow (6).
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The process of didactic equilibration is always based on a certain contract that can be seen as the current thought style, as concerns the knowledge at stake, and the classroom as an institution. It involves a level of modification of this thought style towards a virtual thought style, which, in some cases if the contract – milieu distance is very wide, may be new. This is shown by arrow (7) (p. 195).
21Winning this new learning game (in the language of the model) requires students to reactivate previous patterns of action, old or recent. These patterns of action are the rules of the game or the norms: that is, the way to play (in the language of the model) or to learn (the more usual semantics for this action) expected by the teacher and the didactic institution. The strategic system of the didactic contract as presented in the model essentially refers to the patterns of action that have been previously formed. However, the pattern of action is “always produced in relation to a certain milieu [our emphasis] – one tries to do this or that in a particular configuration of a situation, confronted with material or textual elements that engage the action, which may (or may not) produce signals recognized as such, with the help of others (for example, the teacher) or not” (Sensevy, 2011, p. 194).
22In a learning game, the student will engage the strategies he/she knows (repeating after a monk, for example) and that allowed him/her to win the last learning game, in order to assimilate a new milieu (a new text, for example). The learning game allows modelling the student’s action in a situation involving a problem that he/she must solve. For example, how can a text be memorized or read adequately? These are recurrent problems regularly encountered by novices. To solve them, the student will attempt to use the support of the initial contract or a contract established in a previous learning game. Depending on how the milieu has evolved, this initial contract will not always be sufficient for finding a solution. The previously established contract will guide the student’s action, but he/she will need to find other strategies to reach the objective (memorize a new text, read it in a certain way, etc.). Sensevy explains in (c) that these strategies, which form a system, are still only virtual as they develop progressively during learning. It is over the course of a series of didactic actions (‘the available action potential of students’), with successes and failures in the face of a given problem, that the learner and teacher put in place new action strategies (‘the virtual action potential’) that they consider effective. The student must thus adapt to this new milieu, which cannot be assimilated by the old contract, and in a joint action with the teacher find new ways of proceeding or acting within the milieu: in other words, accommodate the contract in order to assimilate this new milieu. This is the process of assimilation – accommodation that Sensevy calls, inspired by Piaget, didactic equilibration (equilibration being the process of finding equilibrium or balance).
- 8 This daily ceremony in monasteries consists of reciting praise to Buddha. The ceremony is punctuat (...)
- 9 An interesting example that does not directly concern this study is that of the development of a c (...)
- 10 Mauss (2004): “I call technique an action that is traditional and effective (and you will see that (...)
23In a monastery, the novice learns through the milieu itself, and the teacher bases his strategies on this milieu to help the student succeed. Take the example of learning the rite to pay homage to Buddha,8 which is held each evening in a monastery. The milieu is the recitation of the homage, and the modes of action rarely change within a given monastery. Any changes are most often related to the method of reciting and originate from monks from other monasteries. In the example of two novices performing prostration during a rite to pay homage (Phetchanpheng, 2013, pp. 217–227), the learning objective is not linked to the innovation of a practice such as recitation, for example.9 It is based on the very principle of the rite, which is the reproduction of actions and words. In the sense of Mauss, prostration can be defined as a technique, as it is an act that is both ‘traditional and effective’.10 Prostration must thus contribute to the reproduction of the rite of paying homage. It is part of a tradition. In this example, we noted that the novices’ technique of prostration was inadequate compared to the monk’s technique.
Figure 1. Prostration and coordination
24Three prostrations are carried out consecutively. The monk bends forward for his final prostration. The two novices have completed their three prostrations. The arrows indicate that they are looking at the monk as he does his third prostration.
25A similarity between Buddhist ceremonies is the coordinated movement of the whole that should be achieved. However, as can be observed in this example, the novices do not coordinate their actions with those of the monk. While the monk performs slow and thorough prostrations, the two novices perform their movements much more quickly. What emerges quite clearly in this comparison between the three participants is the different state of mind in which the monk and the novices carry out the rite. By ‘reading’ the body of the monk, it appears that all his actions form a symbiosis. He is not distracted at any moment and retains all his attention on his body, even when an action appears to be finished. The two novices, on the other hand, express through their bodies a conception of the rite of homage as the production of a simple, routine task.
- 11 Max Weber (2004) refers to a puritan ethos to designate the interiorization of a system of values (...)
- 12 The slow movements of the bonze show diligence as well as a certain attitude to his practice of wo (...)
26How can the monastic institution improve the way the two novices prostrate themselves? The previous prostration technique of the novices, through repetition, has given a form to the body, resulting in its resistance (physical) to accommodation with the contract. As with any bodily technique, there is a double milieu as this involves a dual relationship, both to the external milieu on which we act or that makes us act (in this case the body of a monk to be imitated or, in other cases, water or a text, etc.) and to the internal milieu, that is, our own body by which we modify our practices and thus our sensations and somatic perceptions. Learning a new technique has the function of modifying the novice’s somatic perception and sensation while making him capable of acting differently. Acting differently in his environment involves feeling and perceiving his body differently. We could call this a ‘body habitus’, signifying that the individual perceives, feels and moves his/her body in a habitual way acquired through training. Bourdieu used this term to refer to “what is acquired and physically embodied in an enduring way in the body as permanent dispositions” (1980, p. 134). Discussing bodily techniques, Mauss considers that these are the product of an association between physical, psychic and social factors. Bourdieu (1980, pp. 133–134) perfectly aligns with Mauss on this point (physio-psychosociological construction) with the concept of ethos11 as a specific dimension of habitus in which the interiorization of the values of a group is visible in the body and its actions. In our example, the change in the way the body is used should allow the novices to fully integrate meaning – not only regarding the technique of prostration, but also the rite of paying homage and, more broadly, the thought style specific to the monastic institution – namely, sustained attention to the movement itself, a slow deliberateness12 and a certain perfection of the technique. The set of movements carried out by the monk seem to be the expression of a thought style. The monk takes his activity to an ‘ultimate fulfilment’ (Billeter, 2012) in which every movement contributes to the perfect production of the rite, a perfection arising from the total attention of the mind on the body. Whereas for the novices the rite of homage seems to signify the execution of a task, for the monk the rite appears to be a moment of inner concentration and self-connection.
27Learning a new technique involves modifying one’s state of mind and making one’s body conform. Just as in swimming, for example, the contract can be embedded in bodily expression, as we habituate the body to act in a certain way and others expect us to act with our body in this way. But the previous contract relating to a physical technique is modified when we are confronted with learning a new technique. The internal milieu, which is said to be created by the body, and the external milieu, created by the immediate environment, call for an accommodation to the contract at the same time that the contract allows the milieu to be assimilated. For a student to integrate a new bodily technique, and thus a new habitus, the contract has to be adapted through the joint action of the teacher and the student. The difficulty lies in being able to change one’s habits, arising from a previous didactic contract. To do this, the teacher seeks to modify the didactic contract so that the student can attain the new objective by incorporating the new habitus. We have seen this in the example of the rite of homage and the technique of prostration: next we will study a session involving learning to read adequately.
28As previously mentioned, monks teach reading in a process that follows several stages. In monasteries, akkhara (the alphabet) and then the combination of letters in syllables are taught on a board. The milieu in the first stage is the akkhara written on the board. In the second stage, the milieu evolves to become the combination of letters forming syllables on the board. Once the student can correctly read these syllables, he practises reading texts using different materials such as bailan, pap sa (a manuscript made from the paper of the mulberry tree), books or simple schoolbooks. Teaching tham nong (i.e. reading style and melody) will add a new modification to the milieu in the sense that the text is not taught in the same way as in the previous stages.
29The monk will necessarily have to act on the milieu in such a way that he is neither too close nor too far from the novice’s assimilation potential. The greater the distance between the existing capacity of the novice and the demands of the monk, the greater the learning required. The monk must effectively arrange an appropriate milieu that corresponds to the progression and pace of his student. A teacher of Tham (the Lue script) cannot expect the student to know how to read a chapter of Vessantara Jātaka in perfect tham nong when he only roughly knows the akkhara. But even when the milieu is arranged in a manner appropriate to the problem, the monk will still have to create a situation that allows the novice to engage in a winning strategy through his own initiative. This arrangement is part of the teacher’s strategic system. Thus, it is in a necessarily joint action that the milieu is redesigned and the contract is modified. Depending on whether the student’s action is adequate or not, the teacher can adapt the contract or rearrange the milieu to make assimilation more accessible. So the progression of the novice depends on the monk’s design of the milieu, and the previous action of the novice influences the modification or not of the contract. The monk and the novice act efficaciously in a continuous search to find an equilibrium between the milieu and the contract.
30To learn tham nong, the novice (if we describe his action in the language of Sensevy’s model) will use the contract system as a strategic system to win the learning game. To do this he will adopt practices emerging mainly from a contract involving imitation, but he will also need to adopt new practices. Below we present a learning situation in which we find certain forms of the contract, while other forms are disregarded due to the different milieus depending on the level of the novice concerned: learning tham nong or reading at the level preceding this.
31The sequence takes place on the veranda of the Chiang Chai monastery, a Lue monastery located in Mueang Sing (northern Laos). It involves a situation of reading instruction that includes Tu Ñithone (T), the superior of the Chiang Chai monastery, a pha kang (PK) who is an intermediate-level novice and two pha noi (PN) who are new novices.
32T instructs the novices to start reading. Pha Vat (PK), the most experienced novice, repeats after T, trying to imitate his way of reading a passage from the Vessantara Jātaka (see note 1). The two pha noi (Pha Keu: PNd; Pha Lanoi: PNg) read the akkhara manual (including the letters of the alphabet and the Tham syllables) independently, but they regularly stop reading.
33The images below show the didactic arrangement.
Figure 2. Didactic arrangement.
24’58’’: T looks at the PK’s text (the experienced novice). Meanwhile, the PNs (the inexperienced novices) read.
- 13 A collection of texts with apotropaic qualities that are read during ceremonies in the presence of (...)
34The pha noi leave and come back and sit down with pointers to follow the words as they read. T gives a new instruction to the PNs (inexperienced novices), asking them to read the text entitled karani included in the Mangala Sutta.13 T stops having PK (experienced) repeat after him and asks him to read on his own. As he is listening to PK, T watches what the PNs are doing. As they read, T alternates between looking at them and their texts to verify their reading. Then T brings his attention to the text read by PK. The following series of images show T’s visual action.
Figure 3. T looks at PNd’s text.
24’59’’: T switches his attention from PK (experienced) to briefly (2 seconds) look at PNd’s text.
Figure 4. T looks at PK’s text.
25’01’’: T rests his gaze on PK’s (experienced) text.
Figure 5.T looks at PNd’s face.
25’03’’: Then T raises his eyes to look at PNd’s face.
Figure 6. T looks at Png.
25’04’’: T then shifts his gaze to PNg.
35T changes his method, taking the pointer from PK (experienced) and indicating the words he should read. PK leaves, and soon after PNg also exits. T finds himself alone with PNd and focuses on having him read. A few minutes later, PNg and PK come back and sit down, and T has PNg read the same text.
36T has the PNs (inexperienced) repeat several times the words pamana vantani (pamana: the amount, quantity; vantani: devotion, homage), which they struggle to read or to remember. T then finds a solution by having them read in turns the words they are having difficulty memorizing. A reading rhythm is thus created between the two novices. They succeed in pronouncing the words correctly. After proceeding in this way to the end of the text, T has each PN read the same text alone.
Figure 7. T has the PNs reread the text.
39’38’’: T has each PN reread the text. He indicates the text with the pointer as PNd reads. Meanwhile, PK (experienced), practises his reading alone.
37How does the didactic contract evolve? For Pha Vat, the most experienced novice, who is learning tham nong (the melody and rhythm of the reading):
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Initially, the bonze has PK repeat and imitate his reading. Through repetition, PK progressively appropriates the teacher’s reading style.
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- 14 We understand by autonomy (a concept that can be situated in a space between independence and depe (...)
The teacher thus stops having him repeat and just listens to him read, occasionally correcting him. By giving him his attention, he seems to support him in gaining autonomy.14
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The teacher questions and verifies PK’s reading by indicating the words as they are read with the pointer. T points again with his finger to the words that were pronounced incorrectly.
38For the pha noi, the less experienced novices, who are learning to read using manuscripts, the evolution of the contract involves:
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Independent reading to memorize the akkhara
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Reading with pointers
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Reading a text
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Repetition of words incorrectly deciphered or pronounced. The reading progression of the two pha noi depends both on the accuracy of the reading and the correct pronunciation of the words. Repetition after the monk is a method for memorizing the words as well as how to pronounce them. However, this method proves insufficient. T modifies the contract.
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New learning game: the two novices take turns repeating to create a rhythm that allows the pronunciation of the words to be memorized. The teacher comes up with the solution of alternate repetition between the novices, allowing a game of exchange. This game creates a rhythm that concentrates the student’s attention on the pronunciation of the syllables. Like a mirror game, the two students pass the same words back and forth, allowing them to better hear what they are saying.
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Individual reading in turns of the same group of words. The teacher verifies the efficacy of the new method.
39It could be said that we are in the presence of two levels of reading instruction and thus of two learning games that interact as well as succeed each other. The pha noi, in this example, must first learn to read by deciphering and perfectly pronouncing a text before learning tham nong. Certain clauses are found in both contracts: for example, repetition through imitation, independent reading, reading with a pointer, and the introduction of rhythm to aid memorization. These clauses of the contract would certainly have been assimilated by Pha Vat when he was still a pha noi.
40In the transaction of the bonze with the two pha noi, we observe several modifications of the contract. The objective of these adaptations is to address the deciphering and pronunciation challenges the two novices are experiencing. As the previous didactic contract (consisting of having them repeat after him) is no longer sufficient, the teacher adapts the contract, asking the novices to repeat the text in turns. The students find a rhythm that helps them memorize the correct pronunciation of the words. Lastly, by having each of the students reread the passage individually, the bonze modifies the contract a final time to ensure that the milieu (here the specific passage of a text that proved resistant) has been assimilated. The previous contract (repetition) no longer allowed a winning strategy, so the teacher modified the milieu by reducing the reading to two words.
41In this case, what does adequately pronouncing the words refer to? The source epistemic game models the practice of reciting the text during a rite. Through reading instruction, the novice must become capable of reciting the text in the manner of a bonze. Learning consists of progressively assimilating the elements of this practice, elements that we model using the concept of emerging epistemic games. The adequate pronunciation of two words is one of these elements.
42Within a learning game, at the same time as the milieu is rearranged (the bonze reduces the passage to be read to two words), the contract is modified (as the bonze asks the students to repeat in turns and no longer after him). The teacher and the students thus find an equilibrium in the contract–milieu relationship by making the contract appropriate and by adapting the milieu. The bonze adapts the contract by having it evolve from simply repeating after him to repeating in turns, or a game of exchange between the students. He also reduces the text to read so that it is a sufficient ‘purveyor of actions’ (Sensevy, 2011). A milieu that acts as a purveyor of actions essentially means that the milieu, by rearranging itself to the situation (e.g. pha noi who are unable to read a passage), produces a ‘virtual action potential’ (Sensevy, 2011), that is, what the novices will be capable of after having assimilated the milieu. For the one who initiates the rearrangement of the milieu (the teacher), the goal is to lead the student to respond in a certain way. The following diagram and explanations serve to better define this concept of didactic equilibration as pertains to our example.
Table 2. Model of the concept of didactic equilibration in our example
‘Initial’ rational system
Deciphering the akkhara
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‘Final’ rational system
Reading a full phrase
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Strategic system of the didactic contract
Memorization by repeating after the monk, or the imitation contract
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Resistant milieu:
Incapacity to read a passage
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Strategic system of the milieu
Memorization after reducing the text to be read to two words
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Available action potential: Repeating to imitate the monk
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Process of mesogenesis
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Virtual action potential: Repetition in turns between two novices
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Current thought style: Imitate to memorize the text and the reading style
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ASSIMILATION ACCOMODATION
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Virtual thought style: Adopt a rhythm to memorize the reading of two words
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43This general diagram, inspired by the model developed by Sensevy (2011, p. 195), aims to show that didactic equilibration occurs through the dual action produced by the contract and by the milieu. It is through this convergence of actions that didactic equilibration takes place and that allows the progress of didactic time or of learning time.
44Arrow 1 indicates that the pha noi attempt to read a phrase through the existing strategic system of the didactic contract: the imitation contract.
45Conforming to the milieu, a strategic system is produced in order to solve the reading problem. Arrow 2 indicates that the strategic system of the milieu, still virtual, is produced through the joint action between the bonze and the pha noi.
46The milieu is adapted (by reducing the passage to be read to two words) to allow the memorization of the reading of the words that pose a problem. At the same time as the milieu is modified, the contract evolves, as the repetition after the monk (the strategic system of the previous didactic contract) is replaced by the repetition in turns between the two pha noi.
47In the comparison of the strategic system of the didactic contract and the strategic system of the milieu, a distance appears between available action potential and virtual action potential. This distance, represented by arrow 3, is established between the available action potential, involving repeating after the bonze, and the virtual action potential, the repetition in turns between novices.
48The contract (repeating after the bonze, or the imitation contract, in order to memorize) aims to assimilate the milieu (the passage of text), while the milieu aims to accommodate the contract. Thus, didactic equilibration is found between the joint effects of the assimilation of the milieu produced by the contract and the accommodation of the contract produced by the milieu. This is indicated by arrows 4 and 5.
49Arrow 6 represents the distance between the contract and the milieu. This distance determines the process of didactic equilibration.
50Arrow 7 indicates the transition from an existing thought style to a virtual thought style. The existing thought style depends on the contract established up to this point: in our case, the imitation contract. The distance between the imitation contract and the new milieu prevents the acquisition of the knowledge concerned. Thus, the contract evolves at the same time as the milieu is modified (in our case, by reducing the text to be read). The virtual thought style will be based on a modification of the contract: the repetition in turns of two words by the novices. The two young novices adapt their patterns of action and adopt a new way to think about the game of reading/memorizing the text by becoming partners in their learning. In their game of exchange, they adopt a rhythm to memorize how to read the two words. The bonze is no longer a constituent element of the game. He devolves the learning to the students and makes the ‘play’ the game of repetition in pairs. He leads them towards autonomy in this exercise of double memorization that requires both the memorization of the sounds associated with the script in order to be able to read any text in Tham, and the memorization of the entire text to be able to recite together in public ceremonies. This dual aspect of learning the text, which we refer to as ‘reading/memorizing’, seems to support the novices in gradually becoming both heirs and guardians of the Buddhist tradition of the Tai Lue community.
51Through the described process of didactic equilibration, the novices appear to acquire a certain way of reading and of memorizing specific to the monastic institution and with a specific goal – he reproduction of the rites of the group. Yet each also acquires, through this learning, a new relationship to himself.
52Applying the model of didactic equilibration to the specific milieu of a monastic institution enabled us to describe and understand, at least partly, the way in which a novice can acquire a thought style. We observed the importance of repetition and of tham nong (the reading style and melody) as memorization methods. The work that the bonze Tu Ñithone has his students perform is mainly based on the repetition and memorization of what is read. The aim seems to be both to render the students capable of reading aloud with the correct pronunciation and to be able to memorize what is read. Mechanical repetition allows the words to be more rapidly ingrained in the memory and thus facilitates familiarization with the texts. This is what Carruthers (2002) calls ‘reading/memorizing’ as it was practised in medieval societies in Europe, with writing serving only as a support that favoured memorization: what Carruthers calls a ‘mnemonic device’. It is possible to compare what Carruthers says regarding the role of writing in medieval European society to the situation in the studied monastery: “Writing, as we have seen, was considered a mnemonic device, not a substitute for memory. Children learned to write in the milieu of reading/memorization; they recorded in their memory by recording on their tablets” (Carruthers, 2002, p. 227).
- 15 According to Jack Goody, memorizing texts makes reading out loud unnecessary, since his research i (...)
53The memorization of many recitation texts is thus aided by reading. Most of the novices encountered in monasteries read aloud – producing somewhat of a cacophony – not only to help them remember,15 but also to recreate the conditions of the recitations that take place during ceremonies. This recreation of the conditions of rites is an important and in fact required aspect of learning, allowing the students to enter into an inner, thus individual, concentration, while still acting within the group. Most of the rites the novices will have to perform are collective, and the objective is both to memorize the text (during learning) and then to recall it (during the rite) and recite it with others.
54Tham nong (the melody of the reading or recitation modelled as an epistemic game) is both the means and the ends of the learning. It helps the novice to engrave the text in his memory, but is also a constituent of the knowledge to be learned. Learning tham nong shows the student’s game in direct relation to the knowledge that will, at a later date, be put into action during a ceremony. At the same time as helping the memorization of the text, it is itself memorized to be deployed during rites. Yet the process of memorizing texts that integrate the art of tham nong should not be understood as a simple procedure allowing only the recitation of the texts during ceremonies. Beyond this, this practice teaches concentration as well as accords honour linked to status, since the village society associates the ability to memorize with the virtue of work (the learning task) as well as with prudence, among other things. Learning the skill of concentration equally involves learning to turn one’s attention to oneself, both to one’s body and to one’s spirit.
55Through the model of didactic equilibration, we applied the concepts of milieu and contract as the key descriptors of the ‘learning game’ in monasteries. With the help of these descriptors, we were able to analyse concepts such as body milieu involved in physical activities such as prostration, and in which conscious attention is focused on the body. The model of didactic equilibration thus seems relevant to study learning situations whatever their milieu. It challenges us to consider didactic practices within monasteries in a different way. Through the example of the rite of paying homage to Buddha and the example of learning a recitation text, we observe that the training of the novice is centred not only on the texts but on his body. At the same time as learning the texts, the novices assimilate a way of thinking and of behaving. In this way, it is essentially through learning a variety of actions that the novice’s ‘thought world’ (Douglas, 2004) is formed. To this textual memorization, a second form of memorization should be added that is practised through the body. As the novice learns to recite or read the texts in order to be able to perform rites, he gradually acquires a habitus and a thought style specific to the monastic culture. In parallel, he adopts the habitus and thought style of the village culture, as the monastery remains the central place of learning for the dominant values and modes of behaviour of the Tai Lue.