Organizational Learning Is Essential to Achieving and Sustaining Change in Higher Education

Organizational change is often temporary or unsuccessful. This literature review of organizational change in higher education explores research in higher education, sociology, and organizational studies focusing on the problem of sustaining successful change. Indicators of successful change are distilled from the recent research. Establishing conditions for continued organizational learning in a college or university is identified as an essential aspect of sustaining successful organizational change.     

Expanding the definitional criteria for imaginative play: Contributions of sociocultural perspectives

This article proposes expanding four existing criteria for imaginative play in view of recent advances in sociocultural perspectives on the study of human development. Imaginative play is commonly defined as intrinsically motivated, open ended, pleasure seeking, and an escape from reality. Grounded in sociocultural research, and, as such, in the relation between individual and social and cultural environment, we argue that these four criteria should shift from assumptions to research questions: What are the motives for imaginative play? What are the goals for imaginative play? What affective dimensions emerge in imaginative play? What, how, and why do features of reality and imagination emerge through play? Expanding definitional criteria in this fashion enables researchers to remain open to variations in an individual’s experience over time, across participants, and cultural variations rather than imposing dominant cultural assumptions as explanatory heuristics. Implications for research and education are discussed.     

Consulting to Facilitate Planned Organizational Change in Schools

We present an update of our 1984 chapter on organizational interventions in educational settings. Our view of the organizational change process is described, followed by a discussion of the gap between current theory and practice. We describe several examples of promising organizational change initiatives, followed by our observations of future directions for the field. We suggest that there will continue to be dramatic changes in our nation's educational institutions and that the primary question is whether planned change efforts will allow us to have some control over these changes and how they transpire.     

Unpacking a Liturgical Framing of Desire for the Purposes of Educational Research

Much of the public discourse on education arguably reinforces the assumption that most stakeholders share the same desires for teaching and learning—desires reflecting a liberal paradigm that stresses individualism, control, and efficiency. But there are other desires, and additional empirical research informed by a Vygotskian sociocultural theory of learning could enrich this discourse. In my view, such research could benefit from a framework of desire compatible with the theory's central assumptions of learning as socially situated in cultural practices, teleological, and transformational. To this purpose, I offer a liturgical framing of desire put forth by James K. A. Smith, which treats humans as essentially desiring beings and defines desire as a potent force formed through participation in communal practices that orient practitioners' hearts (eros) toward particular futures (telos). I show how this framing satisfies key features of sociocultural theory and highlight two examples of how desire has been qualitatively examined and where the framing might enrich further examinations of education settings.     

Social Justice,Democratic Education and the Silencing of Words that Wound

In recent years, research within the sociocultural perspective on moral learning has contributed important knowledge about how individuals develop their moral ability by participating in sociocultural activities. To a lesser extent, sociocultural research has focused on the role of individual continuity in these processes. The purpose of this article is to contribute to the progress of the sociocultural perspective by suggesting an approach that allows for an in situ analysis of how individuals' prior experiences take part in the processes of moral meaning‐making, which also takes sociocultural activity into consideration. The philosophical and methodological basis for this approach consists of a combination of Dewey's transactional perspective on meaning‐making and Wittgenstein's first‐person perspective on language use. The article contains an empirical example that illustrates this approach. This analysis shows how prior experiences are re‐actualised in an event and thus participate in the process of moral meaning‐making, as well as contributing to the substance of the meanings made.     

The Transition to High School: Current Knowledge, Future Directions

In the American educational system, school transitions are frequent and predictable, but they can disrupt student functioning across developmental domains. How students experience school transitions has been a focus of research for some time, but the high school transition has received less attention, and the limited research often focuses on a particular developmental domain (e.g., academics and socioemotional well-being) to the exclusion of a more integrated model. This review relies on life course theory to establish an organizational framework for interpreting and connecting the diffuse and sometimes disparate findings on the high school transition, including adolescent developmental trajectories and the influence of social ties, changing sociocultural contexts, and stratification systems. Conclusions identify aspects for future inquiry suggested by current knowledge and the tenets of the life course perspective.     

Conclusion

This special issue interrogates the contexts in which reforms are developed as well as the contexts to which they spread in order to understand the factors that influence the potential for reforms to be scaled up. Four articles from around the world address this understudied role of context. In our analysis of these articles, we take an ecological view, one that encompasses each of these challenges to explore the interplay between educators’ experiences, beliefs, and their contexts regarding reform. We begin to elaborate a theory of scale derived from medical research that develops a seed and soil application to educational research. In this theory, we describe how a discrete focus on the content of reform is no longer adequate; rather, an approach that also addresses the context and whether and to what extent it is supportive of change must also be considered. The features of supportive contexts are enumerated, including size, locus of control, norms, sociocultural context, and socioeconomic context. Three reforms are analyzed using these features as a framework. We conclude that the extent to which these conditions are prevalent may point to the capacity of a system to support a new reform.     

The black–white “achievement gap” as a perennial challenge of urban science education: A sociocultural and historical overview with implications for research and practice*

A perennial challenge for urban education in the United States is finding effective ways to address the academic achievement gap between African American and White students. There is widespread and justified concern about the persistence of this achievement gap. In fact, historical evidence suggests that this achievement gap has existed at various times for groups other than African Americans. What conditions prevailed when this achievement gap existed for these other groups? Conversely, under what conditions did the gap diminish and eventually disappear for these groups? This article explores how sociocultural factors involved in the manifestation and eventual disappearance of the gap for these groups may shed some light on how to address the achievement gap for African American students in urban science classrooms. Our conclusion is that the sociocultural position of groups is crucial to understanding and interpreting the scholastic performance of students from various backgrounds. We argue for a research framework and the exploration of research questions incorporating insights from Ogbu's cultural, ecological theory, as well as goal theory, and identity theory. We present these as theories that essentially focus on student responses to societal disparities. Our ultimate goal is to define the problem more clearly and contribute to the development of research‐based classroom practices that will be effective in reducing and eventually eliminating the achievement gap. We identify the many gaps in society and the schools that need to be addressed in order to find effective solutions to the problem of the achievement gap. Finally, we propose that by understanding the genesis of the gap and developing strategies to harness the students' responses to societal disparities, learning can be maximized and the achievement gap can be significantly reduced, if not eliminated entirely, in urban science classrooms. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 1101–1114, 2001     

二语语用能力发展的相关理论模式述评

近年来,第二语言语用能力发展的研究正日益受到关注。社会文化理论和注意假设分别从社交和认知层面解释了在二语环境下语用能力的习得规律和习得环境,同时,该领域的研究成果对我国外语教学带来了启迪,但两种理论模式也存在着各自的局限性。     

A theoretical framework for the study of ICT in schools: a proposal

A sociocultural approach towards the study of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in education rejects the view that ICT can be studied in isolation; it must be studied within the broader context in which it is situated. The paper argues for a more holistic approach of studying ICT in schools by adopting a sociocultural perspective. It proposes a theoretical framework based on activity theory, with the activity system as a unit of analysis that is surrounded by different levels of ecological circles.     

Examining organizational learning in schools: The role of psychological safety, experimentation, and leadership that reinforces learning

This study draws upon theory and methods from the field of organizational behavior to examine organizational learning (OL) in the context of a large urban US school district. We build upon prior literature on OL from the field of organizational behavior to introduce and validate three subscales that assess key dimensions of organizational learning that build upon and extend prior education research: psychological safety, experimentation, and leadership that reinforces learning. Data from 941 teachers across 60 schools in this urban district suggest that organizational learning is an underlying condition which is expressed by teacher perceptions of subfactors of psychological safety, experimentation, and leadership that reinforces learning. Implications for adopting the conceptual framework and methods employed in this research for studying organizational learning and school change are discussed.     

Individual and Sociocultural Views of Learning in Science Education

In this paper we consider how theories of learning can inform the practice of scienceteaching in formal settings. We describe two broad strands of learning theory that havebeen drawn upon in science education, namely individual and sociocultural views. Weshow how aspects of both views can usefully inform our understanding of teaching andlearning science in formal settings. A perspective on science learning in formal settingsis presented which draws on and develops features of both individual and socioculturalviews, and the implications of this perspective on science learning for research and practice are discussed. The paper concludes with reflections on some of the recent critiques of so-called `constructivist views of learning' in the light of the perspective developed.     

From learning to development: a sociocultural approach to instruction

Theories of human development and learning provide an essential framework in which to understand the mechanisms involved in the process of formal instruction as a specific form of teaching and learning in the school setting. The sociocultural theory of development, founded on the works of Lev Vygotsky, espouses the view that social interaction among two or more people is the greatest motivating force in human development. Communication, via the use of language, provides one of the most effective means of social interaction. By collaborating toward a common cultural goal, people co‐construct new knowledge by building on each participant's contribution. Based on the main tenets of sociocultural theory, the following eight interrelated principles for instruction are presented, namely, that it should be: mediated; discursive; collaborative; responsive; contextualized; activity‐oriented; developmental; and integrated.     

Increasing engagement of students with learning disabilities in mathematical problem‐solving and discussion

Engagement in problem‐solving and mathematical discussion is critical for learning mathematics. This research review describes a gap in the literature surrounding engagement of students with Learning Disabilities in standards‐based mathematical classrooms. Taking a sociocultural view of engagement as participation in mathematical practices, this review found that students with LD were supported towards equal engagement in standards‐based mathematics through multi‐modal curriculum, consistent routines for problem‐solving, and teachers trained in Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching. Using this small set of studies (7), we identify the need to deepen the engagement of students with LD in mathematical problem‐solving and discussion. This review concludes with implications for teaching and learning.     

The Pedagogy of Assignments in Social Justice Teacher Education

This article examines the pedagogy of assignments in social justice teacher education programs. Employing a programmatic view, this study aims to understand the collective representation of social justice provided by assignments across multiple courses. Findings come from a qualitative case study of two social justice programs. Drawing on concepts from sociocultural theory and a theory of justice, this study reveals that the conceptions of justice assignments that were emphasized varied from a focus on the individual needs of students to an emphasis on the sociopolitical conditions of schooling. When assignments drew on teachers' field placement experiences, they overwhelmingly stressed an individualistic notion of justice. The diversity among students in teachers' placements substantially shaped teachers' opportunities to engage this notion. When assignments emphasized the sociopolitical conditions of schooling, they focused on general principles for teaching and were disconnected from teachers' field placement experiences. Implications for practice and research in social justice teacher education are considered.     

论维果茨基的社会文化理论及其教学应用

维果茨基的社会文化理论包括心理发展观、人类高级心理机能的社会起源与思维和语言理论。深入研究社会文化理论,探究社会文化理论核心概念的教学应用,以历史的、整体的视角来全面审视教学设计和教学策略,能够为课堂教学研究提供新的思路和方法。     

Forgetski Vygotsky

This paper argues that sociocultural accounts of learning fail to answer the key question about learning—how is it possible? Accordingly, we should adopt an individualist bootstrapping methodology in providing a theory of learning. Such a methodology takes seriously the idea that learning is staged and distinguishes between a non-comprehending engagement with things and a comprehending engagement. It suggests that, in the light of recent work in psychology (Carey) with insights from Wittgenstein, there is rich scope for a bootstrapping account of learning. The paper also argues that sociocultural approaches when pushed, either require some such bootstrapping account, or they collapse into an obscure Ficthean metaphysics in which individual abilities are ‘summoned into being’ by the attitudes of others.     

Use of Performance Information as an Organizational Routine in Management Control

Based on a review of research and the realities of performance information utilization in public organizations, this article defines the use of performance information as an organizational routine in management control. The theoretical implications require scholars to focus on organizational routines in performance measurement research. To practitioners, it suggests that they should focus more on daily performance information use and view it as continuous organizational learning and an organizational behavior modification process.     

Field theory in cultural capital studies of educational attainment

This article argues that there is a double problem in international research in cultural capital and educational attainment: an empirical problem, since few new insights have been gained within recent years; and a theoretical problem, since cultural capital is seen as a simple hypothesis about certain isolated individual resources, disregarding the structural vision and important related concepts such as field in Bourdieu’s sociology. We (re-)emphasize the role of field theory in cultural capital research in education, taking into consideration current concerns in international quantitative research.