European Dissertation Summaries

Over the past decade, Donald Schön's conceptualization of professional practice as reflection‐in‐action has gained wide currency. This paper reports on a seminar, based on Schon's ideas, to assist elementary teachers in making Science a more significant part of their instructional programmes. A detailed analysis of the efforts of two of the experienced teachers involved points to problems related to: (i) the efficacy of reflection‐on‐action in facilitating reflecting‐in‐action; (ii) disjunctions between conceptual and action components of teachers' frames; and (iii) the role of substantive teacher intervention in assisting children in learning to use non‐common‐sense ways of knowing such as Science.     

Exemplary Teacher Induction: An international review

Whereas present theories of transformative learning tend to focus on the rational and reflective actor, in this article it is suggested that spontaneous action may play a decisive role in transformative learning too. In the spontaneity of action, novelty finds its way into life, gains momentum, is respected by others and reflected by the actor. Such transformation processes are investigated both with the means of theoretical reflection and of empirical inquiry. Based on nine narrative interviews typical phases of transformative learning processes are identified. Owing to the comparative nature of the study, it was also possible to develop an age‐related typology that overlaps certain phases of the transformation process. These empirical findings constitute the background against which the nexus of spontaneous action and transformative learning is reflected theoretically. Theories drawn upon include John Dewey's Pragmatism and George Herbert Mead's Social Pragmatism. Both scholars provide rich theoretical concepts for reflecting on the nature of that what so often eludes from the control of both educators and learners: the spontaneity of the beginning.     

Transformation for adults in an Internet‐based learning environment—is it necessary to be self‐directed?

This research explores the relationships between self‐directed learning readiness and transformative learning theory (TLT) reflected by the Constructivist Internet‐based Learning Environment Scale (CILES). A questionnaire survey about adult learner's perceptions of Internet‐based learning was administered to adults enrolled in classes in community colleges in Taiwan. A total of 593 valid questionnaires were used for the structural equation modeling analysis. The findings confirmed a second‐order hierarchical factor relationship of TLT (technical, dialectical and emancipatory learning interests) from CILES. Moreover, the three domains of learning interests of transformative learning were proved to have a developmental relationship, moderated by the readiness of self‐directed learning for adult learners in Internet‐based learning.     

Fifteen years of action research for political and educational emancipation at a South African University

This article traces the origins and development of an action research Master's in Education programme, which was introduced in the Faculty of Education at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa in the mid-1980s. The programme began during a time of political and social repression, when the apartheid government was very much in control, and was explicitly located within an emancipatory approach to education. The article discusses the vision of emancipatory education that underpinned the programme, linking this to the political situation of domination and resistance in the educational sector. The origins of People's Education are described, as well as various initiatives in action research which were closely linked to the People's Education movement of the time. The article concludes by discussing some of the new challenges for action research and emancipatory education in the post-apartheid era.     

An Investigation of the Profiles of Satisfying and Dissatisfying Factors in E‐Learning

ABSTRACT Various factors influence e‐learners' feelings of satisfaction and dissatisfaction with their e‐learning experience, but from an extensive search with six major academic research databases we did not find any research that demonstrated comprehensive profiles of satisfying and dissatisfying factors in e‐learning. We conducted a qualitative study to initiate the effort. We used Thorndike's law of effect and Herzberg's motivation‐hygiene theory as the conceptual frameworks for our study. Thorndike's law of effect applied to human psychology suggests that people would try to avoid annoying stimuli whereas they would try to preserve satisfying stimuli. Herzberg's motivation‐hygiene theory suggests that different factors influence extreme satisfaction and extreme dissatisfaction on the job. Using the two theories as the conceptual frameworks, we revealed profiles of satisfaction‐dissatisfaction factors in e‐learning by analyzing extant data of course evaluation obtained from 17 e‐learning courses. In this article, we provide recommendations on how other e‐learning institutions might utilize the research findings to optimize their e‐learning programs and we discuss the potential impact of such interventions on overall institutional outcomes such as learner retention.     

Enabling the journey from experienced practitioner to para‐professional: using reflective dialogue in action learning triads

This article explores whether using reflective dialogue in action learning sets on a foundation degree (FD) in educational support can develop the capacity for reflective practice of the students. Developing a reflective stance in relation to professional practice is a central theme of the programme, which is reinforced by the work‐based learning module providing a space for reflective dialogue and the inclusion of an employer's perspective for establishing links between university and work. By adopting a case‐study approach, this study focuses on 24 female students who work as teaching assistants or higher level teaching assistants (TAs/HLTAs) in state primary and secondary schools, and reports findings from their and their tutors' perspectives. In view of the rapidly changing educational landscape, apparent in the implementation and development of Integrated Children's Services, the Schools Remodelling Agenda and Workforce Agreement are in effect one policy. Such a programme is essential in creating appropriate opportunities for the continuing professional development of the new workforce. Given the non‐traditional background of the majority of the students and the perceived ambiguity surrounding their roles as teaching assistants within schools, such a programme poses considerable challenges to higher education institutions in terms of appropriateness of content and mode of delivery.     

‘The art of democracy’: Young people's democratic learning in gallery contexts

In this article the authors report on research which aimed to explore the opportunities for democratic action and learning in a number of artist‐led gallery education projects in the south‐west of England. The research takes an approach to citizenship learning and democracy that is less focused on citizenship as a specific subject in the formal school curriculum and the achievement of specific citizenship outcomes that can follow from it. Rather, it is more focused upon understanding how democratic practices that are embedded in the day‐to‐day lives of young people contribute to their democratic learning and participation as citizens. Drawing upon conceptual categories and concepts that illuminate the process, the authors demonstrate the nature and character of young people's democratic learning. An implication arising from this is the need for practice‐orientated research in other contexts (e.g. work, leisure and home) to fully understand the nature of democratic learning.     

Basil Bernstein's Theory of the Pedagogic Device and Formal Music Schooling: Putting the Theory Into Practice

This article describes Basil Bernstein's theory of the pedagogic device as applied to school music instruction. Showing that educational practices are not personal choices alone, but the result of socio-political mandates, the article traces how education functions as a vehicle for social reproduction. Bernstein called this process the recontextualization of knowledge: From its point of inception, originally conceived knowledge undergoes changes through selection and filtration processes, eventually becoming curriculum—a relay for certain social and cultural values. Gaps in the recontextualization process allow teachers to place their own individual stamp upon the learning and teaching that occur in their classroom. Teacher–pupil interactions, guided by school-internal processes, lead to school knowledge that is further reproduced by the pupils in particular ways. A teacher's awareness of socially conditioned and habitual patterns of preference and behavior (habitus) may be key to making socially inclusive and emancipatory instructional choices.     

The role of submicroscopic and symbolic representations in chemical explanations

Chemistry is commonly portrayed at three different levels of representation – macroscopic, submicroscopic and symbolic – that combine to enrich the explanations of chemical concepts. In this article, we examine the use of submicroscopic and symbolic representations in chemical explanations and ascertain how they provide meaning. Of specific interest is the development of students' levels of understanding, conceived as instrumental (knowing how) and relational (knowing why) understanding, as a result of regular Grade 11 chemistry lessons using analogical, anthropomorphic, relational, problem‐based, and model‐based explanations. Examples of both teachers' and students' dialogue are used to illustrate how submicroscopic and symbolic representations are manifested in their explanations of observed chemical phenomena. The data in this research indicated that effective learning at a relational level of understanding requires simultaneous use of submicroscopic and symbolic representations in chemical explanations. Representations are used to help the learner learn; however, the research findings showed that students do not always understand the role of the representation that is assumed by the teacher.     

Facilitating Meta‐learning in Art and Design Education

Art and design programmes are educationally unique in that students themselves play a central role in determining their own learning needs. To be successful in their study, art and design students are required to operate with a high degree of independence and self‐direction. Developing the skills for greater self‐reliance requires students to become aware of their conceptions of the subject of study, and of themselves as learners in a particular learning context. Developing greater self‐awareness as a learner and becoming more independent in one's learning is captured by the concept of meta‐learning. In this article I present an alternative strategy to prevalent diagnostic approaches to assist in developing a student's capacity for meta‐learning in the subject context of art and design. An inquiry cycle was created to provide a structure within which to facilitate generative thinking about learning through engaging with fundamental questions related to the subject of learning (art and design) rather than the learning subject (i.e. the student). This method represents a departure from existing approaches to engaging students in meta‐learning. A pilot study used to trial the effectiveness of this strategy is also presented here. The inquiry map, and the conceptual base upon which it was developed, were found to be useful ways to structure reflective thinking about learning and to assist in developing a student's conception of the subject.     

Exploring children's learning stories as an assessment method for research and practice

The purpose of this study was to apply and explore, in the context of an Icelandic preschool, the methods developed by the New Zealand Te Whaariki curriculum to assess children's well‐being and learning dispositions. This article describes the process of piloting learning stories as a research method, where researchers and preschool teachers cooperate in generating data. Data were generated by means of interviews, observations and documentation, following a research process in which learning stories were documented, reflected upon and analysed by the researchers and teachers, where possible in cooperation with the four‐ to five‐year‐old children. The learning stories were constructed and analysed using the five domains of learning dispositions identified in the Te Whaariki curriculum. The study asks how a collaborative approach to assessing children's well‐being and learning dispositions could be used in preschools both for professional learning and for research purposes. The findings show children as skilful communicators who are capable of finding solutions and reacting to various situations arising from the social context of the preschool. The study demonstrates that documenting children's learning stories enables researchers to focus on children's strengths and capabilities, and adds to preschool teachers' knowledge of individual children and groups.     

Students’ conceptions of biology

The argument in this paper has two parallel strands. One describes students’ conceptions of biology; the other uses Habermas’ epistemological framework as a way of suggesting alternative curricular questions. The two strands are brought together, since the research methodology is the situational‐interpretive curriculum orientation, and the findings are considered from this orientation. Thus, the data from the first strand is examined from the second strand, and consequently, new questions arise.

With traditional knowing, science education researchers “know” how students conceive of the science they are learning by having students react to statements of the researcher's conception of science. This way of knowing has been criticized because it depends upon the researcher's set of ways of looking at students’ conceptions. As such, it does not treat students’ knowledge as a first‐order phenomena; knowing is, rather, a second‐order phenomena since it is filtered through another person's conceptions. In this study the Habermasian framework is used as an alternative perspective of knowledge which allows students’ conceptions to be examined at the level at which the conceptions were constructed.

The study suggests that students conceptualize biology from three distinct philosophical positions; but when these positions are considered from the Habermasian framework, they all are examples of the empirical‐analytic tradition. As such, the students’ conceptions have not gone beyond explanatory knowledge, and this raises questions about the curriculum.     

(Re)Producing Mathematics Educators: A sociological perspective

Whilst participation in higher education has increased dramatically over the last two decades, many universities are only now beginning to pay more attention to the learning experiences of first year students. It is important for universities to understand how first year students conceive of learning and knowing in order to promote effective approaches to learning. Even though an extensive body of research demonstrates that beliefs about learning and knowing influence student approaches to learning and learning outcomes, there has been no Australian research that has investigated this critical learner characteristic across first year university students. This paper reports on preliminary data from an ongoing longitudinal study designed to investigate first year students’ beliefs about knowing and learning (epistemological beliefs). Students from teacher education and creative industry faculties in two Australian universities completed the Epistemological Beliefs Survey (EBS) in the first week of their first semester of study. A series of one‐way ANOVA using key demographics as independent variables and the EBS factor scores as dependent variables showed that epistemological beliefs were related to the course of study, previous post‐school education experience, family experience at university, gender, and age. These data help us to understand students’ beliefs about learning and knowing with a view to informing effective learning in higher education.     

Looking in the mirror: Teachers' use of autobiography and action research to improve practice

This study presents an argument for valuing subjective, reflective knowledge based on Habermas' category of cognitive interest of emancipatory knowing. Using the teachers' autobiographies and action research as data sources, the process of personal empowerment is explored. A model of change derived from analysis of teachers' writings is proposed that includes disturbance, alternatives, confidence and action.     

Working on educational research methods with masters students in an international online learning community

In this paper we discuss the background to this study in the development of the international MSc e‐Learning Multimedia and Consultancy. The aims of the study focus on the conditions for achieving communication, interaction and collaboration in open and flexible e‐learning environments. We present our theoretical framework that has informed the design of programme as a whole which is based on a socio‐constructivist perspective on learning. Our research is placed within an action research framework and we outline our position within the critical or emancipatory tradition and also our standpoint on the use of ICT in education. We discuss the design of the programme and also our pedagogical approach and describe in detail the particular context for this study. We report on the student experience of being learners on this module, their perceptions of what they have gained most from learning from and with each other and their responses to the various ways in which ‘scaffolding’ has been designed and implemented by the tutors. Finally we offer some reflections on the conditions for achieving well‐orchestrated interdependence in open and flexible e‐learning environments.     

Families’ social backgrounds matter: Socio‐economic factors,home learning and young children's language,literacy and social outcomes

Parental support with children's learning is considered to be one pathway through which socio‐economic factors influence child competencies. Utilising a national longitudinal sample from the Millennium Cohort Study, this study examined the relationship between home learning and parents’ socio‐economic status and their impact on young children's language/literacy and socio‐emotional competence. The findings consistently showed that, irrespective of socio‐economic status, parents engaged with various learning activities (except reading) roughly equally. The socio‐economic factors examined in this study, i.e., family income and maternal educational qualifications, were found to have a stronger effect on children's language/literacy than on social‐emotional competence. Socio‐economic disadvantage, lack of maternal educational qualifications in particular, remained powerful in influencing competencies in children aged three and at the start of primary school. For children in the first decade of this century in England, these findings have equity implications, especially as the socio‐economic gap in our society widens.     

Physics students' epistemologies and views about knowing and learning

Classrooms are complex environments in which curriculum, students, and teachers interact. In recent years a number of studies have investigated the effect of teachers' epistemologies on the classroom environment, yet little is known about students' epistemologies and how these interact with those of teachers. The purpose of this study was to document students' epistemologies and their concurrent views about knowing and learning. Using a written essay, short-answer responses to statements, a preferred classroom environment inventory, and interviews, students' views on scientific knowledge and their own knowing and learning were collected from 42 students in three sections of an introductory physics course. Our rather broad, qualitative inquiry provides a dynamic view of students' understanding of knowing and learning in high school physics. Our analyses reveal a spectrum of epistemological commitments commensurable with positions from objectivism to relativism, most of them with experientialist coloring. Even within individuals, these commitments could be at once commensurable and incommensurable with the same epistemological position. We also find rather significant inter- and intra-individual differences with respect to the consequences of a specific epistemological stance to learning, the learning strategies employed, and the learning environment preferred. Students' views on knowing and learning in physics are presented in the form of an emergent theory. The findings are discussed in terms of their application to classroom environments.     

A narrative exploration of how curricula for children with profound and multiple learning difficulties shape and are shaped by the practices of their teachers

This article presents the findings of a study that asked teachers to narrate their interactions with learners from the perspective of the curriculum that the school adopted. Thirteen female teachers, employed at eight special secondary schools for children with profound and multiple learning difficulties in England, participated in the research. They narrated their experiences, which were consequently subject to phenomenological hermeneutic analysis. All the teachers displayed a high degree of individuality and conceptualised their work not straightforwardly as teaching the espoused curriculum, but rather as they themselves being the ‘curriculum‐in‐action’, with their practice lying alongside and only obliquely cognisant of their school's explicit provision. The narratives disclosed ongoing conflict with school leaders being interpreted as a threat to their specific pedagogic practices as well as their professionalism. The research raises questions about the ability of the ‘special curriculum’ to be truly responsive to pupils' needs within this complex pedagogical environment.     

Educational experiences with environmental farm plans in a case‐study setting

Abstract

One of the higher agricultural education tools being used in Canada is environmental farm plans (EFPs) in a case‐study setting. Initiated in Ontario in the early 1990's, EFPs were developed by farmers in response to growing threats of public intervention to enforce compliance with environmental standards. All farming activities are assessed for their risk of environmental damage within the scope of an integrated stewardship plan for air, soil, water, wildlife habitat and wildlife resources. The Ontario Agricultural College (OAC) at the University of Guelph uses EFPs as a case‐study method of teaching theoretical, practical and experimental aspects of conservation and stewardship. Small groups of students work under the supervision of OAC multi‐disciplinary team staff in close co‐operation with farmers to develop an EFP for a specific farm. The emphasis is on applying the principles of systemic learning pioneered at the University of Western Sydney at Hawkesbury, New South Wales, Australia. Systemic learning seeks to combine learning for knowing (theoretical knowledge), learning for doing (practical knowledge) and learning from devising new ways of solving problems and addressing issues (experiential knowledge, or learning for being). Oral presentations and written reports by the student groups are used for assessment, as well as for case‐study discussions to enrich the learning process.     

Creativity,Art and Learning: A Psycho‐Social Exploration of Uncertainty

What makes it possible for artists to stay with the anxieties and uncertainties of the creative process? This aspect of an artist's development is rarely theorised or addressed despite it being an essential aspect of creative practice. It is a capacity, similar to tacit knowing, that is gradually acquired and learnt, and cultivated over time as part of the process of practising art and being an artist. The role of tacit knowledge as a key aspect of fine art education is well documented and is a learning experience that artists are familiar with. However, what tends to get focused on in discussions about tacit knowing are the practical, usually physical and technical, aspects of learning from experience to the exclusion of a range of mental or psychological capacities that are also a fundamental part of the tacit knowing process and vital to the learning necessary to be an artist. These mental capacities, which include being able to tolerate high levels of excitability, periods of nothingness, chaos, uncertainty and not‐knowing, are also, I suggest, passed between tutor and student as a form of tacit knowledge. This article draws on the experience of one artist, both as a learner and as an emergent practising artist, in developing this ability. The role played by art tutors in supporting student artists to develop a capacity to stay with the anxieties of the creative process is also explored.