Title: From theory to practice: Using theories to build frameworks and tookits Introduction to Learning Theory and Design for Learning 2
1From theory to practice Using theories to build
frameworks and tookitsIntroduction to Learning
Theory and Design for Learning 2
- George Roberts
- Development Director
- Off-Campus e-Learning
- 23/06/2005
2From theory to practiceUsing theories to build
frameworks and tookits
- Outline
- Theories and models
- Theory and practice Grenfells model
- Explanation, justification, normalisation
- Flexible learning theory and policy (Laurillard
Conole) - Assimilation to theory
- Activity theory
- Actor network theory
- Conclusion 9 models
3How does theory work in practice?
- What is theory?
- What is a model?
4How does theory work in practice?
- What is theory?
- Explanation things happen because
- Do theories prove anything?
- Consider this
- the socio-cultural perspective proves that
school-literacy is valued differently in
different communities
5What is a theory?
- Characteristics
- Accounts for observations
- explanatory
- Accounts for previous theories
- coherent
- Predicts future observations
- predictive
- Falsifiable
- refutable
6What is a model?
- Structured reduction of complexity
- Structure
- visual (other?) representation
- Reduction
- simplification whats in? whats out? why?
- Complexity
7adapted from Grenfell Erben (2005),
Philosophical Issues in Educational Research,
University of Southampton, Course notes (ED697)
A Model
Concrete Practice
UNReflective Common sense folk theories
Practitioners pre- (a-) theoretical understanding
Reflection 1
Justifying principles
Fundamental disciplinary theories
Reflection 2
Philosophical resources
Empirical evidence/ knowledge
8Theory
- Explanation or Justification?
9Nomothetic Normalising rulesIndependent of the
mode of engagement
- Good Learning
- based on
- reciprocity
- authenticity
- credibility
- Good Teaching
- sets ground rules
- provides alternatives
- exemplifies models
- gives access to experience
- Good Design
- Permeability
- Variety
- Legibility
- Robustness
- Visual appropriateness
- Richness
- Personalisation
- Good Practice
- encourages
- contact
- co-operation
- active learning
- gives prompt feedback
- emphasises time on task
- has high expectations
- respects diversity
10Another model talking the world into flexibility
11and another levelPolicy the Big Picture
- Globalisation
- Liberalisation
- Participation
- Innovation
- the QAA Code is based on the key principle that
collaborative and FDLprovision, wherever and
however organised,should widen learning
opportunities - Education and training policy replaces industrial
policy as the means by which governments seek to
make regions economically competitiv
12A 21st century education system
Learners Empowered
Flexible Provision
Professional Workforce
Better Value for Learners
Creativity Innovation
Objectives of Current DfES Strategies Raising
Standards Improving quality Removing
Barriers Preparing for employment skills
Widening Participation early years Primary
Secondary 14-19 Skills
Post-16 HE
Contributions from e-Learning Personalised
support, Online communities, Flexible
Study Virtual Environments, Individualised Study,
Collaborative Learning, Tools for Innovation,
Quality at Scale
Strategic Actions Leading Sustainable e-Learning,
Supporting pedagogical innovation, Staff
development, Unifying Learner support, Aligning
assessment, Building a better market, Assuring
tech and quality standards
13Widening participation
- Widening participation policies are focused in
two conflicting directions - emancipatory and empowering for the individual
- stimulate the growth of autonomous,
entrepreneurial, IT-literate, multi-skilled
individuals capable of creating and taking
advantage of the flexible opportunities inherent
in a post fordist economy - ensuring a supply of appropriately skilled
workers - create a compliant low-expectation labour force
inured to the demands of flexibilisation in order
to attract inward investment not on the basis of
high skills available but on the basis of low
costs
14FDL Precepts
are themselves flexible
- Overall, the revision to the QAA precepts may
be characterised as moving from the
'process-based' style of the earlier version to a
more flexible 'outcome-based' approach. - The focus now is on ends rather than means.
Institutions will see that the basics remain in
the content of the revised version but will, it
is hoped, appreciate the flexibility now offered
by the greater attention to outcomes. - Flexibility has become an epi-phenomenon, part of
the meta-curriculum
15Covert meta Curricula
- The less obvious--but more important
curriculum--is the covert curriculum, which is
composed of the skills and characteristics the
student develops as a result of successfully
completing the overt curriculum. (Appleby) - http//www.psichi.org/pubs/articles/article_59.asp
- Industrial era
- Overt
- 3 Rs reading, riting and rithmatic
- Covert
- punctuality, subordination, repetition
- Postmodern era
- Overt
- flexibility, community, personalisation
- Covert
- piecework, normalisation, surveillance
- see Roberts (2004) http//www.shef.ac.uk/nlc2004/P
roceedings/Individual_Papers/Roberts.htm
16Modelling flexibility Blended learning (3-C)
hi collocation hi collaboration
traditional laboratory lo computerisation
hi collocation whiteboards in
classrooms hi collaboration virtual field
trips hi computerisation
lo collocation CACL, online forums hi
collaboration Learning to teach online hi
computerisation
hi collocation lo collaboration video link
lecture hi computerisation
lo collocation lo collaboration traditional
OU DL lo computerisation
lo collocation lo collaboration CBT
training hi computerisation
17What is flexibility
- Flexibility is
- Contingent depends on contexts
- Inherent part of systems
- Relative v. inflexibility
- Political power differentials
18A theory of flexible learning
- Inherent
- experienced (Prior Learning)
- disciplined
- nationalised, acculturated
- capitalized personal, social
- theorised, taught learned
- latent, emergent evolutionary
- Contingent
- organised
- managed
- funded
- bureaucratised
- networked
- genetic/mimetic inherited
- Relative
- zero sum
- granular (objectified)
- linear, continuous
- preventable / unstoppable?
- recreational (playful)
- Political
- work-related human capital
- valued (high/low) controlled
- democratic or not
- global, standardised assured
- necessary?
19Conoles complex solid
20The Borg Cube assimilation to theory
Posture
evaluation
Face
orientation
Stance
Presentation
21Three dimensions to designing for learning
- presentation or Stance
- evaluation or Posture
- orientation or Face
22Face orientation four traditions
- positivism knowledge is out there,
categorical - early 20th century orthodoxy basing
philosophical, social scientific, linguistic and
educational enquiry on the scientific
(experimental) method - objective-led (behaviourist) pedagogies of
external motivations such as enquiry-based
learning, physical simulation and experiment - social perspective knowledge emergent, social
constructed - countervailing current orthodoxy, drawing on
multiple strands feminism, (post-)
structuralism, Marxism, colonialism - dominant approaches are exploratory learning and
constructivism - tacit communitarianism common-sense
normalisation - business school method adopts forms from social
perspective and positivism in order to reproduce
a culture through tacit codes - knowledge engineering, and computational
approaches such as organisational learning, and
intelligent systems - new critical cognitive disconnect in LT
practice - place learner and designer in contested space
- project and problem-based learning, grounded
theory, applied and action research are
characteristic
23Stance presenting awareness sequentially and
hierarchically
- first the channel or situation
- technical support will it run on the platform?
- next the relationships between the people
- pastoral support, efficacy and consolation
- only lastly in terms of the topic, theme or
ostensible subject - subject/domain learning support
24Stance, another exampleSalmons 5 Stage Model
e-Tivities (fish ladder)
- 1 Access and motivation
- Welcome and encourage
- Set up systems and assure access
- 2 Online socialisation
- Familiarise and bridge cultural, social and
learning environments - Send and receive messages
- 3 Information exchange
- Facilitate task and support use ofon-line
content activity - Personalise software environment
- 4 Knowledge construction
- Facilitate process
- Conferencing
- 5 Personal/professional development
- Supporting and responding
- External links with people and resources
25Posture stakeholders evaluation
- Recipient design
- Referee design
- Artefacts of learning design, i.e. learning
activities and objects will be evaluated in a
trilateral relationship - designer
- learner
- referee
- validate, witness, participate in and influence
design process
26Activity theory offers tools to analyse the
problems and possibilities of technology
Tools
Object
Subject
Outcome
Process
Rules
Community
Division of Work
All the elements of the system are continuously
changing. Subjects not only use tools, they also
adapt them. They obey rules, and transform them.
They divide work and innovate.
27Activity Theory
- Object
- the target of activity, which the actors want to
influence or alter - Rules
- society- and community level laws, standards,
norms, policies, strategies, ethical issues and
individual level values and beliefs - Community
- the immediate environment, where the use of
technology takes place - Division of Labour
- how different members of the community have
divided responsibility in defining and
influencing the object
28Actor network theory distributed cognition
(Latour, Salomon)
- coextensive networks comprise both social and
technical parts - the social and technical are inseparable
- Inscription technology embodies beliefs
- Translation/negotiation
- Problematisation
- Interessment
- Enrolment
- Mobilisation
- Framing/stability
29 30George Roberts Development Director, Off-campus
E-learning Oxford Brookes University groberts_at_bro
okes.ac.uk 44 (0) 1865 484871 44 (0) 7711
698465 http//www.brookes.ac.uk/virtual/ http//ww
w.alt.ac.uk/altc2004/