Research

In TRANSFORM we are interested in productive learning practice in higher education. Understanding productive learning practice in this context is constrained by the community of practice in which the student is to be acculturated. A main goal of higher education is to introduce and connect students to a community of practice in different knowledge disciplines and to ensure that they master key concepts, methodologies and knowledge forms in their discipline.

 

Productive Learning Practice - A discussion based on two case studies

Sølvi Lillejord & Olga Dysthe

Paper presented at the 1st ISCAR conference in Seville 20-24 September 2005

 

In this paper we frame productive learning in a sociocultural perspective to show how it ties into a cluster of concepts on activity and transformation and clarifies the relation between learning processes and learning product. Based on two case studies, one from a campus-based Master in Education, the other from a web-based version of the same programme, we show that to understand learning as action entails that we must develop the students' argumentative competency. Activities do not per se support productive learning. Educational activities may be reproductive, unproductive and even counterproductive.

With reference to Bakhtin, we argue that students in higher education should be exposed to the divergent voices and conflicting perspectives of the research community. The challenge is to structure multivoiced productive learning processes that are conducive for the learning outcomes.

 

THE STUDIES

Learning in technology enhanced learning environments comprises new ways of interaction and communication between learners, between learners and their instructors, and in some cases between others with shared interests. The individual learner is challenged not only with developing knowledge in their discipline, but is challenged to appropriate new technology and to develop new higher-order skills. In this project we study how technology is used in different learning environments. In particular we focus on disciplines where technology is used:
 

1. to support traditional academic learning activities (e.g., essay writing, tutorial feedback, discussion).

 

 

2. to support learning where there is a tight connection between ermerging knowledge within a domain and the learning resources; where the student experiences the emerging knowledge first hand.

 

 

3. to investigate how scientific visualizations, as an integrated part of the scientific discipline, are used in meteorology. In particular the focus is on how such scientific visualizations make complex models visible and learnable for students.

 

 

4. to explore the consequences of different conceptions of change between what we term historical and activity theoretical approaches in analysing reforms.