Thinking, Interthinking, and Technological Tools

Language use is widely regarded as an important indicator of high quality learning and reasoning ability. Yet this masks an irony: language is fundamentally a social, collaborative tool, yet despite the widespread recognition of its importance in relation to learning, the role of dialogue is undervalued in learning contexts. In this chapter we argue that to see language as only a tool for individual thought presents a limited view of its transformative power. This power, we argue, lies in the ways in which dialogue is used to interthink – that is, to think together, to build knowledge co-constructively through our shared understanding. Technology can play an important role in resourcing thinking through the provision of information, and support to provide a space to think alone. It can moreover provide significant support for learners to build shared representations together, particularly through giving learners access to a wealth of ‘given’ inter-related texts which resource the co-construction of knowledge

A teaching experiment to foster the conceptual understanding of multiplication based on children's literature to facilitate dialogic learning

The importance of conceptual understanding as opposed to low-level procedural knowledge in mathematics has been well documented (Hiebert & Carpenter, 1992). Development of conceptual understanding of multiplication is fostered when students recognise the equal group structure that is common in all multiplicative problems (Mulligan & Mitchelmore, 1996). This paper reports on the theoretical development of a transformative teaching experiment based on conjecture-driven research design (Confrey & Lachance, 1999) that aims to enhance Year 3 students’ conceptual understanding of multiplication. The teaching experiment employs children’s literature as a motivational catalyst and mediational tool for students to explore and engage in multiplication activities and dialogue. The SOLO taxonomy (Biggs & Collis, 1989) is used to both frame the novel teaching and learning activities, as well as assess the level of students’ conceptual understanding of multiplication as displayed in the products derived from the experiment. Further, student’s group interactions will be analysed in order to investigate the social processes that may contribute positively to learning

Teaching geography with literary mapping: A didactic experiment

The relationship between maps and literature has long been debated from both narrative and geographical perspectives. At the core of this contribution are so-called reader generated mappings, mapping practices performed after the reading of a literary text. The aim of this article is to suggest possible didactic directions for teaching geography through geo-visualisations based on the reading of literary texts. In particular, this research draws from the results of a literary mapping workshop attended by students during an introductory human geography course at the University of Padua (Italy). Focusing on one of the literary mappings performed by the students, namely the mapping of a short story written by the Italian writer Mario Rigoni Stern, a deductive process is used to understand the possible future potentialities of literary mapping in didactics. Analysing the students\u2019 literary maps, this article aims to direct attention to literary mapping practices as constellations of learning moments to exploit. The reading of the text, the envisioning and creation of the map are here explored as the steps of a complex practice capable of visually developing geographical knowledge

Researching children as becoming writers in their first year of school

Young children’s writing activity in English Reception classrooms is framed by a rigid developmental model whereby children are conceived of as ‘becoming’ writers. However, recent postSstructuralist research suggests that writing activity, as an assemblage of objects, bodies, expressions and territories, involves constant change rather than being fixed to particular frameworks. This ethnographic enquiry focussed on six children in one Reception class during one school year. Deleuzoguattarian ideas were ‘plugged into’ a sociocultural, multimodal understanding of young children’s writing and the children were reSconceptualised as ‘becoming’: creating and disrupting multiple connections and relations through their actions as writers and research participants. Narrative observations, field notes, photographs, video and artefacts were analysed rhizomatically and vignettes of data were formed into discursive assemblages. The findings indicate that children’s writing within openSended play in the classroom was a moving, overlapping and connective ensemble, utilising many different modes of expression (drawing, text making, map making, copying, etc.). The writing materials used in these encounters ‘mattered’ to children: their sensorial qualities, the histories associated with them, and the potential they had to be adapted. Writing activity, however, was often organised by adults into regular discreet phonics sessions where the children’s opportunities for material intraSaction, social interaction and links to other writing experiences, were limited. Alongside this, discourses surrounding writing in the classroom were reflective of the curriculum ‘ideal’, and certain modes of expression were privileged. The conclusions suggest that containing young children’s writing within representative acts driven by external outcomes limits the potential of writing to be a sensory, embodied, material, and connected activity. Adults in schools should foster children’s playful writing encounters where these elements exist. Effective practices are needed to encourage young children’s multiple modes of expression, enabling them to build the language associations needed for their writing to be meaningful and desirous

Teacher's appropriation practices of educational technology: a case study in Tartu International School

https://www.ester.ee/record=b5160257*es

The Allergic Bodies Conference: Postgraduate/Postdoctoral Research Conference, 2010

This is the programme document for the annual Postgraduate/Postdoctoral Research Conference with Keynotes: Dr Jennifer Bajorek (Goldsmiths), Marianne Sjelsford (National Academy of Arts, Oslo, Sweden); Dr Maarten Vanvolsem (Lieven Gevaert Research Centre for Photography, Katholieke Universiteit, Brussels), Professor Pedro Lasch (Duke University)

Web 2.0 technologies for learning: the current landscape – opportunities, challenges and tensions

This is the first report from research commissioned by Becta into Web 2.0 technologies for learning at Key Stages 3 and 4. This report describes findings from an additional literature review of the then current landscape concerning learner use of Web 2.0 technologies and the implications for teachers, schools, local authorities and policy makers

Children’s understanding of representations of basic chemistry after participating in an early childhood drama pedagogical activity

The purpose of this study is to generate insight into how young children in early childhood science education understand representation. Taking many forms: gestural, material and verbal (Gilbert, 2005), representations are critical to science education, already with young children. The empirical data for our analysis consist of interviews conducted with 6-year-old children after having participated in a playfully-formatted activity (van Oers, 2014) in basic chemistry held at a culture centre for children. The interviews are analyzed as social practice, clarifying how the children respond to the conceptual and communicative challenges they face. The results show that there are important differences in how the children show that they understand the forms of representations used in the activity. What these differences are and why they are critical to developing representational insight and basic scientific understanding, and therefore what educational implications our findings have, are discussed

The influence of learner-generated domain representations on learning combinatorics and probability theory.

The aim of the current study was to examine the effects of providing support in the form of tools for constructing representations, and in particular the differential effects of the representational format of these tools (conceptual, arithmetical, or textual) in terms of perceived affordances and learning outcomes. The domain involved was combinatorics and probability theory. A between-subjects pre-test–post-test design was applied with secondary education students randomly distributed over four conditions. Participants completed the same tasks in a simulation-based learning environment. Participants in three experimental conditions were provided with a representational tool that could be used to construct a domain representation. The experimental manipulation concerned the format of the tool (conceptual, arithmetical, or textual). Participants in a control condition did not have access to a representational tool. Data from 127 students were analyzed. It was found that the construction of a domain representation significantly improved learning outcomes. The format in which students constructed a representation did not directly affect learning outcomes or the quality of the created domain representations. The arithmetical format, however, was the least stimulating for students to engage in externalizing their knowledge