A Change Laboratory:A collective approach to addressing issues in laptop-mediated English language classrooms

This thesis describes a Change Laboratory (Engeström et al., 1996; Virkkunen & Newnham, 2013) intervention carried out by a group of English Language Teaching (ELT) professionals with the aim of improving teaching and learning in laptop-mediated English language classrooms. The research was carried out in the English preparatory course at a federal institution in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Following the methodology of the Change Laboratory, the project first identifies a number of historical and current contradictions, manifesting as dilemmas, conflicts, critical conflicts and double binds, which may be causing unintended outcomes of attrition and failure among students on the preparatory English course. Using the principles of expansive learning, the participants, a group of eight English language teachers, propose, model and examine a number of solutions to the contradictions identified. These solutions are presented as a proposed future model of the activity system. The results are specific for the English preparatory course, but the solutions proposed provide a model for effective device usage, increased student collaboration and sound pedagogical practice that could be applicable in other university teaching environments where one-to-one devices are deployed. Rather than proposing a state-of-the-art solution focusing on hypothetical possibilities, the Change Laboratory has focused on the state-of-the-actual, and proposed a new model of teaching that is effective in this context and could provide a starting point at least in other contexts where technology is being used to enhance learning. This project contributes to knowledge using Change Laboratory methodology and in particular the insider Change Laboratory, activity theory, ELT and technology enhanced learning (TEL) in face-to-face teaching environments. Opportunities for future research are also identified

Design-activity-sequence: A case study and polyphonic analysis of learning in a digital design thinking workshop

In this case study, we report on the outcomes of a one-day workshop on design thinking attended by participants from the Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning conference in Philadelphia in 2017. We highlight the interactions between the workshop design, structured as a design thinking process around the design of a digital environment for design thinking, and the diverse backgrounds and interests of its participants. Data from in-workshop reflections and post-workshop interviews were analyzed using a novel set of analytical approaches, a combination the facilitators made by possible by welcoming participants as coresearchers

AN EXAMINATION OF STUDENTS’ TECHNOLOGY APPREHENSION, COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE, AND ACHIEVEMENT EMOTIONS IN COMMUNITY COLLEGE DEVELOPMENTAL EDUCATION COURSES

Despite the infusion of information and communication technology into higher education, the effects of incorporating this technology in community college classrooms, particularly developmental courses, remains to be thoroughly studied. The demographic differences found in community colleges versus four-year institutions are stark and warrant their own focused investigation. The college experience is an emotion-laden one, especially from the position of an academically at-risk student. Experiencing high levels of technology apprehension could negatively affect a student’s achievement emotions. In exploring technology apprehension, self-perceived communication competence should be taken into account because of the communicative nature of the technology used in higher education. This study explored the relationships between technology apprehension, self-perceived communication competence, and achievement emotions. A Pearson correlation revealed a positive association between technology apprehension and negative achievement emotions. Female students were found to experience higher levels of technology apprehension than male students. Data from open-ended questions offered insight into the ways developmental students view technology, and the challenges they face when using technology in their academic pursuits

Learning in a digitally connected classroom: Secondary science teachers’ pedagogical reasoning and practices

Despite decades of research surrounding Information Communication Technology (ICT) use in schools, the pedagogical reasoning required to provide meaningful ICT enabled learning opportunities is rarely analysed in the literature. The purpose of this research was therefore to investigate teachers’ pedagogically reasoned practice. This study involved three exemplary Australian secondary science teachers, renowned for their expertise in utilising ICT working in classrooms where students had school issued one-to-one computers and reliable network access. The research utilised qualitative methods, including semistructured interviews, video-based observational data, and an array of lesson artefacts. The study followed a naturalistic multiple-case study design to explore the pedagogical reasoning and actions of these science teachers. The study identified different forms of pedagogical reasoning and action for a digitally connected world. Many aspects of this iterative model bear close resemblance to Shulman’s (1987) original conception of pedagogical reasoning and action. In each case, sophisticated reasoned decision-making drawing upon a range of teacher knowledge bases, most notably technological pedagogical content knowledge took place. The pedagogical reasoning and action model presented demonstrates a backward mapping approach where the use of ICT was directed at supporting the development of scientific content and educational outcomes of the mandated science curriculum. The research also found that these teachers held social constructivist beliefs for the use of ICT and intentionally designed ICT enabled opportunities from a learning affordance perspective. The research also demonstrated a reflexive relationship between the teacher’s beliefs and their pedagogical practices. Teacher activity involved significant preparatory work in the selection and curation of motivating, authoritative and multimodal Internet accessible ICT resources and tools aligned to the mandated science curriculum. In each case, the teachers had purposefully created a customised classroom online presence or website, offering students a flexible learning environment, an uncommon practice at the time of the study. The teachers designed ICT enabled learning opportunities following a guided inquiry model, frequently involving collaborative problem-based strategies. In each case, the students were the dominant users of ICT in the classroom using ICT for discovering knowledge, constructing knowledge and for sharing knowledge. The teachers’ role was predominantly one of orchestration of the learning environment, scaffolding and questioning students as they engaged with guided inquiry-based learning tasks. Ultimately the research revealed the critical role of the teacher in mediating the affordances of ICT for meaningful learning. Overall the findings offer useful insights into how exemplary science teachers’ reason and act about the use of ICT in a digitally connected classroom. An important implication for the development of initial science teacher education programs arose from the study, notably that preservice teachers require ongoing and authentic course opportunities to support the development of the technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge relevant for a digitally connected classroom

Literacy for digital futures : Mind, body, text

The unprecedented rate of global, technological, and societal change calls for a radical, new understanding of literacy. This book offers a nuanced framework for making sense of literacy by addressing knowledge as contextualised, embodied, multimodal, and digitally mediated. In today’s world of technological breakthroughs, social shifts, and rapid changes to the educational landscape, literacy can no longer be understood through established curriculum and static text structures. To prepare teachers, scholars, and researchers for the digital future, the book is organised around three themes – Mind and Materiality; Body and Senses; and Texts and Digital Semiotics – to shape readers’ understanding of literacy. Opening up new interdisciplinary themes, Mills, Unsworth, and Scholes confront emerging issues for next-generation digital literacy practices. The volume helps new and established researchers rethink dynamic changes in the materiality of texts and their implications for the mind and body, and features recommendations for educational and professional practice

Theory and Practice in Doctoral Dissertation Research, 2007-2017: A Content Analysis by Degree Type

In response to the overwhelming presence of professional practice doctoral degrees in the early 2000s, universities offering Doctor of Education (EdD) and/or Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees in higher education studies began to question the purpose and value of each degree. These universities asked: What is the value of academic research if it does not aim to improve the condition of what is being studied? This led to a theory-practice debate among departments offering the EdD and the PhD from the perspective of the goal of the dissertation research: Truth or improvement. To address this tension, the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED) was formed in 2007 with 22 founding members increasing to 100 by 2017 to examine the EdD critically. To assess dissertation development over the 10-year period of CPED’s existence, through content analysis, this study examined 761 EdD and PhD dissertation abstracts in higher education studies from 2007 and 2017. The goals were to understand how the theory-practice tension is reflected in higher education dissertations and to assess the degree of differentiation between EdD and PhD dissertations. Boyer’s (1990) expanded definitions of scholarship served as the theoretical framework, and the coding form designed by Melendez (2002) captured a range of dissertation characteristics for analysis. Results indicated more applied research characteristics focusing on improvement for the EdD from 2007 to 2017. In contrast, PhD dissertations in higher education studies exhibited more applied scholarship in 2007, but they had reverted to more traditional discovery- or truth-oriented research goals in 2017. These findings suggest greater differentiation between the EdD as application- and the PhD as theory-based over the 10-year period since the establishment of CPED

Theory and Practice in Doctoral Dissertation Research, 2007-2017: A Content Analysis by Degree Type

In response to the overwhelming presence of professional practice doctoral degrees in the early 2000s, universities offering Doctor of Education (EdD) and/or Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees in higher education studies began to question the purpose and value of each degree. These universities asked: What is the value of academic research if it does not aim to improve the condition of what is being studied? This led to a theory-practice debate among departments offering the EdD and the PhD from the perspective of the goal of the dissertation research: Truth or improvement. To address this tension, the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED) was formed in 2007 with 22 founding members increasing to 100 by 2017 to examine the EdD critically. To assess dissertation development over the 10-year period of CPED’s existence, through content analysis, this study examined 761 EdD and PhD dissertation abstracts in higher education studies from 2007 and 2017. The goals were to understand how the theory-practice tension is reflected in higher education dissertations and to assess the degree of differentiation between EdD and PhD dissertations. Boyer’s (1990) expanded definitions of scholarship served as the theoretical framework, and the coding form designed by Melendez (2002) captured a range of dissertation characteristics for analysis. Results indicated more applied research characteristics focusing on improvement for the EdD from 2007 to 2017. In contrast, PhD dissertations in higher education studies exhibited more applied scholarship in 2007, but they had reverted to more traditional discovery- or truth-oriented research goals in 2017. These findings suggest greater differentiation between the EdD as application- and the PhD as theory-based over the 10-year period since the establishment of CPED