Hans Christian Arnseth

Approaching institutional contexts: systemic versus dialogic research in CSCL

The research literature in CSCL has rarely addressed the question of how institutional contexts contribute to constituting the meanings and functions of CSCL applications. The argument that we develop here concerns how the institutional context impacts the use of CSCL applications and how this impact should be conceptualized. In order to structure to our argument, we introduce a distinction between systemic and dialogic approaches to CSCL research. We develop our argument by working through a selection of relevant studies belonging to the two perspectives, and conclude that not enough attention has been given to the emergent characteristics of activities where CSCL tools have been introduced. This is particularly the case in studies belonging to a systemic approach. Our basic argument is that a dialogic stance can provide important insights into how institutional practices shape the meanings and functions of CSCL tools. A dialogic perspective provides opportunities for making sense of learning and knowledge construction at different levels of activity, while at the same time retaining sensitivity to the mutually constitutive relationship between levels.

Vidas de aprendizaje conectadas: Jóvenes digitales en espacios escolares y comunitarios

Aunque la mayoria de los estudios sobre el aprendizaje hablan de las experiencias intra-institucionales, nuestro interes se centra en el seguimiento de las trayectorias de aprendizaje individuales a traves de distintos dominios. Las investigaciones sobre el uso de los diferentes medios por los jovenes en el entorno extraescolar muestran como las practicas aplicadas en el uso de medios digitales difieren de las practicas en el entorno escolar, tanto en forma como en contenido. El reto principal actualmente consiste en encontrar formas de entender las interconexiones y la creacion de redes entre estos dos mundos de la vida, tal y como las experimentan los jovenes. Aqui los elementos importantes son los conceptos adaptados como contexto, trayectorias e identidad, relacionados con las redes de actividades. Presentamos datos del «proyecto sobre vidas de aprendizaje» actualmente en curso en una comunidad multicultural de Oslo. Nos centraremos especialmente en los alumnos de educacion secundaria post obligatoria que cursan estudios de Medios y Comunicacion. Con un enfoque etnografico, nos centraremos en la forma en que se construyen y se negocian las identidades del alumno en distintos tipos de relaciones de aprendizaje. Los datos incluyen datos generados por los investigadores (entrevistas, observaciones a traves de videos, anotaciones de campo) y datos generados por los participantes (fotografias, diarios, mapas).

Making sense of shared knowledge

In this paper we explore issues to do with intersubjectivity and shared knowledge in human activity. We discuss these issues by contrasting two different views of language and communication, one being a model developed by Clark and Brennan, the other being a situated action approach. Clark and Brennans model has gained substantial popularity in CSCL research. We develop our argument by presenting illustrative analyses of two data extracts concerned with the development of shared knowledge, the negotiation of goals and the conditional relevance of technological tools. We conclude that Clark and Brennans model retains a communication-as-transfer view of language and communication, and that a situated action approach is more suitable for grasping the complex dynamics of joint activity.

Making sense of epistemic categories. Analysing students' use of categories of progressive inquiry in computer mediated collaborative activities

The topic of this article concerns how students make sense of categories of progressive inquiry made available to them through a discussion and inquiry type of software called Future Learning Environments 2 (FLE2). The idea behind tools of this kind is to induce approaches to school-work that build on the metaphor of learning as research. By pursuing a socio-cultural perspective on the topic of categories and categorization, we analyse in detail how students make sense of these categories, including how their sense-making relates to other concerns they have to manage when engaged in the institutional practices of studying. We demonstrate that students encounter significant challenges when engaged in the categorization work required by FLE2 and its underlying pedagogical model of progressive inquiry. Therefore, we conclude that to develop educational practices similar to the scientific practices on which such tools rely is more complex than merely following a step-by-step model of inquiry. To be able to evaluate truth claims and factuality involves the mastery of a whole range of historically developed skills and knowledge, and it is therefore not surprising that the students find it difficult to make adequate interpretations of what the categories entail, and how they should be used.

Learning and identity construction across sites: A dialogical approach to analysing the construction of learning selves

We introduce the notion of learning selves as a way of tracing learning across sites. Learning selves is a way of characterizing how people as learners are constituted in and between settings. Focusing on the concept of self represents an attempt to address what becomes of the person in sociocultural and dialogical theorizing. Through a discussion of central concepts in dialogical theory, we outline three analytical resources to examine and identify cultural constructions of learning selves. The first is narratives, the second categories, and the last inscriptions. By working through an episode of interaction, where a teacher and his students discuss and negotiate the use of a particular learning resource in school, we demonstrate how the analytical resources enable us to study the process through which particular versions of learning selves are put together and contrasted. Finally, we discuss the implications for educational research on learning and identity.

On the bridge to learn: Analysing the social organization of nautical instruction in a ship simulator

Research on simulator training has rarely focused on the way simulated contexts are constructed collaboratively. This study sheds light on how structuring role-play and fostering social interactions may prove fruitful for designing simulator training. The article reports on a qualitative study of nautical students training in a ship simulator. The study examines how a group of students, together with a professional maritime pilot, enacted professional roles and collaboratively constructed a simulated context for learning to navigate. Their activities on the bridge were framed within the maritime profession’s hierarchical system of captain and officers, and we examine in detail how these institutionally defined positions become important resources for meaning-making during role-play. The article portrays how two competing activity contexts were constructed, and how the role-play provided opportunities for enacting professional roles and work tasks. However, it also shows that it is challenging to pick up on what is significant to learn and to confront this in debriefing. The article concludes that the students’ collaboration and meaning-making is an entity of training that may be more efficiently addressed.

Vidas de aprendizaje conectadas : Jóvenes digitales en espacios escolares y comunitarios = Learning Lives Connected : Digital Youth across School and Community Spaces.

Aunque la mayoria de los estudios sobre el aprendizaje hablan de las experiencias intra-institucionales, nuestro interes se centra en el seguimiento de las trayectorias de aprendizaje individuales a traves de distintos dominios. Las investigaciones sobre el uso de los diferentes medios por los jovenes en el entorno extraescolar muestran como las practicas aplicadas en el uso de medios digitales difieren de las practicas en el entorno escolar, tanto en forma como en contenido. El reto principal actualmente consiste en encontrar formas de entender las interconexiones y la creacion de redes entre estos dos mundos de la vida, tal y como las experimentan los jovenes. Aqui los elementos importantes son los conceptos adaptados como contexto, trayectorias e identidad, relacionados con las redes de actividades. Presentamos datos del «proyecto sobre vidas de aprendizaje» actualmente en curso en una comunidad multicultural de Oslo. Nos centraremos especialmente en los alumnos de educacion secundaria post obligatoria que cursan estudios de Medios y Comunicacion. Con un enfoque etnografico, nos centraremos en la forma en que se construyen y se negocian las identidades del alumno en distintos tipos de relaciones de aprendizaje. Los datos incluyen datos generados por los investigadores (entrevistas, observaciones a traves de videos, anotaciones de campo) y datos generados por los participantes (fotografias, diarios, mapas).

What Happens When You Push the Button? Analyzing the Functional Dynamics of Concept Development in Computer Supported Science Inquiry.

In this article we analyze how the joint cognitive system of teacher and student actions mediated by cultural tools develops sense making of science concepts, and the use of concepts as tools for explaining phenomena and processes related to energy and energy transformation. We take a sociocultural approach to the analysis of how material and digital learning resources become tools for thinking and reasoning. We combined ethnographic descriptions with analysis of video records of classroom interactions in a high school and examined how a teacher and a group of students engaged in a computer-supported collaborative inquiry. Our results show that students through inquiry are enabled to make sense of concepts and their experiences with resources and also to use science concepts as explanatory tools. However, this is mediated by the teachers’ practices for supporting students, such as providing relevant clues for them to continue their inquiry, eliciting their initial understanding of concepts thereby making them available for further development, pressing for explanations, and reformulating their explanations. The teacher is continuously alternating between withdrawing and making students inquire by themselves and supporting their inquiry. In and through such social interactions, materials and digital tools become tools for thinking. We argue that one of the practical implications of our study is that it is crucial that teachers explicitly draw students into their system of activity throughout the entire learning trajectory and that the teachers and students together make sense of science concepts for explaining energy transformation.

Frames for learning science: analyzing learner positioning in a technology-enhanced science project

In this article, we examine the relationship between how students are positioned in social encounters and how this influences learning in a technology-supported science project. We pursue this topic by focusing on the participation trajectory of one particular learner. The analysis shows that the student cannot be interpreted as one type of student having only one type of identity as a learner. His position as a learner shifts multiple times during the instructional trajectory. We discuss the different consequences that this has on the students participation and learning of science.

Pedagogika a nové výzvy výzkumu ICT : role digitálních technologií v každodenním životě a učení mládeže

Stať diskuzniho charakteru se zabýva problematikou uceni mladeže v různých kontextech a prostředich v eře digitalnich technologii. Mladež se s digitalnimi technologiemi běžně setkava jak ve skole, tak zejmena mimo skolu, tradicně se vsak pedagogický výzkum věnuje předevsim skolnimu využiti ICT. Je tedy velkou výzvou pro pedagogiku tyto oblasti propojit s cilem poznat komplexněji život a uceni soucasne mladeže. V uvodni casti se zaměřujeme na soucasný stav pedagogickeho výzkumu, ukazujeme take, že ICT nelze považovat pouze za moderni didaktickou pomůcku. V dalsich castech diskutujeme možna teoreticka východiska tematu. Nasledně se zabývame metodologickými otazkami empirickeho výzkumu, přicemž prezentujeme take přiklady realizovaných výzkumů, ktere jdou za ramec tradicnich výzkumů formalniho uceni s ICT. V zavěru se pak zamýslime nad teoretickými, metodologickými i aplikacnimi otazkami, jež souviseji s takto komplexně pojatým pedagogickým výzkumem mladeže. Jednim z cilů teto stati je motivovat k diskuzi o pedagogicke teorii a výzkumu uceni dnesni mladeže s ICT a podnitit tak teoretickou i výzkumnou cinnost v teto oblasti.