Natascha Kienstra

Doing Philosophy Effectively: Student Learning in Classroom Teaching

An important aim of teaching philosophy in Dutch secondary schools is to learn about philosophy (i.e., the great philosophers) by doing philosophy. We examined doing philosophy and focused specifically on the relationship between student learning activities and teacher behavior; in doing so, a qualitative cross-case analysis of eight philosophy lessons was performed. The effectiveness of doing philosophy was operationalized into five learning activities comprising rationalizing, analyzing, testing, producing criticism, and reflecting, and scored by means of qualitative graphical time registration. Using CA we find a quantitative one-dimensional scale for the lessons that contrasts lessons that are more and less effective in terms of learning and teaching. A relationship was found between teaching by teachers and doing philosophy by students. In particular we found students to produce a higher level of doing philosophy with teachers who chose to organize a philosophical discussion with shared guidance by the teacher together with the students.

Using Correspondence Analysis in Multiple Case Studies

In qualitative research of multiple case studies, Miles and Huberman proposed to summarize the separate cases in a so-called meta-matrix that consists of cases by variables. Yin discusses cross-case synthesis to study this matrix. We propose correspondence analysis (CA) as a useful tool to study this matrix. CA is a quantitative method that yields a graphical display of the rows and of the columns of a matrix. The rows and the columns receive coordinates that can be interpreted as quantifications, hence the cases can be compared using these quantifications. Using an example from qualitative educational research into teaching philosophy, we illustrate both methods and their complementarity. We discuss special features of the application of CA to case study research, such as flexible ways of coding the data, and the stability of the CA solution when the number of cases is much smaller than the number of variables.

Religious-Thinking-Through Using Bibliodrama: An Empirical Study of Student Learning in Classroom Teaching

ABSTRACT Searching for new methods to start a genuine dialogue in secondary school classrooms, bibliodrama as an active form of putting religious stories in action was used. The research focused on examining relationships between student learning activities and teacher behavior; six lessons were analyzed in a qualitative cross-case analysis. A dialogue in the classroom aims to evoke theologizing by the students, also to be called religious-thinking-through. The effectiveness of religious-thinking-through was operationalized into three learning activities (testing positions, producing criticism, and reflecting) and six teaching scaffolds, building stones used by teachers to gear active learning. A quantitative correspondence analysis yielded a scale that contrasts more from less effective lessons. The specific contribution of an effective religion teacher is to show understanding, give space and listen. When he asks meta-cognitive questions in a debating way of connective truth finding this leads to a higher level of religious-thinking-through by students.