Sami Paavola

Models of Innovative Knowledge Communities and Three Metaphors of Learning

The authors analyze and compare three models of innovative knowledge communities: Nonaka and Takeuchi’s model of knowledge-creation, Engeström’s model of expansive learning, and Bereiter’s model of knowledge building. Despite basic differences, these models have pertinent features in common: Most fundamentally, they emphasize dynamic processes for transforming prevailing knowledge and practices. Beyond characterizing learning as knowledge acquisition (the acquisition metaphor) and as participation in a social community (the participation metaphor), the authors of this article distinguish a third aspect: learning (and intelligent activity in general) as knowledge creation (the knowledge-creation metaphor). This approach focuses on investigating mediated processes of knowledge creation that have become especially important in a knowledge society.

Peircean Abduction: Instinct or Inference?

Peirce’s conception of abduction has many puzzling features. Some of these puzzles follow from the fact that Peirce developed his theory of abduction throughout his long career, and changed his views in some important respects. This development should then be taken into account when his multi-faceted conception of abduction is interpreted. One important change was that, in his later writings, a guessing instinct, or an instinct for finding good hypotheses, was an important aspect of abduction, indeed, a central element that made the originary character of abduction understandable. Earlier, he had rejected this role explicitly. The strong appeal to instinct raises, however, a fundamental problem for his later view. It leads to a seemingly paradoxical view that new ideas and hypotheses are products of an instinct (or an insight), and products of an inference at the same time (Frankfurt 1958: 594; see also Fann 1970: 35; Anderson 1987: 32, 35; Roth 1988; Brogaard 1999; Burton 2000). Can abduction be, at the same time, a form of reasoning and have its basis so clearly in instinct? Usually it is thought that new ideas are products of an imaginative faculty of human beings, which is a matter of psychology (or maybe sociology), or contrary-wise, of a rational or rule-following procedure, which would mean that one could develop some sort of a logic of discovery; but not these two at the same time or with the same model. If abduction relies on instinct, it is not a form of reasoning, and if it is a form of reasoning, it does not rely on instinct. In this article, I examine how it is interpreted that Peirce succeeded in combining instinct and inference; and, more generally, how to see the relationship between these two. I first present, briefly, some basic phases of Peirce’s conception of abduction, and di¤ering characterizations that may be found for instinct in Peirce’s writings. Then I will discuss other interpeters’ accounts of how Peirce combines instinct and inference. Finally I present my own interpretation of this relationship and give my own assessment. To foreshadow, I maintain that it is beneficial to make a clear distinction between abductive inference and abductive instinct, and

Hansonian and Harmanian Abduction as Models of Discovery

In this article, I compare two varieties of abduction as reconstructive models for analysing discovery. The first is ‘Hansonian abduction’, which is based on N. R. Hanson’s formulations of abduction. The other is ‘Harmanian abduction’, the Inference to the Best Explanation (IBE) model, formulated especially by Gilbert Harman. Peter Lipton has analysed processes of discovery on the basis of his developed form of Harmanian abduction. I argue that Hansonian abduction would, however, be a more apt model for this purpose. As an example, I reconstruct, in a Hansonian manner, Ignaz Semmelweis’s research on childbed fever and compare it to the IBE reconstruction of Lipton. I argue that Hansonian abduction is in accordance with Lipton’s aim of taking into account the distinction between actual and potential explanations on the one hand, and between likely and lovely explanations on the other. I maintain that a developed version of Hansonian abduction combined with loveliness gives an important, new conceptual means for analysing processes of discovery.

Case studies of learning objects used in school settings

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role and characteristics of virtual learning objects in selected classroom cases. Four Finnish cases represented such pedagogical approaches as student‐centeredness, process orientation and collaborative inquiry. The case study approach enabled the investigation of concrete practices in using learning objects in ordinary classroom settings. The goal of the study was to examine the interrelatedness of the teachers’ pedagogical practices with characteristics and affordances of the learning objects, in order to understand how learning objects can support the development of advanced pedagogical practices in schools. The data used were qualitative, consisting of the participating teachers’ agendas, and observations and video recordings during classroom sessions. The results indicate that the learning objects were mostly used as exploration tools, information sources, assessment models and objects of discussion. An expert‐like use of knowledge was characteristic in the pedagogical settings, especially when the teacher was experienced in using ICT in teaching. However, not all the learning objects supported such practices, thus preventing a teacher from reaching intended pedagogical aims.

The Trialogical Approach as a New form of Mediation

An emerging trend in theories about human learning and cognition is emphasizing collaboration, creative processes, and the use of new technology. Various changes in modern society form a basis for the change in learning theories, such as: 1) the rapid development of new technology which has formed and continues to form qualitatively new opportunities for distributed interaction and collaboration, 2) the pressure to create – and learn deliberately to create – new knowledge and transform existing practices in various areas of life, and 3) the complexity of modern society which means that people must combine their expertise to solve often unforeseen complex problems because individuals cannot solve problems alone.

Abduction with Dialogical and Trialogical Means

Charles S. Peirce’s semeiotic pragmatism gives essential means for conceptualizing processes of inquiry and discovery. Abduction is a central element of this processual viewpoint because it is a way of analyzing the search for new ideas and hypotheses. In this paper we maintain that we can enhance the processual outlook by embedding abduction to a more general dialogical framework concerning epistemology. We will also maintain that dialogicality is not adequate in itself, but must be broadened to a “trialogicality”. Seen from this perspective, Peirce’s framework has connections to modern ideas about distributed cognition and mediated activity; also to Donald Davidson’s theory of triangulation, and Marcello Pera’s dialectical model of science.

Digital competence --- an emergent boundary concept for policy and educational research

Digital competence is an evolving concept related to the development of digital technology and the political aims and expectations of citizenship in a knowledge society. It is regarded as a core competence in policy papers; in educational research it is not yet a standardized concept. We suggest that it is a useful boundary concept, which can be used in various contexts. For this study, we analysed 76 educational research articles in which digital competence, described by different terms, was investigated. As a result, we found that digital competence consists of a variety of skills and competences, and its scope is wide, as is its background: from media studies and computer science to library and literacy studies. In the article review, we found a total of 34 terms that had used to describe the digital technology related skills and competences; the most often used terms were digital literacy, new literacies, multiliteracy and media literacy, each with somewhat different focus. We suggest that digital competence is defined as consisting of (1) technical competence, (2) the ability to use digital technologies in a meaningful way for working, studying and in everyday life, (3) the ability to evaluate digital technologies critically, and (4) motivation to participate and commit in the digital culture.

Trialogical Approach for Knowledge Creation

In this chapter, the main characteristics of the trialogical approach to learning are described, emphasizing guidelines for collaborative work with knowledge artifacts and practices. Six design principles are presented as well as the background in the knowledge creation metaphor of learning. The main theoretical elements of the approach – mediation, knowledge artifacts, knowledge practices, and object-oriented activities – are briefly analyzed. Trialogical learning can be seen as an outgrowth of changes in learning sciences. Instead of, and besides, dialogues and meaning making, the focus is on developing shared objects. Finally, the approach is interpreted in relation to other theories on knowledge creation.

Using Trialogical Design Principles to Assess Pedagogical Practices in Two Higher Education Courses

Design-based research has become a popular methodology in educational research because it provides results that can explicitly be applied to inform pedagogical practice, unlike surveys or experimental studies conducted in controlled laboratory settings (Brown, 1992; Edelson, 2002). One basic aspect of design-based research emphasised by many researchers is that it combines empirical research and theorydriven design of educational settings, aiming to understand how to assess and improve pedagogical practices in authentic contexts, and simultaneously develop the theories further (Bell et al., 2004; Design-Based Research Collective, 2003).

Diagrams, iconicity, and abductive discovery

Abstract In this article, the role of abductive reasoning within Peirces diagrammatic reasoning is discussed. Both abduction and diagrammatic reasoning bring in elements of discovery but it is not clear if abduction should be a part of a fully developed diagrammatic system or not for Peirce. This relates to Peirces way of interpreting abduction in his later writings. Iconicity and perceptual elements as a basis for discoveries are analyzed, both in deductive and abductive reasoning. At the end, the role of modern ideas of distributed cognition applied to the Peircean scheme is shortly delineated.