Capturing Collaborative Designs to Assist the Pedagogical Process

Ratcliffe, M. Thomas, L. Ellis, W. Thomasson, B. Capturing Collaborative Designs to Assist the Pedagogical Process.ACM SIGCSE Bulletin Volume 35 , Issue 3 (September 2003)

Collaborative artistic laboratories. Transfrontier spaces of cultural production

The appearance of the open code paradigm and the demands of social movements have permeated the ways in which today’s cultural institutions are organized. This article analyzes the birth of a new critical and cooperative spatiality and how it is transforming current modes of cultural research and production. It centers on the potential for establishing the new means of cooperation that are being tested in what are defined as collaborative artistic laboratories. These are hybrid spaces of research and creation based on networked and cooperative structures producing a new societal-technical body that forces us to reconsider the traditional organic conditions of the productive scenarios of knowledge and artistic practice.

Enabling Social Work Students to Deal with the Consequences of Political Conflict: Engaging with Victim/Survivor Service Users and a ‘Pedagogy of Discomfort’

This paper describes the evaluation of an educational project, delivered in a Bachelor in Social Work degree (BSW) program in Northern Ireland. The project aimed to equip social work students to be more culturally competent in this divided society, with a central focus on including victim/survivor service users in social work training. A number of pedagogical approaches are noted, with particular consideration of Boler's ‘pedagogy of discomfort’ as a model that includes the multidimensional nature of the learning process when topics carry a high emotional tariff. The evaluation of the students' experience indicated that: there was strong support among students for the project; the unique contribution of service users was affirmed; and the project appeared to increase students' awareness and capacity to practice in a divided society. The evaluation of the trainers' experience highlighted key processes in the delivery of collaborative training. The authors argue that the lessons learned are broadly applicable to other forms of service user and carer involvement in social work training and in other societies in which health and social care professionals have to deal with the legacies of political conflict.

Architecture as Pedagogy: Alive and Kicking

This workshop draws on an emerging collaborative body of research by Lovett, Morrow and McClean that aims to understand architecture and its processes as a form of pedagogical practice: a civic pedagogy.

Architectural education can be valued not only as a process that delivers architecture-specific skills and knowledges, but also as a process that transforms people into critically active contributors to society. We are keen to examine how and where those skills are developed in architectural education and trace their existence and/or application within practice. We intend to examine whether some architectural and spatial practices are intrinsically pedagogical in their nature and how the level of involvement of clients, users and communities can mimic the project-based learning of architectural education – in particularly in the context of ‘live project learning’

1. This workshop begins with a brief discussion paper from Morrow that sets out the arguments behind why and how architecture can be understood as pedagogy. It will do so by presenting firstly the relationship between architectural practice and pedagogy, drawing out both contemporary and historical examples of architecture and architects acting pedagogically. It will also consider some other forms of creative practice that explicitly frame themselves pedagogically, and focus on participatory approaches in architectural practice that overlap with inclusive and live pedagogies, concluding with a draft and tentative abstracted pedagogical framework for architectural practice.

2. Lovett will examine practices of architectural operation that have a pedagogical approach, or which recognise within themselves an educational subtext/current. He is most interested in a 'liveness' beyond the 'Architectural Education' of university institutions. The presentation will question the scope for both spatial empowerment / agency and a greater understanding and awareness of the value of good design when operating as architects with participant-clients younger than 18, older than 25 or across varied parts of society. Positing that the learning might be greatest when there are no prescribed 'Learning Outcomes' and that such work might depend on risk-taking and playfulness, the presentation will be a curated showcase drawing on his own ongoing work.

Both brief presentations will inform the basis of the workshop’s discussion which hopes to draw on participants views and expereinces to enrich the research process. The intention is that the overall workshop will lead to a call for contributors and respondents to a forthcoming publication on ‘Architecture as Pedagogy’.

A Handbook for Ontario J/I Pre-Service Teachers Developing Inclusive Pedagogy: Understanding Pre-Service Teachers' Thoughts and Feelings About Diversity

This project presents a handbook for Ontario Junior/Intermediate (J/I) pre-service teachers, Ontario J/I teacher education instructors, and J/I associate teachers that facilitates the identification, analysis, and reorganization of J/I pre-service teachers’ thoughts and feelings about diversity characteristics to develop inclusive teaching pedagogy. The handbook outlines collaborative and independent learning activities designed for integration into compulsory J/I Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) program courses, practicum placements, and independent reflective situations. The handbook is composed of 5 sections: (a) Rationale for Importance; (b) Cross-Curricular Activities for J/I B.Ed. Courses; (c) Course-Specific Activities; (d) Practicum Placement Activities; and (e) Resources for Inclusive Educators. A critical content analysis of a 2011-2012 J/I B.Ed. program in Ontario enabled the creation of the handbook to address specific teacher education programming focused on helping pre-service teachers understand their thoughts and feelings about diversity for the development of inclusive teaching pedagogy. This research contributes to the advancement of theory and practice regarding development of teacher education programming that promotes J/I pre-service teachers’ inclusive pedagogy.

City-to-surf - a peer-to-peer model of on-line professional development: a collaborative mentoring model

This project explores the potential of electronic communications to support peer-to-peer interaction between separate whole-school communities as a means of providing both authentic, situated, professional development for teachers, concurrent with the development of enhanced student learning outcomes, and the intentional sharing of school 'culture'.  The intense use of telecommunications by both teacher and students in a 'many-to-many' manner provides rich opportunities for teachers to rethink their pedagogy, reconceptualise their classroom culture, and for students to see teachers as learners 'in situ'.  An extensive trial between two schools some 120km apart has demonstrated the basic functionality of the model.  This paper discusses the origins of the project, findings from the trial, and the nature of the changes to be made to the model to enhance its effects.

The need for a culturally inclusive andragogy for collaborative design learning

In recognition of the apparent paradox between the cultural-systems of Asia and the West and the teaching and learning styles they promote, this platform paper aims to propose how research might investigate differences between achievement and diverse learning preferences at various stages of the design process in the multi-cultural studios of Deakin University. The paper presents a Strategic Teaching and Learning Grant project currently running at Deakin as a reflexive research program aimed at resolving the learning difficulties of international students collaborating in three undergraduate design studios. The primary aim of this program is to inform a new culturally inclusive andragogy for problem-based design teaching through experiential
learning theory.

Thinking about thinking : innovative pedagogy designed to foster thinking skills in junior primary classrooms

This article reports on the collaborative initiative of two primary school teachers who created and implemented innovative pedagogy in order to foster a culture of thinking in their classrooms. The paper outlines teaching strategies that were used with the intent of making students mindful of themselves as learners and thinkers. A 'Toolbox', inspired by 'Habits of Mind' and the Visible Thinking approach to teaching and learning, is described in narrative form by one of the teachers. The Toolbox aims to equip students with the thinking tools to make their thinking visible to themselves, their peers and their teachers.

Analysis of asynchronous online discussion forums for collaborative learning

Online discussion forums are well suited for collaborative learning systems. Much of the currently available research indicates that effectively designed collaborative learning systems motivate and enhance learning experiences of the participants which in turn lead to enhanced learning outcomes. This paper develops taxonomy of the asynchronous online discussion forums with the aims of increasing the understanding and awareness of various types of asynchronous discussion forums. The taxonomy is framed by constructivist pedagogical principles of asynchronous online discussion forum. The key attributes of online discussions and the factors influencing the discussion forum’s design are identified. The taxonomy will help increase the online course designers’ ability to design more effective learning experiences for student success and satisfaction. It will also help researchers to understand the various features of the asynchronous discussion forums. The article concludes with implications for pedagogy and suggestions for the direction of future theoretical and empirical research.

The Path between Pedagogy and Technology: Establishing a Theoretical Basis for the Development of Educational Game Environments

The power of computer game technology is currently being harnessed to produce “serious games”. These “games” are targeted at the education and training marketplace, and employ various key game-engine components such as the graphics and physics engines to produce realistic “digital-world” simulations of the real “physical world”. Many approaches are driven by the technology and often lack a consideration of a firm pedagogical underpinning. The authors believe that an analysis and deployment of both the technological and pedagogical dimensions should occur together, with the pedagogical dimension providing the lead. This chapter explores the relationship between these two dimensions, and explores how “pedagogy may inform the use of technology”, how various learning theories may be mapped onto the use of the affordances of computer game engines. Autonomous and collaborative learning approaches are discussed. The design of a serious game is broken down into spatial and temporal elements. The spatial dimension is related to the theories of knowledge structures, especially “concept maps”. The temporal dimension is related to “experiential learning”, especially the approach of Kolb. The multi-player aspect of serious games is related to theories of “collaborative learning” which is broken down into a discussion of “discourse” versus “dialogue”. Several general guiding principles are explored, such as the use of “metaphor” (including metaphors of space, embodiment, systems thinking, the internet and emergence). The topological design of a serious game is also highlighted. The discussion of pedagogy is related to various serious games we have recently produced and researched, and is presented in the hope of informing the “serious game community”.

Collaborative reflective experience and practice in education explored through self-study and arts-based research

Eight teacher educators used self-study methodology to engage in reflective practice to overcome their isolation as individual teachers and researchers, and to facilitate professional development. Their research question asked: How can we continue to develop our teaching practice to ensure we are high quality, contemporary teacher educators? They contributed collaboratively in one overarching research project as well as through several focussed projects that explored issues in their individual teaching practices including: sustainability, creativity, curriculum design, pedagogy, assessment, and the learning experiences for students. This paper explores the outcomes from collaborative inquiry that five of the eight educator/researchers engaged in during a research-writing retreat. It documents their experience using arts-based strategies in which drawings were created about their experiences of engaging in a collaborative project and smaller focussed self-study projects. Analysis involved inquiring into each other’s drawings through recorded conversation. The metaphoric representations found through analysing the drawings provided insight into participants’ teaching practices and identities as teacher educators. Six months later when the participants had developed their projects further and used other artsbased methods to understand these experiences, they reflected on the key issues for their teaching practices that had arisen from undertaking this Collaborative Reflective Experience and Practice in Education research. Arts-based inquiries and reflective analysis over six months, constitute this paper. The experiences and analyses are shared to show how creating and sharing metaphoric meaning of visual representations is useful in self-study research to drill down into the real issues. Importantly, this in-depth sharing provides authentic interdisciplinary links when individual educators share their own approaches to teaching in their disciplined area. Findings suggest that gaining new insights into each other’s discipline-based approaches to teacher education through these methods, revealed different responses to pedagogical challenges and allowed for new possibilities for understanding the landscape of teacher education.

A gallery walk: 'drawing out' understandings of collaborative self-study in teacher education

The Collaborative Reflective Experience and Practice in Education (CREPE) Research Group formed mid 2014 as a group of eight teacher educators interested in working collaboratively to improve our teaching practice through self-study methodology. Located at distance across the three campuses of Deakin University in Victoria, Australia and from the disciplines of mathematics, science, visual arts, performing arts, and curriculum and pedagogy, we aimed to better understand, improve, and share our practices as teacher-educators. While a few of us had engaged in self-study previously, all were comfortable with observing some kind of professional reflective/reflexive practice. We shared the intention of engaging in the scholarship (teaching practice and research) of self-study methodology via community of practice approaches, focusing on our collaborative (overarching) research as well as engaging in focused research simultaneously. It is our efforts towards collaborative research that are the subject of this chapter.