TO ADD: Nind book, Pring and Creswell

 It’s pertinent to recognise that this immaturity in teaching practices is also evident in the workplace.

BOOK: Nind and co

P.9 simply put pedagogy is about teaching and learning and incorporates the following elements: teaching, curriculum and assessment,

It is also concerned with what people perceive to be meaningful, important and relevant as they engage in teaching related activity and develop competence and expertise in practice.

The specified curriculum is part of pedagogy for it conveys messages about what society deems valuable and valued. This is often endorsed through national policy or by a national curriculum (p.10).

Enacted pedagogy inevitably depends on those who enact it and how that person breathes life into the specified or official version of pedagogy through their actions in the classroom. It is important who the enactor is and how they interpret the specified pedagogy (p.11).

Pedagogy as experienced is how it is experienced by the actors involved, particularly by the teachers, mentors or learners all of whom are constantly decoding and interpreting what is happening. The subjective experience of all involved is important (p.11).

The sociocultural features of pedagogy provide important analytic tools for its exploration as a dynamic phenomenon. The assumption of this model of pedagogy is that how to support learning cannot be separated from social identities, power relations, interests, purposes, agendas of participants and existing organisational and institutional practices (p.11).

It is an approach that takes account of the lives realities, experiences, conventions and perspectives of teachers, mentors and learners, which are treated as significant and relevant (p.11).

The idea of researching pedagogy is that it should be based on ‘what works’, so for the pedagogy researcher the issue becomes how to define and establish what works (p.12).

P.12 pros and cons of randomised control trials 

From a sociocultural perspective, participants (teachers, mentors and learners) act and negotiate their meanings (p.15).

This sociocultural frame seeks to recognise the dynamic interplay between the social order of pedagogy as specified and the experienced world, where practice emerges through actions and interactions of actual people (p.16).

Taking the human element out or detaching human factors is highly problematic in the sociocultural view of pedagogy (p.16).

In the sociocultural view, the person is always agentive and what happens in practice depends on the lives experience of all the actors and their previous histories or values, this captures something of the complexity of pedagogy and broader social human action (p.18).

Taking the sociocultural view means recognising the distributed nature of human action. With reference to pedagogy, this means it is insufficient to look exclusively at just one dimension without the regard for the other two. For example if we only attend to the dimension of pedagogy as specified, we may get a sense of what is valued, and whilst that is a guide to action, it’s not action itself, so only offers a partial account of the pedagogy in a given setting (p.20).

Pedagogy, in the sense that we are developing our position in it here, is fundamentally concerned with what people perceive to be meaningful and relevant as they engage in activity. Since we cannot assume what is relevant to people as they engage in tasks, we have to seek ways of establishing it to understand practice. The task of a pedagogy researcher is therefore a complex but fascinating one (p.21).

Pedagogy as specified often comes from the likes of Ofsted and draw on a single prescribed way of doing things, which is simplified and minimised as a single best way of doing things ##

A sociocultural view of pedagogy would not isolate school learning from everyday learning and would treat children as knowledgeable (e.g. Bruner, 1996) (P.23).

Teaching can be variously organised and how learning was variously demonstrated according to the values enacted by the teachers in different contexts or countries (p.24).

Alexander (2000) argues that how curriculum is understood is significant in understanding approaches to pedagogy. He argues the case for a focus on pedagogy as enacted, that is, to do with every aspect of what goes on in schools and classrooms. Curriculum for Alexander (2000, p.35) is the ‘framing’ component of the act of teaching before it is transformed into task, activity, interaction, discourse and outcome (p.25).

Pedagogy for Alexander (2000, p.540) involves more than teaching, it incorporates theories, beliefs, policies and controversies that inform and shape it (p.26).

The nature of enacted pedagogy is mediated by both the teacher and the learners, it emerges in practice (p.27).

Educational research needs to employ methodologies that invite the contributions of all educational agents in order to generate meaningful analysis of the social reality and produce usable knowledge (p.42).

It’s important to value the different social actors involved in the practice and discourse of pedagogy and valuing their different ways of knowing their different knowledge. When research is driven by such values they are methods that put dialogue at the centre of the research process (p.49).

Where different people have different ways of knowing, they will come to know different things, and acknowledging these different knowers and known sun central to a study of pedagogy (Fenstermacher, 1994) (p.52).

Pedagogy as an art, craft and science. Pedagogy as art focuses attention and care and relationships in intuitive and responsive practices. Pedagogy as craft is centred on the notion of practice itself with the doing, making, being and becoming in communities of practice and suggests a professional action-oriented knowledge base in day to day experiences of teachers. The science of pedagogy links to research-informed decision making and involves systematic observation or experimentation in practice seeking proof and evidence around that which is assumed to be good or effective practice (p.52).

Conceptualising pedagogy is a multilayered set of interactions grounded in our understandings of pedagogy as an art, craft and science and this facilitates research design that gets to the heart of what teachers know as a result of their experiences. It offers many layers of looking at practice, and in particular, the elusive and out of focus ways of knowing, doing and being that remain unnamable and make up the hard to know of our pedagogical experiences (p.53).

Researching pedagogy as enacted involves getting insights into dynamic practice. Pedagogical documentation is useful as it encompasses observation and record keeping, plus analysis and reflection, it therefore informs understanding and action and being attuned and attentive to what is observed and said. It is a method that fits well with cycles of action research where the purpose is to enhance practice (p.87).

Pedagogical documentation offers additional potential for the researcher in that it is a collaborative method, with teachers, mentors and learners all able to contribute, thereby strengthening the understanding gained. Fleet et al (2011, p.6) claim it provides a new lens through which to see the everyday (p.87).

Practitioners are encouraged to use this method to develop theory and craft convincing and evocative narratives which community members can connect with and as researchers become critical thinkers to understand more comprehensively the purpose and impact of research work (p.88).

Observations can be followed up with dialogue with learners to gain insight into their thinking, understanding and learning, illustrating how the teacher perspective can only be partial (p.90).

The pedagogy researcher wishing to use observation methods has the option to also use more structured, systematic methods.

Technology for audio and video recording assists the process of observation, interviews or focus groups and can provide transcripts to analyse (p.121).

Phenomenology asks ‘what is the meaning, structure and essence of a particular lived experience for a person or a group of people (Patton, 2002; p.104). Van Maanen (1990) defines phenomenology as a process that aims to gain a deeper understanding of the nature of meaning of our everyday experiences and focuses on how members of a community make the social world meaningful. Such research centres on the shared experiences of the participants in relation to a given phenomenon (e.g. learning) as the researcher uses methods that create a description of what participants experience and how they experience it (Moustakas, 1994). (P.133).

Lesson study is described as observations of live classroom lessons by a group of teachers who collect data on teaching and learning and collaboratively analyse it (p.170).

Lesson study is often used in research that seeks to improve practice, in which the emphasis is on what is effective in the lesson and why. This allows researchers and teachers to glean pedagogic features worth replicating (p.171).

Lesson study improves instruction through the refinement of lesson plans as well as strengthens the pathways to instructional improvement of teachers knowledge, community of practice and learning resources (p.171).

It is also a practice that can help build theory and understanding about practice, and in educational design based research cycles it can involve cycles of design, enactment, analysis and redesign of a new curriculum (p.171).

Lesson study can involve reflective observations, video recordings of lessons and interview or focus group transcripts (p.172).

Lesson study is a method in which teachers discuss pedagogy in relation to specific examples of lessons, sometimes leading to reshaping of practice and to critical research data and inform changes rolled out in repeated cycles of lesson study (p.172).

The pedagogical learning through lesson study spreads grassroots style, through refining ways of seeing and practicing. Instead of researchers demonstrating ‘proof’ it is a process of establishing and evolving ‘local proof’ making the end point of research not the causal claim but the transfer of local teacher knowledge to new contexts (Lewis, Enciso and Moje, 2007; p.8) (p.172).

Creswell, 2003

Assumptions identified in social constructivism hold that individuals seek understanding of the world in which they live and work. They develop subjective meanings of their experiences. These meanings are varied and multiple, leading to the researcher to look for the complexity of views rather than narrowing meanings into a few categories or ideas. The goal of this type of research then is to rely as much as possible on the participants views of the situation being studied (p.8).

The questions are broad and general so the participants can construct the meaning of a situation, a meaning typically forged in discussions or interactions with other persons (p.8).

The more open ended the the questioning, the better, as the researcher listens carefully to what people say or do in their life setting. Often these subjective meanings are negotiating socially and historically. In other words they are not simply imprinted on individuals but are formed through interaction with others (hence social constructivism) (p.8).

Constructivist researchers often address the ‘processes’ of interaction among individuals. They also focus on the specific contexts in which people live and work in order to understand the historical and cultural settings of the participants (p.8).

Constructivist researchers recognise that their own background shapes their interpretation, and they ‘position themselves’ in the research to acknowledge how their interpretation flows from their own personal cultural and historical experiences. The researchers intent, then, is to make sense (or interpret) the meanings others have about the world. So rather than starting with a theory, inquirers generate or inductively develop a theory or pattern of meaning (p.8).

Grounded theory is where the researcher attempts to derive a general, abstract theory of a process, action, or interaction grounded in the views of the participants in a study. This process involves using multiple layers of data collection and the refinement and interrelationship of categories of information. (Strauss and Corbin, 1990; 1998). Two primary characteristics of this research design approach are the constant comparison of data with emerging categories and theoretical sampling of different groups to maximise the similarities and differences of information. (Creswell, 2003; p.14).

Case studies are a research method in which the researcher explores in depth a program, an event, an activity, a process or one or more individuals. The cases are bound by time and activity, and researchers collect detailed information using a variety of data collection procedures over a sustained period of time (Stake, 1995; Creswell, 2003, p.15).

Phenomenological research is where researchers identifies the ‘essence’ of human experiences concerning a phenomenon as described by participants in a study. Understanding the ‘lived experiences’ marks phenomenology as a philosophy as well as a method, and the procedure involves studying a small number of subjects through extensive and prolonged engagement to develop patterns and relationships of meaning (Moustakas, 1994). In this process the researcher ‘brackets’ his or her own experiences in order to understand those of the participants in the study (Nieswiadomy, 1993).

Creswell, 2003; p.16) refers to mixed methods in research offers an array of options, it means that results from one method can help to develop or inform another (Greene, Caracelli and Graham, 1989). Or methods can be nested within another to provide insight into different levels or types of analysis (Tashakkori and Teddie, 1998). Creswell (2003) suggests various strategies and variations for using mixed methods approaches, such as sequential procedures where a researcher seeks to elaborate on findings by expanding on the findings of one method with another to more deeply explore what is going on. Concurrent procedures where a researcher combines multiple methods of data collection at the same time to comprehensively explore a topic or analyse a research problem. Or transformative procedures that could use methods in a variety of ways such involving both a sequential and concurrent with outcomes and changes anticipated by the study.

A mixed method approach is one where the researcher makes decisions and bases knowledge on pragmatic grounds, whether this be consequence oriented, problem centred or pluralistic. This approach employs strategies of inquiry that involve collecting data either simultaneously or sequentially to best understand the situation or research problems (Creswell, 2013).

A mixed methods researcher bases their inquiry on the assumption that diverse types of data best provides an understanding of a research problem (Creswell, 2013; p.21).

Qualitative research is emergent rather than tightly prefigured (p.181).

PRING

Pring (2000) according to Dewey what distinguishes human beings is their capacity to adapt to new situations and experiences, not as other organisms simply through biological adaptation, but through conceptualising problems and possible outcomes (p.12).

Education points to a distinctively human mode of acquiring the understandings, beliefs, attitudes and skills which we would want to identify with the educated person. There is an attempt to make sense, a process of enquiry, a questioning of solutions, an adaptation of frameworks of understanding to new challenges, a making personal the ‘solutions’ offered in an impersonal form. It respects the personal commitment to understanding and making sense of experience, recognising that such a commitment will shape people in different ways, certainly not the standardised outcomes loved by many researchers (p.15).

Education refers to those practices which, through the development of understanding and rational capacities, constitute a distinctively human form of life. In that respect, research into the ‘effective school’ is quite ’technicist’ and utilitarian, concerned with the means and not with the value of the ‘ends’ to which those means lead (p.17).

Education research needs to attend to what is distinctive of being a person (p.17).

It needs to recognise that the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of learning those distinctive human capacities and understandings are by no means simple and need to be analysed carefully (p.18).

Educational research, therefore, should centrally, but not exclusively, be about those transactions between teacher and learner in which are developed the capacities, skills, understandings and modes of appreciation through which the learner comes to see the world in a more valuable way (p.24).

Educational research must respect the complex ways in which learning is achieved (p.24).

Therefore, it is concluded that the scientific model is simply not appropriate (p.32).

There is a world of difference between the sort of enquiry appropriate for understanding physical reality and the sort of enquiry for understanding mental life of individual persons because man is not a subject of science (p.32).

Persons cannot be the object of scientific enquiry (though no doubt their biological functioning can be), since an ‘educational practice’ is where individuals ‘make sense’ starting from their different perspectives of experience, struggle to understand, and come to find value in different things and activities, then it cannot be grasped within general laws or theories (p.32). 

Educational enquiry becomes focused upon individuals, making explicit what is unique and distinctive of the ‘thinking life’ of each, and interpreting what is seen through the personal ideas which make action intelligible (p.33).

To know what works requires careful observation, the systematic recording of those observations and the attempt to generalise findings from them. The more observations there are which support the generalisation, the more confident one might be in any conclusions reached. This theory is gradually built up inductively from what is systematically recorded. Such a theory when confirmed again and again can then be used to predict observable outcomes to guide practice (p.33).

The key feature in undertaking such observations would be consistency of approach. There is an awful amount to observe, and there is a danger that different observers might be looking at different things, or that the same observer might change the viewpoint from which he or she observes, thereby not allowing general conclusions to be drawn (p.34).

It is often assumed that the researcher, in coming to the investigation with an open mind lets the data speak for itself (p.41).

(P.42) Case study is the study of the singular and brings and brings with it the study of distinctive features of a particular situation. 

Me: This singularity of case study maybe limiting in this case as the aim of the research is to pilot and develop curriculum activities for the teaching of digital accessibility awareness.

The position of the teacher in educational research raises questions about the objectivity and impartiality of the researcher. Objectivity suggests that the researcher should be somewhat distant from what is being researched into (p.123).

Stenhouse offers a definition of the curriculum in research terms as an attempt to communicate the essential principles and features of an educational proposal in such a form that it is open to critical scrutiny and capable of effective translation into practice (Stenhouse, 1975; p.4).

Action research aims not to produce new knowledge but to improve practice, namely in the case of educational research, for educational practice which teachers are engaged in (p.133).

Action research in one classroom or school can be illuminate or be suggestive of practice elsewhere. There can be amongst networks of teachers, the development of a body of professional knowledge of ‘what works’ or of how values might be translated into practice, or come to be transformed by practice. But there is a sense in which such professional knowledge has constantly to be tested out, reflected upon and adapted to new situations (p.133).

The growth of professional knowledge requires the sympathetic but critical community through which one can test out ideas, question the values which underpin the shared practice, seek solutions to problems, invite observation of one’s practice, suggest alternative perspectives and interpretation of the data (p.134).

With action research the active reflection upon practice with a view to improvement needs to be a public activity, by public that means that the research is conducted in such a way that others can scrutinise and if necessary question the practice of which it is part. Others can be part of the reflective process, the identification and definition of the problem, the values which are implicit within the practice, the way of implementing and gathering evidence about the practice, the interpretation of the evidence (p.134).

Me: Mixed methods of quant and qual and the pros/cons

The education discipline encompasses many forms of evidence to assess the efficiency of classroom practice and learning, such as…… Assessment of learning and grading is the crux of much monitoring and measurement of success, and the more scientific quantitative data is valued and published by bodies such as Ofsted to create league their tables and measures of what is deemed to be good. 

This use of quantitative data doesn’t draw out the detail of the human experience (quotes), however does give indication of other aspects of the outputs of the learning process.

This study cannot avoid this measure of education in the profession of education as it offers insight for the assessment of learning and relevant to this study to compare against the more quantitative of the students experience of learning, it will help both the research and the teacher’s evaluation of the curriculum activities they develop. It also provides the broader picture as aligned to an expected or traditional measure in the discipline of education, so teachers would need to ensure assessment of learning is planned in such a way to be able to ascertain achievement.