Reflection and Learning Conversations in the Sociology Classroom

This study is a small-scale action research study about the role of reflection in learning that was set in an international school in Romania during the time of a pandemic. The aim of the research was to listen to sociology students' feedback about the experience of focusing on reflection and to uncover the meaning that it had for them. It was a response to engaging with Deborah Eyre's high-performance learning (HPL) philosophy, which argues that the skills of high achieving learners can be taught to all students. The status of evidence-based methods, as a justification for educational initiatives towards social change, is considered alongside a short discussion of Hattie's synthesis of evidence-based methods and his focus on “making learning visible” in the classroom. The potential for HPL methods to provide an inclusive template of teaching and learning is briefly considered. This study describes the journey of a small action research study in the classroom and assesses its qualitative findings whilst acknowledging that some aspects of the study design were flawed.

Developing a Conversational Agent’s Capability to Identify Structural Wrongness in Arguments Based on Toulmin’s Model of Arguments

This article discusses the usefulness of Toulmin’s model of arguments as structuring an assessment of different types of wrongness in an argument. We discuss the usability of the model within a conversational agent that aims to support users to develop a good argument. Within the article, we present a study and the development of classifiers that identify the existence of structural components in a good argument, namely a claim, a warrant (underlying understanding), and evidence. Based on a dataset (three sub-datasets with 100, 1,026, 211 responses in each) in which users argue about the intelligence or non-intelligence of entities, we have developed classifiers for these components: The existence and direction (positive/negative) of claims can be detected a weighted average F1 score over all classes (positive/negative/unknown) of 0.91. The existence of a warrant (with warrant/without warrant) can be detected with a weighted F1 score over all classes of 0.88. The existence of evidence (with evidence/without evidence) can be detected with a weighted average F1 score of 0.80. We argue that these scores are high enough to be of use within a conditional dialogue structure based on Bloom’s taxonomy of learning; and show by argument an example conditional dialogue structure that allows us to conduct coherent learning conversations. While in our described experiments, we show how Toulmin’s model of arguments can be used to identify structural problems with argumentation, we also discuss how Toulmin’s model of arguments could be used in conjunction with content-wise assessment of the correctness especially of the evidence component to identify more complex types of wrongness in arguments, where argument components are not well aligned. Owing to having progress in argument mining and conversational agents, the next challenges could be the developing agents that support learning argumentation. These agents could identify more complex type of wrongness in arguments that result from wrong connections between argumentation components.

What Counts in the Development of Teachers' Learning Conversations?: a Case Study of a Group of New Zealand Educators Working Together to Improve Learning Outcomes for Students in Year 9 Classes

<p>This research was undertaken in a New Zealand secondary school. Using case study methodology, it examines teachers' learning conversations as they work together in a group to improve outcomes for underachieving students in Year 9 classes. Participants include four teachers from different departments working collaboratively in a team teaching project, a member of the school's senior management team and an external facilitator. My role is as researcher, initially interviewing participants and observing meetings where they examine data and reflect on classroom practices. My analysis of research data finds that learning conversations are complex. Multiple interdependent factors are at play in teachers' professional discussions. Three interrelated threads - beliefs, relationships and structures - provide the framework for the analysis and are examined in detail. I use a weaving metaphor to explain their interaction and to describe the development and outcomes of the teachers' learning conversations. As the groups' work evolves and the threads are woven together, two aspects are recognised in the cloth. Firstly, contradictions arise and these reveal the two sidedness of the fabric of learning conversations. One side represents the ideal as described in current research literature, and expressed in the voices of educational leaders and in the hopes and dreams of participants in this study. The other side represents the reality of such conversations in practice. Secondly, the research describes an emerging learning community embarking on a new project. The fabric of its learning conversations is at times weak and fragile; threads tangle and fray, the texture is loose and lumpy. Previous structures have to be dismantled and old practices unravelled before new approaches can take hold. Developing learning conversations is found to be a complicated and complex process. Finally, consideration is given to implications for researchers, educators and policy makers if planning to implement and support learning conversations is to be effective. Challenges for researchers include: building knowledge of the secondary school context, particularly factors which support learning for disadvantaged and underachieving students at junior levels; continuing the investigation of the nature of teachers' work in the new professional learning environment that is developing in New Zealand and internationally - and supporting teacher research into that development; and further examination of the factors that contribute to contradictions in teachers learning conversations so that practitioners can be more aware of them and develop interventions that are more likely to realise the potential that learning conversations promise. Recommendations for educators and policymakers focus on strengthening the threads that build the framework of teachers' learning conversations: beliefs, relationships and structural and systemic factors so that professional learning conversations can be implemented effectively.</p>

What Counts in the Development of Teachers' Learning Conversations?: a Case Study of a Group of New Zealand Educators Working Together to Improve Learning Outcomes for Students in Year 9 Classes

<p>This research was undertaken in a New Zealand secondary school. Using case study methodology, it examines teachers' learning conversations as they work together in a group to improve outcomes for underachieving students in Year 9 classes. Participants include four teachers from different departments working collaboratively in a team teaching project, a member of the school's senior management team and an external facilitator. My role is as researcher, initially interviewing participants and observing meetings where they examine data and reflect on classroom practices. My analysis of research data finds that learning conversations are complex. Multiple interdependent factors are at play in teachers' professional discussions. Three interrelated threads - beliefs, relationships and structures - provide the framework for the analysis and are examined in detail. I use a weaving metaphor to explain their interaction and to describe the development and outcomes of the teachers' learning conversations. As the groups' work evolves and the threads are woven together, two aspects are recognised in the cloth. Firstly, contradictions arise and these reveal the two sidedness of the fabric of learning conversations. One side represents the ideal as described in current research literature, and expressed in the voices of educational leaders and in the hopes and dreams of participants in this study. The other side represents the reality of such conversations in practice. Secondly, the research describes an emerging learning community embarking on a new project. The fabric of its learning conversations is at times weak and fragile; threads tangle and fray, the texture is loose and lumpy. Previous structures have to be dismantled and old practices unravelled before new approaches can take hold. Developing learning conversations is found to be a complicated and complex process. Finally, consideration is given to implications for researchers, educators and policy makers if planning to implement and support learning conversations is to be effective. Challenges for researchers include: building knowledge of the secondary school context, particularly factors which support learning for disadvantaged and underachieving students at junior levels; continuing the investigation of the nature of teachers' work in the new professional learning environment that is developing in New Zealand and internationally - and supporting teacher research into that development; and further examination of the factors that contribute to contradictions in teachers learning conversations so that practitioners can be more aware of them and develop interventions that are more likely to realise the potential that learning conversations promise. Recommendations for educators and policymakers focus on strengthening the threads that build the framework of teachers' learning conversations: beliefs, relationships and structural and systemic factors so that professional learning conversations can be implemented effectively.</p>

Perspectives of engagement in distance debriefings

Background The COVID-19 pandemic propelled remote simulation and online distance debriefings. Like in-person debriefings, educators seek to facilitate reflective learning conversations, yet, in the online setting, educators face challenges to learner engagement that differ considerably from in-person debriefing. Methods We performed a thematic analysis of fourteen semi-structured interviews conducted with fourteen participants who had experience with virtual debriefing as an educator or as a learner. We explored the experiences and perceptions of both educators and learners to provide a more in-depth understanding of the factors that influence engagement in online distance debriefing. Results Our study identified the challenges online distance debriefing poses for educators and learners. We found ten themes that support the Community of Inquiry (CoI) theoretical framework and provided additional considerations related to internal and external factors of engagement, including the influence of the simulation, false engagement, and self-presence. Conclusions We believe these findings can inform the design and facilitation of online debriefings to help provide educators with guidance and innovative solutions to best engage their learners in the challenging online environment.

The power of peers in GTA development of practice: evaluation of an equal-status teaching observation project

Peer observation of teaching is a well-established professional development practice and can occur through a range of different activities (e.g., micro-teaching, lesson study, performance reviews, etc.). There is evidence that these various activities are being increasingly used to support Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs). This paper reports the findings of a pilot project that implemented equal-status, interdisciplinary and developmental peer observations. As a collaborative project, it was co-designed and evaluated by eight GTAs and an academic developer. Our observation framework involved GTAs’ undertaking the observee and observer roles and retaining five of six identified dimensions of control. The findings show that the observation experiences encouraged both new and experienced GTAs to take a self-reflective and critical stance to their teaching and disciplinary approaches. This confirms the value of GTAs’ experiencing the observer role and their exposure to other disciplinary environments. The post-observation ‘learning conversations’ provided significant opportunities for GTAs to discuss and reflect on their practice contexts and experiences together. This represents an effective example of peer supported learning, which also reduces the sense of isolation that GTAs often experience.

Uncovering missing links in collegial learning conversations

This article is the result of an international collaboration between two academics who work closely with local schools as critical friends, each in their own PLC setting. This exploratory study aims to apply an analytical model in order to illustrate possibilities and clarify silences or missing links in collegial learning conversations. The analytical model is applied to analyse collegial learning conversations from two PLC settings, along with collegial conversations between the two researchers. The analysis was guided by three core considerations: What? Why? How? Two purposely selected transcripts of conversations with two separate PLCs, along with anecdotal notes from our conversations as research colleagues, provided the base for analysis. Findings generated by the application of the analytical model indicated that teachers’ PLC conversations were most explicit in relation to identifying what elements of practice to improve and how to improve teaching and learning, rather than articulating why change initiatives to develop professional knowledge were needed or on what basis they were chosen. In turn, this prompted the researchers to become more aware of ‘why’ considerations in their own work as researchers.

Entrepreneurial learning in online communities

New digital technologies possess the potential to transform entrepreneurial processes, such as how entrepreneurs pursue opportunities and access funding and how they learn. How entrepreneurs learn may be transformed as digital technologies provide new spaces for learning, such as online communities. Online communities can gather thousands of participants and provide entrepreneurs with new opportunities for learning that are not limited by time, space, or social class. Yet, we know little about how entrepreneurs take advantage of the new digital opportunities of learning. To remedy this, we studied a large online community of entrepreneurs on Reddit (r/startups), where we qualitatively analyzed the top-voted 100 threads from 2018 to 2019 (10,277 comments in total). By drawing on coactive vicarious learning, a theory that describes how learning is socially constructed through discursive interactions, we outline how entrepreneurial learning is socially constructed through conversations, which are taking place in different micro-learning contexts. Through identifying distinct entrepreneurial learning conversations, we build new theory on entrepreneurial learning in online communities. Our theorizing contributes to (1) the growing research on how entrepreneurial learning is socially constructed in communities, (2) the current debate on knowledge creation in online communities, and (3) the knowledge on how coactive vicarious learning unfolds in communities. Plain English Summary When entrepreneurs go online to learn, new research shows how online communities provide entrepreneurs with diverse learning spaces for developing ideas, learning new skills, and coping with the uncertainties of being an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs increasingly use social media for doing business, but can they also use it to learn about doing business? In this article, we investigate this question by studying an online community of entrepreneurs on Reddit called r/startups, in which entrepreneurs exchange experiences and help each other with questions and issues. We show that entrepreneurial learning is taking place in five forms of learning conversations, which are situated in four learning contexts that differ from each other, from a classroom with a student–teacher dynamic, a collab space where entrepreneurs collect ideas and develop new skills and knowledge, a club context in which they challenge each other, and a care context in which they can bring their fears and uncertainties. Our findings show how entrepreneurship practitioners can make use of online communities, encouraging teaching and policy to pay more attention to how entrepreneurs work digitally.