student reflections - Murphy

Students’ self analysis of contributions to online asynchronous discussions

Elizabeth Murphy (2005)

Australasian Journal of Educational Technology , 21(2), 155-172

Findings support Kanuka and Anderson (1998) p166 ‘construction of knowledge is not an observable activity’ (KRO ? instead - may not always be observable)

Kunuka, H., & Anderson, T. (1998)

Online social interchange, discord, and knowledge construction. Journal of Distance Education, 13(1) http://cade.athabascau.ca/vol13.1/kanuka.html

KRO - ? a way of developing meta skills for knowledge construction

Reflects the competencies required to learn online collaboratively

Method

Provide a set of four activities for students ( mature – education) to self assess in a social contructivist learning context by looking at

1. No. of postings made on a weekly basis and their length. Includes bar chart as a visual representation.

2. Analysis of claims and gounds (evidence), 8 claim types, 6 ground type. Look at number made, and distribution over the modules. Includes bar chart as a visual representation.

3. Reflect on these

Findings - Reflection by the student ( the last activity, qualitative data)

‘by nature relatively quiet ….. even in a group setting’

‘only contribute when something significant to add’

method of contributing – ‘disrupting mindsets’

try to get others to interogate their understanding

‘In trying to advance the discussion and promote knowledge building , I aim to include a personal element in my posting to exemplify metacognitive activity taking place. If other learners witness the occurrence of personal refelection and introspection, they may be inclined to do the same’

‘In trying to avoid repetition among postings, which would detract from reader interest, I attempted to add novel thoughts and ideas to stimulate further discussion’

‘although the contents of these twenty messages may not have directly contributed to the construction of knowledge, they played a role in establishing group dynamicsand infacilitating collaborative learning processes. Even informing the group of my personal situation throughout the last week ( getting married) of the group project was critical in maintaining the level of trust and confidence that had been established within our group’

‘many of my messages contained positive feedback in relation to the group’s efforts, thus contributing to the sense of morale that characterised our group’

‘I argue that the absence of this social ‘human’ element would have hindered the group’s eventual success and detracted from the learning that occurred through completion of the collaborative project’

‘I know there were many postings from other students that stimulated my thinking and that resulted in the reconstruction and reshaping of my own knowledge, yet I did not respond to these postings in the discussion forum’

Conclusion ( of the student)

· Shorten messages

· Read and respond to the messages of others

· See to ongoing participation

· Self analysis has been useful

Argumenation Andrews

The importance of argument in education

Richard Andrews (2009)

Types of argument

1. Everyday tiffs, spats rows
2. ‘Mostly highly prized of academic discourse’
3. working out a third point from two given points
4. a synopsis – e.g. for a plot, it begins the next stage i.e. it chronicles, it has the bare bones of narrative and narrative signifies the argument.

Two meta-genres operating in different ways

Argument 1-3 above

Narrative 4 above

Argumentation – the process of argument. This definition puts distance between type 1 and the rest. Type 1 is often triggered by something that is not the real cause of the difference

P4 ‘ a way of exploring an idea to its logical conclusion, a means by which a range of views can be expressed’ It allows you to make a contribution therefore can limit power and authority of significant others’

P5 ‘functions of argument -clarification, cathartis, defence etc, persuasion.

P5 ‘ argument, whilst properly associated with rationality, is often thought to be opposed to passion and feelings.’ …..’Rather than accept such an easy polarity, argument and rationality can be seen as deeply implicated in passion and feeling’ Andrews suggests the idea of intuition as high speed rationality.

Persuasion is not the same as argument (argumentation)

Argumentation and Education

Refers to Habermas ( philosopher) and Vygotsky

Vygotsky

Conceptualised reflection as inner argumentation – ‘ why all that is internal in higher mental functions was at one time external’ – the relations between people.

P7 ‘reflection is more than a miasmic , static read-off from experience’ rather it is seen as sociogenetic’

P7 ‘ dynamic mental space informed by social argument ‘ the dialogue is both with experience/the outside world on the one hand, and with ideas themselves, the internal process of reflecting/thinking.

P8 ‘Part of the underlying justification for the statement is that the development of disciplinary practices historically, is the result of ‘real relations between people’ e.g. WEAs, particularly women English as an alternative to classics at Oxbridge

P8 ‘ Gradually ‘patterns of expectation and convention establish’ “ This, the lines and conduits along which thought and argumentation take place are determined’ ( KRO formative role of teacher, norms)

Arguments can be tacit or explicit. In education a role of the teacher is to make arguments explicit.

P11 in order to develop learners ‘have to be amenable’ to the process of argumentation

However p14 ‘ the term argumentation can be threatening, it can disrup and destabilise’ therefore why the term discussion ids often preferred.

Uses three examples primary children , undergraduate essay, masters engineering student, to demonstrate that argument can manifest in different ways

Right of everyone to have mastery of the art of argument.

Claims - Habermas – we constantly make claims, claims require eviedence or a degree of validation – they are an element of argumentation in that they invite counter-claim.

Can you argue without words – multimodal?

Claims that other modes can be more visceral ( KRO assumption because didn’t back up the claim) Shrimpton example at the Melbourne races p19 ‘still image can embody an argument through the tension between two elements in the image’ ie counterpoint.