Affordances of Individual Weblogs & Collaborative Threaded Discussion Environments for Critical Reflection

Clare Brett Nobuko Fujita

Wendy FreemanOISE/UT

CSSE Presentation – May 28, 2006

Challenges and Outline of Presentation

• We saw Critical Reflection as being the focus on problematizing and questioning ideas in readings.

• Critical reflection is a tall order within the confines of a single semester course.

• Challenge of understanding and integrating new content--critical reflection a step or two cognitively beyond that.

• The two studies here investigate the steps that may support the emergence of critical reflection.

Reflection

• Many definitions of reflection among teachers--Dewey (1933), van Manen (1977), Schön (1982), Hatton & Smith, (1995), etc.)

• Productive reflection allows students to develop and demonstrate a more complex view of teaching (Davis, 2006)

• Indicators:– integration of ideas (e.g. learners and learning,

content knowledge, assessment, instruction)– in-depth analysis

Online Discussion Environment

• Asynchronous threaded discussion in Knowledge Forum (KF)

• Based on research results from diverse user communities and knowledge building pedagogy

• Read, reflect, and write at length before publicly-sharing ideas within the online course learning community

• Question each other to evaluate their understanding and constitute goals for further inquiry (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1991)

Select course

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Referencing

Annotation

Scaffolding Collaborative Threaded Discussion

• Course theme of progressive discourse

• Readings (e.g. Wilson, Ludwig-Hardman, Thornam & Dunlap, 2004) drew attention to what distinguishes learning communities from other kinds of communities

• Discourse for Inquiry cards• Knowledge Forum’s scaffolds

Select

scaffold Scaffold html tag appears at bottom of window

scaffold support surrounding text

Results

• Fall 2004– 17 consented to participate– 9 M.Ed., 4 M.A., 3 Ed.D., 1 Ph.D.

• Winter 2005– 20 consented to participate– 13 M.Ed., 2 M.A., 4 Ed.D., 1 Ph.D.

Overall KF Database Activity

Fall 2004 Winter 2005

Mean number of notes written

63 57

Percentage of notes read

79% 70%

Mean number of KF scaffolds used

within notes*

18 23

*many students used more than 1 scaffold in a note

Content Analysis• 2 weeks of discussion selected from each course (week 3,

week 10)• Number of notes, mean word count:

Fall 2004 Winter 2005

Week 3 125 notes

mean 136 words

120 notes

mean 137 words

Week 10 123 notes

mean 171 words

109 notes

mean 139 words

Example 1

• Notes coded at the message level for content -- what students were reflecting on

• Some notes were not reflective, i.e. scheduling synchronous chat, skype, or video-conferencing activities

• Fall 2004 week 3– 37% notes coded not reflective; scheduling– productive reflection occurred in 14% of 44 notes on

scheduling– 4 students posted their chat transcript, reflections on

their experience, and the role their chat agenda played• Winter 2005 week 3

– 13% notes coded not reflective; scheduling

Example 2

• Within a thread of discussion (33 notes) in Winter 2005 week 3

• Student moderators’ discussion questions are on concepts in one assigned reading and implications of these concepts for practice

• 12 notes (36%) deal directly with concepts in the reading

• 18 (55%) relate to constructivist teaching – 2 (6%) integrate experience in a previous course– 3 (9%) integrate teaching experiences with reading– 2 (6%) integrate other course readings

Of KF notes coded so far…

• 43% refer directly or indirectly to a source (i.e. reading, video, web document, etc.)

• 37% students’ own elaborated explanation • 32% metacognitive • 30% reference peers thorough direct quote or

linking (vs. 3% reference instructor; 0.4% others outside course)

• 25% pose problems requiring explanation rather than factual responses

Scaffolds and reflection

• Students seem to use the “Opinion” or “My Theory” for their own explanations with “Elaboration” to further elaborate

• “I need to understand” and “Problem/Question” used for explanatory problems

• “Evidence” or “Reason” were not used for using sources as might be expected in argument

• Customized scaffolds for progressive discourse, e.g. How idea is useful, Problems/Limitations, How idea could be advanced may promote what Bereiter & Scardamalia (2003) call design-mode thinking

Preliminary Conclusions

• Threaded discussion can support integration and analysis, however…

• Students may benefit from scaffolding• to integrate descriptions of personal teaching

experiences with course concepts• To develop coherence between different concepts within

a week and over course weeks• To integrate current course experiences from previous

ones • To encourage a learning community culture that

analyzes concepts critically and logically• To take up the challenge of using KF scaffolds as a

generative activity and exercise epistemic agency over their learning

Weblog Implementation

• Description of how the weblogs were implemented in both courses– Timing– Technology– Goals– Questions– Grading

The Environment

• Graduate students in Education

• Studying at a distance

• Part-time students, full-time teachers

• Coursework lacks academic socialization at the program level

Background

• Weblogs provide an easy form-based interface to make posts that are displayed in reverse chronological order on a webpage.

• Categories can be used to group weblogs.• Because they are webpages any Internet format

can be displayed (links, video, audio, images)• Each student has their own weblog• Weblogs were aggregated into a single display.

Context

CTL1608 Winter 2005 CTL1608 Fall 2005

Why Weblogs?

public writing individual

identity

progress shared understanding

flexible content

flexible stylelinkingreflectionvoice

easily updated

reading

subjective

Weblog in CTL1608

• Constructive Learning and the Design of Online Environments

• Fully online, course readings, student moderation, KF discussions, and weblog

• Weblog was presented as an online journal• Reflection questions were posted weekly as a guide to

scaffold reflection• Students were encouraged to experiment with the

weblog and to write as much as they liked• Other graduate students and faculty had kept weblogs in

the same environment•

Reflection Questions

• Focus on developing a deeper understanding of course content

• Transparency of scholarship and process• Tied to course readings• Examples:

– What have you found most challenging and what have you found to be most supportive of your learning?

Reflection • Types of reflection scaffolded throughout the courses:

– Technical• Considering theory in light of personal experience• Not critical or evaluative• What have you found most challenging and what have you found to be most supportive

of your learning?

– Descriptive• Examining personal and professional practice as it might be informed by

theory• Seeking improvement, development• What is your ideal graduate school community and why?

– Dialogic• Weighing competing claims, considering evidence• Hearing one’s own voice• Why do you think theories develop and change?

Based on Hatton, N. and Smith, D. (1995). Reflection in teacher education: Towards definition and

implementation. Teaching and Teacher Education, 11(1), p. 33.

Results

• Winter 2005– 19 consented to participate– 12 M.Ed. , 3 M.A., 4 Doctoral

• Fall 2005– 12 consented to participate– 10 MEd, 2 PhD

Preliminary AnalysisSemester Participant Posts (n)

Scaffolds use (%)

Winter * April 9 100

Chloe 14 64

Drew 14 79

Gail 9 78

Paul 10 80

Sharon 15 80

Fall** Esme 11 45

James 12 77

Lianne 8 0

Michelle 11 9

Rick 13 46

Simone 19 58

*Mean number of posts for course =11; Mean ratio of scaffold use for course=72% ** Mean number of posts for course =10; Mean ratio of scaffold use for course=55%

Did the weblogs support student reflection?

• Features unique to weblogs– Subjective Space:

• Individual; personal perspective; opinion; voice

– Flexibility of Style and Content• Title; topic; writing style• Elements: quoting, citing, linking, using images

– Ease of Updating– Database Structure

Posts Using Scaffolds • No differences in weblog use based on type of reflection being scaffolded

• Most frequent weblog features used across scaffold type:

– Subjective Space• Since beginning this online adventure at times I feel like I'm sinking ... The technology

is new to me and this causes some angst as it is easy to become overwhelmed. I am still trying to organize how to tackle my learning week and keeping a sense of balance - my keyword for the month of October - balance! [Esme: Week 3: Fall 2005]

– Flexibility of Style and ContentLimerick of the Week When our thoughts to themselves do turn We through metacognition discern That the knowledge we've built Is joined up like a quilt But the borrowed has all been unlearned

Posts Without Scaffolds

• Much higher use of weblog features

• Predominant Features:– Subjective Space

• 65% of all entries coded as examples of subjective space were within the posts without scaffolds

– Flexibility• 67% of all entries coded as examples of flexibility

were within the posts without scaffolds

These data are from selected six weblogs from winter and fall courses (n=12).

Subjective Space

Topic under consideration References among 12 cases (n)

Making sense of course content 14

Making sense of course experiences

24

Relating content to academic self 4

Relating learning to practice 12

Conclusions

• This is only preliminary analysis– How typical are these results across all

weblogs?– What are the common topics in the scaffolded

posts?– Do any of the weblog features support depth

of reflection or transparency of process?

Conclusions

• Posts that do not use scaffolds would appear to support more metacognitive and productive reflection (Davis, 2006).

• Students might benefit when scaffolds are reduced or removed over time.

• Certain weblog features may support the development of community resources over time.

Summary

• Each technology has its own sphere of effective use. – Discussion environments--developing ideas in concert

with others– Weblogs--developing ‘subjective space’ --emergence

of own voice and perspective.

• Scaffolds work differently in each environment: – May support more complex cognitive activity in

discussion environments– May need to be gradually removed to allow individual

voice in weblogs.