Reflective learning across online discussion forums - Evolving educational practice through Dewey’s architecture of inquiry

Shaping the

Future Reflective learning across online discussion forums

Evolving educational practice through Dewey’s architecture

of inquiry

Navitas Limited Presentation Name Here | 00 MONTH YEAR

Presenters

Giovanni Di Lieto

Lecturer in Law in the Bachelor Degree of Criminology and Justice at Navitas College of Public Safety in Melbourne.

Ingrid D’Souza

Manager (eLearning Educational Design) at Navitas Professional Institute in Melbourne.

Shaping the

Future

Section title to go here


Navitas College of Public Safety

Established in 1990 in Melbourne as an independent tertiary education provider

Fully accredited and FEE-HELP approved Bachelor of Criminology and Justice

Full time, part time, on campus or online study available

Students must complete 24 units in as short as six trimesters (two years)

A full time study load consists of around 12 contact hours per week (four units per trimester).


Our degree: 24 units 18 compulsory and 6 electives

www.ncps.edu.au

http://www.ncps.edu.au/

http://www.ncps.edu.au/

Navitas Limited Citi Australian Growth Conference 21 May 2013 ASK:NVT

Who are our students


Who are we?

Giovanni


Who are we?

Ingrid


The same old story of innovation…

Once upon the time,

Theuth, an old Egyptian divinity who was the inventor of many arts, discovered the use of letters and

tried to convince

Thamus, the king of Egypt, to use the innovation to make the Egyptians wiser and give them better memories….


And guess what did Thamus reply?

“This discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners’ souls,

because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the

eternal written characters and not remember of themselves and

you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned of nothing;

they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing;

they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom

without the reality”.

(Plato 360 BCE, Phaedrus)


Searching new forms of wisdom

The story goes that Thamus was not wrong in predicting that the invention of writing would disrupt the traditional knowledge monopoly of orality.

In the ancient world, reading printed words began to breach the millennial monopoly of orality, which at the time was regarded as the proper medium of communicating real knowledge.

In the modern world, centuries of educational practice have increasingly focused on the printed word, while still allowing orality a pivotal place in the classroom.


Imagine if Thamus lived today and were an educator…

He would struggle to come to terms with the place of the computer in education,

being concerned that

“carrying anew the banner of private learning and individual problem-solving” would “defeat once and for all the claims of communal speech” and raise egocentrism to the status of a virtue” (Postman 1992).

Today, Thamus’ concern would be not what people will learn with the new technology, but rather that they will learn with the new technology.


Our reflection on the implications of changing the form of wisdom

What defines in practice

the success of learning?

Is it based only on the student’s cognitive deficits?

Or also, and increasingly, on a knowledge bias, depending on which side of the technological divide a learner sits, and at what stage of technological development the instruction occurs?


The kind of question we are asking

It is not whether students learn a certain discipline of human knowledge better by eLearning methods than by textbooks and/or face to face classes.

Instead, we wonder whether certain eLearning tools can effectively build capacity for critical inquiry within a reflective form of learning.


Our rule of reason

Pragmatist philosophy criticised certain learning practices that set up barriers to inquiry in “the shape of absolute certainty and overconfident assertion” (Peirce 1899).

Therefore, learning the truth about reality consists in collective investigation of particular cases depending not on individual opinions, but rather on representational relations which one is unable seriously to doubt (Peirce 1902).

“Upon this first, and in one sense sole, rule of reason there follows one corollary: Do not block the way of inquiry”

(Peirce 1899)


Dewey’s architecture of inquiry

Involves four consequential steps, namely:

(1)The problem implicit in such an interruption is located, formulated, and developed;

(2)Hypotheses (or suggestions) for solving the problem are introduced and are examined, with a view to determining by reasoning just what is implied by them;

(3)A hypothesis is tested by appropriate experiments which either verify or disconfirm such logical consequences of the hypothesis; and

(4)A judgment as to whether a proposed hypothesis does (or does not) resolve the problem that initiated the inquiry.

(Dewey, 1986)


What is our practice telling us

Is that the inquiry method triggers superior learning outcomes, because

Students learn through open-ended, modular questions which are more meaningful to them than pre-assumed, self-contained answers.

Inquiry educators tend to prioritise cascading further questions in two-way flows: educator to student and vice versa; or student to student.

This encourages reflective thinking over giving univocal answers which would block the inquiry process and only set learning by rote.


How do we measure the success of inquiry?

In terms of behavioral changes in students, including:

the frequency with which they ask questions; the increase in the relevance and cogency of their questions; the frequency and conviction of their challenges to assertions

made by other students or teachers or textbooks; the relevance and clarity of the standards on which they

base their challenges; their willingness to suspend judgments when they have

insufficient data; their willingness to modify or otherwise change their position

when data warrant such change; the increase in their skill in observing, classifying,

generalizing; the increase in their tolerance for diverse answers; their ability to apply generalizations, attitudes and information

to novel situations. (Postman and Weingartner, 1971)


Some of our (open-ended) conclusions

Blended learning tools enabled by innovative technologies enhance reflective thinking for successful active learning outcomes.

Blended education informed to the parameters of the inquiry method has the potential to expand the pedagogical horizon for encompassing more of the overwhelming flow of information in our digitized age.

As a lecturer and an eLearning designer, we both face the challenge of seeking ways to avoid trading off the durable quality of knowledge for its ephemeral quantity.

Our main educational goal is to model the flow of each learner’s inquiry so that we can elicit pedagogical capacities for multifocal interaction, dynamic feedback and reflective thinking at large.

Shaping the

Future Moodle Tools & Outcomes


The technology environment

Background:

• NCPS use of technology was limited to

• lecture recording with little or no use of LMS tools (repository for notes and uploading of assessment items).

• T2, 2014 –

• Move to online delivery

• Change in (Moodle) template

Start with core technology -

• Moodle 2.4 (May 2013) – mostly core with few (if any) plugins – Forums

– Feedback

– (Assignment drop box)


Feedback

• Create and conduct surveys

• Write own questions (similar to that of quiz) but…

• Not connected to the Grade Book


Feedback tool

Questions asked were based on various readings

5 questions - Conducted in week 1 and repeated in Week 5

• Previous exposure to forums (week 1 only)

• Participation

• Acquisition of knowledge

• Communication of knowledge

• Building Community of learning

– (Week 5 only) – Constructed feedback


Results…

24%

86%

97% 97%

83%

75%

0% 0% 2% 2% 2% 14%

3% 2%

15%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Previous use Participation Community of learning Acquisition of knowledge Expansion of knowledge

Feedback tool - Week 1

Yes

No

Unsure


Results…

88%

100% 97%

88%

3% 0% 0%

3%

9%

0% 3%

9%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Constructive feedback Community of Learning Acquisition of knowledge Expansition of Knowledge

Questions

Feedback - week 5

Yes

No

Unsure


Forum

• Most commonly used asynchronous tool - discussion can occur over a period of time

• Allows for reflection and research

• Teacher (initially to) Student as well as student to student interaction

• Development of thinking and writing skills


Results

• SNAPP (Social Networks Adapting Pedagogical Practice)

• 2.3 posts on average each week

• Highest number of posts by an individual was 17 (week 3)

• Students started early (9.6) and then peaked towards the end when reflective assessment was due (49.7)


Results

• SNAPP (Social Networks Adapting Pedagogical Practice)

• Students did interact with each other

• some students posting between 5-17 posts, but majority of students posted on 1-4 occasions (80%)


Assignments

• Most commonly used tool for submission of work completed by students

• Allows for summative and formative feedback

• Reflective portfolio – “…academic engagement and intellectual growth as demonstrated by developing a portfolio of reflections based on both the forum discussions, and on your self-directed reading and research”


“The experience I’ve had with the online discussion forum is unbelievable. It has opened up my

knowledge simply from the help of my peers and it’s a great way to exchange information whether

if it was something we did not understand and wanted more clarity or if it was something

everyone was interested in.”

“Love the idea of the discussion forums, and they really allowed me to grasp a more solid

understanding and analysis of the texts based on others input and viewpoints. :)”

“I wanted to be able to say that I agreed with other peoples opposing posts however I still stay strong to my beliefs… . I found their posts stimulating as

they raised interesting and stimulating dilemmas.”

Students comments


“I loved the discussion forums and wished I made time to contribute more. To me it was a really good way of expressing your opinion and thoughts and ideas non-verbally and to most people who we don’t know (yet) and can learn from other students and find that you

share the same perspectives from one another.”

“…my opinions were changed week by week throughout each forum and enabled me to question my own ideas;

how the opinions of others allowed me to further educate myself with a deeper sense of knowledge.”


Tutors comments


“…Students acknowledged that they had not thought about

each relevant topic from particular perspective until participating in the forum.”

“…better observations were inevitably achieved by those

students who engaged thoroughly with the forum,

with multiple posts, rich debate which enabled a community of

learning environment…”

Tutors comments


“…students used the forum as a supportive tool to assist with queries that they had in relation to the

critical inquiry.”

Tutors comments


Support for students and staff

• Initial Use of the forum,

• Web based how to guides available 24/7

• Visit to class in the initial week to ensure all was ok

• Tutorial follow up…


What lies ahead!


Next steps…

Term 2 – Fundamentals of Law

Q&A forum

Assessment task

Assess the behavioral change in students

Frequency of questioning

relevance & clarity of argument

Conviction of the challenges

ability to enlist change in their self as well as support their knowledge and learning


References Dewey, J. 1986. Logic: The theory of inquiry. In J.A.

Boydston (Ed.), John Dewey: The later works, 1925–1953. (Vol 12: 1938). Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.

Peirce, C.P. 1899. First Rule of Logic. The Internet Archive website at <https://web.archive.org/web/20120106071421/http://www.princeton.edu/~batke/peirce/frl_99.htm>. 1902. Grant application for "Proposed Memoirs on Minute Logic" rejected by Carnegie Institution in ‎Houser, N., ‎Christian J.W. and J. W. Kloesel – 1992. The Essential Peirce, ‎Volume I. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Plato, 360 BCE. Phaedrus, translated by Jovett, B. (2006). The Project Gutenberg, at <http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1636/1636-h/1636-h.htm>.

Postman, N. 1993. Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. New York: Random House.

Postman, N. and C.Weistgartner 1971. Teaching as a Subversive Activity. New York: Dell Publishing.

https://web.archive.org/web/20120106071421/http:/www.princeton.edu/~batke/peirce/frl_99.htm



http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1636/1636-h/1636-h.htm



