Elsevier

Computers & Education

Volume 54, Issue 3, April 2010, Pages 783-790
Computers & Education

Pedagogical-research designs to capture the symbiotic nature of professional knowledge and learning about e-learning in initial teacher education in the UK

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2009.08.013Get rights and content

Abstract

This paper argues that if new communications technologies and online spaces are to yield ‘new relationship[s] with learners’ (DfES, 2005, p. 11) then research that is tuned to recognize, capture and explain the pedagogical processes at the centre of such interactions is vital. This has implications for the design of pedagogical activities within Initial Teacher Education (ITE) intended to develop student teachers’ professional knowledge and understanding of e-learning strategies.

A case study is presented of an intervention, which attempted to synthesize a face-to-face and online school-based experience with University-based lectures, in order to develop student teachers’ capacity to theorize and reflect upon the development of their online pedagogical practice. Theory that focuses on the complex and symbiotic nature of professional knowledge and learning was developed to analyse data in the form of interviews with student teachers and archived extracts from their online interactions with the children. The aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of a pedagogical-research design based upon the authentic and situated use of e-learning strategies and technologies for developing student teachers’ professional knowledge and understanding of online pedagogy.

Ultimately the paper concludes that, from the perspective of a dynamic conceptualisation of e-learning as continuously emerging (Andrews & Haythornthwaite, 2007) then a pedagogical-research design that develops and captures student teachers’ capacity to reflect upon the development of their own online pedagogy and professional knowledge and understanding in relation to e-learning is vital.

Section snippets

The milieu: shifting perspectives

With the shifts in the wider socio-cultural landscape around new technologies it is difficult to see how the face of education and formal schooling can remain unchanged. The backdrop of increasing informal use and growth of social networks has led key think tanks such as Futurelab to try to scope the future face of education hypothesising ‘future scenarios’ (Facer & Daanen, 2007). Similarly others call for a response from formal education to harness the educational potential offered by the

Pedagogical-research design

Fig. 1 represents the constituent case that was constructed, bringing together student teachers’ action learning trajectories as they explored and applied e-learning tools within the face-to-face and online classroom context, with the researcher’s own insider research trajectory. The term pedagogical-research design is intended to convey the complexity of the design on two tiers. That is, the design served pedagogical and research intentions both at the level of the student teachers in

Maria’s story

Maria’s use of mobile and networked communication technologies was entrenched in her leisure life. Her mobile phone was the source of a range of social activities from keeping in touch with friends predominantly by text messaging, to taking advantage of cheap cinema tickets. She also took advantage of cheap entry to local clubs who send out promotions via text messages to those on their ‘guest lists.’ Financial considerations also partly motivated Maria’s use of internet communication networks;

Drawing conclusions

Analysis of the data illustrates the ways in which the pedagogical-research design has both captured or failed to capture in some cases the complexity of the student teachers’ emergent professional knowledge of e-learning. The opportunity for student teachers to explore the micro resource ecology of e-learning tools within near authentic contexts offers an opportunity to some extent to capture the interplay between different factors affecting the emergent development of their online pedagogical

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