Showing papers in "Educational Researcher in 2003"

Design Experiments in Educational Research

Abstract: In this article, the authors first indicate the range of purposes and the variety of settings in which design experiments have been conducted and then delineate five crosscutting features that collectively differentiate design experiments from other methodologies. Design experiments have both a pragmatic bent—“engineering” particular forms of learning—and a theoretical orientation—developing domain-specific theories by systematically studying those forms of learning and the means of supporting them. The authors clarify what is involved in preparing for and carrying out a design experiment, and in conducting a retrospective analysis of the extensive, longitudinal data sets generated during an experiment. Logistical issues, issues of measure, the importance of working through the data systematically, and the need to be explicit about the criteria for making inferences are discussed.

Cultural Ways of Learning: Individual Traits or Repertoires of Practice:

Abstract: This article addresses a challenge faced by those who study cultural variation in approaches to learning: how to characterize regularities of individuals’ approaches according to their cultural background. We argue against the common approach of assuming that regularities are static, and that general traits of individuals are attributable categorically to ethnic group membership. We suggest that a cultural-historical approach can be used to help move beyond this assumption by focusing researchers’ and practitioners’ attention on variations in individuals’ and groups’ histories of engagement in cultural practices because the variations reside not as traits of individuals or collections of individuals, but as proclivities of people with certain histories of engagement with specific cultural activities. Thus, individuals’ and groups’ experience in activities—not their traits—becomes the focus. Also, we note that cultural-historical work needs to devote more attention to researching regularities in the variat...

The Best of Both Worlds: A Critical Pedagogy of Place:

Abstract: Taking the position that “critical pedagogy” and “place-based education” are mutually supportive educational traditions, this author argues for a conscious synthesis that blends the two discourses into a critical pedagogy of place. An analysis of critical pedagogy is presented that emphasizes the spatial aspects of social experience. This examination also asserts the general absence of ecological thinking demonstrated in critical social analysis concerned exclusively with human relationships. Next, a discussion of ecological place-based education is offered. Finally, a critical pedagogy of place is defined. This pedagogy seeks the twin objectives of decolonization and “reinhabitation” through synthesizing critical and place-based approaches. A critical pedagogy of place challenges all educators to reflect on the relationship between the kind of education they pursue and the kind of places we inhabit and leave behind for future generations.

Rethinking Scale: Moving Beyond Numbers to Deep and Lasting Change

Abstract: The issue of “scale” is a key challenge for school reform, yet it remains undertheorized in the literature. Definitions of scale have traditionally restricted its scope, focusing on the expanding number of schools reached by a reform. Such definitions mask the complex challenges of reaching out broadly while simultaneously cultivating the depth of change necessary to support and sustain consequential change. This article draws on a review of theoretical and empirical literature on scale, relevant research on reform implementation, and original research to synthesize and articulate a more multidimensional conceptualization. I develop a conception of scale that has four interrelated dimensions: depth, sustainability, spread, and shift in reform ownership. I then suggest implications of this conceptualization for reform strategy and research design.

What Is an “Expert Student?”

Abstract: This article suggests that conventional methods of teaching may, at best, create pseudo-experts—students whose expertise, to the extent they have it, does not mirror the expertise needed for real-world thinking inside or outside of the academic disciplines schools normally teach It is suggested that teaching for “successful intelligence” may help in the creation of future experts It is further suggested that we may wish to start teaching students to think wisely, not just well

The Development of Expertise: The Journey From Acclimation to Proficiency

Abstract: The Model of Domain Learning (MDL) is an alternative perspective on expertise that arose from studies of student learning in academic domains, such as reading, history, physics, and biology. A comparison of the MDL and traditional models of expertise is made. The key components and stages of the MDL are then overviewed. Discussion concludes with a consideration of evidence-based implications of this model for educational practice.

Improving Educational Research:Toward a More Useful, More Influential, and Better-Funded Enterprise

Abstract: Educational research is not very influential, useful, or well funded. This article explores why and suggests ways that the situation could be improved. Our focus is on the processes that link the development of good ideas and insights, the development of tools and structures for implementation, and the enabling of robust implementation in realistic practice. We suggest that educational research and development should be restructured so as to be more useful to practitioners and to policymakers, allowing the latter to make better-informed, less-speculative decisions that will improve practice more reliably.

Teacher Reflection in a Hall of Mirrors: Historical Influences and Political Reverberations

Abstract: This article traces the genealogy of reflection in teacher education by seeking the conditions of its emergence through the influences of Descartes, Dewey, Schon, and feminism. Drawing on the critical lenses of Foucaultian genealogy and the sociology of scientific knowledge, the analysis investigates how the complicated meanings of reflection get played out in complex and contradictory ways through research practices. The purpose of this article is to highlight the diversity of meanings that constitute understandings of the term and then to critique the effects of power that reverberate through current reflective practices.

On the Science of Education Design Studies

Abstract: The authors argue that design studies, like all scientific work, must comport with guiding scientific principles and provide adequate warrants for their knowledge claims. The issue is whether their knowledge claims can be warranted. By their very nature, design studies are complex, multivariate, multilevel, and interventionist, making warrants particularly difficult to establish. Moreover, many of these studies, intended or not, rely on narrative accounts to communicate and justify their findings. Although narratives often purport to be true, there is nothing in narrative form that guarantees veracity. The authors provide a framework that links design-study research questions as they evolve over time with corresponding research methods. In this way, an integration can be seen of research methods focused on discovery with methods focused on validation of claims.

The Role of Design in Research: The Integrative Learning Design Framework

Abstract: In this article, a general model is proposed for design research in education that grows out of the author’s research and work in related design fields. The model emphasizes the stage sensitivity of (a) research questions, (b) data and methods, and (c) the need for researchers to design artifacts, processes, and analyses at earlier stages in their research that can then be profitably used (perhaps by different researchers) in later stages.

Situating Teachers’ Instructional Practices in the Institutional Setting of the School and District

Abstract: In this article, we describe an analytic approach for situating teachers’ instructional practices within the institutional settings of the schools and school districts in which they work. In doing so, we draw on an ongoing collaboration with a group of teachers in an urban school district to illustrate both the approach and its usefulness in guiding the development of analyses that feedback to inform such collaborations. The approach involves delineating communities of practice within a school or district and analyzing three types of interconnections between them that are based on boundary encounters, brokers, and boundary objects.

Accountability: Responsibility and Reasonable Expectations

Abstract: Some of the central features of current educational accountability systems are discussed using the requirements under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 as the primary example. It is argued that broadly shared responsibility is needed for accountability systems to contribute to improved education. It is also suggested that systems need to be designed in ways that are consistent with research and past experience. This requires the setting of ambitious performance standards and improvement targets, but ones that can reasonably be achieved given sufficient effort and supporting resources. These design features are contrasted with the NCLB requirements. Illustrations of some of the state responses to the NCLB demands that attempt to avoid the over-identification of schools for improvement and sanctions are provided.

The Peculiar Problems of Preparing Educational Researchers

Abstract: In this article, some difficulties are examined involving turning educational practitioners into educational researchers at American education schools. Teachers bring many traits that are ideal for this new role. At the same time, students and professors in researcher training programs often encounter a cultural clash between the world-views of the teacher and researcher. Students may feel they are being asked to transform their cultural orientation from normative to analytical, from personal to intellectual, from particular to universal, and from experiential to theoretical. They often resist. Differences in worldview between teachers and researchers cannot be eliminated easily because they arise from irreducible differences in the nature of the work that teachers and researchers do.

Commentary: Reconceptualizing School Learning Using Insight From Expertise Research

Abstract: Based on research on out-of-school expertise in workplaces and hobby activities, this commentary attempts to reconceptualize school learning and suggest desirable changes in it. Two topics are discussed in relation to the contributions of this special issue: (a) aspects of research on expert-novice differences and processes of gaining expertise that can be applied to school learning readily and profitably, and (b) situational and individual determinants of expertise differing in levels and types and their implications for learning in basic schooling.

Ethnic and Academic Identities: A Cultural Practice Perspective on Emerging Tensions and Their Management in the Lives of Minority Students

Abstract: Youth from minority groups often manage a tension between ethnic and academic identities as they are positioned and position themselves in relation to cultural practices in school and out. We argue that a framework involving three strands of analysis is necessary to understand these emerging tensions and their management in the lives of minority youth. The strands include analyses of shifts in (a) positioning that take form in face-to-face interactions, (b) positioning over developmental time, and (c) the cultural capital associated with practices themselves over the social histories of communities. We point to the importance of multimethod approaches to pursue such analyses.

How Design Experiments Can Inform a Rethinking of Transfer andViceVersa

Abstract: Limitations with current approaches to the investigation of the transfer of learning in design experiments constrain the type of information that is available to researchers as they make design decisions. This article addresses these limitations by presenting a reconceptualization of transfer, called actor-oriented transfer, which emerged from design experiment work. The merits of this alternative model are considered in terms of the information it provides to design experimenters.

Validity and Quality in Self-Study:

Abstract: In this response to Bullough and Pinnegar’s “Guidelines for Quality in Autobiographical Forms of Self-Study,” the author argues that in addition to criteria for the quality of research, researchers need to have ways to demonstrate its validity because of the moral and political aspects of educational research. The argument is based in part on the existential nature of self-study. The article concludes with some suggestions for increasing the validity of self-study.

Examining Language in Context: The Need for New Research and Practice Paradigms in the Testing of English-Language Learners:

Abstract: Concerns about how to ensure the valid and equitable assessment of English-language learners (ELLs) and other students from culturally non-mainstream backgrounds are longstanding. This article proposes that new paradigms in the research and practice related to ELL testing are needed to address the complexities of language and culture more effectively. Three main areas are identified as key to this paradigm shift: test review, test development, and treatment of language as a source of measurement error. Research examples are provided that illustrate that the proposed paradigm shift is not only necessary but also possible. The authors propose the combined use of generalizability theory and research designs in which ELLs are given the same items in both English and their native languages—an approach that has the potential to reveal more fine-grained understandings of the interactions among first and second language profi-ciency, student content knowledge, and the linguistic and content demands of test items.

Theme Issue: The Role of Design in Educational Research:

Abstract: Inspired by the seminal work of Ann Brown, Allan Collins, Roy Pea, and Jan Hawkins, a growing number of researchers have begun to adopt the metaphors and methods of the design and engineering fields. This special issue highlights the work of some of these active researchers and provides a number of commentaries on it.

Contestation and Change in National Policy on “Scientifically Based” Education Research:

Abstract: In this article, we examine the definitions of “scientifically based research” in education that have appeared in recent national legislation and policy. These definitions, now written into law in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002, and the focus of the National Research Council’s 2002 publication, Scientific Research in Education, are being used to affect decisions about the future of education programs and the direction of education research. Perhaps because of the high stakes involved, there has been some tendency to lump together the definitions emanating from Washington sources. From our perspective as participants in some of this activity, we argue that there are important differences among these definitions and their purposes. Furthermore, we suggest that the various definitions, together with public input about them, can provide leverage for altering the meanings of scientifically based research and education research that are being operationalized i...

The Craft, Practice, and Possibility of Poetry in Educational Research

Abstract: Developing a poetic voice prepares scholars to discover and communicate findings in multidimensional, penetrating, and more accessible ways. The author explores the craft, practice, and possibility for a poetic approach to inquiry among teaching and learning communities and encourages all researchers, especially those using qualitative methodologies, to consider what poets do and learn how to incorporate rhythm, form, metaphor, and other poetic techniques to enhance their work. Examples are presented of poetic techniques from research. The author discusses the use of poetry as a means for educational scholarship to impact the arts, influence wider audiences, and improve teacher and graduate student education.

"Every Shut Eye Ain't Sleep": Studying How People Live Culturally (with C. Lee & M. Spencer)

Abstract: We call for the integration of cultural socialization and identity processes in learning as a goal of educational research. Our aim is to improve educational outcomes for racial and ethnic minority youth and for youth facing persistent intergenerational poverty. This requires that educational researchers understand the cultural niches in which young people develop. We illustrate this claim through the lenses of the Cultural Modeling Framework and the Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory, using African-American youth as our case model. We demonstrate both the application of the framework and the theory in an educational intervention and posit implications for requirements to carry out such research.

“Every Shut Eye Ain’t Sleep”: Studying How People Live Culturally

Abstract: We call for the integration of cultural socialization and identity processes in learning as a goal of educational research. Our aim is to improve educational outcomes for racial and ethnic minority youth and for youth facing persistent intergenerational poverty. This requires that educational researchers understand the cultural niches in which young people develop. We illustrate this claim through the lenses of the Cultural Modeling Framework and the Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory, using African-American youth as our case model. We demonstrate both the application of the framework and the theory in an educational intervention and posit implications for requirements to carry out such research.

An Anatomy of Narrative Curricula

Abstract: As curricular qualities of various narrative practices become more diverse and widely established, a clearer understanding of their particular nature and function should accompany their use. This article reviews rather far-flung practices in relation to the particular narrative functions on which they rely. The author uses Schwab’s commonplaces as common denominators that cut across practices to determine different locations for curricular gain. Then, without wanting to tear apart what is essentially a holistic phenomenon, the author looks at narrative curricula through three different lenses, named by Genette (1980) “narrative,” “story,” and “narrating.” These facets of narrative are highlighted in different ways in various curricula, prompting different forms of narrative engagement. They help locate and distinguish different outcomes.

Reading Erasures and Making the Familiar Strange: Defamiliarizing Methods for Research in Formerly Colonized and Historically Oppressed Communities

Abstract: In this article the author uses an example from a Hawaiian education program in postcolonial Hawai‘i to argue that educational investigations into the colonialist and oppressive tendencies of schooling, in Hawai‘i and elsewhere, should employ defamiliarizing analytic tools borrowed from literary and critical theory to peel back familiar, dominant appearances and expose previously silenced and potentially disturbing accounts of the oppressive conditions in our schools. With the use of these defamiliarizing tools we see that within the context of historically oppressed and traditionally marginalized communities, seemingly benign or progressive instructional efforts can have unanticipated, counterproductive effects. Moreover, we find that even the most well-intentioned teachers and administrators can unwittingly be complicit in the operation and perpetuation of oppressive hegemonic dynamics.

Transitions and Trajectories for Studies of Expertise

Abstract: The transition from student to expert professional can be accelerated when a trajectory for change is plotted and made visible to learners. Trajectories or paths toward expertise are domain specific and must first be documented and then used within instructional contexts to promote knowledge transitions. This article describes how models of expertise can serve to help students attain higher levels of competence.

Why We Need to Re-Think Race and Ethnicity in Educational Research

Abstract: This introduction describes the rationale for a special theme issue, “Reconceptualizing Race and Ethnicity in Educational Research.” The rationale includes the historical and contemporary ways that cultural differences have been positioned in educational research and the need for more nuanced and complex analyses of ethnicity and race.

Educators as "Seed People" Growing a New Future

Abstract: In the following text of her Dewitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest Distinguished Lecture at the 2003 AERA annual meeting, Lisa Delpit argues that educators must look beyond standardized test scores and scripted instructional programs if their desire is to educate all children. Educators must cease questioning the capacity of low income, students of color and, instead, create rigorous, engaging instruction based on knowing who the students are, including their cultural, intellectual, historical, and political legacies. Furthermore, they must look to pre-integration African-American institutions where “counternarratives” were developed to affirm Black intelligence and provide the motivation for students to achieve.

Cultural Diversity Research on Learning and Development: Conceptual, Methodological, and Strategic Considerations:

Abstract: In this article we identify two major conceptual and methodological limitations to current treatments of cultural diversity in social science research: (a) the tendency to treat race, ethnicity, culture, and social class as fixed and often essentialized categories rather than as multi-faceted, situated, and socially constructed processes; and (b) the tendency to focus on single levels of analysis rather than to look across levels, especially by linking individual and community-based experiences to larger structural, institutional, discursive, and ideological practices. We propose a set of strategic guidelines for mitigating these limitations, and illustrate them with examples from our ongoing research on two projects: (a) a qualitative-centered research program on Latina/o bilingual children’s work as translators, interpreters, or para-phrasers;1 and (b) quantitative-centered research on African-American culture retainers.

Shaping Up the Practice of Null Hypothesis Significance Testing

Abstract: Recent criticisms of null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) have appeared in education and psychology research journals (e.g., Cohen, 1990, 1994; Kupfersmid, 1988; Rosenthal, 1991; Rosnow & Rosenthal, 1989; Shaver, 1985; Sohn, 2000; Thompson, 1994, 1997; see also Research in the Schools [1998]). In this article we discuss these criticisms for both current use of NHST and plausible future use. We suggest that the historical use of such procedures was reasonable and that current users might spend time profitably reading some of Fisher’s applied work. However, we also believe that modifications to NHST and to the interpretations of its outcomes might better suit the needs of modern science. Our primary conclusion is that NHST is most often useful as an adjunct to other results (e.g., effect sizes) rather than as a stand-alone result. We cite some examples, however, where NHST can be profitably used alone. Last, we find considerable experimental support for a less rigid attitude toward the interpretation...