This article is intended to spark a discussion between two research communities—scholars who stud... more This article is intended to spark a discussion between two research communities—scholars who study learning and scholars who study educational organizations. A secondary purpose is to encourage researchers to look beyond schools to examine learning in other types of educational organizations. The authors outline a framework to guide research on the relationship between learning and the social contexts afforded by formal organizations. The framework combines elements of cultural historical activity theory, a sociocultural theory of learning, and institutional theory, which is a constructivist theory of organization. The authors employ preliminary findings from research and secondary historical accounts to illustrate the potential of the framework for guiding research that ties learning to contexts in formal organizations.
Participants in ISEE programs are encouraged to teach and mentor in ways that transfer ownership ... more Participants in ISEE programs are encouraged to teach and mentor in ways that transfer ownership to learners. Though learners can feel a sense of ownership over many aspects of their learning, emphasis is put on transferring and maintaining ownership over learning core concepts and practices in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Put simply, ISEE supports teaching and mentoring strategies in which learners feel that “I figured it out myself.” This section outlines the diverse research supporting the importance of ownership as both a strategy and an outcome for improving STEM education, including an excerpt of an interaction between a mentor and a student that brings to life how active facilitation can transfer ownership to learners
Sustainability on University Campuses: Learning, Skills Building and Best Practices, 2019
This chapter develops a new approach to experiential learning for sustainability and will be of i... more This chapter develops a new approach to experiential learning for sustainability and will be of interest to those seeking a baseline for the distinct conceptualizations of experiential learning and their impacts on matriculating (or matriculated) students in the longer term. College campuses are communities unto themselves and, as with communities everywhere, confront the challenges of becoming sustainable. Students attend college to learn and become knowledgeable in their chosen fields, but, perhaps with the exception of research labs, rarely have the opportunity to apply their skills to authentic or “real world” problems—experience that would allow them to become adept at both technical and cognitive process skills needed after graduation. This is especially true for projects focused on sustainability, which require multidisciplinary perspectives and interactions and thus are difficult to launch and complete. We suggest that the college campus is an ideal “living lab” that not only allows students to encounter and think about complex and wicked issues, but also to define actionable opportunities and address really-existing problems through collaborative projects that materially contribute to the sustainability of a real-world system. Pedagogy supporting “experiential learning” can play a critical role in teaching sustainability concepts and practices and thus in bolstering the Campus as a Living Lab agenda. However, we find competing or ambiguous definitions of experiential learning in the literature and no complete framework for its application in sustainability praxis. This chapter reports on research into sustainability pedagogy and assessment of the educational opportunities in experiential learning at the University of California, Santa Cruz, based on campus efforts to become a more integrated sustainable system. Accordingly, we first unpack terminology applied to “experiential learning in sustainability” from multidisciplinary and multi-departmental perspectives. This review of selected literature combined with data accumulated from students and program facilitators compares and contrasts both the historical significance and current practices of experiential learning to provide a more explicit framework for its implementation in sustainability as part of a coordinated network of distinct living lab entities. We then employ this framework to discuss a “critical gap” in college curriculum that was exposed during our investigation into the efficacy of these projects and programs at UC-Santa Cruz that may be inhibiting student preparation and their ability to contribute to the campus achieving sustainability benchmarks. Finally we propose that this lacuna can be mended by working towards a strategic integration of key experiential learning activities earlier in an undergraduate’s career.
2015 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2015
We are exploring whether and how “Digital-Storytelling” can be used to a) attract and engage stud... more We are exploring whether and how “Digital-Storytelling” can be used to a) attract and engage student apprentices otherwise estranged from STEM-linked career or education pathways b) help student apprentices address the complexities of ill-formed or “wicked” design problems typical of sustainable engineering. Building on preliminary evidence from a pilot 2014 study we hypothesize that apprentices who engage in digital storytelling can gain proficiency in key reasoning skills related to scientific argumentation including: 1. formulating and articulating problem statements 2. anticipating and understanding tradeoffs, limitations and contingencies of proposed solutions and 3. justifying solutions relative to requirements/specifications articulated in the problem statement. Our continuing work is in the development and validation of evaluation and assessment instruments appropriate for evaluating these skills among apprentices focused on digital storytelling and for drawing comparisons against apprentices engaged in “hands-on” sustainable design projects. Our overarching objective is to offer evidence validating digital storytelling as an alternative pedagogy for introducing and teaching STEM reasoning skills to newcomers or “outsiders”.
This chapter analyzes interpretations of a graph of motion by bilingual adolescents using multipl... more This chapter analyzes interpretations of a graph of motion by bilingual adolescents using multiple representations of motion: a written story, a graph, and an oral description. The chapter uses a socio-cultural conceptual framework, complex views of language and academic literacy in mathematics, and assumes that mathematical discourse is multi-modal and multi-semiotic. Data from a bilingual classroom and transcript excerpts illustrate the multimodal and multi-semiotic nature of mathematical language. The analysis describes how pairs of students interpreted stories of bicycle trips using multiple modes, sign systems, and texts. The analysis examines how multiple modes provided tools for students to make sense of mathematical ideas and how inter-textuality functioned as students negotiated the mathematical meaning of motion through multiple texts (graphs, written questions, written responses, and oral discussions). We describe how four pairs of eighth-grade bilingual students interpreted horizontal segments on a distance versus time graph as they answered questions using a story about a bicycle trip. While students shifted between two interpretations (moving and not moving) of the three horizontal segments above the x-axis, pairs interpreted the segment located on the x-axis as representing the biker not moving. We examine how students shifted among alternative interpretations of the horizontal segments and describe how the graph and the written text mediated these student interpretations.
ABSTRACT Any episode of learning and teaching is necessarily situated in both space and time. But... more ABSTRACT Any episode of learning and teaching is necessarily situated in both space and time. But, whereas the spatial arrangement of the classroom remains relatively constant, change is the very essence of the learning that takes place within it. Such is the nature of the data to be examined in this paper. The same curriculum unit was taught by the same teacher to a fourth-grade class in four successive years and every lesson in each year was videorecorded. Our purpose was to document change over time at three levels: from year to year, within each year, and over the course of activities within particular lessons. Within the limits of this paper, we focus on one particular issue as it recurred over time.
... Banana phytoliths have been found in Pakistan [9], South East Asia [3], the Pacific Easter Is... more ... Banana phytoliths have been found in Pakistan [9], South East Asia [3], the Pacific Easter Island [4] and [23], Papua New ... the mere identification of Musa phytoliths in archaeological context would rarely be sufficient for a firm reconstruction of the early history of bananas. ...
This article is intended to spark a discussion between two research communities—scholars who stud... more This article is intended to spark a discussion between two research communities—scholars who study learning and scholars who study educational organizations. A secondary purpose is to encourage researchers to look beyond schools to examine learning in other types of educational organizations. The authors outline a framework to guide research on the relationship between learning and the social contexts afforded by
This article is intended to spark a discussion between two research communities—scholars who stud... more This article is intended to spark a discussion between two research communities—scholars who study learning and scholars who study educational organizations. A secondary purpose is to encourage researchers to look beyond schools to examine learning in other types of educational organizations. The authors outline a framework to guide research on the relationship between learning and the social contexts afforded by formal organizations. The framework combines elements of cultural historical activity theory, a sociocultural theory of learning, and institutional theory, which is a constructivist theory of organization. The authors employ preliminary findings from research and secondary historical accounts to illustrate the potential of the framework for guiding research that ties learning to contexts in formal organizations.
Participants in ISEE programs are encouraged to teach and mentor in ways that transfer ownership ... more Participants in ISEE programs are encouraged to teach and mentor in ways that transfer ownership to learners. Though learners can feel a sense of ownership over many aspects of their learning, emphasis is put on transferring and maintaining ownership over learning core concepts and practices in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Put simply, ISEE supports teaching and mentoring strategies in which learners feel that “I figured it out myself.” This section outlines the diverse research supporting the importance of ownership as both a strategy and an outcome for improving STEM education, including an excerpt of an interaction between a mentor and a student that brings to life how active facilitation can transfer ownership to learners
Sustainability on University Campuses: Learning, Skills Building and Best Practices, 2019
This chapter develops a new approach to experiential learning for sustainability and will be of i... more This chapter develops a new approach to experiential learning for sustainability and will be of interest to those seeking a baseline for the distinct conceptualizations of experiential learning and their impacts on matriculating (or matriculated) students in the longer term. College campuses are communities unto themselves and, as with communities everywhere, confront the challenges of becoming sustainable. Students attend college to learn and become knowledgeable in their chosen fields, but, perhaps with the exception of research labs, rarely have the opportunity to apply their skills to authentic or “real world” problems—experience that would allow them to become adept at both technical and cognitive process skills needed after graduation. This is especially true for projects focused on sustainability, which require multidisciplinary perspectives and interactions and thus are difficult to launch and complete. We suggest that the college campus is an ideal “living lab” that not only allows students to encounter and think about complex and wicked issues, but also to define actionable opportunities and address really-existing problems through collaborative projects that materially contribute to the sustainability of a real-world system. Pedagogy supporting “experiential learning” can play a critical role in teaching sustainability concepts and practices and thus in bolstering the Campus as a Living Lab agenda. However, we find competing or ambiguous definitions of experiential learning in the literature and no complete framework for its application in sustainability praxis. This chapter reports on research into sustainability pedagogy and assessment of the educational opportunities in experiential learning at the University of California, Santa Cruz, based on campus efforts to become a more integrated sustainable system. Accordingly, we first unpack terminology applied to “experiential learning in sustainability” from multidisciplinary and multi-departmental perspectives. This review of selected literature combined with data accumulated from students and program facilitators compares and contrasts both the historical significance and current practices of experiential learning to provide a more explicit framework for its implementation in sustainability as part of a coordinated network of distinct living lab entities. We then employ this framework to discuss a “critical gap” in college curriculum that was exposed during our investigation into the efficacy of these projects and programs at UC-Santa Cruz that may be inhibiting student preparation and their ability to contribute to the campus achieving sustainability benchmarks. Finally we propose that this lacuna can be mended by working towards a strategic integration of key experiential learning activities earlier in an undergraduate’s career.
2015 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2015
We are exploring whether and how “Digital-Storytelling” can be used to a) attract and engage stud... more We are exploring whether and how “Digital-Storytelling” can be used to a) attract and engage student apprentices otherwise estranged from STEM-linked career or education pathways b) help student apprentices address the complexities of ill-formed or “wicked” design problems typical of sustainable engineering. Building on preliminary evidence from a pilot 2014 study we hypothesize that apprentices who engage in digital storytelling can gain proficiency in key reasoning skills related to scientific argumentation including: 1. formulating and articulating problem statements 2. anticipating and understanding tradeoffs, limitations and contingencies of proposed solutions and 3. justifying solutions relative to requirements/specifications articulated in the problem statement. Our continuing work is in the development and validation of evaluation and assessment instruments appropriate for evaluating these skills among apprentices focused on digital storytelling and for drawing comparisons against apprentices engaged in “hands-on” sustainable design projects. Our overarching objective is to offer evidence validating digital storytelling as an alternative pedagogy for introducing and teaching STEM reasoning skills to newcomers or “outsiders”.
This chapter analyzes interpretations of a graph of motion by bilingual adolescents using multipl... more This chapter analyzes interpretations of a graph of motion by bilingual adolescents using multiple representations of motion: a written story, a graph, and an oral description. The chapter uses a socio-cultural conceptual framework, complex views of language and academic literacy in mathematics, and assumes that mathematical discourse is multi-modal and multi-semiotic. Data from a bilingual classroom and transcript excerpts illustrate the multimodal and multi-semiotic nature of mathematical language. The analysis describes how pairs of students interpreted stories of bicycle trips using multiple modes, sign systems, and texts. The analysis examines how multiple modes provided tools for students to make sense of mathematical ideas and how inter-textuality functioned as students negotiated the mathematical meaning of motion through multiple texts (graphs, written questions, written responses, and oral discussions). We describe how four pairs of eighth-grade bilingual students interpreted horizontal segments on a distance versus time graph as they answered questions using a story about a bicycle trip. While students shifted between two interpretations (moving and not moving) of the three horizontal segments above the x-axis, pairs interpreted the segment located on the x-axis as representing the biker not moving. We examine how students shifted among alternative interpretations of the horizontal segments and describe how the graph and the written text mediated these student interpretations.
ABSTRACT Any episode of learning and teaching is necessarily situated in both space and time. But... more ABSTRACT Any episode of learning and teaching is necessarily situated in both space and time. But, whereas the spatial arrangement of the classroom remains relatively constant, change is the very essence of the learning that takes place within it. Such is the nature of the data to be examined in this paper. The same curriculum unit was taught by the same teacher to a fourth-grade class in four successive years and every lesson in each year was videorecorded. Our purpose was to document change over time at three levels: from year to year, within each year, and over the course of activities within particular lessons. Within the limits of this paper, we focus on one particular issue as it recurred over time.
... Banana phytoliths have been found in Pakistan [9], South East Asia [3], the Pacific Easter Is... more ... Banana phytoliths have been found in Pakistan [9], South East Asia [3], the Pacific Easter Island [4] and [23], Papua New ... the mere identification of Musa phytoliths in archaeological context would rarely be sufficient for a firm reconstruction of the early history of bananas. ...
This article is intended to spark a discussion between two research communities—scholars who stud... more This article is intended to spark a discussion between two research communities—scholars who study learning and scholars who study educational organizations. A secondary purpose is to encourage researchers to look beyond schools to examine learning in other types of educational organizations. The authors outline a framework to guide research on the relationship between learning and the social contexts afforded by
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