Assisted Performance

"Background: The development of practice knowledge is an important component of clinical education and reflective reasoning is known to play a role in its development. Online social networks may have some potential for developing practice knowledge by providing tools for clinical educators to guide students’ reasoning practices.
Aim: To determine if an online social network could be used to facilitate reflective reasoning in clinical contexts, as it relates to
developing practice knowledge.
Method: The study was conducted within a South African university, physiotherapy department, using an online social network to facilitate engagement. Tharp and Gallimore’s theory of assisted performance was used as a framework to conduct qualitative analysis of students’ reflective blog posts within the network.
Results: The lecturer was able to use strategies within the assisted performance framework to facilitate reflection among students. These included modelling, contingency management, feedback, instruction, questioning and cognitive structuring. The features of the social network enabled enhanced communication between teacher and student, as well as promoted engagement around clinical scenarios.
Conclusion: Online social networks can be used to facilitate reflective reasoning as part of the development of practice
knowledge by exposing students’ understanding of clinical practice. However, careful facilitation using sound pedagogy is still necessary to guide students to deeper understanding."

The emergence of the internet has created accessibility and opportunities for teaching and learning. Nowadays, computer-mediated communication (CMC) is widely used in online learning
environments in a vast number of higher education institutions. This article reports findings from a study that investigated the implications of participation in online discussions for the role of teaching. The aims of the study were: 1) to examine tutor-student and student-student interactions for evidence of ‘assistance’ in the postings to a ‘Discussion Board’; and 2) to explore the tutor-student and student-student assistance patterns in the Discussion Board postings, associated with
different task types. The underlying premise in the study was a unified theory of teaching and education which draws on the work of L.S. Vygotsky and neo-Vygotskian researchers and offers a theorization of teaching as assisted performance. This idea articulates and conceptualises a form of teaching that is not just evidenced in the tutor’s role but also amongst the students. Sociocultural theory also proposes that to understand students’ learning in CMC, it is necessary to
study the social interactions of teaching and learning that occur in the online environment. Data collection and analysis were carried out in two stages that included: 1) content analysis to explore the nature of assisted performance provided in the Discussion Board, according to participants’ role and task types; and 2) mapping the interactions and describing the patterns by using a social network approach. The categories of Scaffolding, Feedback on Performance, Cognitive
Structuring, Modelling, Contingency Management, Instructing and Questioning, were used to analyse the message postings, or means of assistance in CMC. Through the analysis, we aimed to obtain an understanding of the nature of assisted performance and pattern of interactions among two groups of a Masters programme in a public university. Analysis revealed that ‘teaching’ was evidenced in the students’ role, however, the pattern of assisted performance by peers or a tutor depended on one or more of the following factors: type of task (the nature of task initiated), group formation (either one large group or several small working groups) and tutor management (the degree of tutor involvement in responding to students’ posting).