Pragmatic Epistemology Analysis and Joint Action Theory in Didactics (Part 1)

Author(s):

Gérard SensevyBernard SchneuwlyLeif Östman

Conference:

ECER 2008

Network:

27. Didactics - Learning and Teaching

Format:

Symposium

Session Information

27 SES 08C, Pragmatic Epistemology Analysis and Joint Action Theory in Didactics (Part 1)

Symposium to be continued in session 27 SES 09C

Time:

2008-09-12

08:30-10:00

Room:

B3 333

Chair:

Gérard Sensevy

Discussant:

Bernard Schneuwly

Contribution

This Symposium focuses on the central theme “from teaching to learning” of ECER 2008, by confronting two theoretical and methodological frame, the Practical Epistemology Analysis (Wickman & Östman, 2002, Wickman, 2006) and the Joint Action Theory (Sensevy & Mercier, 2007 ; Sensevy, 2008). All the participants of the symposium share the idea that teaching and learning processes have to be considered together. The didactic action is a joint action (Clarke, 1996 ; Sensevy & Mercier 2007). A fundamental issue is then to understand how the teacher and the students may act together, against a common background, by drawing joint inferences. Such process may be viewed as a three phases process. Firstly, some features of the world around the students stand fast - which means that actions and language are not questioned when we talk and act (Wickman & Östman, 2002 ; Wickman, 2004), within an everyday thought style (Fleck, 1934/1979), which is an immediate way of perceiving the environment. Secondly, as learning unfolds, the meaning-making process consists in progressively mastering language-games (Wittgenstein, 1953/1997). This process rests on the students noticing and filling gaps (Wickman & Östman, 2002 : Wickman, 2004) between the previous knowledge and habits, and their present activity. The teacher and the students then build a shared cognitive context as the milieu (Brousseau, 1998 ; Sensevy, Mercier, Schubauer-Leoni, Ligozat, & Perrot, 2005) of their didactic transactions. In doing that, the students evolve from an immediate way of acting to a mediate understanding of the world, elaborating joint habits inside the didactic contract (Brousseau, 1998 ; Sensevy, Mercier, Schubauer-Leoni, Ligozat, & Perrot, 2005). Then, in the third phase, this learning process evolves towards a new seeing-as (Wittgenstein, 1953), in that a new immediate way of acting is enacted in stabilized habits. Then, the students recognize immediately, in a new thought style, the language games that were at stake in the previous phase (Sensevy, Tiberghien, Santini, Laubé, & Griggs, 2008). One can see the whole process as a production of institution (Douglas, 1987, 1996). The symposium will take this threefold layered process ((1) immediate way of acting; (2) a mediate understanding of the world; (3) stabilization of the mediate way that is a new immediate way (a new seeing-as the world)) as its starting point to a better understanding of the teacher and students joint action. In particular, each contribution will consider how the teacher, jointly with the students, monitors such a process through different moves (Lidar, Lundqvist, & Östman, 2006), at different time scales (Schubauer-Leoni, Leutenegger, Ligozat & Flückiger, 2007; Schubauer-Leoni, Leutenegger, & Forget, 2007; Forget & Schubauer-Leoni, in press ; Tiberghien & Malkoun, 2007a ; Tiberghien, Malkoun, Buty, Souassi, & Mortimer, 2007), in the joint action.

Method

A common interest in pragmatism and Wittgensteinian method (Wickman, 2006 ; Sensevy & Mercier, 2007) enables the presenters of this symposium to share a common ground about methodological issues. The method will rest on a comparative empirical analysis of common transcripts, likely to highlight similarities and differences in analysis techniques and conceptual tools between the presenters’ works.

Expected Outcomes

1. The symposium aims to contribute to the conceptual and empirical clarification of some aspects of the relationship between learning and teaching, by focusing on the research questions previously formulated. 2. It also aims to intensify international collaborative research between different countries and research traditions.

References

Brousseau, G. (1997). Theory of didactic situations. Dordrecht : Kluwer. Clark, H. H. (1996). Using language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Douglas M. (1987). How institutions think. London: Routledge. Douglas M. (1996). Thought styles. London: Sage Publications. Fleck L. (1934/1979). Genesis and development of a scientific fact. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Forget, A. & Schubauer-Leoni, M-L. (in press). Inventer des traces scripturales de désignation d’objets et convenir ensemble de leur sens à l’école élémentaire. Lidar, L. Lundqvist, E. & Östman, L. (2006). Teaching and learning in the science classroom: The interplay between teachers' epistemological moves and students' practical epistemology. Science Education, 90, 148-163. Ligozat, F & Leutenegger, F (in press). Catégorisation de l'action conjointe du professeur et des élèves. Le cas de milieux différentiels émergeant dans un problème d'agrandissement de distances. Recherches en Didactique des Mathématiques. Sensevy, G. (2008). The Joint Action Theory: An Outline. Seminar at the University of Örebro, Sweden, January. Schubauer-Leoni, Leutenegger, Ligozat & Flückiger (2007). Un modèle de l'action conjointe professeur-élèves : les phénomènes didactiques qu'il peut/doit traiter. In G. Sensevy & A. Mercier. Agir ensemble. L'action didactique conjointe du professeur et des élèves. (pp 51-91). Coll. Paideia. Presses universitaires de Rennes. Schubauer-Leoni, M-L, Leutenegger, F. & Forget, A. (2007). L’accès aux pratiques de fabrication de traces scripturales convenues au commencement de la forme scolaire : interrogations théoriques et épistémologiques. Education et didactique, 1(2), 9-36. Sensevy, G., Mercier, A., Schubauer-Leoni, M-L., Ligozat, F. & G. Perrot (2005). An attempt to model the teacher's action in the mathematics class. Educational Studies en Mathematics, 59 (1-3), 153-181 Sensevy, G. & Mercier, A. (2007) Agir ensemble. L'action didactique conjointe du professeur et des élèves. Presses universitaires de Rennes. Sensevy, G., Tiberghien, A., Santini, J., Laubé, S. & Griggs, P. (2008). Modelling, an epistemological approach: cases studies and implications for science teaching. Science Education, in press. Tiberghien, A., Malkoun, L., Buty, C., Souassi, N, & Mortimer, E. (2007) Analyse des saviors en jeu en physique à différentes échelles de temps. (2007a). In G. Sensevy & A. Mercier. Agir ensemble. L'action didactique conjointe du professeur et des élèves. (pp 51-91). Coll. Paideia. Presses universitaires de Rennes. Tiberghien, A. & Malkoun, L. (2007). Différenciation des pratiques d’enseignement et acquisition des élèves du point de vue du savoir. Education et didactique, 1(2), 29-54. Wickman, P-0., & Östman, L. (2002). Learning as discourse change: A sociocultural mechanism. Science Education, 86, 601-623. Wickman, P-0. (2004). The practical epistemology of the classroom. A study of laboratory work. Science Education, 88, 324-344. Wickman, P-0. (2006). Aesthetic Experience in Science Education. Learning and Meaning-Making as Situated Talk and Action. Mahwah : Lawrence Erlbaum. Wittgenstein, L. (1953/1997). Wittgenstein L. (1997). Philosophical Investigations = Philosophische Untersuchungen. G.E.M. Anscombe (transl.), Oxford: Blackwell.

Author Information

Gérard Sensevy

IUFM de Bretagne

La Chapelle des Fougeretz

Bernard Schneuwly

University of Geneva

Department of Educational Sciences

Genève

Leif Östman

University of Uppsala, Sweden

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