Experiments as a Transformative Force in Educational Practice
Author(s):
Camilla Hutters (presenting / submitting) Dorrit Sørensen (presenting)
Conference:
ECER 2015
Network:
02. Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)
Format:
Paper

Session Information

02 SES 04 C, Strengthening VET in Times of Transition

Paper Session

Time:
2015-09-09
09:00-10:30
Room:
238. [Main]
Chair:
Martin Mulder

Contribution

Vocational educations are facing a number of new requirements and challenges that calls for a continuous renewal and innovation of practice. New reforms, new generations of students, new job skill requirements and new technologies. A massive change is taking place all at once within these areas, which demands that the vocational educations renew their practices and adapts within a short period of time. The educations cannot continue in the same way as usual. Instead efforts have to be made in order to innovate and improve the practice of these institutions.

Research conducted in relation to Public Sector Innovation indicates a number of barriers that may occur when attempting to establish an innovation-culture within the educational sector. Firstly, the implementation of New Public Management methods and mindset have resulted in top-down governance, decoupling employees and the day to day practice. Second, the development activities that are taking place are often reduced to isolated projects and individuals that fail to contribute to a shared and broader innovation-culture.  This paper presents the argument that experiments are a valuable means of securing innovation and change in the educational sector. That is because experiments can frame a systematic and iterative process where educational institutions can design, test and renew practice in order to ensure that innovation is happening where it is needed.

This article presents the results of a 3 year project named The Vocational Education Lab. During this 3 year period of time, 127 educational experiments have been conducted in eight different VET educations in the Copenhagen Region. The aim of this project has been to develop an organizational and methodical capacity that enables educational organizations to initiate changes within their pedagogical and organizational practice. In the paper there will be a discussion of how experiments and experimentation may contribute to renewal and innovation in educational practice.  Further what sort of changes the experiments have actually contribute to and which organizational barriers that can occur when completing experiments in a educational context.

Theoretically the article draws on current research on innovation in the public sector, on design research, organizational learning and experimental labs as a method to provide organizational changes.

The empirical data treated in this article is collected from the127 experiments conducted and includes both quantitativequalitative data. The quantitative data consist of survey data gathered in relation to the continuous evaluations of the experiments’ capacity to create change. The qualitative data consist of interviews with the heads of the educational organizations and educators responsible for carrying out the experiments.

Method

Methodologically, we have been working from an innovation- and design perspective both methodically and research wise in an effort to develop the lab. It is a characteristic for this approach that the knowledge generated from processes is applied in order to improve the actual design of experiments. This means, that prototyping and testing these prototypes become a focal point. The primary prototypes in a design are simply drafts, which represent the fundamental principles in the concept. The prototypes are then progressively transformed into concepts and designs. Correspondingly, the design processes are viewed as iterative, continuous process. This means that there will be a process of testing and improvement in order to make the designs robust enough to fit various contexts. This is where an intervention in practice would manage to generate deeper understanding as well as improvement. By interventions we refer to the practical testing of the designs in actuality and further, that the lessons gained from these experiences help better the design in return. The basic assumption here is that by intervening with the new designs we are capable of creating better practice theories and of improving practice simultaneously. Design research methods from evaluation research is also applied with the aim of using the evaluation as a means of improving the design and assessing whether the design is feasible in an everyday practice as well as relevant to the participants. Therefore, the process of testing and improving will be essential to the development of pedagogical designs. This entails that we work in a constructive manner and adjust our methods so best to support the institutions and ensure that the initiated experiments produce valuable contributions to practice. Also the establishment of a shared laboratory and methodology has been essential to this project. One of the central methods developed is the so called Experimental Cycle which describes the phases in the course of an experiment: Formulating a hypothesis, designing the experiment, testing, analyzing, conceptualizing and implementing. The Experimental Cycle has constituted a shared process model and a point of departure for all of the experiments in the participating educational institutions.

Expected Outcomes

The project has led us to a number of findings in regards to conducted experiments as a means of improving practice in educational contexts: 1. Experiments can help concretize the future and act as a point of departure for prototyping future practice. 2. Experiments can contribute to the creation of a shared Boundary Object - in other words, a shared and interdisciplinary subject area that different departments and groups are able to explore. Experiments are thereby capable of providing both transitions within the individual institution and between the different educational organizations, when organized in a common educational lab. 3. Experiments can act as a basis for shared organizational processes of learning, where participants build an experience- and practice based knowledge by testing new and changing old practice. Thus, working with these experiments help build a systematic knowledge culture in the particular educational institution. This knowledge culture will consist of the qualified information gained from finding what works and what does not. 4. Experiments strengthen the possibility of user driven educations, which enables a greater ability to sense and adapt to new challenges and changes. 5. Experiments can be utilized in risk assessment because the experimental method enables the testing of a new potential practice within a limited process, and thereafter the implementation of the successful elements. However this requires that there is a managerial willingness to face the risks of such experiments. Experimenting will, per definition, never be risk-free to the organization involved because it is not entirely possible to predict the outcome. Thus it is not an easy decision made by the managerial actors involved, but at the same time, it is not risk-free not to experiment; especially if new needs and challenges call for renovation and innovation.

References

Ansell, C & Gash, A (2008): Collaborative Governance in theory and practice. Journal of Public Administration and Research and Theory, 18(4):543-71. Ansell, C. & Torfing, J. (2014): Public Innovation Through Collaboration and Design, Routlegde Argyris, C. & Schön, A. (1996): Organizational Learning II. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. Bason, C. (2010): Leading Public Sector Innovation. Co-creating for a better society. Policy Press. Brunsson, N. (2002) :The Organization og Hypocrisy. Talk, decisions and actions in organizations. Fakbokforlaget. Carstensen, H.V. & Bason, C. (2012). Powering Collaborative Policy Innovation: Can Innovation Help? I The innovation Journal: The Public Sector Innovation Journal Volume 17 (1), 2012 Czarniawska, B. & Berward, J. (1996): Travel of Ideas. In Czarniawska, Barbara & Guje Sevón (1996)Translating Organizational Change. Walter de Gruyter & Co, Berlin DiSessa, A. & Cobb, P. (2004): Ontological Innovation and the Role of theory in Design Experiments, The Journal of Learning Sciences, Volume 13, Issue 1 Engeström, Y., Virkkunen, J., Helle, M., Pihlaja, J., & Poikela, R. (1996). Change laboratory as a tool for transforming work. Lifelong Learning in Europe, 1, 10–17. Engeström, Y. (2001): Expansive Learning at Work: Toward an activity theoretical reconceptualization. Journal of Education and Work, 14, pp. 133–156. Gravemeijer, K., & Coob, P. (2006). Design Research from a learning design perspective. In J. V. D. Akker, K. Gravemeijer, S. McKenney & N. Nieveen (Eds.), Educational Design Research . London & New York: Routledge. Lawrence, C. (2003): Right-Rapid-Rough. NASA Techdocs, nr. 07. Special Feature: The IDEO Way. Røvik, K. A. (2007): Trender og translasjoner. Ideer som former det 21. århundrets organisasjon. Universitetsforlaget, Oslo. Schön, D. A. (1983): The Reflective Practitioner. How Professionals Think in Action. Basic Books Inc. Star, S. L. (2010). This is Not a Boundary Object: Reflections on the Origin of a Concept. Science, Technology & Human Values, 35(5), 601-617. Sørensen, E. & Thorfing, J. (2012): Collaborative Innovation in the Public Sector. I The innovation Journal: The Public Sector Innovation Journal Volume 17 (1), 2012

Author Information

Camilla Hutters (presenting / submitting)
The Danish Evaluation Institute
Youth education
Copenhagen
Dorrit Sørensen (presenting)
Professionshøjskolen Metropol
National Vocational Educational Center
Valby

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