Leading Through Design: Educational Design Research for Authentic and Meaningful Impact in Naturalistic Contexts.

Author(s):

Paul Flynn(presenting / submitting)Martin McHugh(presenting)Sally McHugh Eilis Flanagan Bonnie Long Hall Tony

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

16. ICT in Education and Training

Format:

Paper

Session Information

16 SES 12, ICT in Educational Contexts

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-26

09:00-10:30

Room:

OB-H1.49 (ALE 2)

Chair:

Stefan Ting Graf

Contribution

Recent developments in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) have transformed the very fabric of the education continuum. Such is the pervasiveness of technology in the everyday lives of both teachers and students, ICT and Technology Enhanced Learning Environments (TELEs) have become inextricably linked to the future of students’ engagement with primary level education, second level education and beyond (OECD, 2015; Enochsson & Rizza, 2009; European Commission, 2014). We define a TELE as a learning environment enhanced by the use, or presence of, mobile or otherwise digital technology. However, across the education continuum developments in technology have, in many instances, outstripped the ability of educators to keep pace with such developments leaving efforts to harness technology in creative and potentially transformative innovations frustrated (Mishra, Koelher, & Kereluik, 2009). Educational Design Research (EDR) (Reeves & McKenney, 2013), as a constructivist methodology, is therefore critically aligned to respond to this widening gap by developing, through rigorous longitudinal studies, designs that work in practice and respond to contemporary technological developments. This paper outlines and discusses the work of an educational design research cluster, committed to rigorously investigating the potential of EDR, in the pursuit of generating knowledge-based adoptable and adaptable (Barab & Squire, 2004) design methodologies (Wang & Hannafin, 2005) for use in educational settings. It is our position that these designed methodologies have the potential for authentic and meaningful impact in naturalistic educational settings and to lead through design.

Design research conducted in an educational setting demands that researchers acknowledge the complexities of the target environment or the naturalistic context (Barab, 2006). The research projects discussed here are spread across the continuum of education from primary education, second level education, undergraduate Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and postgraduate ITE and represent all stages of design research from conceptual design to final design methodology output. Within these naturalistic contexts the authors are respectively engaged in research that: helps new entrants to undergraduate ITE programmes form emergent collaborative Communities of Practice (CoP); develops technology based engagement with core science concepts at second level education; links formal and informal learning spaces for primary school students; and engaging second level learners with language and literature, all supported by ICT and rooted contemporary TELEs.

This research paper will discuss an issue of critical importance in design research - the nature of the research output. While iteratively refined design methodologies are produced as tangible outcomes, it is the very flexibility within such design outputs that make them applicable for practitioners in a real-world, classroom setting. Designing such outputs, in an era where the growth of technological advancement is exponential, is an approach to a collaborative engagement with education that can lead, not only practitioners as they strive to maximise their performance and effectiveness, but also an educational research community that aspires to make an impact on the ground, or what Donald Schön affectionately describes as the ‘swampy lowland[s]’ (Schön, 1983, p.42) of the real-world educationalist.

Method

EDR allows researchers to iteratively refine, over multiple iterations, designed interventions that address challenges in educational settings. Resultant design methodologies acknowledge the complexity of educational contexts. This paper presentation reports on a cluster of design researchers’ doctoral studies. Common data collection techniques for triangulation included questionnaires, interviews, ethnographical observations, reflective submissions, video/audio recordings and constructed artefacts. Each project, in turn, demonstrates the evolution of the iterative design process and how TELEs have helped to address the identified educational challenges. Project A - Engaging Senior Primary School Children with Local Cultural Heritage. Data will be collected, across multiple design cycles, in formal school and informal museum/local settings. Students will collaboratively construct curriculum-based local heritage resources supported by a TELE and evidenced by artefact construction within Minecraft. The constructed TELE will serve as a connective hub, linking both educational settings. This project is in its first iterative design application. Project B - Developing Situational Interest Among Second Level Physics Students. Data was collected across two iterative design cycles, where second level science teachers were asked to integrate designed video hooks into their teaching methodologies. Consequently participating teachers developed a range of suitable pedagogical approaches to using the video hooks and provided feedback on the hook design and the impact on students within the TELE. This research project is entering a final design phase. Project C - Establishing Emergent Communities of Practice in Undergraduate ITE. Data was collected across two, twelve week, design cycles in a non-elective module - The History of Education (N=33). Students engaged in designed collaborative activities, with the aim of establishing an emergent collaborative CoP in an undergraduate ITE programme. Findings indicate that participants formed four distinct learning communities representative of an emergent collaborative CoP when supported by the designed TELE. This research project is also entering a final design phase. Project D - Digital Ensemble: Exploring the Design of Technology-Enhanced Learning to Mobilise and Augment Students' Engagement with English Literature. Data was collected across three iterative design cycles exploring the development and evaluation of ensemble-based learning in English education at post-primary level to augment students’ engagement with English literature, supported by a TELE (N=131). Findings illustrated the affordances of Digital Ensemble to encourage students, supported by a TELE, to employ technology productively and creatively within English education, augmenting their engagement with literature. Resultant is the theoretically informed design methodology - ENaCT.

Expected Outcomes

Although the projects being reported on in this paper presentation are set within varying educational contexts, common to all studies is an acknowledgment of the pervasiveness of technology in the lives of both teachers and students. Consequently the role of a TELE, as the authors define it, is central to all of the design models and the iterative process that refines their effectiveness. Importantly, all of the research studies constructed had taken note of this relationship through the construction of their respective theoretical frameworks and, informed by extensive literature reviews, developed designs iteratively refined over longitudinal periods resulting in outcomes that are rigorous, adoptable and adaptable; and that are practitioner applicable. Evidenced in the iterative design cycles presented by the authors at ECER 2016 Dublin, is the manner in which EDR has the potential to develop design methodologies that respond to contemporary issues and challenges faced by practitioners at all levels of education. This committed cluster of design researchers will present the origins of the challenges that they seek to meet, the considerations given to the naturalistic context of their research projects and the iterative design research approaches taken. Evident and common to all of the aforementioned doctoral research studies, is the potential of employing EDR as a methodology that can lead the educational research community towards new frontiers through engagement with professionals at the chalk-face of naturalistic educational contexts. Developing design methodology outputs for use by others in similar educational contexts has the potential to place the learning process in the space that exists between teachers and students, a space that when supported by TELEs has the potential to do real work in real-world settings - to lead through design in affecting Schöns' ‘swampy lowland[s]’ , where the complexities of education are as real as the solutions required.

References

Barab, S. (2006). Design-Based Research: A Methodological Toolkit for the Learning Scientist. In The Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences (pp. 153–169). Barab, S.A., & Squire, K. (2004) Design-based Research: Putting a Stake in the Ground. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 13(1), 1-14. Enochsson, A. B., & Rizza, C. (2009). ICT in initial teacher training: Research review. European Commission (2014). Report to the European Commission on new modes of learning and teaching in higher education. Luxembourg, Public Office of the European Union. Mishra, P., Koelher, J. & Kereluik, K. (2009). Looking Back to the Future of Educational Technology. TechTrends, 53(5), 48-53. OECD (2015). Students, Computers and Learning: Making the Connection, PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris. McKenney, S., & Reeves, T. C. (2013). Conducting educational design research. Routledge. Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action (Vol. 5126). Basic books. Wang, F., & Hannafin, M. J. (2005). Design-based research and technology-enhanced learning environments. Educational Technology Research and Development, 53(4), 5–23.