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The Characterization of Dialogicality in the Context of Online Listserv Learning Communities. (2003).
Schools for Thought (SFT): Teacher Reflection
in Action. (2000-2001). The This study examines methodological ways to characterize the emergent aspects of online electronic communities between expert-novice teachers. The different levels of engagement and intersubjectivity will be characterized through four principal criteria: (1) interaction patterns; (2) referential perspective (Wertsch, 1985, 1991); (3) interanimation of texts or utterances (Bakhtin as cited in Wertsch, 1991; Volosinov, 1986; Rafaeli & Sudweeks, 1997; Black et al., 1983; Levin et al., 1990); and (4) the functions of text (Lotman, 1990). I argue that using text as a thinking device is essential for scaffolding the necessary conditions for sustaining and qualifying the properties of a spontaneous CMC community, or "spontaneous sustainability," in engaging quality dialogues and thinking, thus impacting on the professional life of the practitioners. Data were collected from two contrasting listservs concerning educational issues amongst expert-novice teachers. A total of 124 messages were classified into four dialogic encounters for further in-depth analysis. Three typological listserv community cultures may
be summarized as the information-, constructive-, and dynamic/sustainable-community.
The Management of Intersubjectivity
(2003) This study investigates the dynamics of intersubjectivity within the zone of proximal development. Its theoretical framework is based on three principal approaches to intersubjectivity (Wertsch, 1984, 1985; Rogoff, 1990; Rommetveit, 1979), with reference also to self-regulative speech (Vygotsky, 1986). Data were collected from groups interacting with a Dymaxion map exhibit in a museum located in a Midwest U.S. urban city. As part of a larger data constellation, a focused microanalysis of discourse episodes illustrates the management of intersubjectivity during problem-solving activity. Within a problem-solving environment, this study
presents clear evidence for the management of variable forms of intersubjectivity,
including retreat into self-regulative speech, in a successful problem-solving
activity. This process involves the problem-solver moving away from, then
back towards intersubjectivity. The analysis examines the dynamic nature
of intersubjectivity in a new light and clarifies the otherwise ambiguous
postulation of different levels of growth within the zone of proximal development
(Wertsch, 1984). This paper proposes important new implications for problem-solving
in terms of both approach and procedure, as well as informing pedagogical
instruction in problem-solving, for both formal and informal learning contexts.
Schools for Thought (SFT): Teacher Reflection
in Action (2000-2001) An Interagency Education Research Initiative (IERI) and National Science Foundation (NSF) funded research project based at the University of Missouri-St Louis. Training materials were documented and developed by the design of prototypes in helping expert teachers in a “Schools for Thought” (SFT) driven project. Working collaboratively with researchers and teachers both expert and novice, this work assessed the use and reflection upon an inquiry-based curriculum across subjects, with the use of IT. Such materials were used to study the knowledge transference to the novice teachers. Collaborating with four expert teachers and four
novice teachers based at a Adult Dyslexia for Employment in Practice and
Training (ADEPT) Project (1999) The Adult Dyslexia for Employment in Practice and
Training (ADEPT) project was commissioned by the Employment Service (ES)
based in A nationally-based project, both quantitative and
qualitative data were collected and collated from senior members of staff
at managerial levels (e.g., ES team managers, career officers, trainers of
both the Enterprise companies, and independent organizations), and practitioners
(e.g., occupational/ clinical/ educational psychologists) from a variety
of regions across the country. Approximately 30 meetings were organized across
the Small Voluntary Organizations (SVO) Project (1999) The SVO project studied the changing managerial aspects of small voluntary organizations, in particular the major shift concerning the grant to the contract culture, accompanied by increasing reliance on paper-based regulatory systems, greater accountability requirements, increasing competition for funds, demands to operate more hierarchically and formally, and the need for new expertise, for example, with respect to marketing, fund raising, and financial control. Qualitative data were collected and collated from
interviews and survey with voluntary managers of the two target consortia
in Project findings were presented at the ISTR Fourth
International Conference, The Sustainability Education in European
Primary Schools (SEEPS) Project (1998-1999) The Sustainability Education in European Primary
Schools (SEEPS) project was funded by DGXI and later DGXXII of the European
Commission based in A project handbook was produced for professional
development containing 90 pages of research materials, and a working paper
published in the journal, Sustainability Education Research. Teacher training
workshops were also conducted in a number of networked countries. The Representational Aspects of Social
Communication and Learning (RASCAL) Project (1997-1998) The Representational Aspects of Social Communication and Learning (RASCAL) project was funded by the McDonnell Foundation and run at the National level Scottish curriculum. RASCAL applied semantic and computational theories of cognitive science to the design of curriculum interventions at the highschool level, forming a bridge between the formal understandings of representations taught in mathematics and science, and social understandings traditionally taught in the humanities. These interventions were aimed at investigating a student grasp of generalizations concerned with both social relations in communication, and representations across domains of their application. Language Assessment for Children Whose First
Language Is Other Than English (1998) Assessment informed the learning potential of a group of children ranging from five to ten years old whose first language was other than English. Interviews were conducted with classroom teachers,
relevant educational support staff, and the individual child’s family.
In addition to classroom observation and home visits, a variety of learning
tasks (e.g., translation task and picture description task), and the use of
formal examination type of assessment (e.g., text handling task, written production
and oral assessment) were conducted for the assessment. Assessment reports
were disseminated.
My M.Sc. thesis research work involved the preparation
of a theoretical critique of experimental cognitive models employed in the
investigation of causal factors proposed to account for interlanguage variability
from a psycholinguistic perspective. This work explored the application of
such findings to the mainstream teaching curriculum, and in particular, as
pertinent to the teaching of languages in the classroom.
My B.Ed research work involved a study of the language transfer features of a group of A-Level ESL students. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected through learning tasks and survey. |
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