CfP: Teacher-led Inquiry and Learning Design: The Virtuous Circle

✢ Call for Participation ✢
Teacher-led Inquiry and Learning Design: The Virtuous Circle

A hands-on research workshop at the

Alpine Rendez-Vous 2013 scientific event

January, 28 – February, 1st 2013

Villard‐de‐Lans, Vercors, French Alps

The Workshop at-a-glance

“TILD” is a practice-centred, hands-on workshop focused two key areas of Educational Science: Teacher-led Inquiry and Learning Design. Participants from all areas of research and practice (teachers, researchers, school leaders, etc.) are welcome.

 

Duration: five ½ days, with time for recreational activities
Website: http://www.ld–grid.org/workshops/design–inquiry2013
Hashtag: #ARV-TILD

Requirements: Expression of interest registration and a position paper of 2 pages
Outputs:  (tbd) peer-reviewed journal issue, open-access journal, book, website, joint research proposals

 

Key Dates: 
Register NOW: Register your expression of interest on the workshop website
31 August 2012: Position Paper submission deadline. Submit using EasyChair: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=tildarv2013
Mid-September: Attendees invited:
28 January 2013: Workshop begins!

The Alpine Rendez-Vous

The Alpine Rendez-Vous (ARV) is an established atypical scientific event focused on Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL). The ARV series of events are promoted by TELEARC and EATEL associations. The goal of the Alpine Rendez-Vous is to bring together researchers from the different scientific communities doing research on Technology-Enhanced Learning, in a largely informal setting, away from their workplace routines. ARV is structured as a set of independent parallel workshops located at the same time in the same place. Workshops last two to three days each, half of the workshops taking place in the first part of the week and the other half in the second part, possibly with a “common day” in the middle. The Alpine Rendez-Vous of 2013 will take place from January 28th to February 1st, in Villard-de-Lans, a village in the middle of Vercors. Snow is used as “social facilitator”: the schedule includes slots to enjoy ski and outdoor activities. Breaks and meals are organized in a way that promotes informal encounters between participants from the different workshops. Participants will be able to enjoy Alpine and Nordic skiing and other activities, (see http://www.villarddelans.com). The Rendez-Vous will be hosted at Grand Hôtel de Paris where special rates have been negotiated.

The Workshop on Teacher-led Inquiry and Learning Design

This workshop is situated at the intersection of two fields of Educational Science; Learning Design (LD) and Teacher-led Inquiry into Student Learning (TISL). Learning Design is the act of devising new practices, plans of activity, resources and tools aimed at achieving particular educational aims in a given situation (Agostinho et al, 2011; Craft & Mor, forthcoming). It is informed by subject knowledge, pedagogical theory, technological know-how, and practical experience. At the same time, it also can engender innovation in all these areas and support learners in their efforts and aims. Teacher-led Inquiry into Student Learning  is an approach to pedagogic practice and continuing professional development, within which the teacher applies systematic and rigorous methods to the evaluation of student learning in relation to teachers’ practices in order to improve learning design (Kelly, 2003). It places the teacher at the centre of a dynamic process of goal setting, analysis planning, analysis execution, reflection and communication (Dana, N. F., & Yendol-Hoppey, D., 2003). There is a critical need for synergy between these areas.LD, to be effective, should be informed and evaluated by teacher inquiry, or, indeed should ideally be a process of inquiry. TISL, to be meaningful, should support optimising the design of activities and resources. The objectives of this workshop are to establish a new strand of research aimed at the synergy of Learning Design and Teacher-led Inquiry, to solidify its theoretical foundations, to propose new methods, tools, and representations which support research and practice.

Three concepts will be at the centre of the theoretical discussion: context, practice, and change. Examples and use of these will be explored during the workshop along topical strands. The topics will include:

●      Articulating the relationships between Learning Design and Teacher-led Inquiry by capturing the learning context, epistemic and pedagogical practice, and models of change.

●      Exploring methods to support educational innovation though Learning Design and Teacher-led Inquiry, and identifying ways to link them more closely through tools and representations

●      Establishing a culture of practitioner design inquiry in which educators use the representations, methodologies and tools above to sustain scientifically informed creative practices in their professional context.

The Call

The workshop will enrich conversations about both Learning Design and Teacher-led Inquiry by bringing together new perspectives and will explore how the different communities can learn from each other. It brings together teachers and researchers seeking to articulate the key concepts and who wish to develop a shared understanding that will engage and inform other practitioners.

This timely workshop is grounded in the fertile soil of two key knowledge domains (LD and TISL) and facilitates much-needed cross-fertilisation between them. Specifically, we aim to:

●      Establish a new area of research in Education, synergizing LD and TISL, and focusing on context, practice and change

●      Network to build a new community around this research theme

●      Produce 5-6 draft papers for a special journal issue

●      Potential for new significant research grant proposals

●      Archive the work outputs from the workshop activities as a useful resource to other practitioners

 

To participate in this workshop, please register your interest on the form on workshop website http://go.ld–grid.org/tild

 

You will need to submit a 2 page position paper, as specified below. Submissions will be peer-reviewed, as places are limited. Submissions should focus on the themes of representation and manipulation of context, practice and change in learning and teaching. We will consider  four categories:

 

●      Research reports – an account of innovative research at advanced stage

●      Demos of tools for supporting the above

●      Synergy propositions – drawing on existing literature, identifying gaps and points of intersection, and proposing cross-overs

●      Research proposals – arguing for the need and viability of new research initiatives

 

Please submit your position paper by 31 August via EasyChair: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=tildarv2013

Contributions will be selected by the organizers on the basis of individual quality of the papers and the overall balance and coherence of the programme. The selected papers will be uploaded to a shared repository and participants will be asked to review their peers’ contributions and identify possible links prior to the workshop. These potential links will be posted for review and discussion and will inform the workshop activities. There is no standar format for submissions.

Funding

We are looking into funding options, but these will be limited. If you wish to be considered for support please indicate so in the expression of interest form. However, until further notice, all participants should assume that they must provide their own funding.

Deadlines
Expression of interest should be registered on to workshop website (http://www.ld–grid.org/workshops/design–inquiry2013) as soon as possible. Short (2-3 pages) Position Paper submissions should be made to EasyChair by 31 August 2012.

Programme Committee
The workshop is a collaborative initiative of the NEXT-TELL research project (http://next-tell.eu) and the “Inquiry of Design for Learning” project at the Open University Institute of Educational Technology (http://iet.open.ac.uk/).

Brock Craft (co-chair) b.craft@ioe.ac.uk
Institute of Education, London, UK
Yishay Mor (co-chair) yishay.mor@open.ac.uk
Open University, UK

Davinia Hernández-Leo davinia.hernandez@upf.edu
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain

Katerina Avramides k.avramides@ioe.ac.uk
Institute of Education, London, UK

Rose Luckin r.luckin@ioe.ac.uk
Institute of Education, London, UK

Gabriele Cierniak g.cierniak@iwm-kmrc.de
Knowledge Media Research Center, Tuebingen, Germany

Barbara Wasson barbara.wasson@uib.no
Department of Information Science and Media Studies, University of Bergen

Thomas C. Reeves treeves@uga.edu
College of Education, The University of Georgia

Susan McKenney susan.mckenney@utwente.nl
Learning & Cognition Group, Centre for Learning Sciences and Technologies (CELSTEC), the Open University of the Netherlands and the Faculty of Behavioral Sciences at Twente University
Karen Littleton k.s.littleton@open.ac.uk
Centre for Research in Education and Educational Technology, the Open University, UK

Patricio G. Herbst pgherbst@umich.edu
School of Education; Department of Mathematics, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, University of Michigan, US

Thomas Ryberg  ryberg@hum.aau.dk
E-Learning Lab, Department of Communication and Psychology, Aalborg University (AAU), Denmark

Andreas Roepstorff andreas.roepstorff@hum.au.dk
Section for Anthropology and Centre for Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, co-director, MINDlab, Aarhus University

 

References

Agostinho, S.; Bennett, S.; Lockyer, L. & Harper, B. (2011), ‘The future of learning design’, Learning, Media and Technology 36(2), 97-99.

Beetham, H. & Sharpe, R. (2007), Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age, Routledge, New York, NY, 10001.

Craft, B. and Mor, Y. (forthcoming). Learning Design: reflections on a snapshot of the current landscape. Research in Learning Technology.

Dana, N. F., & Yendol-Hoppey, D. (2003). Teacher Inquiry Defined. In The reflective educator’s guide to classroom research (pp. 1–11). Thousand Oaks,CA: Corwin Pr.

Kelly, A. E. (2003). Research as design. Educational Researcher, 32(1), 3-4.

Koper, R. (2006), ‘Current Research in Learning Design’, Educational Technology & Society 9(1), 13-22.

Laurillard, D. (2012), Chapter 1: Teaching as a design science, in Teaching as a Design Science: Building Pedagogical Patterns for Learning and Technology. , Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.