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When relational and epistemological uncertainty act as driving forces in collaborative knowledge creation processes among university students
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to analyze relational uncertainty (i.e., the subjective feeling of being unsure with regard to social interactions) and epistemological uncertainty (i.e., the subjective feeling of being unsure about the content, process or outcome of a task) as well as their interrelations and development over time in collaborative learning processes. To pursue that aim, we examined students’ diary entries that were made during a university course on knowledge creation, innovation, and philosophy of science. The sample consisted of N = 30 university student participants grouped into six teams who were asked to collaboratively create novel knowledge, and, ultimately, a prototype. Data was complemented by instructors’ observations and students’ ratings of the prototype and analyzed using a grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2006).
Our findings reveal that relational uncertainty is predominantly salient at the beginning of the knowledge creation process, and that overcoming it unleashes a motivating function. Experiencing the overcoming of relational uncertainty enables deeper engagement in epistemological uncertainty, which turned out to have a positive impact on the outcome of the knowledge creation process. Both forms, relational and epistemological uncertainty, are relevant for the knowledge creation process and act as driving forces in collaborative knowledge creation situations. Therefore, triggering uncertainty should be used in a well-directed manner to foster learning in higher education. However, when relational uncertainty is not properly managed at the beginning of the process, the positive effect of epistemological uncertainty does not arise.
... This study explores productive tactics that can be used to manage students' epistemic uncertainty as a pedagogical resource to develop conceptual understanding. Epistemic uncertainty refers to students' subjective awareness of their incomplete abilities to explain a phenomenon, interpret and present raw data as evidence, and understand what counts as scientific argument (Chen & Qiao, 2020;Hartner-Tiefenthaler et al., 2018;Tiberghien et al., 2014). ...
... Sources may differ with type of uncertainty, and several types have been identified in learning science, such as relational (i.e., interactional challenge or lack of confidence with interpersonal relationships), ontological (i.e., doubt or lack of confidence with regard to disciplinary knowledge toward discussed topics), and epistemic (i.e., doubt or lack of confidence or knowledge about how to explain a phenomenon). Because this study focuses on knowledge generation rather than knowledge replication, we focus on and define epistemic uncertainty as: student subjective awareness of their incomplete skills or abilities for how to explain a phenomenon, to sort through data to produce trends, to interpret and represent raw data as evidence, and to generate potential solutions to solve problems (Chen & Qiao, 2020;Hartner-Tiefenthaler et al., 2018). ...
... Pedagogical implementations are also discussed. Our analysis resonates with recent studies that support the role of uncertainty in students' learning in science (e.g., Hartner-Tiefenthaler et al., 2018;Kirch, 2010;Manz & Su arez, 2018;Phillips et al., 2018;Sezen-Barrie et al., 2020;Tiberghien et al., 2014). ...
Science teachers usually view students' uncertainty as a barrier to overcome, a negative experience to be avoided, a deficiency in need of remedy. Building on the theory of deep learning in science as a generative and sensemaking process, the purpose of this design‐based study is to identify tactics for teachers to manage their students' epistemic uncertainty as a pedagogical resource to develop student conceptual understanding during whole‐class discussion. Classroom observations of whole‐class discussion were collected from six teachers' classes ranging from third to eighth grade. A total of 18 whole‐class discussions were collected, transcribed, and analyzed. A storyline talk to manage uncertainty during whole‐class discussion was developed and consisted of three stages: (1) Raise epistemic uncertainty through creating ambiguous conditions; (2) Maintain epistemic uncertainty through preventing immature disclosure and discussing alternative explanations or conflicting ideas; and (3) Reduce epistemic uncertainty through making coherent connections among current uncertainty, prior knowledge, and familiar phenomena. Seven nuanced tactics used by teachers to achieve each stage of uncertainty management were identified. The results suggest that managing uncertainty goes beyond asking questions and problematizing phenomena. When engaging students in storyline‐based whole‐class discussion, teachers should focus on one specific uncertainty and establish a coherent, consistent storyline that raises, maintains, and reduces student uncertainty to horizontally and vertically construct a collective knowledge among students. The horizontal nature occurs within a stage of management, and the vertical nature of a storyline talk is related to moving along from stage to stage. Through the storyline talk focusing on students' epistemic uncertainty, students can truly become agents in the learning process when the lesson is centered on and driven by students' uncertainty.
... Considering that this study focuses on managing uncertainty to develop knowledge, we examine in particular epistemic uncertainty (e.g. learners' subjective awareness and knowing of incomplete skills or abilities about how to explain a phenomenon, derive trends from muddled data, interpret and represent raw data as evidence, and put forth scientific arguments) (Hartner-Tiefenthaler et al., 2018) and view this as a pedagogical resource to foster students' learning in science. ...
... Several researchers have argued that uncertainty is a common and necessary experience to engender learning (e.g. Hartner-Tiefenthaler et al., 2018;Phillips, 2019;Tiberghien et al., 2014) because uncertainty creates a state of 'disequilibrium' (Piaget, 1972) in which students encounter conflicts or dissonance between their understanding and a differing explanation. The experience of uncertainty thus generates 'resistance' (Manz, 2015b), 'struggle' (Warshauer, 2015), 'impasse' (VanLehn et al., 2003), or a feeling of 'failure' (Kapur, 2016) that pushes students to reevaluate their existing knowledge and generate solutions to resolve the uncertainty. ...
... Epistemic uncertainty in argumentation refers especially to learners' subjective awareness and knowing of incomplete skills or abilities about how to explain a phenomenon, how to sort muddled data to produce trends, how to interpret and represent raw data as evidence, and what counts as scientific argument (Hartner-Tiefenthaler et al., 2018). Epistemic uncertainty goes beyond content uncertainty per se; that is, epistemic uncertainty focuses on the degree of students' confidence or ability to know how to generate knowledge, but content uncertainty focuses on the degree to what portion of students' present knowledge is aligned to the discussed content. ...
This longitudinal case study explores how students' epistemic uncertainty in argumentation can be adapted as a resource to develop knowledge in a fifth-grade classroom. Major data sources include 12 videotaped whole-class discussions focused on group presentation of arguments to obtain peers' critiques across two course units, the ecosystem and the human body systems, over a 16-week period. Grounded in a qualitative, interpretative approach, the results show that when students' epistemic uncertainty was leveraged as a resource, students were able to construct a more coherent and consistent knowledge system by integrating their prior and target scientific knowledge. We argue that to effectively use students' epistemic uncertainty as a pedagogical resource in managing uncertainty, teachers need to consider the status of students' knowledge of the target concept, if they are aware of uncertainty, and how uncertainty is resolved through critique that leads to knowledge construction. As students had opportunities to practice managing uncertainty, they developed skills necessary to attend to each other's utterances and use them as collaborative epistemic resources to develop, with their peers, acceptable knowledge. Conceptualising argumentation as an enterprise to manage uncertainty can help instructors to design a productive and authentic environment to facilitate the learning of science. ARTICLE HISTORY
... The most important phases of the innovation process are described below. Further details can be found in Peschl et al. (2014) and Hartner-Tiefenthaler et al. (2018). ...
... This curriculum was accompanied by a multi-year research project by using mostly triangulation of qualitative and quantitative methods, focusing primarily on qualitative approaches to describe how new knowledge emerges in a future-driven manner (see Peschl et al., 2014Peschl et al., , 2019Hartner-Tiefenthaler et al., 2018). In the instance evaluated in the research project, a total of 30 students participated, including both PhD and Master's students. ...
Recent publications in the field of KM emphasize the importance of topics such as Spirituality (e.g. Bratianu, 2017; Kaiser, 2023; Rocha & Pinheiro, 2021), Phronesis (practical wisdom) (Kragulj, 2022; Nonaka & Takeuchi, 2019; Rocha et al., 2022; Serenko, 2024), Organizational Purpose (Kerschbaum, 2022), dealing with future potentials and future-oriented innovation (Peschl, 2018, 2020) and Responsible KM (Durst, 2021) as future avenues for KM research. However, it seems that these topics have not yet entirely found their way into practice, or, although the phenomena described are inherently present in organizations, they do not receive much attention from practitioners these days. With this paper we seek to initiate discussion on how to deploy research results on topics like Spirituality, Practical Wisdom, non-rational Knowledge, future-oriented knowledge work, and Organizational Purpose into applied contexts. We argue that an essential step is to adequately train students at universities with the new content. Todays students are the leaders, entrepreneurs, and managers of tomorrow. Therefore, we present selected educational concepts that help students build competencies in understanding and applying non-rational forms of knowledge. The intention of these newly designed teaching concepts is to move our field of research out of the metaphoric ivory tower towards the application in organizations. We argue that this is a necessary step for the development of the field of KM, enabling our research to remain relevant in modern-day business and organizational environments.
... Beyond content knowledge, it is considered critically important that the students understand discipline-based epistemic frameworks, so that the school science is situated in the context of scientific knowledge generation (Duschl, 2008;Hammer & Elby, 2003). Accordingly, science education researchers have focused on epistemic uncertainty as a resource for understanding science as a process (e.g., Chen & Qiao, 2020;Hartner-Tiefenthaler et al., 2018;Lee et al., 2014;Tiberghien et al., 2014). Studies have shown that identifying, maintaining, and eventually reducing uncertainty during the scientific practices of argumentation (Chen et al., 2019) or modeling (Chen, 2021) support students in understanding science in more sophisticated and coherent ways. ...
... This study illustrates the ways to manage epistemic uncertainty during inquiry that approximates scientific research in a sense the aim is to produce new knowledge of the world, and no one has ready answers at hand. Whereas the present findings do not indicate if or how these experiences of doing science led to increased conceptual understanding, the previous studies have shown how management of epistemic uncertainty also support conceptual learning (e.g., Chen & Techawitthayachinda, 2021;Hartner-Tiefenthaler et al., 2018;Watkins et al., 2018). This study showed that the responses allowed continuing with the inquiry and reaching the goal of engaging in doing science. ...
Uncertainty is endemic to scientific research practices; therefore, it is also an important element in learning about science. Studies have shown that experiences and management of uncertainty regarding the epistemic practices of science can support learning. Whereas the common strategies of supporting students in handling uncertainty rely on the teacher knowing the preferred outcomes and answers, few studies have explored settings in which no one can give the right answers to students. In this study, we explore how Finnish, suburban secondary school students (aged 13–14 years) respond to epistemic uncertainty during an ecological citizen science inquiry, in which the aim is to produce novel scientific knowledge. Drawing from qualitative interaction analysis of video and interview data, we articulate three responses to uncertainty that arise when students try to make optimal choices during the inquiry: they (a) envision alternative narrative scenarios and hypothesis; (b) accept and maintain it as part of their argumentation practices, and (c) flexibly reframe their research activities and goals. The findings indicate that the citizen science setting can allow students to reframe epistemic uncertainty in ways that are typical of scientific practices even without deliberate scaffolding by the teacher. We suggest that incorporating experiences of uncertainty that are shared by students and teachers in pedagogical design can support doing and learning science in different settings.
... In disciplinary learning, researchers have identified different types of uncertainty based on the goals of their research (e.g., Chen, 2021;Gouvea & Wagh, 2018;Hartner-Tiefenthaler et al., 2018;Jordan & McDaniel Jr, 2014;Zaslavsky, 2005). Because this study focuses on how students develop knowledge through modeling and considers modeling as an epistemic practice (Campbell & Oh, 2015;Ke & Schwarz, 2021;Windschitl et al., 2008), I focus on epistemic uncertainty within the framework of modeling. ...
... 2.5 | Epistemic knowledge: The source of epistemic uncertainty By considering modeling as epistemic practice (Campbell & Oh, 2015;Ke & Schwarz, 2021;Shim & Kim, 2018;Windschitl et al., 2008), this study focuses on desirable epistemic uncertainty. Epistemic uncertainty refers to students' subjective awareness and experience of being | unsure or doubting how to explain a phenomenon, how to construct a model to explain a system, how to find patterns from raw data, how to interpret and represent evidence to support a claim, or how to know what counts as an acceptable scientific model (Chen & Qiao, 2020;Hartner-Tiefenthaler et al., 2018). In other words, epistemic uncertainty may result from students struggle with or not feeling confident in their epistemic knowledge. ...
There is a considerable amount of research on the nature and effectiveness of modeling as applied to student learning in science. However, few studies have examined the role of students' epistemic uncertainty in modeling and how teachers collaborate with students to recognize and utilize it as a pedagogical resource to support productive struggle for the co‐development of scientific knowledge. This single case study focuses on how one fifth‐grade teacher and her students used epistemic uncertainty as a resource to engage in modeling as they co‐developed knowledge through building, revising, and finalizing models. Data were collected 16 lessons across 4 weeks when students learned the role of the respiratory system in the breathing process. Multiple strategies to manage students' epistemic uncertainty for productive struggle were identified across four phases of modeling. Phase 1, Problematizing a phenomenon: using student epistemic uncertainty to contextualize and format a problem, Phase 2, Material practice: recognizing and supporting student epistemic uncertainty that may cause struggle, failure, and opportunity for rebuilding a model, Phase 3, Argumentative practice: critiquing and decomposing student epistemic uncertainty to find possible solutions, and Phase 4, Conceptualizing theory and application of final models: having students use different representations of their final models to theoretically explain the target phenomenon. By providing an empirical account of the evolution of students' knowledge co‐development, this study suggests that productive modeling should encompass the variation of student epistemic uncertainties as an effective resource to cumulatively engage students through the different phases of modeling in the productive struggle to sense‐make and develop a coherent understanding of scientific knowledge and practice. As such, students have opportunities to reflect on and generate their own knowledge in the sensemaking process, rather than just replicate knowledge from textbooks or authorities.
... The unfamiliar way to communicate online made them feel insecure: 7:13 1 The group process is still very difficult for me because the hurdle of communicating online is a very big one for me, I'm not a big user of social media or used to looking into the screen for a long time and talking to others. […] 2 Our previous research showed that certain forms of uncertainty can act as a driving force for innovation (Hartner-Tiefenthaler, Rötzer, Bottaro & Peschl, 2018). However, our current data (collected in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic) indicates that this does not apply to any uncertainty in the online setting. ...
... This requires equally distributed communication power and some kind of effort establishing the right culture/spirit. We know from previous research 2019;Hartner-Tiefenthaler et al., 2018) that flat hierarchies and an informal, more personal communication culture helps to build trust, which is a prerequisite for innovation. In our seminars and workshops we establish this kind of psychological safe space by nurturing and playful interventions, e.g., providing food and dancing with the students, and by actively lowering our status, e.g., by joking around or sit-ting on the floor. ...
... The emphasis is on the learning process in which the application of the subject matter is prioritized. Among STEM students this type of epistemic uncertainty can be quite difficult, as traditional engineering education often suggests there is one correct answer or decision-making process [29,30]. In this way, the classroom benefited from being multi-disciplinary and having a large diversity of life experiences. ...
... Menschen sind prinzipiell darin bestrebt, Unsicherheit zu reduzieren (Festinger, 1954). Daher versuchen sie, durch das Einholen von zusätzlichen Informationen Vorhersagbarkeiten zu generieren (Berger & Calabrese, 1975;Hartner-Tiefenthaler et al., 2018 Kommunikationsformen wie regelmäßige Jour fixes und Newsletter halfen, den Informationsfluss transparenter zu gestalten. Sie wurden auch dort etabliert, wo es sie bis vor der Pandemie kaum gegeben hatte. ...
... Al-Omoush, Palacios-Marqués, and Ulrich 2022). This finding confirms prior expectations that collaborative inter-organisational knowledge creation is supported by the existence of trust, strong alliances, interactions, and mutual support among parties in the exchange relationship (Coggan et al. 2021;Roetzer, Bottaro, and Peschl 2018;Tu 2020). Strengthening social capital in networks improves transparency and collaborative work (Wulandhari et al. 2022), so understanding how to channel social capital into creating mutual knowledge is key to ensuring that the network resource is used to obtain a mutual advantage. ...
Extant studies have shown that despite the seemingly beneficial outcomes of social capital, its impact on buyer-supplier relationships could sometimes be detrimental. This study contributes to a scholarly understanding of the mechanism via which the positive outcome of social capital in realised in buyer-supplier relationships. Drawing on the knowledge-based view of the firm, we theorise and provide empirical support for our thesis that joint knowledge creation acts as a conduit through which social capital enhances relationship performance. We used survey data from 113 construction firms in Ghana to test our propositions using the partial least squares structural equations modelling algorithm. Our findings show that social capital, in all its three dimensions contributes to joint knowledge creation in buyer-supplier relationships. Additionally, the relationship between social capital and relationship performance is mediated by joint knowledge creation. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed in the paper.
... Paradoxically, attempting to reduce uncertainty can engender other kinds of uncertainty that are necessary for knowledge creation (Hartner-Tiefenthaler et al., 2018), hence the creator must weather the storm. For example, an individual may overcome relational uncertainty (about social interactions) at the beginning of the creative process only to unleash epistemological uncertainty (about the content, process or outcome of the task); yet by engaging with epistemological uncertainty he/she may ultimately create new knowledge (Hartner-Tiefenthaler and colleagues, 2018), which is therefore to be encouraged. ...
Leaders and their employees must navigate competing yet interrelated demands and processes when developing and implementing creative ideas. They have to engage in divergent and convergent thinking, challenge existing assumptions and accept them, plan and persist while remaining spontaneous and adaptive. We explore how, why, and when adopting a paradox approach to navigating such tensions enhances creativity and innovation. Rather than seeking to eliminate the discomfort associated with tensions by prioritizing one demand or process over the other, the paradox approach sees tensions as an opportunity for growth and learning. When adopting a paradox approach, people feel comfortable with the discomfort as tensions arise, and recognize that by engaging in one process they enable the seemingly opposing process. We review research on paradoxical frames, mindset, and leadership, and offer a comprehensive theoretical model that delineates the related cognitive, affective, motivational, and social pathways, as well as contextual and cultural boundary conditions. We conclude by identifying promising future directions for research.
... By contrast, her students have the opportunity to challenge the uncertainty. Student uncertainty has been in the focus of academic attention, see, e.g., (Jordan, 2015;Hartner-Tiefenthaler Roetzer, Bottaro & Peschl, 2018), for it inhibits the incentive to learn and to study. The teacher emphasizes the role of her colleague by using the emphatic I can't tell you how two times. ...
The paper focuses on the corpus-based analysis of academic discourse values. The research aim is to reveal how teachers transmit academic discourse values through their everyday interactions with students (during lectures, seminars) and to reveal, which values are relevant for the students (based on the analysis of their essays, research papers and some such). The research relies on corpus-based approach and primary methods used are a semantic analysis and a context analysis as well as definition analysis of evaluative means. The research results have revealed that various values play important role in academic interactions and shape the image of the academe – on the local as well as on the global scale. The study of the contexts containing the word valuable in British National Corpus (Davis, 2008-), British Academic Spoken English (Nesi, & Thompson, 2000-), British Academic Written English (Nesi, 2008-), Corpus of Russian Student Texts (Rakhilina, Zevakhina, & Dzhakupova, 2013-) and Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English (2002-) has revealed that the values of academic discourse can be subdivided into six domains: emotional, cognitive, educational, research-related, academic life-related, topic- / area-related. The further applicability of research findings manifests itself in various avenues of research: linguistics (evaluative means), axiology (cross-disciplinary study of values), teaching practices (academic discourse genres) and others.
... In most cases, this introduces a state of (organizational and personal) instability, leading sometimes to resistance. Apart from the anxiety that is induced when being in a state of instability or being confronted with uncertainty in general (Hartner-Tiefenthaler et al., 2018), this resistance has its roots in not being able to deal with not knowing and understanding where the unlearning process might lead to. This applies especially in the context of a "forgetting-like" unlearning process (Becker, 2018, p. 108) or, more importantly, in processes of deep unlearning. ...
Purpose
While many approaches in the field of unlearning aim at describing, understanding or explaining the “what” and/or “how” of unlearning, this paper aims to focus on the “where-to” and the goal of unlearning. In many cases, unlearning starts off with a specific result or goal in mind. This paper suggests that such an approach has to be challenged in the context of a highly complex and uncertain world and to introduce a mode of unlearning following a strategy of future-oriented open-endedness.
Design/methodology/approach
This conceptual paper draws on (both theoretical/philosophical and empirical) interdisciplinary evidence from a wide variety of fields, such as organization studies, organizational (un)learning, systems theory, cognitive science and innovation studies.
Findings
It turns out that open-endedness in unlearning processes plays a central role, especially if we are confronted with high levels of uncertainty and complexity. In such an environment, following a strategy of co-becoming with an unfolding environment and with an emergent goal seems to be more promising than aiming at a preconceived (un-)learning goal.
Originality/value
The unlearning literature provides various approaches to what unlearning is and how it can be executed. However, understanding the actual goals and outcomes of unlearning and how these goals are identified and determined is a rather under-researched field. In many cases, they are preconceived in advance finding their realization in new forms of knowledge, assumptions, belief systems, values or routines. This paper challenges this strategy and addresses the gap of how it is possible to unlearn toward an uncertain future. This has an impact on the process of unlearning itself; it has to be reframed and understood as an open-ended strategy for identifying emerging future potentials, purposes and goals in a process of co-becoming with an unfolding future.
... Although the promises and key elements of cocreation practices are progressively documented (Beckett, Farr, Kothari, Wye, & le May, 2018), there is a need for more of an empirical understanding of informational processes facilitating knowledge emergence in those environments. Interestingly, recent research suggests that introducing uncertainty can foster knowledge emergence in co-creation practices (Hartner-Tiefenthaler, Roetzer, Bottaro, & Peschl, 2018;Wiltschnig, Christensen, & Ball, 2013). ...
This poster presents results from an ongoing exploratory research study, which uses a participant observation methodology to investigate the productive uses of uncertainty in fostering knowledge emergence. Recent research suggests that introducing uncertainty can be a productive resource to facilitate the emergence of knowledge in co‐creation practices. While recognizing productive traits to uncertainty is not new in information science, how uncertainty can be deliberately introduced, as a productive resource, remains generally unnoticed. This study extends previous research in this area by further detailing the use of uncertainty and by constituting a foray into investigating information practices in collective knowledge creation environments. Findings suggest that introducing uncertainty aims at inducing a state of unknowability to erode certainty, disrupt entrained thinking and processual constraints, and decompartmentalize disciplinary boundaries that inhibit knowledge emergence. The experiences of relational engagement, joint advantage and mutual transformation arose as conditions conducive to using uncertainty for knowledge emergence.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate what factors can affect individuals’ knowledge sharing on social media from the perspectives of personality traits and social capital.
Design/methodology/approach
A theoretical model was developed with reference to the personality traits theory and the social capital theory. Accordingly, a questionnaire was designed to collect the individuals’ ideas on knowledge sharing on social media and further test the model. The questionnaire was then distributed to two LINE groups. Finally, the collected data were analyzed using the partial least squares (PLS) approach.
Findings
Personality traits not only directly affect knowledge sharing, but also indirectly influence it via social capital. Of all personality traits, agreeableness, openness and extraversion directly and indirectly influence knowledge sharing.
Research limitations/implications
Knowledge sharing is undertaken by individuals and social groups. It starts with individuals and then diffuses to other members of a group.
Practical implications
Group managers have to identify the members who are friendly, open-minded or extroverted and encourage them to act as the bellwethers for knowledge sharing under an effective regulatory regime, through which intra-group knowledge sharing can be promoted.
Originality/value
This study introduces a new model to explore knowledge sharing on social media from individual and social perspectives. It illustrates what will affect individuals’ knowledge sharing on social media.
Introduction. Developing critical thinking is one of the primary objectives of modern education. From the authors’ perspective, both the method and the content of the discipline, especially philosophy, have historically evolved through dialogue within the intellectual tradition of the era, which is valuable for fostering critical thinking. Aim. The study aimed to develop and test a methodology for assessing the role of philosophy in shaping critical thinking, considering its expertise, knowledge, and skills. Methodology and research methods. The development of critical thinking was assessed during the analysis of the philosophical text. Prior to the test, it is worth noting that the authors conducted an expert assessment of the text, which later served as a reference assessment, and developed a grading scale. Gradually, examples of typical student errors were added to the scale, facilitating further assessment. Results. Nearly all students were able to summarise the provided text by the end of the course, although with varying degrees of distortion. At the beginning of the course, approximately one-tenth of the students were unable to do it, indicating that the understanding and interpretation of a text was beyond their ability. The absence of dynamics in all three skills indicates that a student has not developed a critical thinking mindset if their results are low. Among the students, the weak and average ones exhibit the most significant overall improvement (16–20% of the class enhance their performance across all criteria). The test revealed tender points in the student’s critical thinking development: a feeble argument assessment skill and a poor understanding of the voice behind the text. Scientific novelty. The proposed assessment methodology enables the connection of texts to assess the development of critical thinking with philosophical objectivity. Practical significance. This work provides a convenient tool for monitoring critical thinking skills in each student. Measuring critical thinking skills through students’ written works may help track individual accomplishments of the learners and indicate areas of growth in the course taught.
Engineering as a discipline, profession, practice, and area of study continues to add substantial value in an increasingly complex world. With continually evolving complexity around the planet, such as the need for massive energy transition, global health technologies, or sustainable food systems, how might engineering education practices and theory be considered within these rapid and necessary changes? This paper presents an experiment of co‐creation through experiential reflection about the state of chemical engineering education. Four chemical engineering professors engaged in a dialogue, facilitated by a researcher in education, through collaborative and actionable research. This dialogue uncovered innovative possibilities, educational themes, experiences, and opportunities for others in the profession to consider. The process of dialogue also encouraged the development of an imaginative future sense‐making, known as futuring, through a collective experience. The findings reveal instructive perspectives on the shape of chemical engineering education that should be of value not only to engineers, but also other professionals, practitioners, or those in various science, technology, and math fields.
Introduction. The article tackles the problem of changing the role and place of philosophy in the mass education system. Today, mass education is closely connected with pragmatisation and technologisation; and these two processes spawn a concern whether it is useful to study philosophy, and, as a consequence, an aspiration to transform the understanding of teaching itself.
Aim. The aim of the present paper was to reconceptualise the bespoke teaching experience within the framework of personalised academic tracks launched in the University of Tyumen in an attempt to address the problem.
Methodology and research methods. The theoretical part of the research lays out the foundation of philosophy teaching as a mimetic practice based on a methodology, which is developed through the following concepts: the dichotomy of E. Giddens’ practical and discursive consciousness, M. Polanyi’s tacit knowledge, E. Mach’s economy of thought, and C. Wulf’s mimesis. This was a starting point of a philosophy teaching practice that was tested on a batch of students, approximately a quarter of which agreed to take an anonymous survey about the process and the results of the joined work.
Results and scientific novelty. A draft of a conceptual foundation of mass philosophy teaching in the current context is laid out. At the core of the process, there is a mimetic transfer of tacit knowledge, ensuring a skill to philosophise. This process presupposes an interaction of four actors: a teacher, a student, a text and a group of students. The lecture is a demonstration of a personal philosophic style, and the Socratic seminar is a joint practice with an unpredictable finale. In this practice, there is a system, where the teacher is an inquiring moderator launching the student’s personal search, the text provides a connection with a philosophic tradition, and the group – with the everyday life. The survey showed that this approach is effective: students like the process, they understand the connection of the philosophical ideas with the real life, and they track the level of their own understanding of philosophical texts.
Practical significance. The research results may be useful for other philosophy teachers who on the basis of this study may adjust their teaching practices to a mass philosophy course delivered in the current conditions; and for further development of the theory, first and foremost, in terms of formulating the philosophical content being used.
Nuestro planteamiento es que con la emergencia de la COVID 19 retornamos
a la casa en un nuevo sedentarismo, afectando nuestra cosmovisión
relativa a la salud de influencia occidental, lo cual conlleva nuevas pautas educativas
emergentes ancladas en el cuerpo como experiencia de una nueva relación
sociedad naturaleza y su cosmovisión
Today, innovative learning spaces represent much more than just removable furniture and open spaces for workers. The digital revolution in business and education fostered by the rapid development of Internet-based tools and solutions and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) brought about profound changes to this sector. The aim of this research is to carry out large-scale, cross-site studies to measure the current impact of ICT on working practices. Our research develops and presents the new models of learning in open spaces as well as tests how ICT can be used to support innovation and work practices. In this paper, we also single our and describe the necessary prerequisites and skills that are associated with the specific ICT functionalities that are presently needed for the entire open innovation process. Our results can be of a special use for educators, innovators, entrepreneurs as well as relevant stakeholders operating in business or education (or, perhaps, both). This research outlines the most useful recommendations and described the patterns for innovations in learning in novel open spaces.
There is an urgent need to address the grand sustainability challenges of our time, and to explore new and more responsible ways of operating, researching, and innovating that enable society to respond to these challenges. The emergent Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) policy agenda can act as a catalyst towards the development of new and more responsible research and innovation efforts. Inevitably, higher education needs to be closely attuned to this need and agenda, by preparing students to engage in RRI efforts. This paper makes a first step towards guiding the embedding of RRI within higher education. It does so by bringing together academic knowledge with phronesis or practical knowledge about what should be done in an ethical, political, and practical sense. It draws on a literature review and on the reflective practices of partners in the European Commission funded project EnRRICH (Enhancing Responsible Research and Innovation through Curricula in Higher Education), as well as on interviews and case studies gathered as part of the project. The paper suggests elements, especially design principles and a competence framework, for (re)designing curricula and pedagogies to equip higher education students to be and to become responsible actors, researchers, and innovators in a complex world, and to address grand sustainability challenges. In addition, this paper proposes that contemporary higher education teaching and learning policies and strategies, especially those promoting neoliberal agendas and marketized practices, need to adopt a more responsible and responsive ethos to foster the renewal of higher education in times of systemic dysfunction.
Learning about the “creative process” helps students as they undertake creative activities within a discipline. Instruction about how to create may involve a variety of pedagogical approaches across disciplines. Our study documents how college students learn about creativ¬e process through a study of their reported course experiences. We surveyed over 450 university students in nineteen different courses across five different disciplines: the Arts, Education, Engineering, Humanities, and Social Sciences. We focused on students' perceptions of their educational experiences, the perceived contributions of specific pedagogical components, and their assessment of the course's impact on their own creative development. We performed both quantitative and qualitative analyses of the students' reports. The main finding was a high degree of commonality in students' perceptions of effective learning experiences across disciplines. Common themes included open-ended projects, practice on exercises, and instructor feedback. Analyses revealed a greater perceived impact of instruction in the humanities, social sciences, and the arts compared to engineering and education. The results of the study document the qualities of learning experiences in university classrooms during creative process instruction. Suggested improvements of pedagogy include building a repertoire of successful works within a field, and self-reflection about the creative process.
Purpose
This study aims at testing the mediating role of team reflexivity in the relationships between team learning, performance-prove, and performance-avoid goal orientations and team creative performance and assessing the relative importance of the three types of team goal orientation in team reflexivity and creative performance.
Methodology
We conducted Study 1 on 68 student teams by using a two-wave time-lagged design. In Study 2, we carried out a cross-sectional field study on 108 intact work teams in diverse Korean companies.
Findings
Team learning goal orientation was significantly associated with team creative performance. While team learning and performance-prove goal orientations were equally influential in predicting team reflexivity, team performance-avoid goal orientation had no relationship with team reflexivity and creative performance. Team reflexivity mediated the relationships between team learning and performance-prove goal orientations and team creative performance.
Implications
By revealing that team learning and performance-prove goal orientations can contribute to team creative performance through the facilitation of team reflective process, this study provides practitioners with insight into critical antecedents and team process that are conducive to the creative performance of work teams.
Originality/Value
This is one of the first studies to explore a mediating mechanism between team goal orientation and creative performance. This study attends to the role of team reflexivity as a key team-regulatory process that underlies the relationship between team goal orientation and team performance. Furthermore, the use of multiple studies in different contexts strengthens the robustness of the study findings.
Background
Goal-setting theory continues to be among the most popular and influential theories of motivation and performance, although there have been limited academic applications relative to applications in other domains, such as organizational psychology.AimsThis paper summarizes existing quantitative research and then employs a qualitative approach to exploring academic growth via an in-depth reflective growth goal-setting methodology.SampleThe study focuses on 92 UK final-year students enrolled in an elective advanced interpersonal skills and personal development module, with self-reflection and growth goal setting at its core.Method
Qualitative data in the form of regular reflective written diary entries and qualitative questionnaires were collected from students during, on completion of, and 6 months following the personal growth goal-setting programme.ResultsAbout 20% of students' self-set growth goals directly related to academic growth and performance; students reported that these had a strong impact on their achievement both during and following the reflective programme. Growth goals that were indirectly related to achievement (e.g., stress management) appeared to positively impact academic growth and other outcomes (e.g., well-being). A follow-up survey revealed that growth goal setting continued to impact academic growth factors (e.g., self-efficacy, academic performance) beyond the reflective programme itself.Conclusions
Academic growth can result from both academically direct and indirect growth goals, and growth goal setting appears to be aided by the process of simultaneous growth reflection. The implications for promoting academic growth via this unique learning and development approach are discussed.
Several authors have suggested that educational institutions have a responsibility to foster creativity in their students. Yet, research has shown that creativity is a variable concept that can mean different things in different fields and contexts (Kaufman & Baer, 2005). As a result, generic pedagogical techniques for developing creativity may not be equally appropriate across domains.
In light of these factors, this pilot study explored (via an electronic survey of instructors) the ways in which creativity is defined and taught across McMaster University’s six faculties. Results suggested areas of both commonality and difference across disciplines in terms of academics’ understandings of creativity and their stated strategies for developing creativity within their students. In this respect, our data provide preliminary support for the notion that creativity teaching may be at least partially discipline-specific, and suggest that further work in this area is warranted.
The introduction of problem-based learning into K-12 science classrooms faces the challenge of achieving the dual goal of learning science content and developing problem-solving skills. To overcome this content-process tension in science classrooms, we employed the knowledge-creation approach as a boundary object between the two seemingly contradicting activities: learning of science content and developing problem-solving skills. As part of a design research, we studied a group of Grade 9 students who were solving a problem related to the Law of Conservation of Energy. Through the lens of the activity theory, we found that students’ understanding of the intended science knowledge deepened as they made sense of the disciplinary-content knowledge in the context of the problem and concurrently, the students successfully developed solutions for the problem. This study shows that developing problem-solving competencies and content learning need not be disparate activities. On the contrary, we can harness the interdependency of these two activities to achieve dual goals in learning.
Adaptability is defined as appropriate cognitive, behavioral, and/or affective adjustment in the face of uncertainty and novelty. Building on prior measurement work demonstrating the psychometric properties of an adaptability construct, the present study investigates dispositional predictors (personality, implicit theories) of adaptability, and the role of adaptability in predicting academic (motivation, engagement, disengagement) and non-academic (self-esteem, life satisfaction, sense of meaning and purpose, emotional instability) outcomes. This longitudinal study (2 time points, 1 year apart), involving 969 adolescents from 9 high schools, found that personality (conscientiousness and agreeableness—positively; neuroticism—negatively) and implicit theories (effort-related beliefs about intelligence—positively) significantly predicted adaptability (beyond the effects of socio-demographics and prior achievement). Further, adaptability significantly predicted academic (class participation, school enjoyment, and positive academic intentions—positively; self-handicapping and disengagement—negatively) and non-academic (self-esteem, life satisfaction, and sense of meaning and purpose—positively) outcomes beyond the effects of socio-demographic factors, prior achievement, personality, implicit theories, and 2 cognate correlates (buoyancy and self-regulation). These findings hold implications for researchers and practitioners seeking to understand and address young people’s responses to their changing academic and non-academic worlds. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)
This study offers a systematic analysis of uncertainty in communication education by examining communication goals and challenges in the context of collaborative creative problem-solving in engineering assignments. Engineering design projects are seen as having the potential to help K-12 students learn to deal with uncertainty as well as a means through which to learn science and math. Educational researchers have emphasized the cognitive or very general social aspects of this context. The current investigation argues that collaborative, creative design work involves a distinctive constellation of communication challenges: ongoing efforts to temporarily suspend normal inclinations to understand well, to appraise what we understand, and to do so in relation to instrumental, identity, and relational meanings. This argument guides textual analyses of transcripts of fifth-graders assigned to groups tasked with designing and building an environmentally beneficial robot. Implications for communication education are discussed.
http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/Si7jcmcsMiv9cAm2wxqb/full
Contemporary trust research regards trust as a way of dealing with uncertainty and risk. Predominantly, it suggests that trust reduces uncertainty by means of risk assessment and rational calculation. However, phenomenological research proposes that trust is an alternative way of relating to uncertainty rather than a way to reduced uncertainty. This paper investigates these propositions in an interview study on intersubjective trust. The study focuses on the modes of uncertainty management employed in trust and risk, and particularly on how knowledge, experience, familiarity, and decision-making are combined in the act of trusting. The main finding is that trust and risk are better characterised as different ways of perceiving the social and managing uncertainty, than as different elements of the same decision process. The concept of ‘risk compartmentalisation’ is developed to describe the different ways people work to contain risk and maintain trust by combining adaptation and familiarity.
Group work is used as a means for learning at all levels in educational systems. There is strong scientific support for the benefits of having students learning and working in groups. Nevertheless, studies about what occurs in groups during group work and which factors actually influence the students’ ability to learn is still lacking. Similarly, the question of why some group work is successful and other group work results in the opposite is still unsolved. The aim of this article is to add to the current level of knowledge and understandings regarding the essence behind successful group work in higher education. This research is focused on the students’ experiences of group work and learning in groups, which is an almost non-existing aspect of research on group work prior to the beginning of the 21st century. A primary aim is to give university students a voice in the matter by elucidating the students’ positive and negative points of view and how the students assess learning when working in groups. Furthermore, the students’ explanations of why some group work ends up being a positive experience resulting in successful learning, while in other cases, the result is the reverse, are of interest. Data were collected through a study-specific questionnaire, with multiple choice and open-ended questions. The questionnaires were distributed to students in different study programs at two universities in Sweden. The present result is based on a reanalysis and qualitative analysis formed a key part of the study. The results indicate that most of the students’ experiences involved group work that facilitated learning, especially in the area of academic knowledge. Three important prerequisites (learning, study-social function, and organization) for group work that served as an effective pedagogy and as an incentive for learning were identified and discussed. All three abstractions facilitate or hamper students’ learning, as well as impact their experiences with group work.
Jordan, M. E. (2010). Collaborative robotics design projects: Managing uncertainty in multimodal literacy practice. Yearbook of the National Reading Conference, 59, 260-275.
Learning and dialogue may naturally engender feelings and expressions of uncertainty for a variety of reasons and purposes. Yet, little research has examined how patterns of linguistic uncertainty are enacted and changed over time as students reciprocally influence one another and the dialogical system they are creating. This study describes the occurrence of uncertainty expressions of graduate students collaborating in computer-mediated discussions to negotiate and construct understandings of new concepts from course readings. We report on how often uncertainty was expressed in online synchronous and asynchronous discussions and the characteristics of its expression. We also explore the antecedents and consequences of such expression. Findings indicate that students expressed uncertainty often and in many ways and that such expression seemed to be integrated in a dynamic system of influences on the conversation. We conclude that the ability to deal with and express uncertainty appropriately is an important skill in online academic contexts that may be related to the intellectual work of students in the process of appropriating the discourse of their academic disciplines as they make meaning of scholarly texts.
http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/8N8fZwNtb52rXGiIU8rV/full
This study investigated how interaction with peers influenced the ways students managed uncertainty during collaborative problem solving in a fifth grade class. The analysis focused on peer responses to individuals’ attempts to manage uncertainty they experienced while engaged in collaborative efforts to design, build, and program robots and achieve assignment objectives. Patterns of peer response were established through discourse analysis of work sessions for five teams engaged in two collaborative projects. Three socially supportive peer responses and two unsupportive peer responses were identified. Peer interaction was influential because students relied on supportive social response to enact most of their uncertainty management strategies. This study provides a useful theoretical contribution to understanding the roles of peer interaction in collaborative problem solving. Conceptualizing collaborative problem solving as a process of negotiating uncertainties can help instructional designers shape tasks and relational contexts to facilitate learning.
http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/tIrN3y5tQ8yGmgtQgSQM/full
This study explored the effects of student engagement in a knowledge-building (KB) environment on their collaborative learning process and the perceived creative climate of that environment. The participants were 30 college students who undertook a living technology course in which KB were employed. The main data sources include students’ online discourse and a creative climate questionnaire. The findings indicate that the students became progressively more collaborative and productive over time, and they also tended to perceive the climate of the learning environment as highly supportive of knowledge creation. Implications for designing creative learning environments are discussed.
This article provides insight into how some groups achieve extraordinary levels of creativity by reconsidering the collective process through which new ideas develop. Previous research has been premised on a model in which idea generation stimulated by divergent input increases the variance in ideas a group generates and therefore increases the chance that one of the group's ideas will be a radical, breakthrough creative product. In contrast, I present a dialectical model in which the integration of group members' perspectives (which I label creative synthesis) is the foundation for new ideas. I propose that the process of creative synthesis improves the chance that each of a group's ideas is a breakthrough. I elaborate the process facilitators of creative synthesis and the implications of the dialectical model for understanding extraordinary group creativity. Creative synthesis provides an alternative way for groups to combine their cognitive, social, and environmental resources into extraordinary output.
Creativity and innovation in any organization are vital to its successful performance. The authors review the rapidly growing body of research in this area with particular attention to the period 2002 to 2013, inclusive. Conceiving of both creativity and innovation as being integral parts of essentially the same process, we propose a new, integrative definition. We note that research into creativity has typically examined the stage of idea generation, whereas innovation studies have commonly also included the latter phase of idea implementation. The authors discuss several seminal theories of creativity and innovation, then apply a comprehensive levels-of-analysis framework to review extant research into individual, team, organizational, and multi-level innovation. Key measurement characteristics of the reviewed studies are then noted. In conclusion, we propose a guiding framework for future research comprising eleven major themes and sixty specific questions for future studies.
Adopting a multilevel approach, we examined how team goal orientation may relate to team creativity and individual creativity. We also theorized and examined the bottom-up process linking individual creativity and team creativity. Multisource data were collected from 485 members and their leaders within 100 R&D teams. The results indicated that a team learning goal and team performance approach goal were positively related—whereas a team performance avoidance goal was negatively related—to both team creativity and individual creativity through team information exchange. Furthermore, a trust relationship with a team leader played a moderating role: when the trust was stronger, the indirect positive relationship with team creativity and individual creativity was stronger for the team learning goal but weaker for the team performance approach goal. We also found that average individual creativity within a team was positively related to team creativity (going above and beyond the effect of team information exchange) through a supportive climate for creativity.
In the context of discussions about the potential of collaborative research, a practice-based project was implemented in Auckland, New Zealand during 2006 and 2007, aimed to help develop a culture of enquiry among practitioners in social service. One design variable in this project was the World Café, a conversational process that helps groups to engage in constructive dialogue around critical questions, to build personal relationships, and to foster collaborative learning. In relation to other collaborative approaches, the World Café is powerful in terms of the use of cross-pollination of ideas through evolving rounds of information exchange and the use of a café-style social context that allows the sharing of information in an equitable and non-threatening manner. This article reports on the design and implementation of a World Café approach, located in the philosophy of appreciative inquiry, through ‘Café Hear and Now’. The authors reflect on the perceived value of this initiative and invite dialogue on the implementation of the World Café in social work research.
This study investigated team innovation as a process phenomenon by differentiating the creativity stage from the implementation stage. Based on the interactional approach, the authors argue that team composition (aggregated individual creative personality and functional heterogeneity) affects team creativity, which in turn promotes innovation implementation depending on the team’s climate for innovation. Results from a study of 96 primary care teams confirmed that aggregated individual creative personality, as well as functional heterogeneity, promotes team creativity, which in turn interacts with climate for innovation such that team creativity enhances innovation implementation only when climate for innovation is high.
Growing up Constructivist - Languages and Thoughtful People Unpopular Philosophical Ideas - A History in Quotations Piaget's Constructivist Theory of Knowing The Construction of Concepts Reflection and Abstraction Constructing Agents - The Self and Others On Language, Meaning and Communication The Cybernetic Connection Units, Plurality, and Number To Encourage Students' Conceptual Constructing.
Social identity theory is an interactionist social psychological theory of the role of self-conception and associated cognitive processes and social beliefs in group processes and intergroup relations. Originally introduced in the 1970s primarily as an account of intergroup relations, it was significantly developed at the start of the 1980s as a general account of group processes and the nature of the social group. Since then, social identity theory has been significantly extended through a range of sub-theories that focus on social influence and group norms, leadership within and between groups, self-enhancement and uncertainty reduction motivations, deindividuation and collective behavior, social mobilization and protest, and marginalization and deviance within groups. The theory has also been applied and developed to explain organizational phenomena and the dynamics of language and speech style as identity symbols. Chapter 1 provides a relatively comprehensive and accessible overview of social identity theory, with an emphasis on its analysis of intergroup conflict.
This paper reports the development and psychometric validation of a multi-dimensional measure of facet-specific climate for innovation within groups at work: the Team Climate Inventory (TCI). Brief reviews of the organizational climate and work group innovation literatures are presented initially, and the need for measures of facet-specific climate at the level of the proximal work group asserted. The four-factor theory of facet-specific climate for innovation, which was derived from these reviews, is described, and the procedures used to operationalize this model into the original version measure described. Data attesting to underlying factor structure, internal homogeneity, predictive validity and factor replicability across groups of the summarized measure are presented. An initial sample of 155 individuals from 27 hospital management teams provided data for the exploratory factor analysis of this measure. Responses from 121 further groups in four occupations (35 primary health care teams, 42 social services teams, 20 psychiatric teams and 24 oil company teams; total N = 971) were used to apply confirmatory factor analysis techniques. This five-factor, 38-item summarized version demonstrates robust psychometric properties, with acceptable levels of reliability and validity. Potential applications of this measure are described and the implication of these findings for the measurement of proximal work group climate are discussed.
Context • Radical constructivism (RC) is seen as a fruitful way to teach innovation, as Ernst Von Glasersfeld's concepts of knowing, learning, and teaching provide an epistemological framework fostering processes of generating an autonomous conceptual understanding. Problem • Classical educational approaches do not meet the requirements for teaching and learning innovation because they mostly aim at students' competent performance, not at students' understanding and developing their creative capabilities. Method • Analysis of theoretical principles from the constructivist framework and how they can be used as a foundation for designing a course in the field of innovation. The empirical results are based on qualitative journal entries that were coded and categorized according to Charmaz's grounded theory approach. Results • It is shown that there is a close relationship between learning and innovation processes. The proposed investigated course design based on RC incorporates the following concepts: the course setting is understood as a framework to guide understanding; students work in teams and are subjective constructors of their own knowledge; instructors take on the role of coaches, guiding students through an innovation process as cocreators. Such a framework facilitates dynamic processes of assimilation and accommodation, as well as perturbation through the "other," which potentially lead to novel, and viable, conceptual structures crucial for sustainable innovation. Constructivist Content • The paper argues in favor of RC principles in the context of teaching and learning. The proposed course setting is oriented at Von Glasersfeld's understanding of knowing, learning, and teaching (vs. training). It outlines theoretical and practical aspects of these principles in the context of a course design for innovation. Furthermore, it shows the importance of Von Glasersfeld's concept of intersubjectivity for processes of accommodation and the generation of (novel) autonomous conceptual structures. The interplay between creating coherence, perturbation, and irritation through interacting with the "other" (in the form of co-students and instructors) is assumed to be vital for such processes, as it leads to the creation of not only novel but also viable conceptual structures, therefore re-establishing a relative equilibrium critical for sustainable innovation.
Despite the great interest in Hofstede’s dimensions of national culture, some of them have not been replicated with nationally representative samples. In this study, we use 2010 European Social Survey data for 25 European countries and Israel and obtain a close replication of Hofstede’s uncertainty avoidance (r = 0.81, p < 0.001, n = 17) with strong face validity, internal reliability, and similar predictive properties to those of the original measure. The replication and our analysis elucidate the nature of uncertainty avoidance as a dimension of national culture and expose some misconceptions about it.
This paper is about designing spaces enabling processes of collaborative knowledge creation and innovation. It is a theoretical paper on the role of artifacts as enablers for creating new knowledge. We refer to these artifacts as Enabling Spaces comprising an architectural, technological (ICT), social, cognitive, organizational, cultural, as well as emotional dimension. The claim of this paper is that innovation is a highly challenging social and epistemological process which needs supporting (infra-)structures facilitating and enabling these processes. These processes have to take into account on various levels and domains in an integrated and interdisciplinary manner. It will be shown that innovation can no longer be understood as a mechanistic knowledge creation process. The concept of enabling will be developed as an alternative approach to innovation and will be applied as a design principle for Enabling Spaces. We will discuss the role of ICT in such an alternative approach to innovation. Finally, we will derive design principles for such highly interdisciplinary Enabling Spaces from these considerations.
A total of 136 eighth-grade math students from 2 Singapore schools learned from either productive failure (PF) or vicarious failure (VF). PF students generated solutions to a complex problem targeting the concept of variance that they had not learned yet before receiving instruction on the targeted concept. VF students evaluated the solutions generated by PF students before receiving the same instruction. Student-generated solutions were either suboptimal or incorrect, and in this sense can be conceived as failed problem-solving attempts. Although there was no difference on self-reported engagement, PF students reported significantly greater mental effort and interest in knowing the canonical solution to the problem than VF students. When preexisting differences in general ability, math ability, and prior knowledge were controlled, PF students outperformed VF students on conceptual understanding and transfer without compromising procedural fluency. These results suggest that when learning a new math concept, people learn better from their own failed solutions than those of others provided appropriate instruction on the targeted concept is given after the generation or evaluation activity.
Innovation has become one of the key drivers for growth. However, how do we bring about innovation which is both radical and respects the limits of the world? One of our key assumptions is that we have to take into consideration the epistemological and cognitive processes leading to (radically) new knowledge first. We propose an approach that establishes spaces enabling such processes of knowledge creation we refer to them as Enabling Spaces.
This article is concerned with the question of how innovation, and more specifically, profound, radical and sustainable innovation can be brought about in a more qualitative manner. What are the necessary concepts and attitudes which facilitate the processes of innovation? The notion of enabling as opposed to 'managing' or controlling innovation is to be developed. Furthermore the concept of situated/extended cognition is discussed as a key ingredient for Enabling Spaces.
The second part gives an overview of the concept of Enabling Spaces and of the design process leading to such spaces. Finally the concrete case of a knowledge-creating university is discussed.
Large established firms typically focus on enhancing their ability to manage their core businesses, with an emphasis on cost reduction, quality improvements, and incremental innovation in existing products and processes. To sustain competitive advantage over the long term, mature firms must in parallel develop radical innovations (RI) as a basis for building and dominating fundamentally new markets. Management practices that are effective in established businesses are often ineffective and even destructive when applied to RI projects because of higher levels of uncertainty inherent in the latter. Understanding the characteristics of RI projects and the nature of the uncertainty that pervades them is critical to developing appropriate managerial practices.
This paper reports the results of a longitudinal study of 12 RI projects in 10 large established U.S.-based firms. A qualitative, prospective design was used to collect and analyze data. Project team leaders, members, and sponsors for each project were interviewed repeatedly over five years. The analysis centers on the dimensions and characteristics of uncertainty that project teams experienced. The analysis of the challenges they confronted is used to construct a multidimensional model of RI uncertainties. The model identifies four categories of uncertainty as key drivers of project management: technical, market, organizational, and resource uncertainty. Each of these four categories is elaborated in the context of radical innovation and further distinguished via two additional dimensions: criticality and latency. These are substantiated through case based data. Implications for management skills, processes, and appropriate tools associated with radical innovation projects are discussed.
This paper explores the cumulative reflections of lecturers examining their tacit assumptions of teaching practice. Despite extensive literature on the educational value of reflection, there is less visible research on teachers assessing their own reflective thinking. This longitudinal interpretive study uses Larrivee's assessment framework with a purposive sample of UK business students. Findings reveal insights for teaching reflection; acknowledging the discomfort of reflexive practice encourages learners to experiment with knowledge interpretation. The students' struggle to engage in reflection resonated with lecturers' parallel difficulties. The teaching approach balances deliberate structure with uncertain outcomes to trigger fresh interpretation of developmental theory and workplace relevance. Practice implications for lecturers are that harnessing uncertainty can provoke deeper insights that enable students to direct their learning and develop reflective skills. This case study offers a practical assessment example to enrich reflexive teaching, with scope to compare and replicate in different disciplinary settings.
A new theory is taking hold in neuroscience. It is the theory that the brain is essentially a hypothesis-testing mechanism, one that attempts to minimise the error of its predictions about the sensory input it receives from the world. It is an attractive theory because powerful theoretical arguments support it, and yet it is at heart stunningly simple. Jakob Hohwy explains and explores this theory from the perspective of cognitive science and philosophy. The key argument throughout The Predictive Mind is that the mechanism explains the rich, deep, and multifaceted character of our conscious perception. It also gives a unified account of how perception is sculpted by attention, and how it depends on action. The mind is revealed as having a fragile and indirect relation to the world. Though we are deeply in tune with the world we are also strangely distanced from it.
The first part of the book sets out how the theory enables rich, layered perception. The theory's probabilistic and statistical foundations are explained using examples from empirical research and analogies to different forms of inference. The second part uses the simple mechanism in an explanation of problematic cases of how we manage to represent, and sometimes misrepresent, the world in health as well as in mental illness. The third part looks into the mind, and shows how the theory accounts for attention, conscious unity, introspection, self and the privacy of our mental world.
Culture influences both individual behavior and how businesses operate. Those working in both the business and policy arenas must understand other cultures and avoid ethnocentrism. Culture is defined as the "collective programming of the mind"; in the modern context it exists within national borders. Using data from surveys of employees in 40 countries at the HERMES Corporation in 1968 and 1972, four categories of cultural difference become clear and useful: power distance; uncertainty avoidance individualism; and masculinity. These categories are then correlated not only with one another, but with other available data. Sex differentiation is the final dimension of cultural difference in this analysis. These four dimensions of national culture describe the human condition. Some of them correlate with one another. Analyzing the correlations between the various indices allows the clustering of these 40 countries with similar statistics into 8 groups: More and Less Developed Latin and Asian, Near-Eastern, Germanic, Anglo and Nordic. Because the HERMES data was collected at two different points, 1968 and 1972, it can show change over time. While scientific discoveries can effect cultural change, not every culture will become increasingly similar. Different cultures will follow different trends, though some trends will be global. There was a worldwide decrease in desired power difference and in elevations of stress and both the Individualism Index (IDV) and Masculinity Index (MAS) grew during this period. Speculation on long term trends is provided, suggesting that the IDV will rise and the Power Distance Index norm will fall as long as national wealth increases; the Uncertainty Avoidance Index will fluctuate as people age, and MAS will remain constant as time passes. Organizations are bound by the cultures that created them, with consequences for cultural relativity for a number of areas: motivation; leadership; decision-making; planning and control; organization design; development; humanization of work; industrial democracy; company ownership and control; and the reaction of the local environment to the organization. Possible training strategies for multi-national and multi-cultural corporations are included and the Values Survey Module is introduced, shortening and improving upon the original HERMES survey in the hope that research on cultural difference will continue. (RAS)
The importance of the social dimension of organisations is currently a strong focus of emphasis in the literature. From a managerial perspective, however, it is important that the community spirit within an organisation falls in line with its strategic direction. The study discussed in this article shows that high quality internal communication may be important in encouraging such a supportive attitude. What is considered ‘good’ internal communication does not directly engender more support for the organisation's strategic direction. However, evidence from research in five organisations (with 791 respondents distributed across 19 work units) suggests that there are two ways to foster support. One is to create a sense of commitment within the organisation; the other is to establish trust in the management. Both approaches appear to have a positive relationship with good internal communication. The quality of task-related communication is important in creating commitment. What is vital in creating trust, however, is the quality of non-task-related communication. The study at the focus of this article addresses the following question: does organisational communication help foster a positive attitude towards the strategic direction of an organisation?
'Grounded theory' may be used to bridge between case studies and large-scale surveys, which enables the strengths of both to be combined in the same research programme. Starting with detailed in-depth studies of individual cases, a general model may be constructed through the key processes of 'theoretical sensitivity', 'theoretical sampling' and 'theoretical saturation'. Unlike most qualitative methodology, the grounded theory approach claims to produce testable outcomes: grounded theory is intended to lead to predictions which may be subject to traditional experimental and statistical testing. This paper describes one example of the application of a grounded theory approach to research into the learning of science, and considers the generalizability of the research results.
For some time (around 100 years), the dominant influence in the shaping of curricula has been that of the academics in their separate knowledge fields. In the contemporary world, that academic hegemony is dissolving as curricula become subject to two contending patterns of change. Firstly, in a mass higher education system, there will be tendencies towards increased diversity in the components of curricula, the positioning of the providing institution being just one influence to which are added manifold 'external' influences, such as a growing student market and the interests of employers. Secondly, and in contradistinction to such diversity, as the state looks to see a greater responsiveness towards the world of work, it is possible that a universal shift in the direction of performativity is emerging: what counts is less what individuals know and more what individuals can do (as represented in their demonstrable 'skills'). Hitherto, systematic attention to curricula as such in higher education has been barely evident. Accordingly, curricula are taking on ad hoc patterns that are the unwitting outfall of this complex of forces at work, diversifying and universalising as—at the same time—these forces are. In consequence, curricula will be unlikely to yield the human qualities of being that the current age of supercomplexity requires.