Conceptualising undergraduate research and enquiry

Learning about Explicit

Learning to be Tacit dimensions of knowledge (Polanyi)

Another way of seeing the curriculum John Seely Brown (2003)

situational understanding

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Curriculum Contexts for undergraduate research and enquiry

Learning for a complex world – the academic curriculum

independent

collaborative

Learning for a complex world – the practice curriculum

Learning for a complex world: care, wellbeing social & community enterprise

Help in the community

Tutoring in schools

Help on campus

Caring for others

Learning for a complex world – the rest of life

putting on a show

being sociable

raising money

part time work

looking after yourself

travelplaying sport

virtual world

family

John Dewey- Logic: The Theory of Inquiry ‘the controlled or directed transformation of an indeterminate situation into one that is so determinate in its constituent distinctions and relations as to convert the elements of the original situation into a unified whole’

Conceptualising undergraduate research and enquiry

‘PRODUCTIVE INQUIRY’ John DeweyA concept that bridges scientific, professional

and common sense forms of enquiry,

CONCEPTUALISING UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH AND ENQUIRY

Productive Inquiry – One of the most important things that knowing can do in using knowledge as a tool in ‘productive inquiry’ ‘deliberately seeking what we need in order to do what we need to do’ John Dewey

Productive inquiry is not a haphazard, random search; it is informed or disciplined by the use of theories, rules of thumb, concepts and the like. These tools of productive inquiry are what Dewey understands the term knowledge to mean and using knowledge in this way is an example of that form of knowing which Dewey called productive inquiry (Cook and Brown 1999 p62)

Epistemic frame of Cook and Brownforms of knowledge

Tacit

Explicit

Individual Group

Concepts

Skills / experience

Stories

Genres

Epistemic frame of Cook and Brown

Tacit

Explicit

Individual Group

Concepts

Skills / experience

Stories

Genres

Knowing as action

Cultural Academy productive enquirers

Sarah Campbell Y3 Psychology student on placement with SCEPTrEevaluation of learner experience& on-line staff and student perception surveys

Lori RileyM level student

micro-conversation research

Ben Mercer & William Pattersonrecent graduate

enquiring film makers

Nimmi Hutnick Norman Jackson

Vasso Vydelingum

workshop design and evaluation

17 student participants

FACILITATORS

Cultural diversity is a fact of life especially at the University of Surrey with over 3000 originating from over 130 different countries. A higher education that aspires to prepare students for the cultural complexities they will encounter in their professional and personal lives, must provide opportunity for learning through experiences of interacting and communicating with other cultures.

Cultural Academy

Productive Inquiry

SUPPORT FOR LEARNING• on-line social networking space to encourage sharing of experience• wiki to support the production and sharing of knowledge• mentoring scheme • learning through experience award to value and recognise the learning

LEARNING PRACTICES• telling stories about cultural experiences• conversations about culture • reflection on past experiences • concept mapping• tools to aid cultural enquiry• proposition-testing using voting systems• making a film about the campus as a multicultural society• student teachers/facilitators• mentoring• student-led conference • student-led research• teacher- and student-evaluation

WORKSHOP 1Sharing perceptions of the meanings of culture through a concept map.

I donI don’’t feel I fit into any specific culturet feel I fit into any specific culture

9%

27% 27%27%

9%

1. Strongly disagree

2. Disagree

3. Don’t know

4. Agree

5. Strongly agree

WORKSHOP 3We need to be able to share our language and explore our understandings of culture in the organisations in which we work.

Cultural gifts of food, music, art, poetry, language, symbols, clothes and images are an important part of the process of sharing cultures.

WORKSHOP 2A good way of enquiring into culture is to share beliefs by voting on propositions.

CONFERENCEA student organised conference to engage the wider community and encourage the university to see the benefits of this approach to multicultural learning.

Enquiry-rich experience: Through a series of workshops, planning meetings and a conference, participants (students, facilitators and mentors) share their experiences and understandings of culture and its influences on their lives.

LEARNING THROUGH EXPERIENCE AWARD6 students submitted an account of their experience and received the USSU Learning through Experience Award. Control Control

systemssystems

Rituals & Rituals & routinesroutines

Stories & Stories & mythsmyths

SymbolsSymbols

Power Power structuresstructures

OrganisatOrganisation ion

structurestructuress

The The ParadigmParadigm

PLANNING MEETINGS / i-Festival

ON-LINE SURVEYS AND MAKING A FILM ABOUT‘OUR MULTICULTURAL CAMPUS’

Students and staff participants evaluate the experience, co-write a conference paper and make a film about Cultural Academy

micro-conversation

analysis

CONCEPTUALISATIONS OF RESEARCH AND ENQUIRY

2 A rich mix of techniques and strategies for enquiring into the phenomenon of culture in the contexts of past, current and imagined future experiences. Some discipline-based ‘scientific’ methodologies but mainly trans-disciplinary common-sense methodsof enquiry.

3 An emergent and improvised process – the planned educational design was not slavishly followed. Elements were dropped and new elements introduced in an organic, responsive and opportunistic way.

4 Research is perceived as a ‘journey’ for individuals and the group Angela Brew (2001)

5 Dimensions of the teaching-research nexus Trowler and Wareham (2007)• teachers and learners enquire together• enquiry is embedded in the curriculum – what emerges is the curriculum!

6 Ideological conceptions of research• Teaching is about developing students’ minds so they can better

appreciate the world, about making them autonomous. • But teaching is also about empowering students to influence the minds of teachers • Teaching is about giving students the skills to thrive in their

careers and to contribute to the economy• Teaching is about a concern for preparing students for a lifetime of learning and working in a culturally complex world