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PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE This article was downloaded by: [University College Cork] On: 7 October 2008 Access details: Access Details: [subscription number 785045793] Publisher Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Irish Educational Studies Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t716100713 Learning in communities of practice: Rethinking teaching and learning in disadvantaged contexts Paul F. Conway a a College Lecturer in the Education Department, University College, Cork Online Publication Date: 01 December 2002 To cite this Article Conway, Paul F.(2002)'Learning in communities of practice: Rethinking teaching and learning in disadvantaged contexts',Irish Educational Studies,21:3,61 — 91 To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/0332331020210308 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0332331020210308 Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.

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  • 1. This article was downloaded by: [University College Cork]On: 7 October 2008Access details: Access Details: [subscription number 785045793]Publisher RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House,37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UKIrish Educational StudiesPublication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t716100713Learning in communities of practice: Rethinking teaching and learning indisadvantaged contextsPaul F. Conway aaCollege Lecturer in the Education Department, University College, CorkOnline Publication Date: 01 December 2002To cite this Article Conway, Paul F.(2002)Learning in communities of practice: Rethinking teaching and learning in disadvantagedcontexts,Irish Educational Studies,21:3,61 91To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/0332331020210308URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0332331020210308 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLEFull terms and conditions of use: http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdfThis article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial orsystematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply ordistribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contentswill be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug dosesshould be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss,actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directlyor indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.

2. Irish Educational Studies, Vol. 21, No. 3, Winter, 200261LEARNING IN COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE:RETHINKING TEACHING AND LEARNING INDISADVANTAGED CONTEXTSPaul F. ConwayIntroductionA well-documented finding across many educational cultures is thatstudents in disadvantaged communities have less challengingpedagogical and curricular experiences than their counterparts in moreDownloaded By: [University College Cork] At: 18:00 7 October 2008advantaged contexts. This paper makes a case for the relevance ofnew ideas about cognition and learning for rethinking teaching andlearning in disadvantaged contexts in the light of efforts to promotemore active learning by students in primary and secondary education.Even though there has been an emphasis on the promotion of activestudent engagement in the learning process at primary level since theadvent of the "New Curriculum" (Ireland, 1971) and more recently, inthe last decade, at second-level, research suggests that teachingfocuses predominantly on lower order thinking (Shiel, Forde andMorgan, 1996).This paper has four sections. First, I note the persistence ofeducational disadvantage despite impressive advances in the educationsystem as a whole, and then discuss what some commentators see asthe relative dominance of technical and transmission orienteddiscourse in relation to pedagogy in Irish education. Second, I outlinesome of the findings internationally and in Ireland on the schoolexperiences of disadvantaged students and argue that theirpedagogical experiences in Ireland are characterised by an emphasison low-order thinking and a persistent assumption of the solo orindividual learner - like their more advantaged counterparts.Furthermore, there is some evidence that students labeleddisadvantaged may experience diminished curricular and pedagogicalexperiences - unlike their advantaged counterparts. In the thirdsection of the paper, I outline the assumptions underpinningbehavioural and cognitive perspectives on learning and cognition.Drawing on the work of Brown (Brown, 1994; Brown, 1997a), Rogoffet al. (1996), and Lave and Wenger (1991) and others, I compare thebehavioural and cognitive positions with the fundamental assumptionsof emergent socio-cultural perspectives on cognition and learning witha focus on the socio-cultural position as a powerful model on which tobase initiatives to address educational disadvantage. Ideas such as 3. 62Irish Educational Studies, Vol. 21, No. 3, Winter 2002"situated cognition", "distributed cognition", and "communities ofpractice" may present an even more fundamental shift than thatbetween the behaviourist and cognitive views of learning. The finalsection of the paper addresses the implications of these new views oflearning and cognition for students in educationally disadvantagedsettings.The many notable and impressive achievements of the Irisheducation system over the last forty years are an important preface tothe critique of Irish educational discourse and practice in this paper.Among these notable achievements are: "the epoch making" impact ofthe Investment in Education report (Lynch, 1998), the overall increasein the capacity of the education system as well as the rise in overallDownloaded By: [University College Cork] At: 18:00 7 October 2008attainment rates (Fitzgerald, 1998), the improvement in curricularopportunities for both girls and boys, the significant increases inpublic expenditure on primary, secondary and third level education aswell as the overall increase in expenditure on education as apercentage of Exchequer expenditure (Thomhill, 1998), the vastincrease in the range of areas of study at third level, developments inboth pre- and in-service teacher education, and the provision of wellqualified graduates to foster social and economic well-being(Coolahan, 1994; Hyland, 1998). Despite these watersheddevelopments, educational disadvantage persists (Hyland, 1998;McCormack, 1998) and Irish society is becoming more rather thanless inequitable (Breen and Whelan, 1996; Lynch and Lodge, 2002).Thus, while the education system has in many respects been aneffective agent of social and economic change in Irish society it hasbeen considerably less effective in combating long standing societalinequalities. In addressing these persistent problems, I make a casefor a greater interrogation of the assumptions about learningunderpinning various pedagogical practices, aware that neitherclassroom practices nor the education system writ large are whollyresponsible for educational disadvantage. However, the educationsystem does play an important, albeit contested, role in reinforcing orchallenging long-standing patterns of social reproduction. Thepotential influence of some system features and how they contribute toeducational disadvantage and social inequality has received someattention while others have not. It is to this imbalance in attention Inow turn.Debate on pedagogy in Irish education?Various commentators have highlighted how Irish educationaldiscourse has been notable in its inattention to and resistance to 4. Irish Educational Studies, Vol. 21, No. 3, Winter, 200263problematize curricular concerns regardless as to whether students areviewed as advantaged or disadvantaged. What I mean by curriculumhere, in a similar fashion to the use of curriculum in the White Paperon Education, is not only what subject matter is taught, but also howand why, and its impact on students (Gleeson, 1998). Drawing onHabermas framework for understanding knowledge-constitutiveactivities in society, Gleeson (1998) has critiqued the dominance oftechnical discourse in Irish education to the relative exclusion ofpractical or emancipatory dialogue.Similarly, Callan (1997),commenting in the context of second-level curriculum initiatives, haspointed out the technical nature of concerns with the dominance ofclass size (1998) and access to resources as issues, to the relativeDownloaded By: [University College Cork] At: 18:00 7 October 2008exclusion of more reflexive discourses examining the ideologicalbases of preferred beliefs and classroom teaching practices. Similarly,Gleeson (1998) laments the dominance of power and control issues inthe 1990s post National Education Convention (Coolahan,1994),Green (Ireland, 1992), and White paper (Ireland, 1995) debates to therelative exclusion of curricular issues. Despite the dominance of atechnical discourse, a considerable body of critiques and positionpapers on Irish education emerged in the 1990s both in anticipation ofand response to changes in the education system (e.g. (Hogan, 1995;Gleeson, 1998; McCormack, 1998) and CMRS/CORI publications(CORI, 1992; CORI, 1998). While the range of issues addressed inthis body of literature is beyond the scope of this paper, the focus wasprimarily on the system-level issues such as certification, selection,assessment (examinations mainly) rather than classroom practices.While these debates clearly recognize the education system as a sitefor the partial perpetuation or redress of inequality, they neverthelessveil pedagogical practices as a site in the brokerage ofinequality/equality. As such, the moment-to-moment transactionsbetween students, teachers and curriculum have received insufficientattention in various efforts to address educational disadvantage. Insum, conflict and debate about pedagogical and curricular concerns(i.e. what is taught, how and why it is taught and its impact) remainsmarginal in both educational research and debates on educationaldisadvantage. While there has been some debate, as noted by Gleeson(1998), about history and health and personal education, these areexceptions. Conspicuously missing from the 1990s, in contrast to thepower and control discourse, was rigorous critical engagement andreflection on the nature of whose knowledge is taught, how and why itis taught and its impact on disadvantaged students. Consequently, theclassroom in Irish education remains largely a secret garden. 5. 64Irish Educational Studies, Vol. 21, No. 3, Winter 2002 The OECD (OECD, 1991) review of Irish education raisedserious concern about the dominance and widespread prevalence of atransmission model of teaching, low level cognitive demands inclassroom teaching, and low levels of pupil involvement in thelearning process in Irish schools. What is unclear from the OECDreport is the extent to which transmission oriented teaching was or ismore prevalent in educationally disadvantaged schools. Withoutleaving much doubt as to impressions of the examiners the report(OECD 1991, p. 55) concluded that: The face...Irish schools present to the world is quite recognisably that of previous generations. There is aDownloaded By: [University College Cork] At: 18:00 7 October 2008 growing dissonance between it and the development of the learning sciences and modern teaching technologies that require a very different approach ... Co-operative (team) teaching and non-instructional forms of learning have not been conspicuous elements in determining design and layout in the past.Drawing upon this OECD report Callan (1997) noted that "the realityof school-learning can be profiled with such descriptors as "primarilydidactic in nature, the teacher is the primary initiator, students workalone; lessons are structured around content with a focus on factualcontent; little or no small group problem solving approaches; little useof computer/video technology". Subsequently, the goal of activelearning has become a more central feature of educational documentsin Ireland over the last decade as reflected in both the NationalEducation Convention Report (Coolahan, 1994) and in variouscurriculum and assessment reform initiatives e.g. (Callan, 1997;Gleeson and Granville, 1996; Gleeson, 1998; Hanafin, 1997; Hyland,2000). While child-centered teaching was espoused in the NewPrimary Curriculum in 1971 transmission models of teachingnevertheless remained dominant particularly at second level (OECD,1991; Coolahan, 1994). In the 1991 OECD report, the authorsrecommended that attention be turned towards cognitive theories oflearning that might inform pedagogical practices in an effort todisplace transmission oriented teaching (which they implied wasbased implicitly on common sense behavioural psychology). Inrethinking practice in disadvantaged contexts, I want to take the focuson theories of learning one step further and turn to socio-cultural,situative-pragmatic, cultural or socio-genetic theories of learning,which have turned the spotlight away from the capacities of the sololearner to the creation of classrooms as communities of learners 6. Irish Educational Studies, Vol. 21, No. 3, Winter, 2002 65(Brown, 1994) or communities of practice (Lave and Wenger, 1991;Wenger, 1998).Research in other educational cultures on classroom practices foreducationally disadvantaged studentsConsiderable evidence internationally points to the diminishedclassroom pedagogical and organisational experiences of students inlow income, high poverty and/or minority communities (Anyon, 1981;Oakes, 1986; Oakes and Lipton, 1999). Organisationally, teacherstypically tend to adopt stricter discipline procedures, more classroomstructure, and incorporate less social interaction. In terms ofDownloaded By: [University College Cork] At: 18:00 7 October 2008curriculum and teaching, teachers tend to provide less challengingcontent knowledge, engage in more repetitive curricular experiences,break down tasks into smaller pieces, provide fewer opportunities toengage in higher-order thinking or problem solving, and provide feweropen ended divergent tasks (Means, Chelemer, and Knapp, 1991). Insum, teachers tend to rely on drill and practice of basic skills in effortsto compensate for the perceived deficits that students bring to school.The result of such compensatory efforts, often based on deficit modelsof students,, is the exacerbation of differences in instruction betweenthe "haves" and "have nots" (Means, Chelemer, and Knapp, 1991).In the next section, I attempt to paint a composite picture ofclassroom practice in Irish classrooms, attentive to the limitations ofthis endeavor given the paucity of observational and/or ethnographicresearch on classroom practices in Irish schools. Notable exceptions,which shed a critical light on classroom practice, include Sugrues(1997) interpretive interview and case study of primary teachersviews of child centered teaching and Drudy and Ui Chathams (1998)gender focused action research using an interaction analysis frame.Furthermore, at present, there is an emerging and long overdue focuson classroom practice in Irish educational research. Two recentsignificant studies have provided insights on classroom teaching andare beginning to redress the relative neglect of classroom practice inIrish educational research. Lynch and Lodges (Lynch and Lodge,2002) multi-method (i.e. classroom observations, questionnaires andessays, one-to-one and focus group interviews, classroomobservations) study of twelve single-sex and co-educational second-level schools provides many insights on the dynamics of equality,power and exclusion as they play out in a range of classroom andschool contexts. Lyons, Lynch, Close, Sheerin and Bolands (2003,forthcoming) video study, of Mathematics (mainly) and Englishteaching in ten different second-level schools, is the first such video 7. 66Irish Educational Studies, Vol. 21, No. 3, Winter 2002study in Irish classrooms and promises to shed light on therelationships between teacher beliefs and practices, common trendsand diverse practices inside mathematics classrooms, and the impactof social class and gender on the mediation of subject learning. In the next section, with a view to understanding the largelyimplicit assumptions about learning, I argue that an individualistepistemology informs classroom practice in Irish education. Second,based on an individualist epistemology, I argue that classroompractice may be qualitatively different in disadvantaged settings, thatis, a differential pedagogy hypothesis.Downloaded By: [University College Cork] At: 18:00 7 October 2008Research in Ireland on classroom organisational and pedagogicalpracticesMy concern, in this paper, is with how and why teaching is enacted asit is in disadvantaged settings. Educational research in Ireland has,almost overwhelmingly stayed at arms length from classroomteaching practices. Maybe this is, in part due to, what the OECDexaminers termed, the "legendary autonomy" of Irish teachers as wellas the assumption that generic good teaching is readily identifiableand universal in its efficacy. What teachers do in terms of bestpractice in advantaged or disadvantaged settings in Irish schoolsremains, in large part, a "black box". An important point to note, is that considerable attention hasbeen paid in Ireland to reducing the pupil teacher ratio. Thepresumption, whether in advantaged or disadvantaged communities,seems to be that merely ensuring change at the level of inputs (agreater number of teachers) will be sufficient to improve bothpedagogical and organisational processes leading to enhancedacademic outcomes (e.g. the reduction of pupil-teacher ratio to 15:1 inBreaking the Cycle). The underlying assumption here appears to bethat there are little or no differences in the pedagogical andorganisational, practices between disadvantaged and advantagedcommunities. In other words, what remains relatively unquestioned,uncontested, and unexamined is the nature of the pedagogicalpractices themselves. Individualist epistemologyBoth in academic and folk psychology individualist epistemologiesare dominant in Irish education. In teacher education a genericconstructivist theory dominates the discourse but is implicitly 8. Irish Educational Studies, Vol. 21, No. 3. Winter, 200267individualist in assumptions (i.e. Piagetian assumptions of the 1971New Primary Curriculum). Furthermore, for example, reviewingrecent volumes of Irish Educational Studies, the Irish Journal ofEducation or Oideas: Journal of the Department Education andScience there has been no debate about the meta-theoretical bases oflearning and cognition. When learning and cognition are addressedthe focus is on educational applications of individualist epistemologies(e.g. Gardners Multiple Intelligences Theory, Piagetian-inspiredactive learning initiatives). In using the term, meta-theoretical I wantto draw attention to the underlying assumptions of dominant schoolsof thought or paradigms in the learning sciences over the last onehundred years. Attention to meta-theoretical issues provides anDownloaded By: [University College Cork] At: 18:00 7 October 2008opportunity to examine definitions, tease out assumptions, illuminateguiding metaphors and categorise the pedagogical implications ofvarious learning theories. The conspicuous lack of a meta-theoreticaldebate in Irish educational debates is problematic given the upsurge ofdiscussion and research internationally on cognition and learning, andemergence in the last twenty years of socio-cultural approaches tolearning that have challenged the dominance of behavioural andcognitive perspectives. Attempting to characterize the epistemological beliefs heldmore broadly among teachers and students is more difficult.However, Raths interview study of second-level teacher candidates isilluminating (Rath, 2000). She noted deeply entrenched culturalbeliefs and practices about learning among student teachers. Inparticular, she documented, a focus on (a) learning as something donein isolation, and (b) a pervasive focus on the memorization ofinformation at a superficial level for the purposes of individualperformance in examinations. Furthermore, Lynch, (1999) buildingon her earlier work, has pointed to the pervasive competitiveindividualism of Irish secondary schooling. In addition, Fontes,Kellaghan, Madaus, and Airasians (1983) study, of a nationallyrepresentative sample of Irish peoples conceptions of intelligence,presented evidence that they believed strongly in innate andimmutable conceptions of cognitive capacity (e.g. "...71% agreed thateducation cannot make up for a lack of natural ability", p. 55). Assuch, their views were consistent with psychometric notions ofsingular intelligence and therefore deeply rooted in an individualistepistemology.What is the connection between individualist epistemologiesand differential pedagogy hypothesis? An important logicalconnection between the individualist epistemologies and subsequent 9. 68Irish Educational Studies, Vol. 21, No. 3, Winter 2002differential pedagogical hypothesis can be understood in terms of thepsychology of individual differences or differential psychology.Thorndike (Thorndike, 1903; Thorndike, 1931), among others,advocated in the early part of the 20th century that educators shoulddevote their energy to understanding the individual student.Subsequently, various measures of individual difference weredeveloped including intelligence tests used to sort students into abilitygroups, streams, and special education categories. While the large-scale intelligence testing movement to a great extent bypassed Ireland,the focus on the sorting of students into ability groups and streamingdid not, and these have become central to school organisation inIreland at both primary (Devine, 1993) and secondary level (Smyth,1999; Smyth, 2000). Indeed, Smyths (1999) work provides strongDownloaded By: [University College Cork] At: 18:00 7 October 2008evidence of the negative impact of such streaming practices on bothsocial and academic outcomes. Differential pedagogy hypothesisWhat evidence is there about organisational, curriculum, and teachingpractices in Irish primary and secondary schools? Relatively littleattention has been paid to understanding the school and classroomexperiences of students in Ireland, although Lynch and Lodge (Lynchand Lodge, 1999; Lynch and Lodge, 2002) have cogently unveiledsecondary school students experiences of power and authority inschool. In particular, the pedagogical experiences of students atprimary or secondary level remain relatively hidden, be they portrayedthrough the voice of researchers and/or students themselves. A study(OSullivan, 1980a; OSullivan, 1980b), based on teacher self report,compared teachers beliefs in working- and middle class schools abouttheir own teaching styles in the light of the 1971 New PrimaryCurriculum but did not provide observational or ethnographicevidence of teaching practices. OSullivan (1980a) assessed thedegree to which Bowles and Gintis (1976) differential socializationhypothesis might be acting as a crucial mechanism in the reproductionof social inequalities between middle and working class students. Hissurvey study, of one hundred and fifty three Cork primary teachers insix middle- and fifteen working-class schools, concluded that "there islittle evidence in the findings on school and classroom organizationand teaching style in my study to support this view of differentialsocialization" (OSullivan, 1980a, p. 84). However, there is some evidence to support the differentialpedagogical hypothesis from research on the school organisationalpractices such as ability grouping and streaming as well as research on 10. Irish Educational Studies, Vol. 21, No. 3, Winter, 200269the extent that secondary schools contribute differentially to studentachievement. Lynch has documented the widespread use of streamingand ability grouping in Irish primary and secondary schools and hascriticised the continued reliance on ability grouping in primary schoolsand the continued existence of streaming, grouping or banding atsecond level (Lynch, 1999; Lynch and Lodge, 2002). The impact onstudents designated as low ability invariably confines that student to aschool career in the low group or stream exacerbating educationaldisadvantage. However, the pedagogical experiences of studentsdesignated as disadvantaged remains relatively unexamined despitethe fact that research in other countries has pointed out the differentialpedagogical and classroom organisational experiences of studentsDownloaded By: [University College Cork] At: 18:00 7 October 2008labeled as disadvantaged. Smyths multi-level or hierarchical linearmodeling analysis of a nationally representative sample of second-level schools provides clear support for differential pedagogyhypothesis with schools differential contribution to studentachievement evident even after controlling for students backgroundcharacteristics (Smyth, 1999). In summary, considerable evidencepoints to a system-wide emphasis on lower order skills. There is alsoconsiderable evidence to support the differential pedagogy hypothesisand both can be seen as underpinned by individualist epistemologies.The strongest evidence to support the differential pedagogy hypothesisis from Lynch and Lodges research (2002) on the widespreadprevalence of ability grouping and Smyths (Smyth, 1999)documentation of differences between secondary schools in theircontribution to student achievement after controlling for backgroundfactors. However, the extent to which differential pedagogy plays outaccording to advantaged/disadvantaged groups is not clear. In the next section I note the emphasis on an individualistepistemology in both the behavioural and cognitive perspectives andpresent the socio-cultural perspective as a generative alternative.Three theories of cognition and learning Broadly speaking, over the last one hundred years the learningsciences have provided three distinct camps of learning theories: thebehaviourist-empiricist, the cognitive-rationalist, and situative-pragmatic1 (Greeno, Collins, and Resnick, 1996). The notion ofcommunities of practice emanates from this last cluster of learningtheories. While a detailed exposition of the differences between thesethree traditions is beyond the scope of this paper, it is worthaddressing how each defines learning, knowing, intelligence, and thedesign of learning environments (Table 1). In the behaviourist 11. 70Irish Educational Studies, Vol. 21, No. 3, Winter 2002tradition learning is change in behaviour, in the cognitive traditionlearning is change in thinking, and in the socio-cultural traditionlearning is change in participation. These widely diverging definitionsof learning draw the attention of teachers and researchers to differentsets of questions in pondering and planning learning, teaching, andassessment.Downloaded By: [University College Cork] At: 18:00 7 October 2008 12. Irish Educational Studies, Vol. 21, No. 3, Winter, 2002 71Table 1. Three perspectives on learning and their implications forteaching and assessment2Camp BehaviourismCognitive -.! Socio-culturalLearning Change in Change in thinkingChange in practices ofas...behaviour communities. & ability of individuals to participateIntelligence How smart are you?In what contexts are you In what ways aresmart? you smart?Knowing...organised...Structures of...distributed in theas...collection of knowledge and world among collections processes thatindividuals, tools, between elementsconstruct patterns of . artifacts, texts people or behavioural; symbols in order to:use and fosteringDownloaded By: [University College Cork] At: 18:00 7 October 2008 units.1. Understand communities of learners concepts &in which they participate 2. Engage in general skills such as < reasoning and problem solvingExamples Precision General schemata Fostering communities teaching(Jean Piaget) of learners (Ann Brown) j ComputerGeneral and : Cognitive * Assistedspecificapprenticeship (Collins, Instruction competencies e.g. etal) (CAI)... i.e. Multiple mastery learningIntelligences &TfU (Howard Gardner), DesigningTEACHING: TEACHING ..;TEACHING;[earning . Simplify and Interactive Communities ofenvironments sequence tasksenvironments for: learning for active into discrete steps knowledge participation in the Routines of construction and- formulation andHow can we activityunderstanding: ]resolution of realisticdesign Clear goals,Sequences of problems/inquiryteaching for" feedback, andconceptual . Development oflearning?reinforcement developmentdisciplinary practices of Individualization Explicit attentiondiscourse, i.e. "ways of with technologies to generality J ; talking" e.g. CAI / ^ . ^ 1 : 1 v V ^ - . ^ : .. ? A sequence of ::ASSESSMENT.. J:.: ASSESSMENT component toExtended Extended performance composite skills performance: assessment and assess ASSESSMENT: assessments and ; , change in participation Assessments thatcrediting varieties of .) tap intoexcellence;i componentsTo the extent that there has been explicit attention to andpreference for assumptions about learning in Irish educationaldiscourse over the last thirty years, the focus has been on cognitivetheories particularly the work of Piaget, as evidenced by the 1971 13. 72Irish Educational Studies, Vol. 21, No. 3, Winter 2002New Primary School curriculum, and more recently the cognitivesymbol systems focus of Gardners Multiple Intelligences theorywhich has been used as the basis for widely publicized curriculuminitiatives (Hanafin, 1997; Hyland, 2000). Common in both Piagetsand Gardners vision, given their shared cognitive assumptions, is thatthe learner is primarily viewed as an individual cognizer or sololearner (Phillips and Soltis, 1998). In contrast, socio-cultural, culturalor socio-genetic theories assume the learning itself is socially andculturally rooted in communities of practice, encompassing theartifacts and relationships of a particular time and place. An importantpoint here is that social is not just another variable, nor is it only theinterpersonal, rather it encompasses both artifacts and relationships asthey are situated historically (Vygotsky, 1978; Cole, 1996; Daniels,Downloaded By: [University College Cork] At: 18:00 7 October 20082001). Thus, one can speak of what Valsiner and van der Veer call, intheir recent germinal work, the social mind (Valsiner and Van derVeer, 2000). They trace the long tradition of scholarship underpinningthe idea of the social mind drawing a portrait of its lineage by tracingthe intellectual interdependency of the work of Lev Vygotsky, GeorgeHerbert Mead, James Mark Baldwin, and Pierre Janet. More recently,the work of cultural psychologist Arm Brown, who is credited withcreating the socio-cultural-based "community of learners" (COL)model, has drawn attention to the rich pedagogical implications of thesocio-genetic tradition (Brown, 1994; Brown, 1997a; Brown, 1997b).Drawing on Vygotskys notion of the zone of proximal development(ZPD) she highlights how reciprocal teaching, jigsaw co-operativelearning, and majoring (in-depth study of content focusing onunderstanding)3 embody her conception of a community of learners(Brown, 1993; Brown, 1994). The distinctive pedagogical practices emanating from thesethree camps of learning theories can be seen by examining the section"Designing teaching: How can we design teaching for learning?" (seeTable 1). In the next section, I briefly describe the assumptions andimplications of the three camps. The behavioural approach: clarity and targeted direct teachingfollowed by controlled practiceTeaching approaches based on either common sense, what Olson andBruner (1996) call "folk psychology", or theoretically-inspiredbehaviourism put a premium on three basic pedagogical strategies:breaking down tasks into small and manageable pieces, teaching thebasics firsthand incrementally reinforcing or rewarding observableprogress. It is my contention, that these strategies have particular 14. Irish Educational Studies, Vol. 21, No. 3, Winter, 2002 73appeal in educationally disadvantaged contexts. What are some of theassumptions underpinning these hallmark strategies? Based on empiricist philosophy, typified by Locke, Hume andThorndike, behaviourisms key assumptions are that learning occursthough the detection of stimuli in the world by the sensory organs, thedetection of patterns in these stimuli, and the means through whichthese "new associations" are transferred to different contexts. Acorollary of these assumptions is that knowledge is consistent with ora reflection of experience (Greeno, Collins and Resnick, 1996). Insum, these assumptions amount to viewing learning as the collectionand organisation of elements, associations, or behavioural units.Downloaded By: [University College Cork] At: 18:00 7 October 2008 What are the implications of these assumptions for our viewsof knowledge, intelligence, and pedagogy? From this perspective,knowledge can be seen as a hierarchical assembly or collection ofassociations or behavioural units. Intelligence is viewed as anindividual trait and a fixed commodity that puts a limit on the pace orrate of learning. Perhaps the most widely recognised and intuitivelyappealing implications of the behavioural perspective are itsrecommendations for designing teaching. These are the simplificationand sequencing of tasks into discrete hierarchical steps and reinforcingsuccessful approximations of desired activity. In sum, the hallmarksof behaviourism are presenting learning in small steps, in the simplestpossible form, sequencing tasks in a hierarchy from the simple to thecomplex, and rewarding successful observed behaviours.Two problems associated with this approach to teaching, arethe assumption of "vertical transfer" and the decomposition ofactivities such as reading, writing, problem solving, resulting in a lackof task wholeness and authenticity. Vertical transfer assumes thatlearners will assemble the various associations or connections lowerdown on the learning hierarchy, and integrate these in order toeventually engage in higher order tasks.This vertical transferproblem is interwoven with, what critics view as, the lack of taskauthenticity when teaching is designed from a behaviouralperspective. Thus, rather than involving learners in the fullauthenticity of say reading, a behavioural perspective focuses onteaching the fundamental elements (e.g. in the case of reading,perception of print, that is, single letters or words) prior to the morecomplex elements (reading sentences and extended text). Using theanalogy of soccer, it is like teaching novice soccer players (novicereaders) via repetitive practice how to head, kick, and dribble the ball(identify and sound out letters and words), that is the basics, for 15. 74Irish Educational Studies, Vol. 21, No. 3, Winter 2002prolonged periods before they ever get to play the game. Furthermore,the "slow" soccer learners get to head, kick and dribble the ball foreven longer, before having the opportunity to engage in and makesense of the whole game (read extended text for meaning) until "thebasics" have been thoroughly mastered. Despite these, and otherproblems, behaviourism has had a powerful influence on views oflearning, approaches to teaching, and classroom managementstrategies in education systems across the world. Furthermore,formally and/or informally, many compensatory (targeted initiatives toovercome disadvantage) and remedial (with a high concentration ofeducationally disadvantaged students) interventions have beenprofoundly influenced by behavioural assumptions about learning.Downloaded By: [University College Cork] At: 18:00 7 October 2008Writing in an Irish context, although not addressing educationaldisadvantage per se, Dunne (1995, pp. 74-75) comments on theimportance of engaging students in the fullness of human socialpractices such as reading and writing, claiming that It seems likely many people have been greatly shortchanged in their education, precisely because they were introduced to these activities not as practices, but rather as sites where decomposed drills, exercises and micro-skills were rehearsed as means, while a taste of the whole activity as an end was continually deferred or displaced.The apparently concrete, "practical" and observable nature of drillsand micro-skills, allied to the assumption of vertical transfer, gives acompelling validity to these pedagogical strategies, and resonates withAnyon (1981) and Oakes (1986) research that educationallydisadvantaged students (read lower working class) typicallyexperience diluted curricular experiences, involving taskdecomposition and infrequent opportunities to engage in higher orderthinking. The cognitive-rationalist perspective: creating contexts for making meaning through guided discoveryDrawing upon continental rationalism, typified by Descartes and Kant,cognitive theorys key assumption is that learning occurs as the mindimposes order on the world through its own particular structures suchas the order-imposing structures inherent in information processingschema theory, Piagets schema-based stage theory of cognitivedevelopment, or the modular structures of the mind underpinningGardners multiple intelligences, MI, theory. Kant, responding to the 16. Irish Educational Studies, Vol. 21, No. 3, Winter, 2002 75British Empiricists, argued that the mind imposes, rather than detects,order in the world (Case, 1996). A corollary of these assumptions isthat knowledge is not a copy of reality. Resnick (1989, p. 2) conveysthis position well commenting that "Learning occurs not by recordinginformation but by interpreting it". In sum, these assumptions amountto viewing learning as the active construction of knowledge by theindividual learner.What are the implications of these assumptions for our viewsof knowledge, intelligence, and pedagogy? From this perspective,knowing involves the structures of knowledge and processes thatconstruct patterns of symbols to understand concepts and deployDownloaded By: [University College Cork] At: 18:00 7 October 2008general problem solving and reasoning strategies (e.g. Piagetianposition that learners deploy general logico-mathematical thinkingacross contexts). Thus, knowledge rather than being "out there", thebasic assumption from behaviourist-empiricist stance, is constructedby our actions on the world. As such, knowledge is made as weengage with and experience the world. Intelligence is viewed as anindividual trait and portrayed as either a unitary (lumper position, e.g.dominant "g" based views of IQ) or a multifaceted (splitter position,e.g. Multiple Intelligences theory) commodity. The cognitiveperspective has provided many important insights with which