disciplinary specificity in university teaching : moving from conceptualisation to action denis...

Disciplinary specificity in university teaching :

Moving from conceptualisation to action

Denis Berthiaume: Université de LausanneAnna Jones:University of MelbourneVisiting Fellow, University of GloucestershireKerri-Lee Krause: Griffith UniversityMick Healey: University of GloucestershireKristine Mason O’Connor: University of Gloucestershire

The problem

• Teaching has often been assumed to be generic (unlike research)

• Yet disciplinary cultures are important (Henkel 2000, 2005; Becher & Trowler 2001)

Ignoring context has a number of problems:• Separates teaching from scholarship, research

practices• Denies local knowledge

Method

• In-depth interviews with academic staff• 2 large research-intensive Australian universities• 5 disciplines (history, physics, economics, law,

medicine)• 37 interviews• Additional use of subject outlines, assessment

tasks, university and department lists of attributes

• Emergent analysis

Epistemology

The ways in which knowledge is understood has the potential to influence the ways it is taught

• Macro level: fundamental assumptions that cross disciplinary boundaries eg positivism, constructivism

• Meso level: disciplinary epistemology• Micro level: personal

These levels are not discrete and can be intertwined and contradictory

Disciplinary epistemology

• Highly complex• Central to disciplinary culture but not

static• Within each discipline or even each

individual there can be a range of epistemologies

• Dynamic, fluid, not monolithicBUT importance also of departmental,

institutional culture

History• Importance of people, empathy, difference human

nature, human motivation• What are the reasons behind actions? What could

people have known, what are their fears, their fantasies?

• What (if anything) can the past tell us about our own time?

• Constructed nature of knowledge,multiple, contested, contextualised, the role of the historian

• Importance of argumentation, writerliness• Thinking critically

Physics

• The power of the physics worldview in shaping the modern understanding of reality

• Complex, counter intuitive

• Technical, mathematical skills

• Vast body of knowledge

• Problem solving, experimental technique and reasoning

Economics

• Range from the highly mathematical, applied to more qualitative

• Some see it as a science (analogous to either physics or biology)

• Learn the ‘toolbox’

• Problem solving

Law

• Human element, argumentation, use of language, examination of the world, the flexibility as a discipline

• Impact of the law on the community, tool for change, philosophical questions, notions of justice

• Professional responsibilities• Ethical responsibilities• Problem solving, understanding the ‘grammar of

law’

Medicine

• Epistemology has four strands - scientific, psychosocial, moral and professional.

• ‘Science and art’

• Clinical reasoning

• Communication

• Thinking critically about evidence, context, professional and ethical responsibilities

History •Discussing complexities and ambiguities•Awareness of political and ideological dimensions•Questioning of received wisdom•Examining evidence and context

Physics •Examining rigour, accuracy, uncertainty, predictive powers•Examining assumptions•Discussions of areas of debate, uncertainty, frontiers of knowledge

Economics •Same as problem solving – use of economic tools

Law •Examination of argument, evidence, logic•Examination of assumptions•Awareness of social context•Awareness of ethical issues•Questioning of received wisdom

Medicine •Clinical reasoning•Evidence based medicine•Ethical reasoning•Psychosocial context•Professional reflection•Questioning of received wisdom

Critical thinking

History •Causality•Management skills – time, groups, projects, research

Physics •Closed and open-ended problems•Hypothesis development and testing•Use of mathematics as a tool of analysis•Checking of accuracy and rigour

Economics •Use of economic tools•Application of theory to practical or policy issues

Law •Closely related to critical thinking•Responding to hypothetical or ‘real world’ problems•Concerned with outcomes and application•Some concern with professional skills – dealing with clients

Medicine •Clinical reasoning•Diagnostic and therapeutic skills•Communication skills•Contextual understanding

Problem solving

History •Essays the central form of assessment but skills not always overtly taught•Some class discussion, presentations, debates, student conferences

Physics •Lab reports, posters, assignments•Some presentations

Economics •Some written assignments and essays

Law •Written essays and assignments•Spoken communication is considered important but is not systematically included in teaching of assessment

Medicine •Spoken communication central to assessment, clinical skills, part of problem solving•Clinical communication is overtly taught•Written communication – assignments, essays, research reports

Communication

Summary

• Historians – knowledge is contested and interpreted with no single replicable outcome. Teaching focused on argumentation

• Physics – duality between certainty and uncertainty. Teaching is focused on mathematical and conceptual skills, problem solving

• Economics – focus on learning the technical and conceptual skills, problem solving

• Law – multiple epistemology (axiomatic, interpretive) focus on legal problem solving, professional issues, argument

• Medicine – highly complex multiple epistemology, clinical reasoning, professional persona, outcomes focused.

Related factors

• Personal, individual

• Artefacts (eg pre-existing research, conceptual tools, teaching materials, physical spaces)

• Communities (both research and teaching)

• Division of labour, hierarchies

• Rules (both tacit and overt)

(Engeström, 2001)

The way forward

• Importance of the contextual• Teaching is not a generic activity, nor a set of

principles that can be applied regardless of practice

• Ways in which teaching operates in disciplinary communities of practice (Lave & Wenger 1991, Wenger 1998). Disciplinary epistemology, traditions, research culture, university and departmental culture.

• Boundary crossings (Engestrom, Blackler) trading zones (Mills & Taylor Huber 2005), critical interdisciplinarity (Rowland, 2006)

Discipline-specific pedagogical knowledge

What is it and how can it be developed?

Denis BerthiaumeCentre for Learning and Teaching

University of Lausanne, Switzerland

8 December 2008

Outline of the presentation

• Premises of the study

• DPK model (components and dimensions)

• Approaches to foster DPK development

Premises

• University teaching seen as a complex cognitive activity

• In many countries, university teachers receive limited pedagogical training

• Not easy to relate new pedagogical knowledge to one’s discipline of instruction

• Need to help university teachers develop discipline-specific pedagogical knowledge (DPK)

• Need to know more about DPK and its development

What is discipline-specific pedagogical knowledge?

DPK


DPK

Knowledge base for teaching


DPKGoals

Beliefs


Knowl.


DPKGoals

Beliefs


Knowl.

Disciplinary specificity


DPKGoals

Beliefs


Knowl.


Struct.

Culture


DPKGoals

Beliefs


Knowl.


Struct.

Culture

Personal epistemology


DPKGoals

Beliefs


Knowl.


Struct.

Culture


Knowl.Eval.

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• A form of knowledge that is complex, changing, drawn from a variety of sources

• Not uniform to all teachers from a given discipline because of the role played by one’s personal epistemology

• Much more based on socio-cultural characteristics than epistemological structure

• Common elements to teachers coming from different disciplines

How can DPK be developed?

• Conscious effort on the part of the teacher to document the various components of DPK from the three sources

• Knowledge base for teaching

• Disciplinary specificity

• Personal epistemology

• Conscious effort on the part of the teacher to document the various relationships between components of DPK

How can DPK be developed?

Various approaches can be used to develop DPK

Individual approaches: - reflective practice

- literature-based research

- empirical research

Collegial approaches: - mentoring

- communities of practice

- workshops

Individual exercise(5-10 minutes)

What research findings that were just presented do you think you can integrate into your practice?

How do you plan on integrating these findings into your practice (what do you see yourself do)?

How much of that can be done in collaboration with colleagues holding similar posts?

Group exercise (15-20 minutes)

Share with your colleagues how you plan on integrating findings on disciplinary specificity into your practice

Make sure to spend enough time discussing the potential for collaboration in order to integrate findings on disciplinary specificity into your practice

A few words about methods

Objectives of the study

• Clarify the empirical nature of discipline-specific pedagogical knowledge (DPK)

• Develop a framework for capturing, describing, and analyzing DPK


Main research question:

What is the nature of university professors’ discipline-specific pedagogical knowledge (DPK)?

Sub-questions:

• What are the dimensions/characteristics associated with components of the DPK framework?

• What relationships exist between components of the DPK framework?


• Inductive analysis / instrumental multicase study

• Four participants from four different disciplines (Mathematics, Civil Engineering, Philosophy, Social Work)

• Five semi-structured interviews per participant (total = 20)

• Interviews during planning, implementation and reflection related to specific courses

• Focus on both perceptions and actions

Focus Questions

• What is the ‘one thing’ that is most important in your discipline? (or the staff you work with)

• What are the attributes you most want graduates to have attained?

• How is this best achieved through teaching?

Ideas

•

Ideas (arising from workshop discussion)

• Students changing, generic attributes• Reflective model based on DPK to be

used for staff development (develop own and group model), ongoing staff development

• Engage new starters contextualise, refreshment for people who have been teaching for some time, use as starting point

Ideas

• How staff help students develop their own understanding, disciplinary expectations

• Look at the process for students, link with employability

• Students given many mixed messages about disciplines

• Impact of the quality processes

• Interdisciplinary inquiry modules, point of departure for discussion

Ideas

• Use the model in the context of certificates, academic development activities

• Role of professionals coming into university teaching, building new dimensions into the model (other profiles)

• Integrate notion of disciplinary epistemologies in the development of a Master’s degree, tools for the job

Ideas

• New ways of thinking in relation to the design of degree programmes

• Learners’ perspective in particular in the context of interdisciplinary degrees

• Talking tool to get people to explicit what they think of other people’s discipline

• What is a discipline?• Learner perspective very important• Tension between the teaching and

research roles

disciplinary specificity in university teaching : moving from conceptualisation to action denis...

Documents

reasoning slide

contradictory slide

local knowledge slide

grammar of law slide

university teaching

institutional culture

university of melbourne

context physics