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Preparing students for the workplace through designing productive assessment tasks: An actionable knowledge perspective

Lina Markauskaite and Peter Goodyear

Acknowledgements: ARC Grant DP0988307Dr Agnieszka Bachfischer

Centre for Research on Learning and InnovationSydney School of Education and Social Work

HERDSA28 June, 2017

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Link to eBook

Context: Epistemic fluency

Grounded (extended) view of cognition and professional knowledge

– Professional expertise is inseparable from capacities to (co)construct epistemic environments that enhance knowledgeable actions

– Such expertise is grounded in embodied, situated professional knowledge work

– Much of this work is done by (co)creating professional artefacts that embody actionable knowledge

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Outline

1. Actionable knowledge 2. Theoretical roots: Objects,

artefacts and things3. Results:

– Objects– Artefacts– Objects & artefacts

4. Final notes

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Focus

1. Developing actionable knowledge through making professional artefacts

2. Developmental assessment tasks in courses that prepare students for workplace practice

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Questions

1. What is the nature of the objects that teachers choose for professional learning and assessment tasks?

2. What are the epistemic qualities of the artefacts that students construct in such tasks?

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Actionable knowledge

Actionable knowledge is “knowledge that is particularly useful to get things accomplished in practical activities”

(After Yinger & Lee, 1993, 100)

“…knowledge is conceived largely as a form of mastery that is expressed in the capacity to carry out a social and material activity. Knowledge is thus always a way of knowing shared with others, a set of practical methods acquired through learning, inscribed in objects, embodied, and only partially articulated in discourse”

(Nicolini, 2013, 5)

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Theoretical perspectives: Epistemic practice

1. Socio-cultural “mediation” (Kaptelinin, 2005)

2. Socio-material “objectual practice” (Knorr Cetina, 2001)

3. Ecological cognition (Ingold, 2012; Knappett, 2010)

Objects are the foundation of enduring professional practices, discovery and innovation... and human consciousness and learning

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Object & artefact

Objects are entities people act towards and/or act with (Star, 2010)

Artefact – lat. arte (“Skill in doing something”) and factum (“A thing done or performed”)

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Object, artefact, thing

Object

ObjektAs “problem space,” concrete (material) entity

PredmetAs “true motive,” psychological stimuli

ThingAs forms that arise in flows of materials and actions

ArtefactsLat. arte (“Skill in doing something”) and factum (“A thing done or performed”)

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Object, thing and artefact

“…the activity does not have a direction and does not really start until the object of activity is defined” (Kaptelinin, 2005)

Inhabited world is not so much composed of objects as of things –forms arise in flows of materials, rather than being set a priori, and “stand against us” (Ingold, 2010)

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Study: “Cognitive-cultural archaeology”

Phase 1 Phase 2

Disciplines Pharmacy NursingSocial workSchool counselingEducation

PharmacyEducation

Sample 20 professional practice courses 3 tutorial groups2 students’ groups

Data Course resourcesInterviews

ObservationsCourse resourcesOpen interviews

Methods Epistemic interviewingCognitive task analysis

Ethno- audio/video taped observations

1

Analytical focus: kinds of knowledge and ways of knowing that were enacted in production of assessment artefacts

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Objects of assessment tasks

Motives/Objects Core aspects Hard/hidden/rare aspects

Fine-tuning skill and knowledge

Key specific skills and knowledgeEg. Administering reading assessments

Hardest elements of practiceEg. Teaching lessons of most difficult topics

Shaping professional vision

Core inquiry frameworksEg. Mastering a generic framework for pharmacy practice

Hidden elements of professional practice Eg. Seeing social justice in a lesson plan

Making professional artefacts

Artefacts for/in actionEg. Designing a plan, writing a report

Generic artefacts-toolsEg. Creating guidelines, teaching kits

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Assessment artefacts

Cultural artefactsConceptual artefacts Epistemic artefacts

Action

Meaning

Practice artefacts Action

artefacts

Design artefactsAnalytical

artefacts

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Cultural artefacts

Artefacts DescriptionAction artefacts Main products of professional work

E.g. A conducted lesson, dispensed medications Practice artefacts Artefacts that mediate daily professional work

E.g. completed assessment instruments, interviewing notes

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Conceptual artefacts

Artefacts DescriptionAnalytical artefacts Products of a deliberative inquiry for professional

judgements (‘know that’)E.g. Professional critiques, evaluations, interpretations, reflections, deconstructions

Design artefacts Products of deliberative knowledge work constructing actionable knowledge (‘know how’)E.g. Plans, concepts, models, designs

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Epistemic artefacts

Artefacts ExamplesEpistemic artefacts Artefacts that link ‘know that’ and ‘know how’, and

conceptual (‘know why’) with cultural (‘know when’) aspects of professional knowledge E.g., Best practice guidelines, teaching “kits”

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Objects & artefacts

Motives/Objects Core aspects Hard/hidden/rare aspects

Fine-tuning skill and knowledge

Cultural action artefacts Cultural practice artefacts

Cultural action artefactsCultural practice artefactsConceptual design artefacts

Shaping professional vision

Cultural practice artefactsCultural action artefacts

Conceptual analytical artefacts Cultural practice artefacts

Making professional artefacts

Conceptual design artefactsCultural practice artefactsCultural action artefacts

Epistemic artefactsConceptual analytical artefactsConceptual design artefactsCultural practice artefacts

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Assessment artefacts

Cultural artefactsConceptual artefacts Epistemic artefacts

Action

Meaning

Practice artefacts Action

artefacts

Design artefactsAnalytical

artefacts

ReadyKnowledgeable Capable

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Concluding insights

1. Programs should create the right mix of tasks that involve production of cultural, epistemic and conceptual artefacts

2. ‘Unusual’ objects often involve epistemic qualities that we don’t see in everyday objects

3. The value of artefacts comes from knowing involved in production and knowledge they embody

4. Developmental tasks are an important element of professional learning

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Further insights

Email:

Follow our website:https://epistemicfluency.com

Lina.Marakauskaite@sydney.edu.au