KennethTobinktobin0@gmail.comhttp://kennethtobin.com/

Priori6esforresearchinurbanscienceeduca6on(andthelearningsciences)

Abstract

I will trace the history of our research in urban education through studies of cogenerative dialogue, coteaching, emotion, and wellness. I will emphasize continuously evolving theoretical frameworks situated in a dynamic flux that comprises constructs such as equity, social justice, gender, and sexuality. Within a value system that stresses authentic inquiry, we assign priority to the wellness of all participants in research and the social life, in which education is embedded). Accordingly, our research focuses on the design of toolkits to address forms of disadvantage that emerge in our ongoing studies. While maintaining a focus on teaching and learning, our research embraces a birth through death continuum and a variety of institutions involved in educating the citizenry. I will address the implications of changing times and our approaches to doing and disseminating research. Our approaches are situated in a context of others’ studies, which I briefly review, and a research community that is often felt to consist of speakers and writers – as distinct from listeners and readers. I will explicitly address issues of learning from others’ work, citation, and challenges of breaking free from mainstream methodologies and constituent axiologies/standpoints.

AuthorBiographyKenneth Tobin came to the Urban Education doctoral program at the Graduate Center of CUNY in the fall semester of 2003. Presently he is coordinator of the Learning Sciences strand. Prior to his appointment at the Graduate Center, Tobin had positions as tenured full professor at Florida State University (1987 to 1997) and the University of Pennsylvania (1997 to 2003). Also, he held university appointments at the Western Australian Institute of Technology (now Curtin University), Mount Lawley College, and Graylands College (now Edith Cowan University).

Before Tobin became a university science educator, in Australia in 1974, he taught high school physics, chemistry, biology, general science, and mathematics for 10 years. He began a program of research in 1973 that continues to the present day – teaching and learning of science and learning to teach science. Tobin’s current research interests focus on mindfulness and wellness as components in a context of learning along the birth-death continuum.

Based on Google Scholar Citations, Tobin’s work has been cited 14,333 times and his h-index is 63. His most cited paper has 799 citations (with Alejandro Gallard and Deb Tippins, 1994). The International Handbook of Research in Science Education that Tobin edited with Barry Fraser (1998), has been cited 5519 times, and the Second International Handbook of Research in Science Education (with Fraser and McRobbie, 2012) has been cited 2092 times.

Frameworks

hermeneuticphenomenologywhatishappening?whyisithappening?

ethnomethodologywhatmoreisthere?

contingenceandemergenceauthenticinquiry

ontological(howdostoriestellasresearchprogresses?educative(understandingpersonalandothers’perspectives—respectingdifferentperspectives)catalytic(towhatextentdocollectiveschangeforthebetter?)tactical(towhatextentdoallparticipantsbenefitfrombeinginvolvedintheresearch?—socialjustice)

Eventorientedinquiry

Coteaching

Cogenerativedialogue(cogen)

Facialemotion

Prosody

Proxemics

Fingerpulseoximeter

heartrateoxygenationplethysmography

Interventions—heuristics

Mindfulness

● calmthemind

● don’tgetstuck

● gettingunstuck

● focus

● awareness

● beinginthemoment

● compassion

● resilience

● outlook

● socialintuition

● self-awareness

● sensitivitytocontext

● attention(focus)

Mindfullyspeaking

WhenIparticipateinaconversation:▪ IacttobalancetheamountoftimeItalk▪ WhenIhavebeenspeakingtoolongIwindupmytalkingturn

▪ BeforespeakingIpausetomakesurethepreviousspeakerhasfinished

▪ AsIspeakImonitorothers’emotions▪ AsIspeakImonitormyemotions

Mindfullylistening

Whenothersarespeakinginadialogicconversation:▪ Imonitortheeyesofthespeaker▪ Ishowmyrespectforthespeaker▪ Iexpressmyoppositionverballyandnonverballytounethicalspeech

▪ Whilelisteningtoothersmynonverbalactionsprojectcompassionandempathytothespeaker

▪ WhenaspeakersayssomethingwithwhichIdisagreeItrytolearnfromthedifference

Multilogicality

Multilogicalityandpolyvagaltheory

FromreptiliantomammalianvagusVagusnervehasasymmetricalparts▪ myelinatedvagusandsocialcommunication

▪ unmyelinatedvagusandfight-flightconduct

▪ unmyelinatedvagusandimmobilizationneuroceptioninterventionstoimprovevagaltone

Mindfullywriting

Learningfrom|withothers

aware|unawarehistoricalconstitutionofideasstory1:coparticipation(thedesignstudio)genealogyofideas(Foucault—roots)substantivecitationacknowledgecontributionsofothersmindfulwritingstory2:stocksofknowledge(fundsofknowledge)

References

• Tobin, K., King, D., Henderson, S., Bellocchi, A., & Ritchie, S. M. (2016). Expression of emotions and physiological changes during teaching. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 11, 669-692. DOI: 10.1007/s11422-016-9778-9

• Tobin, K. (2016). Connecting science education to a world in crisis. Asia-Pacific Science Education, 1, DOI 10.1186/s41029-015-0003-z.

• Tobin, K. (2016). Collaborating on global priorities: Science education for everyone – any time and everywhere. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 11(1), 27-40. DOI: 10.1007/s11422-015-9708-2

• Sewell, W. H. Jr. (2005). Logics of history: Social theory and social transformation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

• Porges, S. W. (2011). The polyvagal theory: Neurophysiological foundations of emotions, attachment, communication and self-regulation. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

• Powietrzynska, M. & Tobin, K. (Eds). (2016). Mindfulness and educating citizens for everyday life. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishing.

• Boersma, P. & Weenink, D. (2016). Praat: doing phonetics by computer [Computer program]. Version 6.0.19, retrieved 8 July 2016 from http://www.praat.org/

• Guba, E.G. & Lincoln, Y. (1989). Fourth generation evaluation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.