The Change Laboratory

1
The Change Laboratory A means to overcome the
crisis of collective learning in educational
settings?

Jaakko Virkkunen Prof.emer.
Center for Research on Activity, Development and
Learning CRADLE University of Helsinki
2
The outline of the presentation
1 The crisis of collective learning in
educational settings 2 The two basic principles
of the Change Laboratory method The principle
of ascending from the abstract to the concrete
development through re-mediation The principle
of double stimulation 3 The Change Laboratory as
an instrument for re-mediating instructional
practices at school 4 Change Laboratory as a
platform of collaboration between researchers and
practitioners
Center for Research on Activity, Development and
Learning (CRADLE)
3
The crisis of collective learning in educational
settings
4
A failure of collective learning
Hubbard, Mehan and Steins (2006) conclusion
about the school reform in SanDiego "() a
reform that began as conceptually driven was
proceduralized an approach to learning that
began as student-centered became
teacher-centered a framework with many openings
for the application of professional judgement
became understood as scripted." The outcomes of
the reform were not only unintended but represent
the very opposite of its objectives. Instead of
stimulating collective learning about a possible
new way of working, the reform seems to have led
to its stagnation.
Center for Research on Activity, Development and
Learning (CRADLE)
5
Incremental vs. transformational change and
learning
In most institutions work practices are
continuously developed through incremental
improvements based on accumulated experience and
learning. The crisis of collective learning
manifests itself when this kind of learning is
not good enough for meeting current challenges,
in situations that call for a transformation of
the concept and logic of the activity. In
educational settings, the crisis manifests itself
in the failed attempts for concept-level change
such as the SanDiego example.
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The need for concept-level change and expansive
learning
Experience is always tied to a specific,
historically evolved understanding of an activity
that is embedded in its structure. A need for
concept-level change arises when the actual
situation changes and does not any more
correspond to the presumptions of the
understanding on which the structure is based.
Breaking out of the prevailing conceptions and
practices in such a situation calls for expansive
learning, in which the practitioners rise their
eyes from their individual tasks to the purpose
and structure of their joint activity and start
to analyze and develop it collaboratively.
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The Change Laboratory is a method and set of
instruments for a work community to carry out
expansive learning that is needed for
concept-level change of their joint activity.
The method was developed by Prof. Engeström in
the early 1990s on the basis of the Developmental
Work Research methodology. It is based on two
fundamental principles The principle of
ascending from the abstract to the concrete that
is related to the idea of development through
remediation (Ilyenkov,1982 Davydov, 1990) The
principle of double stimulation (Vygotsky, 1987)
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The principle of ascending from the abstract to
the concrete
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Two forms of abstraction
All thinking and learning takes place by
abstracting meaning from immediate sensory
experience. This can take place in two different
ways. Empirical abstractions are based on
comparison and classification of objects on the
basis on their external features and on
generalizations concerning repeating
relationships between objects. Theoretical
abstractions are based on practical
transformations, experimentation, and change of
relationships in systems of interdependent
elements. Theoretical abstraction captures a
basic functional relationship and principle in
the reality under scrutiny. (Davydov, 1990)
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The two meanings of ascending from the abstract
to the concrete
In knowledge creation a process of breaking out
of a one sided understanding based on an
empirical abstraction to an understanding of the
phenomenon as a moment in a developing system of
interactions. In historical development a
process, in which an initially unique and
isolated instance of a new functional
relationship and form of interaction spreads and
generalizes into an integral part of reality.
This is how inventions become innovations that
change societal practices.
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The developmental dynamics of living systems
cannot be captured by empirical abstraction alone
H. Maturana A basic conceptual difficulty in
understanding living, self regenerating and self
developing systems arises from our habit to think
in terms of causes that blinds us from the
spontaneous nature of life processes.
Explanations should instead be based on the
description of the generative mechanisms that
produce and change the structure of the system.
Maturanas critique concerns the use of
empirical abstractions about linear causal
relationships in biology but it applies also to
the understanding of cultural systems of human
activity. Re-mediation of relationships of
interaction within a system is a central
generative mechanism that changes their
structures.
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Development through mediation of contradictions
Vygotskys great insights was that human action
is culturally mediated. Each cultural mediator
has been at a time an innovative new way to
resolve or manage a restrictive contradiction
within an existing form of human activity. As
Latour (1996) puts it, a mediator is not
completely a cause nor a consequence but ties two
phenomena together into a process of
co-evolution. A new mediator creates a new
functional relationship of interaction that can
spread and eventually lead to the transformation
of the existing structure.
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Mediating a contradiction
An object or process that comprises in itself the
polar aspects of a contradiction can be used as a
mediator to resolve the contradiction or make it
manageable by uniting the opposites into a
process of co-evolution.
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An example re-mediating the interaction between
teachers and students at a Finnish middle school
Based on Engeström, Engeström, Suntio, 2002
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The new form of interaction challenged the
prevailing structure of the activity
The final project allowed the students and
forced the teachers to operate beyond and across
encapsulated school subjects and work on a
long-term basis. The final project introduced
work motivated by the pride of achieving
something beyond the demands of the curriculum,
but offered the students also a change to enhance
their grades. Engeström, Engeström, Suntio, 2002
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Two strategies of school development

• 1 A strategy based primarily on causal thinking
  and empirical generalizations (USA, UK)
• high stakes testing
• competition
• economic rewards and punishments

• 2 A strategy based primarily on mediating the
  contradiction between unified instruction and
  students varying needs (Finland)
• teachers collaborative planning of instruction
• an elaborate set of instruments and
  cross-professional collaboration in diagnosing
  learning problems
• elaborate system of remedial teaching and support
  of students learning

Sahlman,2010 Miettinen, 2013
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Ascending from the abstract to the concrete can
be understood as the process of identifying a
contradiction in a system, finding a mediator
that resolves it or allows to manage it better,
and generalizing the use of the new form of
functional interaction based on the new mediator.

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Ascending from the abstract to the concrete takes
place by taking expansive learning actions
Davydov, 1990, Engeström,1999
The Change Laboratory is a workshop in which the
practitioners can take jointly expansive learning
actions initially in collaboration with an
external researcher-interventionist.
Center for Research on Activity, Development and
Learning (CRADLE)
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The principle of double stimulation
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Double stimulation from an experimental method
into a theoretical generalization
Vygotsky saw that the double stimulation method
Sakharov had used in studying concept formation
demonstrated the principle of how human beings
can intentionally break out of a contradictory
situation, change their circumstances, or solve
difficult problems. The first stimulus is a
challenging problem. The second stimulus is an
external artefact which the subject turns into a
sign, a psychological tool, by filling it with a
meaning that is related to the problem situation.
With the help of the second stimulus the subject
gains control of his/her action and a new
understanding of the problem situation.
21
The two phases in double stimulation and the
emergence of agentive action
A chain of double stimulation processes
Vygotsky 1997, Engeström, Sannino, 2011
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Double stimulation creates a new layer of
causality in human action

• Causal layer Individuals base their actions on
  generalizations concerning causal relationships.
• Contradictory layer In collective work
  activities, individuals are often driven by
  contradictory motives and pressures and can act
  in unpredictable ways when trying to find a
  resolution.
• Agentive layer People can proceed from the
  contradictory situation to taking transformative
  actions by inventing and using artefacts to
  control their behaviour from the outside.
  (Engeström, 2011)

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The Change Laboratory as an instrument for
re-mediating instructional practices at school
24
The layout and instruments of the Change
Laboratory
Center for Research on Activity, Development and
Learning (CRADLE)
25
The model of the basic structure of human
activity as a second stimulus
The model can be used as an instrument for
contextualizing the problems that individuals
encounter in their work in the historically
evolved structure of their joint activity and for
finding the systemic causes of the problems as
inner contradictions within the system.
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An example of a systemic cause of disturbances
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The Change Laboratory Process in the Molefi
Senior Secondary school in Botswana
Virkkunen, Newnham, Nleya, Engeström, 2012
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Mediation of the inner contradiction in the
teachers activity system in the Molefi school
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Re-mediating the rehabilitation in a school for
neurologically ill and disabled children in a
Change Laboratory process
Due to a change in the division of labor between
normal schools and special schools the school
received more severely ill and disabled children
than before and had to provide a greater variety
of special therapies.
Virkkunen Tenhunen, 2010
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The two basic principles of CL in the three cases
FINNISH MIDDLE SCOOL Engeström,
Engeström, Suntio 2002) SCHOOL FOR
HANDI- CAPPED NEURO- LOGICALLY ILL Virkkunen
Tenhunen 2010 SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL
IN BOTSWANA Virkkunen et al. 2012.
CREATED SECOND STIMULI
VISION OF THE FUTURE FORM OF THE ACTIVITY
TRANSFORMING THE ACTIVITY SYSTEM
MEDIATION OF THE CONTRADICTION
FIRST STIMULI
CONTRA- DICTION
STUDENTS AS APATHETIC VS. AS ENERGETIC
THE FINAL PROJECT STUDENTS LONG TERM CREATIVE
WORK SUPPORTED BY SEVERAL TEACHERS
SHORT, MEDIUM, AND LONG TERM VISIONS OF THE
FUTURE OF THE SCHOOL
FURTHER DEVELOPMENT IN ANOTHER CL FOCUSING ON
INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES AND THE USE OF ICTS
STUDENTS APATHY
STUDENTS HOLISTIC REHABILITATION VS.
FRAGMENTED THERAPIES AND TEACHING
DISTUR- BANCES AND LACK OF TIME FOR THERAPY AND
TEACHING
MAKING STUDENTS DAILY ACTIVITIES
REHABILITATIVE
NEW TEAM-BASED ORGANIZATION, INTENSIFIED
COLLABORATION WITH PARENTS
REORGANIZATION OF THE WHOLE ACTIVITY ON THE BASIS
OF THE NEW PRINCIPLE
DIALOGICAL STUDY PLANNING, PROCEDURE CO-TEACHIN
G SYSTEM FOR IMPLEMENTING NEW POLICIES
STUDENT MOTIATION, UNDER PERFORMING STUDENTS, STUD
ENTS SOCIAL PROBLEMS
UNIFIED INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES VS. INCREASINGLY
HETEROGENEOUS STUDENT GROUPS
LOOSELY ARTICULATED IDEA OF A COMMUNITY
DEVELOPING SCHOOL
?
Center for Research on Activity, Development and
Learning (CRADLE)
31
Summary of the three school cases

• In all the three cases, the mirror of practice
  led the practitioners to question their empirical
  abstractions concerning the students as the
  object of their activity and to a search for a
  more concrete way of constructing students as
  objects of their work.
• In all cases the Change Laboratory produced a
  view of the systemic cause of the practitioners
  daily problems as an inner contradiction in their
  activity system.
• It also produced a principle of mediating the
  contradiction and instrumental second stimuli for
  the transformation of the activity system.

32
Progress of the expansive learning process in
the three schools
The progress in ascending to the concrete from
the model of mediating the contradiction varied
and was related to the length of the
collaboration between the researchers the
school.
33
The Change Laboratory as a microcosm for a new
kind of collective learning at schools
34
Change Laboratory as a platform of collaboration
between researchers and practitioners

• In their review of four major school reform
  projects Confrey, et al. (2001) conclude, that
• building a fruitful collaboration between
  researchers and school practitioners takes at
  least five years
• reform of school education should be viewed as a
  stepwise process, in which advances alternate
  with periods of reflection and consolidation
• In a Change Laboratory process the practitioners
  carry out a cycle of expansive learning with the
  support of researchers. The transformation of the
  activity calls, however, a chain of several
  cycles of expansive learning.

35
Stepwise expansion in the Finnish middle school

• In the first Change Laboratory in the Finnish
  middle school, the teachers brake away from a
  generalized negative view of students and created
  a new form of working with them in the last
  school year
• A year later they initiated another Change
  Laboratory process, in which they focused on
  instructional practices and use of computers as
  students instruments in learning. The teachers
  planned new thematic units, video recorded their
  realization, and evaluated them with the
  students, and developed them further.

36
A two dimensional model was used as an instrument
when evaluating experimental units of instruction
and the direction of change in instruction
Students were involved in the second
Change Laboratory as active members The natural
next step would be a Boundary Crossing Change
Laboratory with parents and members of the
community
Engeström, Engeström Suntio 2002b
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The potential of the Change Laboratory in
helping to overcome the crisis of collective
learning lies in the way it supports
practitioners collaborative, theoretically
oriented analysis of their activity, builds
their joint transformative agency in
experimenting with new solutions and carrying out
concept-level change of their activity. The
Change Laboratory can function as a microcosm of
this new kind of collaborative learning over
traditional boundaries in schools and as a
platform for developmental collaboration between
researchers and practitioners.
Conclusions
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Thank you for your attention!
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