The Learners Perspective Study

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The Learners Perspective Study

• David Clarke - University of Melbourne
• d.clarke_at_unimelb.edu.au

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Overview

• In its original form, the Learners Perspective
  Study sought to document the practices of the
  classrooms of competent mathematics teachers and
  to identify the meanings that participants hold
  for those practices and the meanings that arise
  from those practices.
• The Study took a data collection process
  developed at the University of Melbourne for an
  earlier classroom study (Clarke, 2001) and
  adapted it for use in classrooms in Australia,
  Germany, Japan and the USA.

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The Expanded Study

• The analysis of data from Australia, Germany,
  Japan and the USA has already produced findings
  that challenge and extend those of earlier
  video-based studies.
• Research groups from five additional countries
  have joined the Study Hong Kong, Israel, The
  Philippines, South Africa and Sweden, extending
  the Study to school systems with very different
  cultural, structural and curricular
  characteristics.

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Research Teams/Research Sites

• Australia - Melbourne
• Germany - Berlin
• Japan - Tokyo
• USA - San Diego
• Hong Kong (including Mainland China)
• Sweden - Gothenburg/Uppsala
• South Africa - Durban
• Israel - Tel Aviv
• Philippines - Manila

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Research Teams/Research Sites

• This combination of countries gives good
  representation to European and Asian cultural
  traditions, affluent and less affluent school
  systems, and mono-cultural and multi-cultural
  societies.

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The Learners Perspective Study

• The matter of our research is the integrated
  documentation of not just the obvious social
  events that might be recorded on a videotape, but
  also the participants construal of those events,
  the memories, feelings, and actions invoked, and
  the mathematical and social meanings and
  practices which arose as a consequence.

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The Learners Perspective Study

• A primary purpose of our research is to
  understand the practices and meanings of the
  classrooms we study in order to contribute to the
  optimisation of their effectiveness as sites for
  learning.
• We anticipate any such optimisation as being
  shaped by the cultures of those classrooms.
• Each participating research team brings to the
  study its own purposes and priorities.

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Video

• Video has become a major tool in the study of
  classrooms. Of all data sources currently
  available to researchers in education, videotape
  data seems most amenable to multiple analyses.
• Earlier experience with the use of a
  multi-analytical approach (Clarke, 2001)
  suggested that an international study would be
  possible in which participating research teams
  conducted both collaborative and complementary
  analyses of a shared body of classroom data.

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The Learners Perspective Study
Learner Practice View (cameras 1 and 2 - picture
in picture)
Whole Class View (camera 3)
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Video-stimulated reconstruction
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Data Collection in The Philippines
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Multiple Perspectives

• A classroom takes on a different aspect according
  to how you are positioned within it or in
  relation to it.
• Any claim to a single, definitive or consensus
  view of the classroom ignores this.

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Voice and Text

• Our current research is highly dependent on the
  documenting of various texts Classroom dialogue
  (public and private) Teacher and student
  written material Teacher and student post-lesson
  reconstructive interviews

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Juxtaposing Practice and Meaning

• We juxtapose the observable practices of the
  classroom (documented through videotape and
  written product) and the meanings attributed to
  those practices by individual participants
  (documented through video-stimulated post-lesson
  interviews and questionnaires)

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Linking Practice and Learning

• Tests and student written material offer some
  information into the learning outcomes of the
  classrooms we are studying, but our primary
  insights into learning come from student
  statements
• In explanation or justification to the whole
  class
• In collaborative conversation with peers
• And, most importantly, in the video-stimulated
  post-lesson interviews

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Reflexivities Classroom Practice

• The discourse of the classroom acts to position
  participants in ways that afford and constrain
  certain practices.
• A major component of these classroom practices is
  the negotiation of mathematical and social
  meanings, by which classroom participants
  interpret and influence each others actions and
  statements.

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Reflexivities Research

• The discourse of educational research acts to
  position participants in ways that afford and
  constrain certain interpretations.
• The adoption of a theory of learning in social
  situations will inevitably find its reflection in
  the manner in which those situations are
  researched.

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Learning to participate

• Methods of instruction are not only instruments
  for acquiring skills they are also practices in
  which students learn to participate (Greeno,
  1997, p. 9).

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Overlapping Communities of Practice

• Wenger (1998) stresses the multiplicity and
  overlapping character of communities of practice
  and the role of the individual in contributing to
  the practice of a community.

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Conceptualising the Practices of the Classroom

• Classroom Practice - collaboratively constructed
  by teacher and students
• Small Group and Dyadic Practice - collaboratively
  constructed by groups within the classroom
• Individual Practice - bodies of practice
  regularly employed by individuals and reflective
  of the constraints and affordances of the
  setting. These may have transcendent features, in
  the sense of teacher scripts and learner
  scripts.

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Survey or Case Study

• Our approach has been to study well-taught
  mathematics classrooms through case studies
  constructed with an emphasis on the Learners
  Perspective
• Other researchers (notably Stigler Hiebert)
  have adopted a survey-style approach videotaping
  single lessons from a nationally representative
  sample of teachers
• These two approaches are highly complementary

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Complementarity

• TIMSS Video Study - Japan a nationally
  representative sample of 50 lessons (one camera,
  focus on teaching and public talk)
• Learners Perspective Study - Japan sequences of
  ten lessons from three competent teachers, 30
  lessons (three cameras, post-lesson interviews)
• The results of such studies should be
  complementary and mutually informing

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Cultural Authorship

• Reports of international studies are inevitably
  reflective of the curricular interests and
  priorities and the cultural values of the
  authoring culture
• International studies must facilitate analyses
  that reflect different cultural perspectives
• One of the distinguishing features of the
  Learners Perspective Study is the anticipation
  that value will accrue from research reports with
  different cultural authorship

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Acknowledgements

• The Learners Perspective Study has benefited
  considerably from research grants provided by the
  Australian Research Council. This support is
  gratefully acknowledged.
• Similarly, the support of The University of
  Melbourne is acknowledged with grateful
  appreciation.

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References

• Clarke, D.J. (Ed.) (2001). Perspectives on
  Practice and Meaning in Mathematics and Science
  Classrooms. Dordrecht, Netherlands Kluwer
  Academic Press.
• Greeno, J. G. (1997). On Claims that Answer the
  Wrong Questions. Educational Researcher, 26(1),
  5-17.
• Stigler, J. Hiebert, J. (1999). The Teaching
  Gap. New York Free Press.
• Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice
  Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge
  Cambridge University Press.

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Thank You For Your Interest

• The Learners Perspective Study welcomes any
  enquiries from interested researchers (address
  such enquiries and requests for copies of papers
  to d.clarke_at_unimelb.edu.au)