Cognition has for a long time been viewed as a process that can be described in terms of computational symbol manipulation, i.e. a process that takes place inside people’s heads and is largely unaffected by contextual aspects. In recent years, however, there has been a considerable change in the way researchers look at and study human cognition. These changes also have far-reaching implications for education and educational research. Situated learning is a theoretical framework in which sociocultural aspects of cognition and learning are strongly emphasised, that is, the context in which learning takes place is an important part of learning activity. The concept of activity is central to situated learning theories, but activity has been considered an exclusively sociocultural process in which the body only plays a minor role. In embodied cognition research, on the other hand, there is an increasing awareness that mind and body are inextricably intertwined and cannot be viewed in isolation. Findings in cognitive neuroscience provide additional evidence that cognition is tightly linked to perception and action. The aim of this thesis has been to investigate the role of the body in situated learning activity by integrating these different perspectives on cognition and learning. The analysis suggests that, like individual human conceptualization and thought, situated learning is in fact deeply rooted in bodily activity. In social interactions the body provides individuals with a similar perspective on the world, it functions as a means of signalling to others what cannot (yet) be expressed verbally, and it serves as a resonance mechanism in the understanding of others.

While (big) data promises immense opportunity, initiatives focused on using data to pursue insight have mixed outcomes. The Management Support Systems (MSS) model summarises what we currently understand within Information Systems (IS) about the implementation and use of systems to improve organisations’ use of data. Adopting an ethnographic approach to observe how practitioners in two contrasting organisations actually generate insight from data, this research challenges the implicit information processing and implementation logics of the MMS model. The pragmatic messiness of pursuing insight is described in two monographs, which reveal the socially constructed nature of data in relation to phenomena, and the importance of data engagement to produce insight. Given that this PhD study also seeks to generate insight from data, it is compared and contrasted reflexively to the two cases observed. While the inquiry logic pursued in this study was made explicit, and was regularly reviewed and challenged, the two cases left this largely implicit. The use of tools is shown to facilitate and constrain inquiry, with related data acting as boundary objects between the different practitioner groups involved. An explanatory framework is presented and used to suggest various enhancements to the MSS model. First, the Problem Space is reframed to reflect the distinct, though interdependent logics involved in inquiry versus realising envisaged benefits from insights. Second, the MSS artefact itself is contextualised and Data Engagement rather than MSS or Tool Use is positioned as central. Third, Data are disentangled from the wider MSS artefact, as a critical, distinct construct. Fourth, an Alignment construct is introduced to address the boundary spanning nature of data initiatives. The thesis also highlights the value of using Wenger’s (1998) Communities of Practice (CoP) situated learning framework to study data initiatives, and the related value of mapping groups as a technique for further development. Some questions are provided for practitioners to gain a better understanding of data initiatives. Wider implications are also noted for the socio-material theorising of Data, and distinguishing between Data, Information and Knowledge concepts within the IS discipline.

This intrinsic case study documents a community-based history expedition implemented as a project-based, voluntary, out-of-school history activity. The expedition's development was informed by the National Education Association's concept of the intensive study of history, its structure by the history seminary, and its spirit by Webb's account of seminar as history expedition. Specific study objectives included documentation of the planning, implementation, operation, and outcomes of the expedition, as well as the viability of the history expedition as a vehicle for engaging teenagers in the practice of history. Finally, the study examined whether a history expedition might serve as a curriculum of identity. Constructivist philosophy and situated learning theory grounded the analysis and interpretation of the study. Undertaken in North Central Texas, the study followed the experiences of six teenagers engaged as historians who were given one year to research and write a historical monograph. The monograph concerned the last horse cavalry regiment deployed overseas as a mounted combat unit by the U.S. Army during World War II. The study yielded qualitative data in the form of researcher observations, participant interviews, artifacts of participant writing, and participant speeches. In addition, the study includes evaluations of the historical monograph by subject matter experts. The data indicate that participants and audience describe the history expedition as a highly motivational experience which empowered participants to think critically, write historically, and create an original product valuable to the regiment's veterans, the veterans' families, the State of Texas, and military historians. The study supports the contention of the National Education Association that the intensive study of history can be beneficial both to expedition participants and to their community. The assertion that engaging teenagers as researchers within a discipline serves as a curriculum of identity was supported in the study as well. The study underscored the importance of oral history as a gateway for learning about modern history.

Traditional teaching and learning structures in large music ensembles (e.g., orchestra) place the teacher as the leader and sole dispenser of knowledge with the students as passive learners (e.g., Allsup, 2003; Hendricks, 2018; Rogoff, 1994). However, research indicates that students can play an active role in the learning that occurs in school music ensembles. Alternative style string ensembles, which often involve informal learning, are ideal musical settings for the development of a student-centered, collaborative learning environment. The purpose of this study was to explore how high school string students collaborated with each other as they learned alternative music styles music in an after-school fiddle group. Communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991) served as the theoretical framework for this investigation in which I explored student participants’ perspectives, experiences, and interactions as they learned new alternative styles music. During the course of this study I also explored the changing learning roles of the participants and the role of the teacher as facilitator during the learning process. The following research questions guided this study: (1) What various roles did the students undertake in their community of practice? (2) How did the participants move toward legitimate participation as they collaborated with each other in alternative styles of music? (3) How did the teacher serve as facilitator of this community of practice? Data were collected via observations and by way of semi-structured interviews of the participants and their teacher. I used a system of coding to identify important components of learning, what the participants learned, and their movement through the community of learning. From these codes, I identified the following themes: teaching and learning aurally, collaborative learning, changing learning roles of students and the teacher, transfer of participation, leadership and sharing knowledge, student centered learning, enjoyment of playing with others, confidence, perseverance, and students gaining a deeper interest and understanding of the music. These themes served as the basis for presenting the findings for the reader. Findings from this study may inform secondary school string teachers in developing strategies for incorporating alternative styles and collaborative learning environments into their own string curricula. Findings may also provide insights with helping teachers in developing and refining student-centered collaborative learning settings and alternative styles.

There is a lack of understanding of the factors that determine one's motivation to share knowledge within a public sector community of practice. Additionally, the impact of knowledge sharing in communities of practice on the work performance of members remains under-investigated. The purpose of this study was first to investigate how motivational factors, enablers and barriers influence knowledge sharing within a community of practice in a public organization and, second, to examine how community of practice members' work performance is associated with knowledge sharing. Findings are as follow. First, all three motivating factors considered in the study, community related considerations, normative considerations, and personal benefits, were found to have a unique contribution to the variance in knowledge sharing. Second, results showed that three enablers have a significant main effect on knowledge sharing: social interaction, reward, and support. Third, two of the four barriers, degree of courage and degree of empathy, which measured organizational culture, were found to have a significant main effect on knowledge sharing. Fourth, the interaction of normative consideration with social interaction, personal benefit with support, and normative considerations with courage had a moderating effect on the relationship between motivating factors and knowledge sharing. Fifth, there was a moderate positive correlation between knowledge sharing and work performance. Trust and reward were not significant predictors of one's willingness to share knowledge in a community of practice

The average age of principal farm operators rose from 50.3 years in 1978, to 57.1 years in 2007, as farmers retire and new farmers do not enter farming (NASS, 2013).With declining numbers of entrants into farming, agricultural educators and service providers must better understand strategies for effectively preparing beginning farmers. On-farm apprenticeships in the U.S. show promise as a means to prepare farmers and are increasing in number (Niewolny and Lillard, 2010). Lave (1988) writes 'knowledge-in-practice, constituted in the settings of practice, is the locus of the most powerful knowledgeability of people in the lived-in world' (p. 14). Thus, farming, as a complex set of interwoven skills, is best learned in situ, as situated learning. On-farm apprenticeships therefore may allow learners to construct knowledge in context, and build identities as farmers. In this thesis, I share findings from a mixed methods study that explored what kinds of on-farm apprenticeships are available, and to whom; and important educational practices, structures, and institutions that support on-farm apprenticeship learning. This study comprises data from a survey (N=45) of Virginia farmers who host apprentices, and interviews (N=12) with farmers and on-farm apprentices. Findings describe who undertakes on-farm apprenticeships, and suggest that apprentices develop expert identities through situated learning with farmers. Findings describe how farmers participate as educators, and how farms function as sites of situated learning. This study also found that on-farm apprenticeships are embedded within alternative food movements, with social reproduction potentially occurring. I also explore broader implications for preparing beginning farmers. / Master of Science in Life Sciences

Digital technologies have for many years been acclaimed as tools that hold the power to transform learning, yet educational research has so far failed to demonstrate the transformative effects of these digital technologies on learning outcomes (Cuban, 2001; Price and Kirkwood, 2011). Some research has even gone so far as to question this underlying assumption regarding digital technologies ability to transform education, suggesting that they do not in fact have any inherently positive benefits for learning, and that perceived benefits are actually artefacts produced by other factors (Means et al, 2009). Several potential causes have been proposed for the slow progress in educational technology, including lack of time for staff development, unsuitability of technologies, and cultural barriers within institutions (Laurillard, 2012a). A fourth potential cause may lie with the lack of theory to explain technologies themselves (Oliver, 2013). Different theoretical perspectives have been proposed as a way to enhance our understanding of technologies, with one potential candidate being the theory of affordances. The theory of affordances has been used extensively within many fields, including educational technology, but remains a divisive and often under-defined term (Hammond, 2010). This thesis argues that this may in part be due to its distortion through adoption in multiple disciplines, and its popular description as the ‘action possibilities’ presented by an object or scenario, something not present in the theory’s original conception. It is suggested that a return to the original theory of affordances as proposed by Gibson (1979), which attempted to explain how individuals derive meaning from the world around them, returns clarity to the theory. A particular focus on the underexplored aspects of intention and invariant, together with a re-appreciation of what it means to apply the theory of affordances to digital environments, to digital spaces and places, provides a way of thinking about affordance that arguably can be applied more constructively to the effective use of technology in education. A design-based research approach was taken in order to research the original concept of affordance, and its key components of intention and invariant, within learning scenarios supported by digital technologies. Design-based research is an evolving methodology, with no strict definition, but it has shown promise in both the design and the research of technology-enhanced learning environments (Wang and Hannafin, 2005). A pilot phase at secondary school level demonstrated the potential for the approach; multiple iterations at a higher education level developed and enriched these findings into a stable model for the alignment of digital technologies with a particular pedagogical scenario. Findings suggest that affordances can be used to ‘explain’ educational technology, if the concept is broadened to include the wider ecology of learning; digital technologies not only as tools, but also as places. Extending the notion of affordances from ‘action possibilities’ to ‘transaction possibilities’ gives agency to both learner and technology, and recognises the important contribution of the digital environment to the learner experience. A specific design framework is offered which uses this redefinition of affordances as a design tool to align an authentic learning scenario with the digital technologies that have the potential to support that learning scenario. A generic design methodology is proposed, based on this framework, which has the potential to align pedagogy and technology using this updated definition of affordance. To close, some thoughts on the value of the design-based research approach are discussed.

This study describes the attempt to understand the quality of mediation between people within a community of practice. An innovative chefs’ apprenticeship in a dedicated restaurant provides a setting in which to explore what happens when a group of young people are learning to become fully accepted members of a community of practice. The setting, the social enterprise of Fifteen London, is founded on a passionate belief in the learning potential of all individuals, regardless of background. Conducted over a period of five years this ethnographic study tells the stories of the apprentices; the story of the community; and the story of conducting the investigation. A pilot study completed in 2005 revealed that beyond the mediation observed between individuals, apprentices’ felt their experience of the culture of the learning environment had a greater impact. The thesis explores the theoretical implications of these findings. Drawn from a sociocultural perspective, two theoretical frameworks are applied: Mediated Learning Experience (Feuerstein, Miller and Tannenbaum, 1994) concerned with the mediation between people and its effect on human development; and Situated Learning (Lave and Wenger, 1991) concerned with participation in a community of practice. These frameworks were felt to be useful to an analysis which demonstrates that a community of practice can be analysed according to the framework for Mediated Learning Experience. The symbiosis of these two approaches creates a coherent framework for discourse in which to analyse the learning process itself. A description of the community highlights the complexities of learning, and the challenges of attempting to change the course of human development by means of cultural transmission and social enterprise. I conclude that this learning environment serves as a good example of what can be achieved when innovation works hand in hand with moral purpose.

Student Number : 7262070 - M Ed research report - School of Education - Faculty of Humanities / This research report investigates the development of undergraduate history students’ knowledgeability and identity as historians. Drawing on a sociological paradigm, it examines the classification of the discipline or practice of history that informs undergraduate history teaching at a sample of three South African universities. It suggests that most undergraduate courses focus on and aim to apprentice students into a partial experience of the practice of history – the adjudicative task of the historian. The report then presents findings from an analysis of student feedback on their participation in an extended local history assignment. The analysis of student work draws upon socio-cultural notions of situated learning and the community of practice. This analysis suggests that as an instance of situated learning, the local history engagement enhances students’ understanding of the interpretative task of the historian and their own identity as constructors of history. The findings also suggest that there are implications for curriculum development in undergraduate history programmes.

Thesis advisor: Rebecca Lowenhaupt / This qualitative case study examined the organizational learning mechanisms used by school and district leaders to support professional learning within the context of curriculum reform. Elements of organizational learning theory provided a conceptual framework through which the researcher explored how teachers learned and how district leaders supported their learning about a district-wide curriculum reform. Data were collected through document review and semi-structured interviews with eighteen professionals from an urban district in the Northeast. Findings showed that (a) the district implemented an integrated system of organizational learning mechanisms to support teacher/instructional coach learning relevant to curriculum reform efforts, (b) teachers and coaches perceived these learning mechanisms to be effective in supporting their learning and (c) teachers and coaches demonstrated varying levels of understanding regarding the district’s curriculum reform priorities. Recommendations included: (a) enhancements to school and district strategic planning documents, (b) connecting principals closely to the teaching and learning operations of the district and (c) implementing feedback mechanisms to monitor individual interpretations of district priorities. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.