In this master’s thesis a model for transcription analysis for a one-to-one Relationship ofInquiry were constructed and presented. The model was modified from the model fortranscript analysis in Community of Inquiry. The original three presences from Community ofInquiry, teaching, cognitive and social presence, were chosen to be adapted to Relationship ofInquiry together with a fourth presence, emotional presence. In this study the online coachingproject Math coach were used for the construction and testing of the model.A total of 60 conversations ranging over more than 3000 message units were in this thesisanalysed to test the model. From the data collected it was seen that the coaches and thecoachees had an almost 50-50 share of the message units. Furthermore the presences in thedata collected where distributed so that the most units where coded to cognitive presence, thenin descending order: teaching, emotional, and social presence. In this master’s thesis themodel for transcript analysis is presented and the results are discussed. / I denna examinationsrapport konstrueras och presenteras en modell för transkriptionsanalysför en-till-en samtal i ”Relationship of Inquiry”. Modellen modifierades från den existerandemodellen för transkriptionsanalys i ”Community of Inquiry”. De tre ursprungliga elementenfrån ”Community of Inquiry”, lärarelementet, kognitiva elementet och sociala elementet,anpassades till ”Relationship of Inquiry” tillsammans med ett fjärde element, emotionellaelementet. I denna studie användes projektet Mattecoach på Nätet för konstruktion ochtestning av modellen.Totalt var det 60 konversationer på mer än 3000 meddelanden som analyserades för att testamodellen. Från de data som insamlades kunde det ses att coacherna och eleverna hade ennästan 50-50 fördelning av meddelanden mellan sig. Vidare var elementen fördelade så att deflesta meddelanden som kodades tillhörde det kognitiva elementet, sen följde de i sjunkandeordning: lärarelementet, emotionella elementet och sociala elementet. I detta arbete såkommer modellen för transkriberings analys att presenteras och resultaten att diskuteras.

Enhanced innovative learning through the purposeful development of effective blended teaching and learning environments supported by a variety of interfaces is a strategic focus of the NWU and specifically the Faculty of Educational Science. There are several emerging models to ensure effective online and blended learning but the prominent model that has attracted attention is the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework developed by Garrison, Anderson and Archer in 2000. The CoI framework is conceptually grounded in theories of teaching and learning in higher education and is consistent with John Dewey’s work on community of inquiry. CoI is deeply rooted into pragmatism as is evident in Dewey’s argument where he explains the idea of extracting meaning from experience. The focused of this study was on blended learning in a graduate teacher training course in Technology Education. The content of Technology as a subject is derived from other disciplines such as science, engineering and design. Due to the unique features of Technology as a subject, it was of great value, within this applied discipline, to investigate the unique patterns and relationships occurring among CoI presences in such a module of a teacher training graduate course. The purpose of the study was to:  develop an understanding of how the three presences (teaching presence, social presence and cognitive presence) in CoI enhance online learning;  investigate the extent of CoI in a blended mode of delivery within a TE graduate course; and  develop, implement and evaluate a module for a graduate course in Technology teacher training for a blended mode of delivery, based on requirements for the development of CoI. A design-based research methodology approach was followed for this study and included qualitative and quantitative methods in a multi-strand design. Design-based research is intrinsically linked to, and developmentally nourished by, multiple design and research methodologies, which utilises many data collection and analysis methods and which makes it suitable for a mixed method research. Findings from the literature review on the value of CoI for the effectiveness of online learning indicated that blended learning is dependent on the ability to facilitate a CoI. It is through the application of the principles for CoI that a successful transition from a face-to-face to a blended mode of delivery for the applied subject TE was possible. Findings with regard to the extent to which CoI manifested itself in this Technology graduate course indicated that teaching presence manifested itself to a good extent in the TE undergraduate course. The main findings that were of concern with regard to teaching presence included: insufficient clear instructions and communication, feelings of isolations and disconnectedness, lack of immediacy and the inability to connect online feedback to lecturer expertise. Although social presence did manifest itself to some extent in the TE undergraduate course, it was the hardest to establish out of the three presences. The main issues arising from the manifestation and existence of social presence included: insufficient sense of belonging in the online environment, students didn’t feel comfortable expressing themselves affectively as well as uneasiness to communicate, interact and participate online with other module participants. Finally, cognitive presence did manifest itself to a satisfying extent in the TE undergraduate course. Findings suggest that there was a not sufficient structured triggering events to create a sense of puzzlement which suggests that more activities must be included that will encourage reflection and therefore will improve the movement through the cognitive inquiry process. Other findings from the study indicated that students experienced time management and the coordination and management of group activities as challenging. These challenges experienced by students reflect a lack of self-regulation skills in learning presence. Other challenges included that students experienced in the online environment of blended learning included: accessibility, lack of technology skills and the newness of blended learning. Design principles for the manifestation and existence of CoI for effective learning within a TE graduate module were establish for teaching presence, social presence and cognitive presence. The research contributed to the field by reporting on the process of how CoI can be enhanced in a blended learning environment for a complex subject such as Technology, and by providing evidence based guidelines for the design and implementation of blended learning with CoI principles as guidelines. / PhD (Curriculum Development Innovation and Evaluation), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Enhanced innovative learning through the purposeful development of effective blended teaching and learning environments supported by a variety of interfaces is a strategic focus of the NWU and specifically the Faculty of Educational Science. There are several emerging models to ensure effective online and blended learning but the prominent model that has attracted attention is the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework developed by Garrison, Anderson and Archer in 2000. The CoI framework is conceptually grounded in theories of teaching and learning in higher education and is consistent with John Dewey’s work on community of inquiry. CoI is deeply rooted into pragmatism as is evident in Dewey’s argument where he explains the idea of extracting meaning from experience. The focused of this study was on blended learning in a graduate teacher training course in Technology Education. The content of Technology as a subject is derived from other disciplines such as science, engineering and design. Due to the unique features of Technology as a subject, it was of great value, within this applied discipline, to investigate the unique patterns and relationships occurring among CoI presences in such a module of a teacher training graduate course. The purpose of the study was to:  develop an understanding of how the three presences (teaching presence, social presence and cognitive presence) in CoI enhance online learning;  investigate the extent of CoI in a blended mode of delivery within a TE graduate course; and  develop, implement and evaluate a module for a graduate course in Technology teacher training for a blended mode of delivery, based on requirements for the development of CoI. A design-based research methodology approach was followed for this study and included qualitative and quantitative methods in a multi-strand design. Design-based research is intrinsically linked to, and developmentally nourished by, multiple design and research methodologies, which utilises many data collection and analysis methods and which makes it suitable for a mixed method research. Findings from the literature review on the value of CoI for the effectiveness of online learning indicated that blended learning is dependent on the ability to facilitate a CoI. It is through the application of the principles for CoI that a successful transition from a face-to-face to a blended mode of delivery for the applied subject TE was possible. Findings with regard to the extent to which CoI manifested itself in this Technology graduate course indicated that teaching presence manifested itself to a good extent in the TE undergraduate course. The main findings that were of concern with regard to teaching presence included: insufficient clear instructions and communication, feelings of isolations and disconnectedness, lack of immediacy and the inability to connect online feedback to lecturer expertise. Although social presence did manifest itself to some extent in the TE undergraduate course, it was the hardest to establish out of the three presences. The main issues arising from the manifestation and existence of social presence included: insufficient sense of belonging in the online environment, students didn’t feel comfortable expressing themselves affectively as well as uneasiness to communicate, interact and participate online with other module participants. Finally, cognitive presence did manifest itself to a satisfying extent in the TE undergraduate course. Findings suggest that there was a not sufficient structured triggering events to create a sense of puzzlement which suggests that more activities must be included that will encourage reflection and therefore will improve the movement through the cognitive inquiry process. Other findings from the study indicated that students experienced time management and the coordination and management of group activities as challenging. These challenges experienced by students reflect a lack of self-regulation skills in learning presence. Other challenges included that students experienced in the online environment of blended learning included: accessibility, lack of technology skills and the newness of blended learning. Design principles for the manifestation and existence of CoI for effective learning within a TE graduate module were establish for teaching presence, social presence and cognitive presence. The research contributed to the field by reporting on the process of how CoI can be enhanced in a blended learning environment for a complex subject such as Technology, and by providing evidence based guidelines for the design and implementation of blended learning with CoI principles as guidelines. / PhD (Curriculum Development Innovation and Evaluation), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Most research on Cognitive Load Theory (Sweller, 1988) has uncovered many instructional design considerations for learning complex tasks. Additionally, the Community of Inquiry (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000) framework describes many of the learning experiences in online education. A gap existed in the literature for investigating cognitive load over the duration of a college algebra course and for investigating the relationship between cognitive load and cognitive presence. This research study has addressed this gap by investigating cognitive load and cognitive presence in an online and face-to-face college algebra course. The results of this study revealed that face-to-face students earned statistically significant higher final course grades and homework grades than the online students. The face-to-face math course was slightly more efficient because it produced learners who exerted similar cognitive load as learners in the online course but the learners in the face-to-face earned higher performance score. Online discussion prompts that ask student to apply their solution or defend their solution engaged students in cognitive presence differently. When students were prompted to apply their solution to a real world scenario, most students reached resolution in their initial posts, but they were often not cognitively present in their follow-up posts. When students were prompted to provide a defense of their solution, most of the posts demonstrated cognitive presence, but not as many individual students reached resolution. Additionally, students progressed through the stages of cognitive presence when an instructor asked them a specific question about their math problem or real life scenario in a timely manner. When instructors post questions to their students that directly ask for an application of their hypothesis or an explanation how they arrived at their hypothesis, students can reach the highest stage of cognitive presence. When instructors post messages that reach the highest stage of cognitive presence, students do not post messages that reach the highest stage of cognitive presence. Lastly, this study did not find a strong linear relationship between cognitive presence and cognitive load.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Educational Leadership / W. Franklin Spikes / This research examined the nature of the patterns of communication of discussion board users who were enrolled in undergraduate level online courses. For purpose of analysis, this study used Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework (1992). Data were collected from discussion board posts of eight undergraduate online courses that were offered by a small, private, religiously-affiliated, liberal arts university. An examination of these data was further informed by Garrison, Anderson, & Archer (1999) Community of Inquiry model. Using Garrison et al.’s ideas, the researcher described the nature of the interactions between students and faculty with respect to social, cognitive, and teaching presence in online discussion boards. The findings of this research suggest that understanding the presence of social, cognitive, and teaching presence as well as the nature of the patterns of communication in the discourse is important in developing quality distance education discussion boards. More specifically, they showed that evidence of social and teaching presence was regularly present in an examination of the online discussion boards. Conversely, the data showed very few examples of cognitive presence. Based upon the findings of this research, ideas for how constituents of online education can continue with and improve upon the practices found here relative to social and teaching presence as well as how to re-envision and improve upon cognitive presence and overall-intention for discussion boards were also offered.

An education that does not recognise schools as places for the mere transmission and assimilation of knowledge, but as places for critical and creative inquiry, is quality education. Philosophising with children in schools assumes that children are actively and deliberately encouraged in seeking responses to the questions about reality they raise at a very early age. The practice of philosophy is undoubtedly one of the underpinnings of a quality education for all. By contributing to opening children‘s minds, building their critical reflection and autonomous thinking, philosophy contributes to the protection against manipulation and exclusion at the hands of adults. If education in general must open up to children the maps of an intricate world in a continuous state of tension, then philosophy is a compass for navigating that world. Hence children, irrespective of their geographical location and regardless of their social milieu or state of development of their country, deserve to be equipped with the tools so motivated for. Using conceptual analysis as a tool, I explore the Lipman method of Philosophy for Children by presenting a case for an African perspective of the same. I situate doing philosophy with children in the context of the African philosophy debate. While Lipman‘s model provides the case for the role of rational, logical and systematic thinking in children, the African background promises the raw materials on which the said instruments work. I therefore settle for a hybridised Philosophy for Children programme that marries the universalist and the particularist views of doing philosophy. I argue that the traditional African notion of community plays a significant role in our understanding of the community of inquiry as pedagogy of doing philosophy with children. Embedded in African ―community‖ is the concept of ukama qua relationality, which constitutes a keystone in the envisaged African perspective of Philosophy for Children. I conclude that doing philosophy with children in schools in Africa contributes to the interpretation of the cultural, economic and circumstances of the African situation.

The impact of Internet technology on critical thinking is of growing interest among researchers. However, there still remains much to explore in terms of how critical thinking can be fostered through online environments for higher education. Ten years ago, Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2000) published an article describing the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework which provided an outline of three core elements that were able to describe and measure a collaborative and positive educational experience in an online learning environment, namely teaching presence (design, facilitation, and direct instruction), social presence (the ability of learners to project themselves socially and emotionally), and cognitive presence (the extent to which learners are able to construct and confirm meaning through sustained reflection and discourse). This dissertation extends the body of research surrounding the CoI framework and also the literature on developing critical thinking in online environments by examining and exploring the extent to which teaching and social presence contribute to cognitive presence. The researcher was able to do this by offering 189 learners enrolled in 10 research methods courses and educational research courses an opportunity to use an innovative online resource (Research Design Learning Resource – RDLR) to assist them in learning about educational research and developing research proposals. By exploring how participants used this resource the researcher was able to gain insight into what factors contributed to a successful online learning experience and fostered cognitive presence. Quantitative and qualitative research approaches (mixed methods) were used in this study. The quantitative results indicated that both social and teaching presence had a strong positive relationship with cognitive presence and that learners generally perceived to have a positive learning experience using the RDLR. The qualitative findings helped elaborate the significant quantitative results and were organised into the following themes: making connections, multiple perspectives, resource design, being a self-directed learner, learning strategies, learning preferences, and barriers to cognitive presence. Future directions for critical thinking in online environments are discussed.

The impact of Internet technology on critical thinking is of growing interest among researchers. However, there still remains much to explore in terms of how critical thinking can be fostered through online environments for higher education. Ten years ago, Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2000) published an article describing the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework which provided an outline of three core elements that were able to describe and measure a collaborative and positive educational experience in an online learning environment, namely teaching presence (design, facilitation, and direct instruction), social presence (the ability of learners to project themselves socially and emotionally), and cognitive presence (the extent to which learners are able to construct and confirm meaning through sustained reflection and discourse). This dissertation extends the body of research surrounding the CoI framework and also the literature on developing critical thinking in online environments by examining and exploring the extent to which teaching and social presence contribute to cognitive presence. The researcher was able to do this by offering 189 learners enrolled in 10 research methods courses and educational research courses an opportunity to use an innovative online resource (Research Design Learning Resource – RDLR) to assist them in learning about educational research and developing research proposals. By exploring how participants used this resource the researcher was able to gain insight into what factors contributed to a successful online learning experience and fostered cognitive presence. Quantitative and qualitative research approaches (mixed methods) were used in this study. The quantitative results indicated that both social and teaching presence had a strong positive relationship with cognitive presence and that learners generally perceived to have a positive learning experience using the RDLR. The qualitative findings helped elaborate the significant quantitative results and were organised into the following themes: making connections, multiple perspectives, resource design, being a self-directed learner, learning strategies, learning preferences, and barriers to cognitive presence. Future directions for critical thinking in online environments are discussed.

Online and Blended learning are becoming widespread along with the changing needs of society and advances in technology. Recently, there is a growing emphasis on building learning communities in order to increase the effectiveness of these learning environments. In recent years there is one promising theory that has generated considerable interest and has been widely adopted and studied by researchers: the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework developed by Garrison, Anderson and Archer (2000). The CoI framework, with its emphasis on critical thinking and collaboration, provides a well-structured model and set of guidelines to create effective learning communities in online and blended learning environments. The purpose of this study was to examine the development of a CoI in online and blended learning contexts in relation to students&amp / #8217 / perceived learning and satisfaction. A graduate course delivered online and blended format was the focus of the study. The data was collected through transcript analysis of online discussion, the CoI Survey, and interviews to examine social, teaching, cognitive presence postings patterns, to explore students&amp / #8217 / perceptions of each presence, learning and satisfaction, and to compare the differences between online and blended learning environments. Overall, all three sources of data indicated that a CoI developed in both courses. However, the study found developmental differences in the CoI presences regarding the course format. In terms of social presence, two categories &amp / #8211 / affective communication and group cohesion &amp / #8211 / were found different. Another difference between the two course formats was on the cognitive presence categories. Overall, the transcript analysis in this study found that integration was the most frequently coded phase in both courses. However, the integration phase was found to be significantly higher in the blended course compared to the online course. Finally, the survey analysis yielded higher perceptions of each presence in both courses. However, the students in the blended course had slightly higher perceptions of each presence. The only significant difference was found on teaching presence. The study also yielded some significant relationships among presences which varied according to the course.

Trends in user-generated content on the Web are shifting the role of online course materials, student work, and communications channels in instructional settings. Evidence of users’ interaction with content has been brought into the foreground through interface elements which reflect and encourage interaction, including comments, ratings, tags, “likes”, view statistics, and others. This research considers such features "interaction traces" and explores their use and interpretation by student learners. This research investigates the use and perception of these features by students within a particular type of asynchronous learning environment, the creative writing workshop. Within the two courses studied, a poetry course and a fiction course, two forms of interaction traces were presented: peer criticism posted as comments on creative work and visible view counts for all comments posted in the course. Informed by the Community of Inquiry framework and using a case study methodology, this dissertation investigates whether interaction traces affect perceptions of social presence among students and how students respond to this evidence of the interaction and critique. Data were collected from course discussion transcripts, course management system usage statistics, and participant responses to six surveys. Discussion thread transcripts were subjected to content analysis for indicators of social presence. Additionally, the researcher performed individual interviews with the instructor and a subset of students. Analysis of participants' social presence, interaction with others, and participation in the class revealed evidence that peer criticism was mediated by social presence, that students engaged in a variety of individual relationships based on perceptions developed through interaction traces, and that participant reading and writing activities affected how they perceived the course and their peers. Social presence in comments served not only to humanize participants and to resolve conflict but led to confusion and frustration in some cases. The instructor's high level of social presence in the courses influenced participants and provided a model for some participants' approaches to coursework. Based on the themes which emerged from the case reports, this dissertation suggests some implications for online course planning and course management system design with regard to interaction traces. / text