Comparative judgement and the visualisation of construct formation in a personal learning environment

Abstract

ABSTRACT The way in which informal learning in a Personal Learning Environment (PLE) is coordinated is poorly understood. Conversation – with teachers, friends or family – contributes to the processes involved in meaningfully negotiating resources. While institution-centric education creates contexts for conversations and codifies educational attainment, the institution cannot directly codify personal understanding. Through analysing patterns of personal construct-making we visualise the emergence of personal understanding, showing how this might be codified by the person, not the institution. A transdisciplinary module designed to produce personalised learning is studied. This module features dialogical activities coupled with a comparative judgement technique where learners repeatedly compared pairs of documents over time saying which they found more interesting. We visualise this data showing how it is possible to track “constructs” as patterns which emerge as learners express their judgements over time. Our analytical technique draws on the biological and mathematical theory of “anticipatory systems” alongside Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory. Drawing on Kelly, we argue that meaning is attributable to patterns of anticipation. These patterns are discerned through identifying shifts in information entropy in engagement with the software alongside analysis of learner reflections over time. These demonstrate both patterns of development and differentiation among learners.