Cumulative Knowledge Building Research Articles

Radical Visible Pedagogy and Cumulative Knowledge-Building in Education

Twenty-first century learning revolves around a pedagogical discourse based on simplistic dichotomies, favoring a student-centered approach. This direction claims that such a learning model will lead to in-depth learning in education. This paper refutes this claim and argues that curricula based on twenty-first century learning promotes a social and context-dependent form of knowledge. To examine the problem of 21st century learning, and to develop an alternative, this paper introduces Bernstein’s pedagogical modalities, which are investigated using the terms “semantic gravity” and “semantic density.” These concepts are used to analyze teachers’ pedagogical practices in three different subjects, considering the further effects of these practices on learning and knowledge-building, as expressed in submitted student papers. The analysis suggests that practices that create long semantic waves, where knowledge is transformed between decontextualized meanings and contextualized meanings, are a condition for in-depth learning and cumulative knowledge-building. The paper argues that this form of knowledge-building is a result of a radical visible pedagogy, which includes practices that are based on different forms of knowledge, making visible how these forms of knowledge can be connected and transformed in education.

TVET SI: Renewable Energy Technologies: How technical curricula could enable a brighter future

The potential of renewable energy technologies to mitigate climate change while meeting the energy demand of future generations is recognised globally. In South Africa, occupations such as wind turbine technicians and solar photovoltaic installers are in high demand. In response to these needs, Renewable Energy Technologies (RET) subjects were developed as specialised electives within the Electrical Infrastructure Construction programme that is off ered by technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges. The focus of this study is the knowledge that underpins the RET subjects. The guiding research question is: What forms of knowledge underpin the RET curricula, and what is the relationship between these knowledge forms? The semantic dimension of Legitimation Code Theory was used to explain the knowledge forms underpinning the RET subjects. The study uncovered gaps and imbalances across the range of knowledge forms selected, while the relationships between the knowledge forms constrained cumulative knowledge building. The contribution made by the study is a principled understanding of how knowledge selection and sequencing in technical curricula could enable cumulative learning and build valued competencies within the renewable energy field.
 Keywords: renewable energy technologies, technical and vocational education and training, wind turbine technicians, solar photovoltaic installers

Measurement and outcomes of co-production in health and social care: a systematic review of empirical studies

BackgroundCo-production is promoted as an effective way of improving the quality of health and social care but the diversity of measures used in individual studies makes their outcomes difficult to...

Social Sustainability in Aging Populations: A Systematic Literature Review.

Social sustainability becomes increasingly important in aging populations. Yet, scientific discussions on this topic are still emerging. This study helps to develop these discussions by exploring (1) how social sustainability is understood in studies on aging populations, (2) how this understanding differs across the topics discussed, and (3) how population aging is connected to social sustainability. This study conducts a systematic literature review using 33 texts obtained from ProQuest, JStor, and scholar.google.com (02-03/2022). The inclusion criteria were (1) scientific character and (2) explicit focus on the topics of interest. A thematic analysis was conducted. The texts use 3 different understandings of social sustainability: one focusing on what makes societies desirable, one focusing on the quality of life of individuals, and one balancing the interests of current and future generations. The first understanding is most prevalent. Which understanding texts choose depends on their topic, perspective, and goals. The texts describe challenges and opportunities for social sustainability in aging populations, with some recommending a general shift in perspective. Findings provide a clearer and more homogenous understanding of social sustainability for discussions on population aging. Thereby, they facilitate a dialogue between researchers working in this area. Moreover, they help gerontologists increase their contribution to cumulative knowledge building. A limitation is that only texts in English are analyzed. Findings help policymakers and practitioners better understand how to integrate research-based knowledge on social sustainability in their work.

Surfing Semantic Waves: Using Semantic Profiling to Focus on Knowledge in Practicum Lessons

ABSTRACT In Sweden, although all teacher education programs require the completion of the practicum, little focus has been placed on consistent evaluation of how content knowledge is included and built during practicum lessons, or how lesson planning and teaching are aligned. This article presents a novel method for teacher educators, mentors, and student teachers to engage in knowledge focused post-lesson conversations as well as for supervisors to understand student teachers’ lesson planning and subsequent teaching in the practicum period. This research utilized semantic profiling as a method to provide a knowledge-focus for learning during the practicum period. Semantic profiling provides a visualization of how student teachers’ lesson plans and delivered lessons allow for cumulative knowledge-building. The plotting and analysis of 54 semantic profiles, based on lesson plans and in-situ observations, suggest that the more knowledge-driven lesson plans also provided better opportunities for school students to engage in cumulative knowledge-building during delivered lessons. The semantic profiling tool made visible how planned content knowledge was delivered in class to both teacher educator observers and student teachers and stimulated rich practice-focused conversations, suggesting the method to be used across teacher education departments for a shared approach to practicum discussions and evaluations.

Recontextualization of knowledge in the new Norwegian curriculum: Epistemic and non‐epistemic design in learning objectives for social studies

AbstractThe recent Norwegian curriculum reform for schools, called “The subject renewal”, is part of an international trend regarding knowledge‐based curricula. The Norwegian curriculum, which places decisive emphasis on subjects and subject concepts, aims to bring in‐depth learning and knowledge back to schools. This paper is based on Rata's theory, referred to as the curriculum design coherence (CDC) model, and examines the curriculum for social studies. The analysis reveals significant differences in the curriculum's goal formulations, with designs that lack connections between subject concepts and content knowledge, which sheds light on how the transition to a knowledge‐based curriculum is accompanied by several unresolved issues. The paper explains why curricula with coherent designs and epistemically structured knowledge are a prerequisite for in‐depth learning and cumulative knowledge building in schools.

Epistemic and Nonepistemic Design in Textbooks in Social Studies for Lower Secondary School: Do the Textbooks Facilitate Knowledge Building and In-Depth Learning?

The subject renewal, the new Norwegian curriculum for the school, is part of an international trend with a shift towards more knowledge-based curricula, to bring knowledge and in-depth learning back to the school. Against this background, this study examines new Norwegian textbooks in social studies for schools. The analysis is based on a social realist framework, which combines semantics and content analysis and reveals major differences in the design of the textbooks. A distinction is made between epistemic and nonepistemic design, and this study shows that the absence of an epistemic structure is a problem that haunts new textbooks in social studies. When textbooks lack a design that connects subject concepts, content, and competencies, students will not get access to epistemic knowledge, something which creates barriers to in-depth learning and cumulative knowledge building in the subject.

Time Spent Playing Two Online Shooters Has No Measurable Effect on Aggressive Affect

There is a lively debate whether playing games that feature armed combat and competition (often referred to as violent video games) has measurable effects on aggression. Unfortunately, that debate has produced insights that remain preliminary without accurate behavioral data. Here, we present a secondary analysis of the most authoritative longitudinal data set available on the issue from our previous study (Vuorre et al., 2021). We analyzed objective in-game behavior, provided by video game companies, in 2,580 players over six weeks. Specifically, we asked how time spent playing two popular online shooters, Apex Legends (PEGI 16) and Outriders (PEGI 18), affected self-reported feelings of anger (i.e., aggressive affect). We found that playing these games did not increase aggressive affect; the cross-lagged association between game time and aggressive affect was virtually zero. Our results showcase the value of obtaining accurate industry data as well as an open science of video games and mental health that allows cumulative knowledge building.

Study of psycho-correction discourse in community correction under restorative justice from the perspective of individuation

study of psycho-correction discourse in community correction under restorative justice from the perspective of individuation

On the benefits of structural equation modeling for corpus linguists

Abstract The present article aims to introduce structural equation modeling, in particular measured variable path models, and discuss their great potential for corpus linguists. Compared to other techniques commonly employed in the field such as multiple regression, path models are highly flexible and enable testing a priori hypotheses about causal relations between multiple independent and dependent variables. In addition to increased methodological versatility, this technique encourages big-picture, model-based reasoning, thus allowing corpus linguists to move away from the, at times, somewhat overly simplified mindset brought about by the more narrow null-hypothesis significance testing paradigm. The article also includes commentary on corpus linguistics and its trajectory, arguing in favor of increased cumulative knowledge building.

Human Rights Education and Language Learning in Pakistan: An EFL Perspective

This paper explores the dissemination of human rights through English language learning in Pakistan and builds on the knowledge that contributes to the development of democratic educational outcomes. Textbook discourses have long been the domain of critical linguistics; critical linguists understand textbook discourse primarily as a language in the context of schooling while the discourse analysts understand such discourses as systems of knowledge and ideology. The question of how the learners are expected to engage with the subject knowledge is explored from two theoretical perspectives: linguistic analyses are executed using tools such as choice of pronouns, mood, and modality from Systemic FunctionalLinguistics (Halliday et al., 2014), a social semiotic theory of language as a meaning potential, and reinterpreted according to the intercultural paradigm (Piller, 2010) to familiarize the ways interactants choose to build relations in the textbook narratives because in exploring interpersonal meanings it is very easy to focus on what is said and why. Additionally, the image analysis is done by representational analysis that of how images reflect ideologies (Kress & VanLeeuwen., 2006). The contributions of this study are of particular importance to make visible elements of interpersonal meaning-making which were explored in the context of cumulative knowledge building in humanities.

What life-course research can contribute to futures studies

Futures studies is a multidisciplinary field that integrates disciplinary information through discussion. This article integrates information from life-course research with futures studies. Life-course research explores how human lives develop over time, focusing on the past and present. Futures studies may use this information to explore possible, probable, and preferable future developments of human lives. Life-course research defines a stable social context and standardized life-courses as a requirement for futures studies under shallow uncertainty. In this situation, important experiences in a person’s life and social institutions create life-course patterns that may inform deterministic forecasts. Futures studies under medium uncertainty may be carried out when life-courses change gradually over time or when similar countries are compared. Here, personality also creates life-course patterns that may inform probabilistic forecasts. When social contexts change fundamentally or unexpectedly, then futures studies under deep uncertainty are called for. In this situation, important events, social institutions, and personality may inform foresight on future life-course patterns. Finally, futures studies under recognized ignorance may use previous life-course research for inspiration. These insights contribute to cumulative knowledge building, and they underline the opportunities and limitations of futures studies.

Enabling students’ knowledge building in English classrooms in China: The role of teacher monologue

AbstractTeacher monologue has received scant attention in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms which emphasise the teacher-and-student exchange. This study assumes that a key index of interaction would be the construction of knowledge, in which teacher monologue has a due role to play. The research is set in the context of EFL teaching at the tertiary level in China and examines teacher monologue with reference to the concept of making semantic waves in Legitimation Code Theory, which has been proved to be an important means of cumulative knowledge building in classroom practice. Systemic Functional Linguistics is used to analyse how semantic waves are generated on the ideational base of context dependency, i.e. the extent to which the reality construed in teacher monologue is dependent on its context. The transdisciplinary perspective attempts to provide one possible way to model linguistic choices in making semantic waves in EFL classrooms. The findings are the primary and secondary categories of semantic patterns representing a scale of context dependency. Semantic waves trace recurrent movements between relatively decontextualised and context-dependent meanings in the progression of semantic patterns. The shifts might scaffold students in the construction of knowledge essential for developing academic English proficiency.

Exploring content and language co-construction in CLIL with semantic waves

ABSTRACT In content and language integrated learning (CLIL) classrooms, it is assumed that non-language content subjects provide more authentic communicative contexts for students to learn a foreign/second/additional language (L2). However, learning abstract concepts and academic language in an L2 simultaneously is also challenging for CLIL students. It is thus important for CLIL teachers to unpack and repack both abstract concepts and academic discourse for the students. ‘Semantic waves’, which model classroom practices of both unpacking and repacking, is arguably a key to understanding cumulative knowledge-building. Applying the concepts of semantic profiles and semantic waves, this paper analyses the classroom discourse of two CLIL science lessons in Hong Kong. In one lesson, the semantic profile mainly consists of downward shifts. The teacher adopted various useful strategies to unpack science concepts, especially with multimodalities, everyday L2 and students’ L1 resources. Yet, there was limited repacking. In contrast, some repacking was observed in another lesson, where the teacher provided explicit instruction on academic language and guided students through academic writing tasks. A semantic wave can thus be observed there. These findings on strategies for unpacking and repacking provide significant insights into knowledge building in CLIL contexts, and may hence illuminate CLIL pedagogical practices.

Unpacking autonomy for empirical comparative investigation

ABSTRACT Teacher autonomy has been a topic of growing interest over recent decades. However, what teacher autonomy means remains work in progress. Drawing from existing conceptualisations, which consider teacher autonomy as a multidimensional and context-dependent phenomenon this paper presents an analytical device applicable in international comparative studies. The conceptualisation is presented in the form of a matrix, which distinguishes different domains and levels of teacher autonomy. A sample of existing research is then utilised to demonstrate how the matrix can assist in cumulative knowledge building. The article demonstrates how the matrix can be applied, in particular, to empirical comparative research.

Cumulative knowledge-building for inclusive education in initial teacher education

ABSTRACTInitial teacher education must respond to the demand that newly qualified teachers are able to teach inclusively. This response has been the creation of opportunities for learning in coursework and field experiences. Research has identified the impact of these initiatives and also revealed challenges. One such challenge is the lack of a coherent conceptual framework that leads to a disconnection between coursework and field experiences. We frame this challenge as the need for cumulative knowledge-building as part of developing inclusive teaching as a knowledge-based practice. Drawing on the conceptual repertoire of Legitimation Code Theory, we argue for programme design that systematically develops pre-service teachers’ conceptual and contextual understandings of inclusive teaching through a structured interplay between coursework and field experiences. Assessment plays an important role in showing students what is important in a curriculum, so we suggest approaches to assessment of inclusive teaching competence that supports knowledge-building.

The construction of semantic waves of knowledge-building: High school students´ natural science writing

This paper investigates popular science articles written by Swedish high school students as part of a project aimed at building their knowledge of the content of their natural science curriculum by integrating it with their Swedish language studies. This work, an effort to promote content-area literacy and knowledge-building, was undertaken during their project time. By analyzing the students´ texts, the purpose of the study was to access their value as knowledge-building tools. The analysis of the texts was carried out utilizing Maton´s (2013) theoretical concepts of waves of semantic density and semantic gravity, which are seen as a prerequisite for cumulative knowledge-building. The investigation extends previous studies on semantic waves since it incorporates into the analyses both linguistic features and visual elements. The students were writing in pairs and a total of six texts were analyzed. The text analyses showed three different types of semantic profiles, with four of the texts including features that served as means of cumulative knowledge-building. In a concluding section, some pedagogical implications of the study are considered.

An engaging pedagogy for an academic curriculum

AbstractThe article discusses the link between a curriculum based on academic subjects derived from disciplinary knowledge and a progressive pedagogy that endeavours to engage students from all backgrounds with it. Section 1 describes the realist theory of knowledge which justifies the argument for this accommodation between curriculum and pedagogy. Section 2 explains how conceptual progression serves as an effective curriculum design strategy for supporting pedagogy. The final section discusses how concepts and studies from within the social realist tradition can be used to theorise an accommodation between curriculum and pedagogy that promotes cumulative knowledge building among students and teachers by being responsive to both the students and to the knowledge being taught in motivating ways.

A case for project based learning to enact semantic waves: towards cumulative knowledge building

ABSTRACT First-year undergraduate curricula and their delivery should assist students in the transition from previous learning experiences to learning in higher education. However, the so-called articulation gap or discontinuity between secondary and higher education has been identified as a key structural curriculum problem for first-year success in South Africa and abroad. Valuable insights into this problem came from a recent study that drew on Legitimation Code Theory (LCT). Findings revealed an unexpectedly wide gap between the high school and the university biology curricula. The high school biology curriculum displays minimal movement between context-dependent, simpler meaning and relatively decontextualized, condensed meaning common in first-year biology. LCT Semantics was also found to be a valuable tool for restructuring curricula and pedagogy to intentionally enact semantic movement and thereby a more gradual transition for students from high school to university. This paper reports on an integrative first-year biology project aimed intentionally at taking students’ concept knowledge through a wide contextual range, and repeatedly between less and more complex meaning. I reflect on how the project design steers students towards creating semantic movement during their presentations, thereby contributing to cumulative knowledge building and a more gradual transition towards first-year epistemological access.

Action Research: Integrating Chemistry and Scientific Communication To Foster Cumulative Knowledge Building and Scientific Communication Skills

Collaboration between chemistry lecturers and literacy lecturers led to the development and implementation of an interdisciplinary project with the object of addressing two pertinent challenges in chemistry education. The first challenge is the tendency of students to approach different topics in science as separate units of knowledge, which hinders cumulative knowledge building. The second challenge is the effective incorporation of scientific communication skills into science curricula. In the course of this project students completed various assignments in the fields of chemistry and scientific communication, while exploring the characteristics and properties of individual ionic compounds. Feedback on the first two iterations of this project was obtained by electronic surveys. The results revealed that the project succeeded in enabling students to appreciate the interconnectedness of various topics within the chemistry curriculum. It also supported the development of students’ scientific communication skills and helped them realize the significance of these skills in a science context. Furthermore, it revealed the importance of concerted communication by the lecturers with the students to maintain the collaboration between the different disciplines.