Learning Study Approach Research Articles

How Learning Study could empower teachers to embrace education initiatives through research–practice partnership in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT The issue of the “research-practice gap” has been a long-standing concern in the education community. To tackle this issue, there is a growing interest in research–practice partnerships (RPPs) to connect research with practice by providing solutions for improving practice in schools. Although studies have reported that constructive relationship would produce positive outcomes, establishing long-term and mutually beneficial RPPs requires further investigation. In Hong Kong, the Learning Study (LS) approach with Variation Theory derived from phenomenology as the theoretical framework for pedagogical design has been adopted as a RPP model and has sustained for two decades. Like many RPPs models, LS approach has been facing different challenges when teachers are increasingly held accountable for meeting new demands from education reform. In this respect, this paper explores the challenges and strategies of the LS approach as a RPP model and its conditions of success. It reports a case study of how a group of English Language teachers adopting a LS approach while integrating education initiatives in their instructional design. The findings have identified trust building, teacher’s capacity building and visible outcomes as possible key factors of effective RPP model. This paper may shed light on the implementation of research–practice partnerships.

Theorizing variation theory—a case of collaborative action research involving science teacher candidates

ABSTRACT Our collaborative action research addresses a challenge in initial teacher education pertaining to the lack of theoretical coherence between teacher candidates’ understandings of teaching and learning. The group comprised of three science teacher candidates (Authors 2 and 3) and a university faculty member (Author 1). Through a loosely adapted learning study approach, we embarked on the process of learning to apply a theoretical lens, i.e. variation theory, to frame lessons taught during the school-based practicum; we focused on the use of variation, which is a pedagogical strategy that is undertheorized in biology education. In this paper, we provided a description and reflection of the theory-framed lessons teacher candidates in our group taught. Data sources included lesson plans and materials, video recordings of lessons, reflections and teacher interviews that promoted further articulation of our experiences of the action research process. By comparing our employment of variation theory to frame lesson planning, classroom teaching and student learning, patterns of variation were reflected upon and theorized through the group process. This expanded our collective understandings about the application of variation theory to biology teaching. The paper thus demonstrates the theoretical work we engaged in as an ongoing and dialectical exploration of practice and theory.

A COMPARISON OF AMERICAN-BORN CHINESE AND TAIWANESE COLLEGE STUDENTS IN APPROACHES TO STUDYING

Purpose:The purpose of this study was designed to bracket both population’s culturally-related study skills in an attempt to know their similarities and dissimilarities.
 Methodology:The current study used a quasi-experimental quantitative researchto examine 62 American-born Chinese and 79 Taiwanese college students by using the Approaches to Studying Inventory to compare their learning study approaches.
 Results:Data analysis revealed three significant results: (a) American-born Chinesestudentsexpressed more interesting in ideas in deep approach and syllabus-boundness in surface approach than Taiwanese students. (b) Taiwanese students showed more in seeking meaning in deep approaches and time management in strategic approach than American-born Chinese students (c) American-born Chinese students displayed grater extrinsic motivation than their Taiwanese counterparts whereas Taiwanese students were more intrinsically motivated academically than American-Born Chinese students.
 Implications:Results suggest that American-born Chinese students’ learning approaches were influenced by their learning and social contexts. Further studies could be conducted to identify the learning approaches in various generations of American-born Chinese to differentiate learning and social context influences.

Determinant factors for implementing learning study in developing countries: the case of Tanzania

The study explored the contributing factors in implementing the learning study approach in Tanzanian secondary schools. Three mathematics teachers formed a learning study group, guided by the variation theory of learning, to share their experiences on how to implement a Learner-Centred Approach (LCA) in their school milieu. Teachers were interviewed at the end of each intervention phase on the prospects they encountered in the course of implementing the learning studies. Classroom observation notes were taken to supplement the interview data, which were analysed using phenomenographic variation framework. The results show that the school’s administrative support, the existing curriculum and perceived positive outcomes of the learning studies were the key factors contributing to the learning study perfection. We therefore, conclude that careful attention should be taken into account to promote key aspects for sustainable implementation of the learning studies in developing countries’ secondary schools with similar attributes to the Tanzanian context.

The Use of Learning Study in Designing Examples for Teaching Physics

Researchers have consistently demonstrated that studying multiple examples is more effective than studying one example because comparing multiple examples can promote schema construction and facilitate discernment of critical aspects. Teachers, however, are usually absent from those self-led text-based studies. In this experimental study, a learning study approach based on variation theory was adopted to examine the effectiveness of teachers’ different ways of designing multiple examples in helping students learn a physics principle. Three hundred and fifty-one tenth-grade students learned to distinguish action-reaction from equilibrium (a) by comparing examples that varied critical aspects first separately and then simultaneously, or (b) by comparing examples that separately varied critical aspects only. Results showed that students with average academic attainment benefited more from comparing examples in the first condition. Students with higher academic attainment learned equally within both conditions. This finding supports the advantage of simultaneous variation. The characteristics of students and instructional support should be taken into account when considering the effectiveness of patterns of variation.

Experiences from the teacher-researcher’s perspective on learning study

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze and discuss experiences, in terms of challenges and opportunities, of teacher-researchers who engage in research on the learning study approach. The following two questions will be addressed: how can the teaching experience influence, and become an asset, in the research process and what challenges do teachers face when they enter the research practice?Design/methodology/approachEach question will be explored through some empirically grounded themes. The analysis is based on experiences from participation in a PhD program, where learning study was used as a method and variation theory was the main theoretical framework. One learning study was focusing on creative writing in primary school and the other was focusing on historical primary source analysis in upper secondary school.FindingsThe first question is addressed through the following themes: choosing and identifying research problems; planning and conducting research lessons; analyzing research lessons and students’ learning; and process of self-reflection, and the second question through: teaching as an object of research; to use and develop theories; and communication and review in research. The findings indicate that learning study is a practice-based research approach where teaching experience and academic skills are intertwined in many ways. Both approaches bring opportunities as well as challenges.Originality/valueThe paper is expected to contribute insights and knowledge about the advantages, as well as hindrances to overcome, for teacher-researchers who use learning study as a research method. The results can also be related to the performing of action research in teachers’ classroom practice.

The learning study approach to comparing two typologies of the cost concept for project management teaching

PurposeThe epistemology of project management has been considered imperfect because the gap between theory and practice has not become closer due to unsatisfactory project performance. Without effective learning, the transfer of learning to the workplace would be uncertain. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to use the learning study approach, exploring the value of Variation Theory in comparing two typologies of the cost concept for project management teaching.Design/methodology/approachTo illustrate the application of the theory of variation, a case of teaching the two major cost typologies was demonstrated. A pedagogical setting was designed from the theory for helping students discern the object of learning.FindingsStudents of the target cohort had much fewer errors than previous cohorts in transforming the costs of the first typology used in project management textbooks to those of the second typology used in Microsoft Project.Originality/valueThis is perhaps the first case study to appreciate the use of Variation Theory in project management teaching. Apparently, thinking of how to induce learning and facilitate the transfer of learning should be a productive way for creating excellence in practice.

Revisiting the Idea of “Critical Aspects”

ABSTRACTOver the years, two new strands of research have evolved from the phenomenographic research tradition: the first concerns advancement of the variation theory of learning, whilst the second involves development of the learning study approach. In this paper, the conceptual frameworks of phenomenography, variation theory, and learning studies are critically examined, and we revisit the notion of “critical aspects,” one of the running threads connecting the three research strands. More specifically, we highlight the notion’s relational nature and its relationship with so-called irrelevant aspects. We further argue that we must take care not to lose sight of its connection to the basic tenets of the wider phenomenographic research paradigm to ensure that learning studies make a powerful contribution to education.

Problem Finding in Professional Learning Communities: A Learning Study Approach

This study marries collaborative problem solving and learning study in understanding the onset of a cycle of teacher professional development process within school-based professional learning communities (PLCs). It aimed to explore how a PLC carried out collaborative problem finding—a key process involved in collaborative problem solving—that has received minimal attention in the extant literature. In line with this goal, we adopted the learning study approach, which highlights the application of a theory in research lessons. Multiple data sources were drawn upon to construct a narrative description of four consecutive meetings, detailing challenges and turning points that teachers experienced while engaged in collaborative problem finding, and how the process was facilitated by developing shared understandings of the complexity of possible curricular problems and establishing a common ground amongst teachers. Other modes of action and factors that can facilitate the process of collaborative problem finding are also presented.

Learning Study – the dual process of developing theory and practice

Purpose– Variation Theory has been used as a source of guiding principles for pedagogical design, lesson analysis and improvement in Learning Study (LS). The purpose of this paper is to argue that the LS approach provides an important opportunity for teachers and researchers not only to improve the teaching strategies together but also refine the Variation Theory in action.Design/methodology/approach– A case study of teaching writing in Chinese at Primary 4 level of a LS project is selected using analysis of covariance to identify lessons that had significant differences in student learning outcomes. Analysis focuses on examining one of the major claims in Variation Theory which is that “contrast should precede generalization” in order to explore if this argument is able to provide a possible answer to the difference in student performance in the two classes of students of similar ability learning the same topic. Teachers’ contribution to the discussion of the application of the theory is analysed to explain the different teaching strategies chosen.Findings– The case study shows that in a LS platform, teachers’ teaching act and their interaction with theorists contributed to a dual process of developing the practice as well as the theory itself. The results of students’ learning serve as evidences for the claim that “contrast should precede generalization” as the theory suggested.Originality/value– Most of the lesson study and LS projects emphasize teachers’ learning through the participation in the process. This paper illustrates that in conducting LS approach, when there is conscious effort to direct discussion toward how to handle the content in terms of Variation Theory explicitly, the result could contribute to the development of the theory itself. Hence, the LS provides an important opportunity for teachers and researchers to refine strategies as well as theories of teaching and learning together.

The learning study as an approach for “clinical” subject matter didactic research

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to contribute to the conceptual classification of learning study as a research approach.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is mainly theoretical, drawing on articles concerning classroom‐based research approaches as well as on some distinctions between a university‐based science of the universal and a clinical science of the particular.FindingsThe main argument of the article is that learning studies can neither be subsumed under “design and development research” (because this type of research does not include the professional actor) nor under “teacher research” (because it does not pay much attention to theoretical knowledge) nor should it be regarded as a hybrid between design experiments and lesson studies. In spite of similarities to both it should rather be described as clinical research (in analogy to medical clinical research). The use of teachers’ experiences and tacit knowing in the knowledge‐producing process, the iterative process of specification of theory, and the uniqueness of the learning problems among different groups of pupils are central aspects of a particularistic clinical research process. In comparison with lesson study, the learning study is more focussed on constructing knowledge concerning objects of learning as well as teaching‐learning relations. Teachers are included in the research as interpretative professionals making professional sense of particular educational events.Originality/valueThe paper promotes the conceptual discussion of the learning study approach, as well as of both lesson and learning studies as research approaches, i.e. as knowledge‐producing practices.

Critical conditions for pre‐service teachers' learning through inquiry

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to report on a “Learning Study” program developed in Hong Kong that attempted to foster the learning of pre‐service teachers through a new, collaborative, inquiry‐based approach.Design/methodology/approachA case study is used to illustrate how and what was learnt in this way by the student teachers attending the program.FindingsThe paper explains how the Learning Study approach, with its particular structure and conceptual framework, can meet some of the critical conditions of a successful inquiry‐based approach to an initial teacher education program, as identified in the literature.Originality/valueThe paper also explores the challenges of the approach and its potential for development into a sound pedagogy for initial teacher education.

An Activity Theory View on Learning Studies

Learning study has been used by many to develop exemplary teaching in school, and this approach has recently been adopted for use in kindergarten as well. When using such approaches in different settings than they were intended for, several challenges potentially arise. This article discusses the implementation of a learning study approach in a Norwegian kindergarten setting and employs activity theory as a framework for this theoretically based analysis. Several potential limitations of the approach are discussed and suggestions for further development are made. Differences between the learning culture of Norwegian kindergartens and, in particular, the view on learning in the theoretical framework of learning studies is emphasized.

Learning study: helping teachers to use theory, develop professionally, and produce new knowledge to be shared

The lesson study approach is a systematic process for producing professional knowledge about teaching by teachers, and has spread rapidly and extensively in the United States. The learning study approach is essentially a kind of lesson study with an explicit learning theory—the variation theory of learning. In this paper, we argue that having an explicit learning theory adds value to lesson study, as the variation theory of learning serves as a source of guiding principles for the teachers when they engage in pedagogical design, lesson analysis and evaluation. Through the use of two Hong Kong learning study cases, one from each of the two major ways of conducting learning study, we demonstrate the power of variation theory in explaining and predicting the relationship between what has taken place in the classroom and what the learners learn, and subsequently identifying ways to improve student learning through promoting teacher professional learning in a learning study setting.

Investigating Learning, Participation and Becoming in Early Childhood Practices with a Relational Materialist Approach

Schooling is a significant feature of social experience for children in many countries around the world. However, despite the massive technological, social, economic, environmental and political changes that have occurred during the past few decades, pedagogic approaches in many educational systems appear to have changed relatively little over time. There has been much criticism of traditional schooling practices which have remained constant and unchanging in these times of unprecedented changes. Scholars of education have posed questions about the relevance of long-standing practices to children who live in global economies in the twenty-first century, querying why such practices continue to be replicated without due consideration of the diversity of cultural and social conditions that exist in these new situations, and asking whether alternative pedagogic models and schooling practices might be more relevant to the lives of millennial children living globalized lives. In this article I both welcome and critique two increasingly popular pedagogic approaches – the learning study approach and the Reggio Emilia approach – that have been taken up in schools and classrooms in a range of countries, arguing that these two approaches reproduce dominant binaries associated with modern liberal humanist education. Finally, I consider how a relational materialist approach might offer an alternative approach that attends more seriously to the interdependencies, responsibilities and potentialities that characterize global childhoods.

Effects of hierarchical versus sequential structuring of teaching content on creativity in Chinese writing

This research employed the Learning Study approach which refers to a blend of Japanese “lesson study” and design-based research to provide support to teachers to teach creatively in Chinese writing. It reports a serendipity finding that remarkable differences in the creativity scores among these classes were noted even though they had the same learning objectives with the same lesson plan. Examining how teachers structure writing activities in a unit is essential to the understanding of how creativity works in the context of classroom instruction. We suggested that these differences were associated with the effects of hierarchical and sequential structuring of teaching content on creativity in Chinese writing. Possible ways of understanding creativity in a domain-specific training and disseminations of the findings are suggested.