Exploring the nature of disciplinary teaching and learning using Legitimation Code Theory Semantics
- Authors: Clarence, Sherran
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/61314 , vital:28014 , https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2015.1115972
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Clarence, Sherran
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/61314 , vital:28014 , https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2015.1115972
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2016
Knowledge and knowers in teaching and learning: an enhanced approach to curriculum alignment
- Authors: Clarence, Sherran
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59823 , vital:27655 , http://www.legitimationcodetheory.com/pdf/2016Clarence-c.pdf
- Description: John Biggs’ well-known curriculum design approach, constructive alignment, is widely used in higher education in the United Kingdom, Australia and South Africa. Developed with one dominant account of learning through curriculum, this approach has a gap in terms of accounting for other kinds of knowledge building, and associated knower development. This paper proposes a complementary approach that accounts for different kinds of knowledge and knower building. Using Legitimation Code Theory’s concept of Specialisation, the paper argues that accounting for what makes a discipline ‘special’ in terms of its basis for legitimate achievement can enable curriculum writers to align curricula more effectively with that basis in different disciplines. Using a case study approach, this paper shows how this tool can provide lecturers and academic development practitioners with a useful mode of analysing curriculum alignment to more ably account for differential development of disciplinary knowledges and knowers.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Clarence, Sherran
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59823 , vital:27655 , http://www.legitimationcodetheory.com/pdf/2016Clarence-c.pdf
- Description: John Biggs’ well-known curriculum design approach, constructive alignment, is widely used in higher education in the United Kingdom, Australia and South Africa. Developed with one dominant account of learning through curriculum, this approach has a gap in terms of accounting for other kinds of knowledge building, and associated knower development. This paper proposes a complementary approach that accounts for different kinds of knowledge and knower building. Using Legitimation Code Theory’s concept of Specialisation, the paper argues that accounting for what makes a discipline ‘special’ in terms of its basis for legitimate achievement can enable curriculum writers to align curricula more effectively with that basis in different disciplines. Using a case study approach, this paper shows how this tool can provide lecturers and academic development practitioners with a useful mode of analysing curriculum alignment to more ably account for differential development of disciplinary knowledges and knowers.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
Knowledge-building: educational studies in Legitimation Code Theory
- Authors: Clarence, Sherran
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: book review , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/61300 , vital:28013 , http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2016.1231751
- Description: A challenge facing higher education researchers, especially those new to the craft of research, is that of moving between theory and data effectively in order to mediate research findings clearly to readers. For postgraduate students and academics publishing their research, working with data and designing effective and fit-for-purpose methodologies can be a challenge. Moreover, this is not necessarily an easy area for supervisors and research mentors to assist with. In addition to researchers, practitioners working in academic development also need ways of using research – either empirical or conceptual – to augment their work with lecturers to improve teaching and learning. There are many handbooks that detail the differences between qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods research. There are many theoretical texts to choose from. But there are few texts that offer researchers and those mentoring researchers insight into how methodology and theory connect in research studies, as well as practical tools to navigate the chaos of research, bringing theory and data into conversation in relevant and problem-oriented ways that can influence practice effectively. Karl Maton, in his introduction to this edited collection, argues that in spite of many claims within educational and social research for the need to connect research with theory more effectively, ‘the two frequently remain divorced or, at best, not on speaking terms’ (p. 1). The central premise of the book flows from this: we need to move beyond calls for more theory-informed research into education and society towards generating ways of demonstrating enactments of research that bring theory and research together meaningfully. The need for the research we publish to make clear its theoretical and methodological underpinning and enactments is crucial for effecting sustainable and meaningful change in practice within the field. This text, located within the growing field of Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) research, within the broader field of sociology of education, takes a generous step in that direction. Building on Maton’s 2014 text, Knowledge and knowers. Towards a realist sociology of education, this text delves into how LCT concepts – particularly in the dimensions of Specialisation and Semantics – can be enacted within educational research and practice.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Clarence, Sherran
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: book review , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/61300 , vital:28013 , http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2016.1231751
- Description: A challenge facing higher education researchers, especially those new to the craft of research, is that of moving between theory and data effectively in order to mediate research findings clearly to readers. For postgraduate students and academics publishing their research, working with data and designing effective and fit-for-purpose methodologies can be a challenge. Moreover, this is not necessarily an easy area for supervisors and research mentors to assist with. In addition to researchers, practitioners working in academic development also need ways of using research – either empirical or conceptual – to augment their work with lecturers to improve teaching and learning. There are many handbooks that detail the differences between qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods research. There are many theoretical texts to choose from. But there are few texts that offer researchers and those mentoring researchers insight into how methodology and theory connect in research studies, as well as practical tools to navigate the chaos of research, bringing theory and data into conversation in relevant and problem-oriented ways that can influence practice effectively. Karl Maton, in his introduction to this edited collection, argues that in spite of many claims within educational and social research for the need to connect research with theory more effectively, ‘the two frequently remain divorced or, at best, not on speaking terms’ (p. 1). The central premise of the book flows from this: we need to move beyond calls for more theory-informed research into education and society towards generating ways of demonstrating enactments of research that bring theory and research together meaningfully. The need for the research we publish to make clear its theoretical and methodological underpinning and enactments is crucial for effecting sustainable and meaningful change in practice within the field. This text, located within the growing field of Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) research, within the broader field of sociology of education, takes a generous step in that direction. Building on Maton’s 2014 text, Knowledge and knowers. Towards a realist sociology of education, this text delves into how LCT concepts – particularly in the dimensions of Specialisation and Semantics – can be enacted within educational research and practice.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2016
Peer tutors as learning and teaching partners: a cumulative approach to building peer tutoring capacity in higher education
- Authors: Clarence, Sherran
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/61335 , vital:28016 , http://cristal.epubs.ac.za/index.php/cristal/article/view/69
- Description: Peer tutors in higher education are frequently given vital teaching and learning work to do, but the training or professional development and support opportunities they are offered vary, and more often than not peer tutors are under-supported. In order to create and sustain teaching and learning environments that are better able to facilitate students’ engagement with knowledge and learning, the role of peer tutors needs to be recognised differently, as that of learning and teaching partners to both lecturers and students. Tutors then need to be offered opportunities for more in-depth professional academic development in order to fully realise this role. This paper explores a tutor development programme within a South African writing centre that aimed at offering tutors such ongoing and cumulative opportunities for learning and growth using a balanced approach, which included scholarly research and practice-based training. Using narrative data tutors provided in reflective written reports, the paper explores the kinds of development in tutors’ thinking and action that are possible when training and development is theoretically informed, coherent, and oriented towards improving practice.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Clarence, Sherran
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/61335 , vital:28016 , http://cristal.epubs.ac.za/index.php/cristal/article/view/69
- Description: Peer tutors in higher education are frequently given vital teaching and learning work to do, but the training or professional development and support opportunities they are offered vary, and more often than not peer tutors are under-supported. In order to create and sustain teaching and learning environments that are better able to facilitate students’ engagement with knowledge and learning, the role of peer tutors needs to be recognised differently, as that of learning and teaching partners to both lecturers and students. Tutors then need to be offered opportunities for more in-depth professional academic development in order to fully realise this role. This paper explores a tutor development programme within a South African writing centre that aimed at offering tutors such ongoing and cumulative opportunities for learning and growth using a balanced approach, which included scholarly research and practice-based training. Using narrative data tutors provided in reflective written reports, the paper explores the kinds of development in tutors’ thinking and action that are possible when training and development is theoretically informed, coherent, and oriented towards improving practice.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
Reimagining curriculum through a Bernsteinian lens: rethinking the canon in Political Science
- Authors: Clarence, Sherran
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: text , conference publication
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66961 , vital:29006
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Clarence, Sherran
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: text , conference publication
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66961 , vital:29006
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
Seeing yourself in a new light: crossing the threshold to “researcher"
- Authors: Clarence, Sherran
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: book chapter , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/61390 , vital:28021 , http://www.africansunmedia.co.za/Sun-e-Shop/tabid/78/ProductId/385/Default.aspx , http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6WW52
- Description: Writing, and the thinking, reading and analytical process that writers engage with to make writing possible, is transformative, and doctoral students in the social sciences especially tend to write themselves into their new identities as ‘doctors’ and recognised researchers. Much has been written in recent years about doctoral writing, including many advice books on how to write a ‘big-book’ or similar doctoral thesis into being. While some of the journal articles and books are helpful, and provide useful accounts of the complex challenges of writing a doctoral thesis, many of the advice books in particular focus more on the text itself, with the writer oddly under-accounted for. Recent research on, for example, doctoral writing groups and doctoral identity speaks into this gap helpfully, but much of it is written in contexts other than South Africa, and much of it is written for rather than by students going through or having recently completed a PhD process. This chapter contributes to a growing body of research and reflection on the role of writing itself in the process of becoming a ‘doctor’. Building on relevant blog posts and critical reflection through a research journal on my own transformative doctoral writing process at a South African university, this chapter will reflect on how challenging yet also potentially thrilling the writing process can be during a PhD. Readers will hopefully find in this chapter useful insights into their own process of becoming a doctor, and ideas for making their own ‘writing and becoming’ process more engaging and rewarding.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Clarence, Sherran
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: book chapter , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/61390 , vital:28021 , http://www.africansunmedia.co.za/Sun-e-Shop/tabid/78/ProductId/385/Default.aspx , http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6WW52
- Description: Writing, and the thinking, reading and analytical process that writers engage with to make writing possible, is transformative, and doctoral students in the social sciences especially tend to write themselves into their new identities as ‘doctors’ and recognised researchers. Much has been written in recent years about doctoral writing, including many advice books on how to write a ‘big-book’ or similar doctoral thesis into being. While some of the journal articles and books are helpful, and provide useful accounts of the complex challenges of writing a doctoral thesis, many of the advice books in particular focus more on the text itself, with the writer oddly under-accounted for. Recent research on, for example, doctoral writing groups and doctoral identity speaks into this gap helpfully, but much of it is written in contexts other than South Africa, and much of it is written for rather than by students going through or having recently completed a PhD process. This chapter contributes to a growing body of research and reflection on the role of writing itself in the process of becoming a ‘doctor’. Building on relevant blog posts and critical reflection through a research journal on my own transformative doctoral writing process at a South African university, this chapter will reflect on how challenging yet also potentially thrilling the writing process can be during a PhD. Readers will hopefully find in this chapter useful insights into their own process of becoming a doctor, and ideas for making their own ‘writing and becoming’ process more engaging and rewarding.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2016
Surfing the waves of learning: enacting a Semantics analysis of teaching in a first-year Law course
- Authors: Clarence, Sherran
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59816 , vital:27654 , https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2016.1263831
- Description: Students’ ability to build knowledge, and transfer it within and between contexts is crucial to cumulative learning and to academic success. This has long been a concern of higher education research and practice. A central part of this concern for educators is creating the conditions that enable their students' deep learning, as this is an area of significant struggle for many students. Legitimation Code Theory, in particular the dimension of Semantics, is proving useful in examining the kinds of conditions that may be necessary for students to build disciplinary knowledge cumulatively over time. Using illustrative data from one case study, this paper suggests that the conceptual tools offered by Semantics can provide academic lecturers and academic development staff with a set of conceptual and analytical tools which can enable them to ‘see’ and understand the ways in which knowledge can be cumulatively acquired and used, as well as the possible gaps between what they are teaching and what their students may be learning. The hope is that these new insights will provide new directions for change in teaching and learning where these may be needed.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Clarence, Sherran
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59816 , vital:27654 , https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2016.1263831
- Description: Students’ ability to build knowledge, and transfer it within and between contexts is crucial to cumulative learning and to academic success. This has long been a concern of higher education research and practice. A central part of this concern for educators is creating the conditions that enable their students' deep learning, as this is an area of significant struggle for many students. Legitimation Code Theory, in particular the dimension of Semantics, is proving useful in examining the kinds of conditions that may be necessary for students to build disciplinary knowledge cumulatively over time. Using illustrative data from one case study, this paper suggests that the conceptual tools offered by Semantics can provide academic lecturers and academic development staff with a set of conceptual and analytical tools which can enable them to ‘see’ and understand the ways in which knowledge can be cumulatively acquired and used, as well as the possible gaps between what they are teaching and what their students may be learning. The hope is that these new insights will provide new directions for change in teaching and learning where these may be needed.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2016
Transforming the use of tutorials through academic staff development
- Clarence, Sherran, Wolff, Karin, Winberg, Simon, Farmer, Jean-Lee, Esambe, Emmanuel
- Authors: Clarence, Sherran , Wolff, Karin , Winberg, Simon , Farmer, Jean-Lee , Esambe, Emmanuel
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: text , conference publication
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66982 , vital:29008
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Clarence, Sherran , Wolff, Karin , Winberg, Simon , Farmer, Jean-Lee , Esambe, Emmanuel
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: text , conference publication
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66982 , vital:29008
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
What lies beneath: exploring the deeper purposes of feedback on student writing through considering disciplinary knowledge and knowers
- Van Heerden, Martina, Clarence, Sherran, Bharuthram, Sharita
- Authors: Van Heerden, Martina , Clarence, Sherran , Bharuthram, Sharita
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59856 , vital:27669 , https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2016.1212985
- Description: Feedback plays an integral role in students’ learning and development, as it is often the only personal communication that students have with tutors or lecturers about their own work. Yet, in spite of its integral role in student learning, there is disagreement between how students and tutors or lecturers perceive the pedagogic purpose of feedback. Central to this disagreement is the role that feedback has to play in ensuring that students produce the ‘right’ kinds of knowledge, and become the ‘right’ kinds of knowers within their disciplines. This paper argues that, in order to find common ground between students and tutors or lecturers on what feedback is for, and how to both give and use it effectively, we need to conceptualise disciplinary knowledge and knowers anew. We offer, as a useful starting point, the Specialisation dimension of Legitimation Code Theory as both practical theory and methodological tool for exploring knowledge and knowers in English Studies and Law as two illustrative cases. The paper concludes that this analysis offers lecturers and tutors a fresh understanding of the disciplinary knowledge and knower structures they work within and, relatedly, a clearer view of the work their feedback needs to do within these.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Van Heerden, Martina , Clarence, Sherran , Bharuthram, Sharita
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59856 , vital:27669 , https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2016.1212985
- Description: Feedback plays an integral role in students’ learning and development, as it is often the only personal communication that students have with tutors or lecturers about their own work. Yet, in spite of its integral role in student learning, there is disagreement between how students and tutors or lecturers perceive the pedagogic purpose of feedback. Central to this disagreement is the role that feedback has to play in ensuring that students produce the ‘right’ kinds of knowledge, and become the ‘right’ kinds of knowers within their disciplines. This paper argues that, in order to find common ground between students and tutors or lecturers on what feedback is for, and how to both give and use it effectively, we need to conceptualise disciplinary knowledge and knowers anew. We offer, as a useful starting point, the Specialisation dimension of Legitimation Code Theory as both practical theory and methodological tool for exploring knowledge and knowers in English Studies and Law as two illustrative cases. The paper concludes that this analysis offers lecturers and tutors a fresh understanding of the disciplinary knowledge and knower structures they work within and, relatedly, a clearer view of the work their feedback needs to do within these.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2016
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