Recent reading has taken me on some divergent paths. Search-engine ‘innovation’ and some interesting things turn up. Anything from the theory of the firm to whether we can measure creativity – a subject that the TES is currently debating. All of this is relevant to a study of how students…
Activity theory and ancient history – not as far away as you might think
My original degree – decades ago now, as the tutor I just asked for a research reference reminded me – was in Ancient and Modern History. It was quite a radical proposition to do a combined degree at Oxford at the time. I got there by starting a Classics degree…
Research propositions
1. New learning is generated in the case study environment 2. Students and workers at the case study are involved in the generation of new knowledge 3. Students at the case study are likely to be involved in a positive way in the development of new products and ways of working 4.…
Thinking about methods and methodology
I’ve been reading about the methodology of case studies. Yin (2003) warns against being ‘biased by pre-conceived notions, including those derived from theory’ p 56. This is a risk for the study to be undertaken, as the nature of DWR is to suggest a method (the Change laboratory) to be…
Why Cultural-Historical Activity Theory?
CHAT is a complex theory, deeply routed in the tradition of Vygostkian psychology, developed through a belief in the human construction of knowledge. So why use something so complex to describe learning? My answer would be because context is everything, and for me CHAT starts and ends with context. The culture, the…
This week I’ve mostly been…
… thinking about activity triangles. And trying to draw them – a real challenge when you know nothing about technical drawing. Luckily there are very kind and obliging young people in the office who are experts at Illustrator and helped me through to the right videos to watch on YouTube.…
Entering the CHAT-universe
Hello. This will be a Coventry University domain built by myself, Alison Rowland, to track my adventures looking at Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), Developmental Work Research (DWR) and Engeström’s expansive learning theory. I may be shortly embarking on a PhD looking at the application of expansive learning theory to the…