Chapter 4: Discourse Analysis, Learning, and Social Practice: A Methodological Study

Abstract

In the past two decades, the study of discourse has become an important theoretical perspective for those concerned with the study of learning in social settings. Discourse analysis approaches have been developed to examine ways in which knowledge is socially constructed in classrooms and other educational settings. By studying discursive activity within classrooms and other social settings, researchers have provided new insights into the complex and dynamic relationships among discourse, social practices, and learning. Specifically, this body of work has provided understandings of the ways in which opportunities for learning are constructed across time, groups, and events; how knowledge constructed in classrooms (and other educational settings) shapes, and is shaped by, the discursive activity and social practices of members; patterns of practice simultaneosuly support and constrain access to the academic content of the "official" curriculum; and how opportunities for learning are influenced by the actions of actors beyond classroom settings (e.g., school districts, book publishers, curriculum developers, legislators, and community members) (for recent syntheses and conceptual analyses, see Hicks, 1995;Luke, 1995).Discourse analysis approaches used to examine such educational issues draw on discourse theories and methods developed in other disciplines (e.g., applied linguistics, law, literary studies, psychology, sociolinguistics, and sociology, among others) (see van Dijk, 1985, for a comprehensive look at the issue of discourse theory and method across disciplines, including education). However, educational researchers have not merely taken up and applied existing approaches. They have also contributed to the development of discourse theories and methods as they have adopted and adapted existing approaches and constructed new approaches to address questions of importance to education as a discipline. 2 Given the complex and continuing nature of life in classrooms and other educational settings, educational researchers often combine discourse analysis with ethnographic approaches to examine questions of what counts as learning in a local setting, how and when learning occurs, and how what is learned at one point in time becomes a sociocultural resource for future learning for both the group and the individual. Through this combined approach, educational researchers are able to examine how educational processes and practices are constructed across time by 119 at UNIV OF RHODE ISLAND LIBRARY on April 4, 2015 http://rre.aera.net Downloaded from

Modelado y simulación de un sistema mecánico simple: Programar en primer año de ingeniería

“…Dicho protocolo recoge tanto la definición del problema como una copia del código final elaborado en Scratch, incluyendo a su vez la explicitación de dificultades encontradas a lo largo del trabajo y su resolución por parte del grupo. Para el análisis de los datos se siguió el enfoque del estudio de caso [38] realizando un análisis de discurso [39] que permitió caracterizar el proceso de construcción de las simulaciones en un entorno de programación como Scratch. Para ello, todas las grabaciones en audio fueron procesadas con la ayuda de OTranscribe (http://www.otranscribe.com).…”

Experiences in Sense Making: Health Science Students’I-Positioning in an Online Philosophy of Science Course

“…The ideas on studying and analyzing discourse proposed by Gee (1999Gee ( , 2010 and by Gee and Green (1998) can be seen as complementing the dialogical approach. The conjoining of these differing perspectives creates resources for studying the relationships between the self and the social that neither perspective provides alone.…”

“…The conjoining of these differing perspectives creates resources for studying the relationships between the self and the social that neither perspective provides alone. The basis of discourse analysis is a recognition of the sociocultural nature of discourse, social practice, and learning (Gee, 1999(Gee, , 2010Gee & Green, 1998). Just as the dialogical approach aims to understand the "social in the individual", Gee (1999) argues for the existence of the social mind.…”

“…Below, the dialogical approach and related concepts are discussed in more detail, with reference to the discourse analytic approach of Gee and Green (Gee, 1999(Gee, , 2010Gee & Green, 1998). Discourse analytical and dialogical approaches are used as complementary frameworks in analyzing I-Positioning and multivoicedness in the students' discourse.…”

Theory-led Design of Instruments and Representations in Learning Analytics: Developing a Novel Tool for Orchestration of Online Collaborative Learning

“…This background will be drawn upon in the example of developing a novel instrument in Section 4. Discourse analysis has been shown to be of significant utility to researchers, to learners, and to educators (Gee & Green, 1998). Over the past two decades a number of methods for automating discourse analysis through computation have been introduced to the study of learning, often through techniques originating in the field of computational linguistics (Chiu, 2008;Rosé et al, 2008).…”