Communities of Inquiry

This action research study, which is composed of three cycles, aims at understanding and helping Portuguese students in an EFL context to improve their writing skills in English through a blended-learning (b-learning) writing module, using Moodle. This research contributes towards a better understanding of a research practitioner’s perspectives of an action research study. A narrative inquiry approach is used to convey the action research process through the practitioner’s eyes. It also contributes to the framework of Communities of Inquiry (CoI). This thesis looks at b-learning, its affordances and challenges and the function of CoI within a b-learning environment and how the different components of a Community of Inquiry framework, namely Social, Cognitive and Teaching Presences, contribute, influence and enrich the learning and teaching experience. The methodology behind the learning and teaching of writing as well as the theoretical and practical development of the research meth...

In communities of inquiry, dialogue is central as both the means and the outcome of collective inquiry. Indeed, features of dialogue—including formulating and asking questions, developing hypotheses and explanations, and offering and requesting reasons—are often highlighted as playing a significant role in the quality of the dialogue that unfolds. We inquire further into the quality of dialogue by arguing that dialogue should enable the expansion of epistemic openness, rather than its contraction, and that this is especially important in multicultural communities of inquiry to acknowledge the cultural, perspectival, and experiential differences that exist alongside of similarities as resources for dialogue. The purpose of this article is to highlight two discourse practices that exemplify the nature of discourse as social practice and can be used in communities of inquiry. Attending to these discourse practices may enable teachers and students to reflect upon dialogue as it unfolds. First, we situate ourselves in multicultural classrooms in British Columbia, Canada. Then we articulate three principles of communities of inquiry. Next we describe and exemplify two discourse practices: heteroglossic attunement and lexical awareness. When attended to by teachers and students, 1) heteroglossic attunement enables teachers and students to begin to identify, reflect upon, and discuss the voices and perspectives that are drawn upon as participants inquire together and 2) lexical awareness enables teachers and students to begin to identify their attributions of thinking and feeling to social actors and to recognize how naming social actors positions them in an evolving set of social relations. Rather than a neutral medium of communication, social speech and dialogue is inherently value laden. Attending closely to the discourse that constitutes dialogue in a community of inquiry is a significant pedagogical tool for both teachers and students to expand epistemic openness and make visible learning as it unfolds.

In the twenty-first century, more than ever before, businesses, institutions, and societies as a whole need good communicators, capable collaborators, and effective problem solvers in order to thrive. Rapid changes in communication technologies have sparked a re-examination of the university’s role within networked society. Increasing demand for online learning ignites disputes among researchers, teachers, students, parents, administrators, and financially powerful constituents outside the field of education. In an era of accountability to a wider range of audiences than ever before, this dissertation suggests means by which educators can adapt messages about learning to better reach these audiences—through the language of research. To avoid having the quality of online learning evaluated based only upon that which is easily measured, online teachers and learners alike need an empirical means to capture and explain complex processes within the larger e-learning ecology. This study employs the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework as a lens for viewing and analyzing the content of synchronous and asynchronous online graduate-level discussions. In doing so, it explores research questions concerning students’ agency for collaborative inquiry. Findings problematize the perennial dichotomy of academic rigor versus student engagement, suggesting that social elements in the learning process may promote cognitive presence more than previously realized.

Distance-learning studies have seen an incredible growth in the last 20 years. The majority of these were at postgraduate level. Fewer were undergraduate and even fewer were in initial teacher education training. Within these, there are even fewer examples of art education courses as it was frequently argued that the experiential aspect of these courses could not be translated into a remote learning-teaching environment. Nevertheless, Higher Education is moving rapidly toward an expansion of distance learning. The article discusses characteristics of online learning in the field of art education for elementary school teachers. It focuses on lessons learnt during the Covid-19 Emergency Remote Teaching in the context of preservice elementary generalist teachers and how the pandemic has accelerated the "digitalization" turn. It discusses opportunities for experiential, collaborative and active learning that are transformative enough to overturn stereotypes and promote perceptions of self-efficacy in art learning. Further, it affirms necessary aspects of presence in an online environment-social, cognitive and teacher presence-to achieve successful student outcomes for non-art specialists. Drawing from pedagogy, the implications of the study offer policy recommendations to Higher Educational Institutions on how to support both teacher educators and pre-service teachers in the context of art learning.

Le sociologue et ethnographe Iddo Tavory contribue depuis plusieurs années à un renouvellement des pratiques en recherches qualitatives. Cette entrevue offre un aperçu des questions qui ont guidé Tavory dans ses projets empiriques et théoriques, tout en explicitant des concepts au coeur de ses travaux, tels que l'approche abductive, les communautés d'interrogation, la convocation et l'anticipation.

In the twenty-first century, more than ever before, businesses, institutions, and societies as a whole need good communicators, capable collaborators, and effective problem solvers in order to thrive. Rapid changes in communication technologies have sparked a re-examination of the university’s role within networked society. Increasing demand for online learning ignites disputes among researchers, teachers, students, parents, administrators, and financially powerful constituents outside the field of education. In an era of accountability to a wider range of audiences than ever before, this dissertation suggests means by which educators can adapt messages about learning to better reach these audiences—through the language of research. To avoid having the quality of online learning evaluated based only upon that which is easily measured, online teachers and learners alike need an empirical means to capture and explain complex processes within the larger e-learning ecology. This study e...

In the twenty-first century, more than ever before, businesses, institutions, and societies as a whole need good communicators, capable collaborators, and effective problem solvers in order to thrive. Rapid changes in communication technologies have sparked a re-examination of the university’s role within networked society. Increasing demand for online learning ignites disputes among researchers, teachers, students, parents, administrators, and financially powerful constituents outside the field of education. In an era of accountability to a wider range of audiences than ever before, this dissertation suggests means by which educators can adapt messages about learning to better reach these audiences—through the language of research. To avoid having the quality of online learning evaluated based only upon that which is easily measured, online teachers and learners alike need an empirical means to capture and explain complex processes within the larger e-learning ecology. This study e...

This action research study, which is composed of three cycles, aims at understanding and helping Portuguese students in an EFL context to improve their writing skills in English through a blended-learning (b-learning) writing module, using Moodle. This research contributes towards a better understanding of a research practitioner’s perspectives of an action research study. A narrative inquiry approach is used to convey the action research process through the practitioner’s eyes. It also contributes to the framework of Communities of Inquiry (CoI). This thesis looks at b-learning, its affordances and challenges and the function of CoI within a b-learning environment and how the different components of a Community of Inquiry framework, namely Social, Cognitive and Teaching Presences, contribute, influence and enrich the learning and teaching experience. The methodology behind the learning and teaching of writing as well as the theoretical and practical development of the research meth...