Irina Engeness
University of Oslo
Thesis: Learning by Use of Digital Environments
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Research supervisor: Prof. Anniken Furberg
From a socio-cultural perspective learning is regarded as a dynamic and dialogical meaning-making process between interlocutors (Linell, 1998). Through their interactions, participants try to interpret and make sense of situations, actions and scientific concepts. At the same time they make their own interpretations visible and observable to other participants. In this sense, language is conceived as of the most important tool for making sense of the world, and of human practices and ideas, and a tool that meditates thinking and reasoning (Vygotskij, Cole, John-Steiner, Scribner, & Souberman, 1978). Talk and discourse is therefore conceived as of a “social mode of thinking” (Mercer, 2004).
Within the frame of ISCAR 2014 I would like to build solid theoretical grounds for my case study. I would like to use the expertise of the researches working with the issues of social-cultural theory and get a theoretical insight on the process of meaning making from socio-cultural perspective. I would like to get better understanding of the theoretical grounds of the process of joint knowledge construction happening during collaboration in groups. I would like to build my understanding on the importance and the role of artefacts in the situated and contextualized collaborative learning and how digital means used in education today are seen as artefacts. I have read some of the works of Vygotsky, Luria, Leontiev, etc. in their original language as well as numerous translations and interpretations in English. I have noticed some deviations in the interpretations of their works. Within the frame of ISCAR 2014 I would like get an insight of the understanding of the works of the founders of the socio-cultural theory of the researchers and specialists of Moscow University of Psychology as well as representatives of other institutions that use socio-cultural perspective in their research. The collection of data is going to happen in spring 2014. Problem-oriented workshops on methodology and data analysis will help me to answer the research questions of my case study.