The topic of this paper is the constructivism-realism debate, construed as an example of the intrusion of philosophy into science. Against this intrusion I maintain that philosophical problems are not only different from scientific and practical ones. They are also problematic in themselves. That is why their import into our scientific and practical work only creates confusions that hinder us in our work. The aim of the paper is to show that the philosophical problems that create those confusions need a Wittgensteinian therapeutic treatment. The method of the paper consists in comparing what philosophers (or philosophising scientists) say we do with what we actually do. After giving an example of what happens when a rightly respected scientist starts philosophizing, the method is applied, first, to the relation between language and the world and, second, to the relation between theories and the world. In the first application a story about three umpires is used to distinguish language and discourse, between questions of meaning (of the words we use) and questions of truth (of the things we say). In the second application a comparison between maps and theories is used to show the difference between assessing the truth of descriptive statements and explanatory theories. The examples of the umpires and maps are introduced by Weick and in both cases I show that neither constructivist nor metaphysical realist conclusions follow.
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This article discusses the viability of a feminist constructivist approach of knowledge through the careful reading of the work of the feminist scholar and historian of science and technology, Donna Haraway. Haraway proposes an interpretation of objectivity in terms of "situated knowledges". Both the subject and the object of knowledge are endowed with the status of material-semiotic actors. By blurring the epistemological boundary between subject and object, Haraway's narratives about scientific discourse become populated with hybrid subjects/objects. The author argues that the ethics of these hybrid subjects consists of an uneasy mixture of a Nietzschean and a socialist-Christian ethic. The article concludes by setting out why Haraway's project constitutes an interesting effort to fuse postmodern insights and feminist commitments.
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Learning theories broadly characterised as constructivist, agree on the importance to learning of the environment, but differ on what exactly it is that constitutes this importance. Accordingly, they also differ on the educational consequences to be drawn from the theoretical perspective. Cognitive constructivism focuses on the active role of the learner, and on real-life learning. Social-learning theories, comprising the socio-historical, socio-cultural theories as well as the situated-learning and community-of-practice approaches, emphasise learning as being a process within and a product of the social context. Critical-learning theory stresses that this social context is a man-made construction, which should be approached critically and transformed in order to create a better world. We propose to view these different approaches as contributions to our understanding of the learning-environment relationship, and their educational impact as questions to be addressed to educational contexts.
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This chapter argues that critical discourse analysis (CDA) provides a fruitful methodology for CES. This is due both to its eclectic, abductive research methodology that engages in a dialogue between, theory(ies), methodology(ies), data and the socio-historical context (Reisigl and Wodak 2009). Secondly, CDA, like other critical approaches, adopts a layered approach to research methodology, focusing from the global to meso and micro aspects of an event, or from social structures, to social institutions and social events, always considering the discursive as being both constituted by and constitutive of social structures. It will illustrate this through a brief description of the discourse-historical dimension in CDA which assumes a distinction between content analysis, the analysis of discursive and argumentative strategies and, finally, the analysis of linguistic features (Reisigl and Wodak, 2001). Those basic assumptions will be illustrated through the description of a theoretical-methodological framework recently employed for the study of the Occupy movement in Spain (Montesano Montessori & Morales Lopez, forthcoming). It shows how a framework was assembled that brought social constructivism, narrative analysis, rhetoric and finally the discourse theoretical concept of ‘rearticulation’ together in order to analyse how the Occupy movement helped Spanish citizens to gain agency and voice. In: R Lamond I., Platt L. (eds). Critical Event Studies. Leisure Studies in a Global Era. Palgrave Macmillan, London
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Since it emerged in the early 2000's, intensive education about ‘how pain works’, widely known as pain neuroscience education or explaining pain, has evolved into a new educational approach, with new content and new strategies. The substantial differences from the original have led the PETAL collaboration to call the current iteration ‘Pain Science Education’. This review presents a brief historical context for Pain Science Education, the clinical trials, consumer perspective, and real-world clinical data that have pushed the field to update both content and method. We describe the key role of educational psychology in driving this change, the central role of constructivism, and the constructivist learning frameworks around which Pain Science Education is now planned and delivered. We integrate terminology and concepts from the learning frameworks currently being used across the PETAL collaboration in both research and practice—the Interactive, Constructive, Active, Passive framework, transformative learning theory, and dynamic model of conceptual change. We then discuss strategies that are being used to enhance learning within clinical encounters, which focus on the skill, will, and thrill of learning. Finally, we provide practical examples of these strategies so as to assist the reader to drive their own patient pain education offerings towards more effective learning. Perspective: Rapid progress in several fields and research groups has led to the emergence ‘Pain Science Education’. This PETAL review describes challenges that have spurred the field forward, the learning frameworks and educational strategies that are addressing those challenges, and some easy wins to implement and mistakes to avoid.
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Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education is seen by all kind of people to be important for economic growth. Teaching entrepreneurship needs another approach. Active learning and the constructivism is mostly seen as essential. Other elements that are influencing the teaching process are the competences, the culture and the teacher. So the teacher must be capable of using other methods and theory as he is used to. Effectuation, constructivism and andragogy are the key elements for the training of entrepreneurial teachers. From that perspective there has been made an education program that will start in September 2013 for teachers at universities of applied science. Until that time there are being held some minor experiments on parts of the program.
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Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education is generally viewed upon as being important for economic growth in the 21st century. Teaching entrepreneurship however seems to need another approach to fulfill the changing needs. In this perspective active learning and constructivism is generally seen as essential. Other elements that are influencing the teaching process are attention for competences, culture, the needs of the student and the curriculum. So the design of the curriculum must address these changing demands of society. Effectuation, constructivism and andragogy are the key elements for the curriculum to meet the criteria for delivering sustainable and flexible professionals to society. Based on practical experiences in the last decades in the Region of Twente, elements for an entrepreneurial curriculum are elaborated in this article.
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Communities of Practice (CoPs) are social learning systems that can be, to a certain extent, designed. Wenger (1998) proposes the following paradox; “ no community can fully design the learning of another, but at the same time, no community can fully design its own learning” (p:234). My interpretation of Wenger’s statement is that learning environments such as CoPs need to be facilitated in their learning processes, but not their specific design. Approaching CoPs this way allows for the design of interventions that facilitate learning processes within a CoP rather than regulate them. However, empirical studies on facilitating internal processes of CoPs are sparse – most work is anecdotal. This means that one needs to look to other fields for guidance in order to discover how to facilitate CoPs in their learning. This paper describes part of a larger research project that asks the question whether communities of practice can be instituted in higher professional educational organizations as an effective method to facilitate participant learning (professional development) and stimulate new knowledge creation in the service of the organization. Using a more pragmatic approach to cultivating CoPs (Ropes, 2007) opens the possibility to use different theoretical perspectives in order to find and ground interventions that can facilitate learning in CoPs and which are typically used in organizational development trajectories based on learning (de Caluwe & Vermaak, 2002). In this paper I look at how theories of human resource development, workplace learning and social constructivism conceptualize learning and what type of environments promote this. I then map out community of practice theory along these fields in order to come to a synthesized conceptual framework, which I will use to help understand what specific interventions can be used for designing CoPs. Finally I propose several interventions based on the work done here. The main question I consider here can be formulated as follows; ‘what insight can Human Resource Development theories, Workplace Learning theories and Social Constructivist learning theory give in order to design interventions that facilitate internal processes of communities of practice?’
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4ILM IMA 2018 BA Thesis, to be converted into a paper submission for On The Horizon, Emerald.
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