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LILT, Dept. of ICS • University of Hawai`i at Manoa • 1680 East-West Road, POST 309 • Honolulu, HI 96822 • 1-808-956-3890
Congratulations Dr. Yukawa!
February 22, 2005
On February 22nd, 2005, Joyce Yukawa successfully defended her dissertation for the Ph.D. in Communication and Information Sciences. Dr. Violet Harada is her chair. Her dissertation topic was:
Hearts and Minds Through Hands Online: A Narrative Analysis of Learning Through Co-Reflection in an Online Action Research Course
Abstract. This case study examines the learning processes in an online action research course facilitated by the researcher. Two graduate students in the Library and Information Science Program, University of Hawai`i at Manoa, studied action research and applied their knowledge to independent research projects. The purpose of the study was to examine the co-construction of knowledge and how affect and interaction influence participant understanding of action research. The original research questions were: (1) What are the key cognitive, affective, and interactional elements of the online conversations? (2) How do student-instructor interactions influence student understanding in the action research course? (3) How do student-instructor interactions influence course development? Based on the findings, these questions were specified to include the narrative aspects of learning. The online workspace was created using wiki-style collaborative software, with added email and chat programs. Using these tools, the students created a significant body of online written artifacts describing their learning experiences.
The findings show that reflection and co-reflection played key roles in online inquiry learning. Co-reflection is a collaborative critical thinking process that is intersubjective, affective, and social, as well as cognitive. Two types of co-reflection were proposed: tacit and active. The findings also show that the combination of simple, flexible software tools effectively supported complex learning processes by allowing novice users to focus their learning efforts on course content rather than software features, and to adapt and augment learning and communication strategies from their face-to-face experiences. Such strategies include skills in critical thinking, co-reflection, motivational support, and relationship building, as well as facilitative strategies for ensuring that learning is a whole-person activity with the ultimate goal of learning transformations and empowerment.
The pedagogical framework used to design the course was adapted from Gordon Wells' (1999) dialogic inquiry process: individuals use experience, knowledge, and information to co-construct knowledge and create, use, and improve representational artifacts. Based on the findings, this was revised as a narrative framework to represent the holistic, multidimensional nature of learning as a dynamic process. The framework features: (1) a learning narrative focused on transformations in frames of reference leading to higher self-efficacy related to the learning objectives; (2) co-reflection as a core activity; (3) a recognition of the importance of affect and relationship building in supporting co-reflection; and (4) the learning facilitator as co-learner. Because there were only two students in this study, further research is needed to shed light on the applicability of the framework for other students, larger group sizes, and different learning environments.
Narrative analysis was used to interpret the data for three reasons: (1) the narrative is a basic form for making meaning from human experience; (2) the individual learners were unique in background, learning style, and goals; and (3) the flexibility and ease of use of the wiki-style collaborative website, with simple chat and email programs, encouraged adaptation to construct and co-construct knowledge and build relationships. The students used the same learning resources in markedly different ways, and both used narrative as a conceptual artifact to scaffold their learning. The focus on human action and agency afforded by narrative analysis provided a means to apprehend and interpret these richly different learning experiences. The simple software tools provided a record of the evolution of socially constructed knowledge. Narrative analysis offered a theoretical framework for elucidating the processes underlying that evolution.