Spheres of Influence: Ventures and Visions in Educational Development*3-6 July, 2002 AbstractAdventures in the zone of educational developmentStanley Frielick, University of Auckland, New Zealand The zone of educational (or academic) development is the space in which teaching/learning is occasioned. This space is both conceptual and physical a complex ecosystem of interactions and exchanges. It exists in the classroom and in the relationships of educational developers with their various colleagues. To deeply understand the ecology of teaching/learning involves a journey into unknown territory. Some researchers have pointed towards an ecological understanding of teaching/learning, but there has been little development of these preliminary viewpoints. The concept of constructive alignment (Biggs 1996), the relational view of teaching and learning (Ramsden 1987), and phenomenographic approaches to understanding student learning (Marton and Booth 1997; Prosser and Trigwell 1999) have been influential in shaping practices of educational development. All gesture in some way to an ecological perspective in which teaching/learning can be seen as some of kind of system where the context of learning, teachers' and students' conceptions and perceptions, and processes of course design, delivery and assessment are critical influences on the approaches to and outcomes of learning. The space opened up by these important early ventures now needs to be more thoroughly mapped and integrated with developments in ecological thought. The intellectual landscape of the last two decades was marked by an 'ecological turn' as the various strands of postmodernism, constructivism, and other patterns in the ecology of ideas began to erode the dualistic foundations of the modern scientific worldview (Tarnas 1991). To a large extent the mainstream of educational development practice has ignored this ecological turn, but it is no longer possible to do so. In particular, enactivist theories of cognition and learning (Davis and Sumara 1997), together with an expanded understanding of Vygotsky's zone of proximal development (Wells 1999) and insights from ecological postmodernism (Doll 1993), demand a re-vision of current models of teaching/learning and their applications in educational development. This adventure into the zone of educational development takes place in a spirit of open dialogue and co-emergence of new possibilities. Key words: Objectives, outcomes and activities: Stanley Frielick has worked in academic development units in both South Africa and New Zealand for over ten years. His research interests include the applications of ecological thinking to learning/teaching, evaluation of teaching in higher education, and educational development for online learning. Contact: Stanley Frielick, email: s.frielick@auckland.ac.nz |