Using Activity Theory to analyse the implementation of the Science Extended Curriculum Programme (ECP) at the University of the Western Cape

Rita KizitoJaques Elengemole University of the Western Cape

Teaching & Learning Colloquium 19 July 2013

What am I trying to do ?

• Analyse (examine, study, scrutinise) the implementation of the Science Extended Curriculum Programme (ECP) in terms of how participating individuals ( lecturers & students) experience their involvement in the programme.

• Uncover the merits ( as well as shortcomings) of a programme designed to increase participation of under-prepared students in higher education science.

• Programme Evaluation.

UWC Science ECP

• Designed to increase participation and improve the performance of under-prepared students in higher education science.

• Addresses five learning areas: Physics, Life Sciences, Introduction to Science, Mathematics and Statistics.

• Students enrolling for this programme receive additional and intensive support in these learning areas, allowing them to complete a three-year B.Sc. programme in four years.

About Programme Evaluation…

Scriven, M. (1991) Evaluation thesaurus, fourth edition. Newbury Park: Sage.

Patton, M.Q .(2010 ).Qualitative research and evaluation methods. Sage Publications: Incorporated.

Shortcomings of evaluation methods

Dominant approaches to programme evaluation centre around analysing the effects of single variables on learner performance and are useful for understanding the impact of several factors individually.`

They do not offer a comprehensive view of how events, activities and processes shape the learning environment and its participants (Patton, 2010).

Why use activity theory?

AT provides a language, a holistic framework and a methodology for analysing educational practices that shape the implementation of a learning programme by:• availing ways for describing and explaining individual

and social practices, separately, or as integrated entities (theoretical).

• offering a holistic, analytical tool for evaluating human learning or developmental processes at both individual and group levels, in different learning domains and at disparate levels of complexity (methodological).

What is activity theory (AT)?

• AT or Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) is a set of basic principles constituting a conceptual system for describing and analysing human mental functioning and behaviour ; or a socio-cultural and historical framework and methodology for holistically analysing human activity systems (Vygotsky 1978; Leont’ev 1979; Engeström 1999; 2001).

• Within an activity system, a participant (subject) whose agency is the focus of the analysis, acts on and transforms an (object) producing an outcome through mediating influences of other factors such as community, division of labour and rules.

Activity System ( unit of analysis)

(tools) mediating artefacts for teaching and learning e.g. learning materials, computers, language, concepts, teaching methods

subject ( lecturer, student, TA, tutor)

Object ( teaching/learning) point

outcome ( better student performance)

rules of the programme

ECP Community

division of labour

Contradictions

• All of the elements in activity system influence each other and are influenced by social, cultural and historical factors . Each activity is surrounded by other activities. Internal contradictions and tensions within and among the elements lead to transitions and transformation.

outcome outcome

transition

transformationintegration

Premises for CHAT

• Basic CHAT assumption :activity and consciousness are dynamically interrelated in strings of collaborative processes involving material production and social exchanges (Marxist ideology).

• To Vygotsky (1978), social exchanges between people were pivotal to individual development and occurred through cultural mediation.

• Leonte’ev (1979) was more interested in analysing how the material forms of activity were transformed into individual psychological processes.

• Engeström (2001) is credited with developing the activity system model currently being used to describe and analyse activity systems and to vouch for a theory of expansive learning.

Premises for CHAT

• More recently, Stetsenko (2005, p. 74), has argued that “ three processes underlie human life and development – the material production of tools, the social exchanges among people, and the individual mechanisms regulating this production and these exchanges”..

“activity and consciousness are dynamically interrelated”

Research Goal

Explore a group of coordinators’, lecturers’, teaching assistants’, students’ and tutors’ views about the effectiveness of the ECP curriculum as a pedagogic entity for science teaching in order to gain in-depth understanding of implementing the science ECP curriculum in a higher education context.

Research Questions

1. How do the ECP coordinators, lecturers, teaching assistants, students and tutors experience their involvement in the ECP?

2. What are the internal and external contradictions within the activity system of ECP curriculum provision and implementation? How can they be resolved?

3. What recommendations and possible models of how to address these contradictions emerge from this evaluative project?

Subjects (40)

Coordinators (5); Lecturers (5);Teaching Assistants (5)

Tutors (5);Students (20)

Participation is voluntary.

• Semi structured interviews to solicit information about student experience and teaching practice.

• Observations focussing on classroom environmental factors and teaching practices including tool use ,teaching practice and events. Etic (outsider ) & (emic) (engaging).

Main data sources

semi structured interview template

1. Clarifying purpose of the activity and analysing the context including division of labour, rules, norms and regulations.

2. Motivation.

3. Life history (prior experience) and critical incidences

4. Tool use ( mediating artefacts) both material/physical tools and mental tools.

5. Participant perceptions and emotions regarding interview methods.

how am I planning to use AT?

• Reconstruct activity systems reconstructed from• individual and collective perspectives.• Compare teaching ‘worlds; and ‘learning worlds’• Search for tensions ( contradictions) evident both within

and between systems.

Data collected so far…

• Conducted 5 interviews ( too early to make conclusions)

• Preliminary results indicate that there are different conceptions of teaching ( transforming the individual/inculcating the relevant skills).

• No clear agreement about rules and division of labour in the ECP.

Benefits of using activity theory

1. Provides a clear evaluative framework for comparison of experiences and practices.

2. Allows focus on:• detail of experience within a particular context• the individual in relation to others, and within a

context of a collective, social and cultural system (Vygoskian idea)

• An aggregated description and examination of experiences and practices

References

1. Engeström, Y. 1999. Activity theory and individual and social transformation. In Perspectives on activity theory, eds. Y. Engeström, R. Miettinen and R.L. Punamäki. Cambridge: University Press.

2. Engeström, Y. 2001. Expansive learning at work: Toward an activity theoretical reconceptualization. Journal of education and work 14(1):133-156.

3. Leont’ev A.N. 1979. The problem of activity on psychology. In The concept of activity in Soviet psychology, eds. J.V. Wertsch.

4. Patton, M.Q .(2010 ).Qualitative research and evaluation methods. Sage Publications: Incorporated.

5. Scriven, M. (1991) Evaluation thesaurus, fourth edition. Newbury Park: Sage

6. Vygotsky, L. S. 1978; Mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge: Harvard university press

Thank you!