Conferences

I am at Online Educa Berlin this week.  A conversation with another conference participants crystallised in my mind the three types of conferences I prefer:

1. Conferences which cover a broad variety of research domains within my research field, Learning Sciences. A key conference exemplifying this category for me is the biannual conference of  the European Association of Research in Learning and Instruction (EARLI).   
2. Conferences which bring together a variety of sectors and organisations – universities or other public sector organisations and the industry, research centers and publishers, etc.  Online Educa Berlin (OEB) is an example of this type of conference.
3. Conferences focused on my particular research area (Technology-Enhanced Professional Learning).  Typical conferences in this category are EARLI Professional Learning SIG, Researching Work and Learning (RWL), EDMEDIA. 

Handbook of Research on Adult Learning and Development

I am reading the 2009 Handbook of Research on Adult Learning and Development edited by M.C. Smith . It’s comprehensive overview of theoretical perspectives on adult development and learning, research methods in adult development, aging research and policy perspectives on aging. Understanding adult learning requires understanding developmental changes across adulthood.

There are 26 chapters, and I plan separate blogposts summarising the key insights from each.

This will be a largely notetaking rather than an analytical exercise.

My research cloud

While talking to a colleague today, I came across a neat idea of representing one’s research foci. The idea is to generate a Wordle cloud of keywords from your publications.

I made one for myself, based on keywords from all my peer-reviewed academic journal articles. Although journal articles constitute only about a quarter of all my publications (other types are conference papers, book chapters, project reports, and a book), this is probably a fairly accurate representation of my research.

My research foci

On lack of consilience in the social sciences

O.E.Wilson’s characterisation of the social sciences is spot on (emphases mine):

“…There is also progress in the social sciences, but it is much slower and not at all animated by the same information flow and optimistic spirit [as in natural sciences]. Cooperation is sluggish at best; even genuine discoveries are often obscured by bitter ideological disputes. For the most part, anthropologists, economists, sociologists, and political scientists fail to understand and encourage one another… The efforts of social scientists are snarled by disunity and a failure of vision. And the reasons for the confusion are becoming increasingly clear. Social scientists by and large spurn the idea of the hierarchical ordering of knowledge that unites and drives the natural sciences. Split into independent cadres, the stress precision in words within their speciality but seldom speak the same technical language from one speciality to the next. A great many even enjoy the resulting overall atmosphere of chaos, mistaking it for creative ferment. Some favour partisan social activism, directing theory into the service of their personal political philosophies.” (p. 201)

New paper published in the Journal of Knowledge Management

Colin Milligan, Allison Littlejohn and I had a paper published in the Journal of Knowledge Management. The paper reports the findings from this and this work I blogged about in 2009.

Full reference:  Margaryan, A., Milligan, C., & Littlejohn, A. (2011). Validation of Davenport’s Classification Structure of Knowledge-intensive Processes. Journal of Knowledge Management, 15(4), 568-581.

My EARLI2011 diary

As I said earlier, I’m heading off to Exeter tomorrow to participate in the EARLI2011 conference.  If anybody wants to meet up, my conference diary is as follows:

TUE AUG 30

 

• 10:15-11:00: EARLI Opening/JURE Closing session
• 11:00-12:30: Session A16 Professional Development
• 12:30-13:30: Lunch
• 13:30-15:00: Sessions B4 Culture and Education and B16 Training of young researchers
• 15:30-17:00: Session C16 Learning Theory and Educational Attainment
• 17:15-18:45: Presidential address and awards
• 19:00+ Opening Reception

WED AUG 31

• 09:00-10:30: Symposium D5 Different Perspectives on Understanding Learning in the Workplace
• 11:00-12:30: Poster sessions (not sure which thematic session I am going to, I think I will check all of them out)
• 12:30-13:30: Lunch
• 13:30-15:00: Session F18 Training of young researchers
• 15:30-17:00: Keynote 1 Deliberate Practice and the Future of Education & Professional Training
• 17:00-18:30 Session G12 Professional Development

THUR SEP 1

• 09:00-10:30: Panel Discussion H24 Developing expertise development in the classroom: A utopia or reality?
• 11:00-12:30: Round Table I14 Typology of informal workplace learning [I am leading this round table discussion together with Colin Milligan and Allison Littlejohn]
• 12:30-13:30: Lunch
• 13:30-15:00: Symposium J2 The Question of Research Methodology: Where next for EARLI?
• 15:30-17:00: Keynote 1 Deliberate Practice and the Future of Education & Professional Training
• 18:00-19:00: SIG 14 Professional Development Meeting

FRI SEP 2

• 09:00-10:30: Session K3 Measuring Outcomes of Professional Education
• 11:00-12:30: Poster Sessions (TBI)
• 12:30-13:30: Lunch
• 13:30-15:00: Session M12 Lifelong Learning and Professional Development session [I am chairing this session; also our paper on Learning From Incidents in Organisations, co-authored with Dane Lukic and Allison Littlejohn, will be presented here]
• 15:30-17:00: Keynote 3 TLRP’s ten principles for effective pedagogy: rationale, development, evidence, argument and impact
• 17:00-18:30: General Assembly
• 19:30 + Conference Dinner

I am leaving on Saturday morning to return to Glasgow, so Friday will be my last day at the conference.

EARLI 2011 Conference Paper Abstracts

Next week I’ll be attending the 2011 Conference of the European Association of Research in Learning and Instruction (EARLI), which is taking place at the University of Exeter in the UK this year.  I’ve spent a few hours today going through the conference programme and selecting the talks I’d like to attend.   EARLI is a large conference and there are many more interesting papers and sessions than one could physically attend, so I have compiled below a list of the papers that I found particularly interesting and would like to follow up on. I specify the key aspect of interest in the brackets.

1. Finding valued relationships: Beginning teachers networking to meet their professional needs, p.49 (Alison Fox et al).+ (methodology used; results on role of networks)
2. Training for transfer: A comprehensive evaluation study, p. 108 (Jan Ulrich Hense et al).+ (data collection instruments used – not reported)
3. Only connect? Being, knowing and communicating in the 21st century university, p. 875 (Charles Anderson et al).+ (results on role of networks in students’ learning and transition)
4. Individual and contextual influences on vocational teachers’ innovative work behaviour, p. 211 (Gerhard Messmann et al).+ (results)
5. What is Learning to learn? An updated theoretical exploration, p. 223 (Cristina Stringher).+ (methodology; approach to theorising)
6. Learning through information and knowledge sharing in patient review meetings, p. 1065 (Margje W.J. van de Wiel et al)+ (methodology)
7. Trajectories of Novice and Experienced Teacher Educators in a Professional Development Community, p. 1075 (David Brody et al)+ (results)
8. Development paths of university teachers during a pedagogical development course, p. 1077 (Liisa Postareff et al)+(results; methodology)
9. Experienced teachers’ non-learning: mechanisms of mental resistance and avoidance, p. 1079 (Paulien Meijer et al)+(results)
10. Exploring new horizons: teacher professional development through networked learning, p. 330 (Daniel Van Amersfoort et al)+ (results on role of networks)
11. Building the pillars of expertise: self-regulated learning, knowledge, and high-quality performance, p. 1694 (Margje W.J. van de Wiel)+(results)
12. Evidence-based or value-based? The need to redefine the relationship between research and practice, p. 1444 (Gert Biesta)+ (ideas)
13. Achievement goals in adult learners: Evidence from distance education, p. 1217 (John Richardson et al) + (instrument; results (of relevance to our MOOC study))
14. Towards reconceptualising professional agency at work from a subject-centred socio-cultural stance, p. 707 (Anneli Etelapelto et al)+ (sythesis of perspectives on agency; research agenda proposed)
15. Understanding Self-Motivated Feedback Exchanges: A social network perspective, p. 1781 (Janine van der Rijt et al)+(results)
16. Exploring patterns of task specific goal setting and motivation regulation, p. 35 (Allyson Hadwin et al)+(methodology; results)