Yishay Mor, John Cook, Patricia Santos, Tamsin Treasure-Jones, Raymond Elferink, Debbie Holley, James Griffin Poster presented at EC TEL 2015 https://www.academia.edu/13129378 This paper proposes a framework which attempts to address the barriers to the development of successful educational design research through a process which identifies gaps in current practices and devises innovations to tar-get them. Educational design research assumes an ambitious position: a dual commitment to understand and contribute to both theory and practice. This task is confounded by the complexity of the domain and the inherent multi-stake-holder nature of most initiatives. Three barriers to success are identified: the shortage of mechanisms for cross-stakeholder dialogue, the failure to account for existing practices and contexts, and the rigid processes dictated by the dynamics of research projects. We report early findings from an attempt to address these barriers, based on an extension and adaptation of the Participatory Pattern Work-shop (PPW) methodology. A pilot implementation suggests that this framework optimises the exchange of ideas and methods, leading to a richer and more nuanced conceptualisation of educational innovations.

1. Patterns of Practice and Design:
Towards an Agile Methodology for
Educational Design Research
academia.edu/13129378learning-layers.eu
Yishay Mor, John Cook, Patricia Santos, Tamsin Treasure-Jones,
Raymond Elferink, Debbie Holley, James Griffin
Learning scientists Computer scientists
We need to
understand
Let’s build
some cool
stuff
DevelopersField researchers
Let’s build
stuff that
works
It’s tough
out here
Confer - Three steps to consensus
Kernel theories general explanatory theories from the natural or social
sciences.
Practice an established mode, or pattern, of behaviour.
Epistemic Practice an established mode, or pattern, of behaviour by
which people construct knowledge.
Practice narrative a method for documenting a Practice, as a story of a
person in defined circumstances performing defined actions to achieve
desired effects.
Practice pattern a generalisation of several practice narratives, a claim
that in circumstances with certain characteristics, persons of certain
characteristics will perform certain actions to achieve certain
objectives.
Domain-specific theories of practice A projection of a kernel theory, or
a combination of several kernel theories, into a domain of practice, to
explain and / or predict patterns of behavior in that domain.
(Agile) User Stories "In software development and product
management, a user story is one or more sentences in the everyday or
business language of the end user or user of a system that captures
what a user does or needs to do as part of his or her job function. User
stories are used with agile software development methodologies as the
basis for defining the functions a business system must provide, and to
facilitate requirements management. It captures the 'who', 'what' and
'why' of a requirement in a simple, concise way, often limited in detail
by what can be hand-written on a small paper notecard."
Design Narratives "Design narratives are accounts of critical events in a
design experiment from a personal, phenomenographic perspective.
They focus on design in the sense of problem solving, describing a
problem in the chosen domain, the actions taken to resolve it and their
unfolding effects" (Learning design grid)
Design Patterns "A design pattern describe a recurring problem, or
design challenge, the characteristics of the context in which it occurs,
and a possible method of solution." (learning design grid)
Design Principles Whereas Design Patterns are derived from practice
and then explained by theory, Design Principles are derived from theory
and then validated by evidence from practice.
Design Scenarios a testable design proposition, formulated as a
speculative narrative. "Design scenarios borrow the form of design
narratives, adapting it from an account of documented past events to a
description of imagined future ones. Design scenarios retain the same
basic components that constitute design narratives: context, challenge,
theoretical framework, events and actions, results and reflections.
However, these elements reflect a hypothesis about possible future
states of the world." (learning design grid).
Storyboard a graphical description of a scenario, presented from the
user's perspective
Local Instructional Theory diSessa & Cobb[3] define local, or domain
specific instructional theories as "conceptual analysis of a significant
disciplinary idea (..) with the specification of both successive patterns of
reasoning and the means of supporting their emergence." (pp. 83). In
other words, a domain-specific instructional theory is a theory which
predicts how to bring about a positive change in epistemic practice.
Quick glossary
(full details in paper, see link bellow)