Education as a design practice and a design science

Dr. Yishay Mor | Learning Design Technology Research | yish@yishaymor.org +972-52-6514574 http://yishaymor.org http://tiny.cc/dskt-ym
Education as a design
practice and a design science
Dr. Yishay Mor,
Designing for situated knowledge transformation,
Kolding, January 13th 2020

The paradox of education is precisely this - that as one
begins to become conscious one begins to examine the
society in which he is being educated. The purpose of
education, finally, is to create in a person the ability to look
at the world for himself, to make his own decisions, to say to
himself this is black or this is white, to decide for himself
whether there is a God in heaven or not.
2
To ask questions of the universe, and then learn to live with those
questions, is the way he achieves his own identity. But no society is really
anxious to have that kind of person around. What societies really, ideally,
want is a citizenry which will simply obey the rules of society. If a society
succeeds in this, that society is about to perish.
- James Baldwin, "A Talk to Teachers" speech, 1963

xkcd.com/1657

“The whole function of the brain is summed up in: error
correction.”
W. Ross Ashby, in Clark, A. (2013). Whatever next? Predictive brains, situated agents, and the future of cognitive science.
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 36, 181-204
https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/1031/forethought-as-an-evolutionary-doorway-to-emotions-and-consciousness
Brain by holdentrils
Tiger by Gerhard Gellinger
P(survival, reproduction)

Hierarchical predictive coding (Clark, 2013)
I
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P
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p
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Perception
Error
Prediction
Error

Circle
Ball
Football
Football game
Pass
Projectile
Intercept
P(survival, reproduction | circle)
P(goal | intercept)
Model
Context
Image by bottomlayercz0

Hierarchies, continuums or networks?
Epistemics (ch. 2)
 Propositional
knowledge
 Procedurally realized
routines
 Practical knowledge
 Experiential
knowledge
 Episodic knowledge
Personal epist’s (ch. 3)
 Behaviourism
 Cognitivism
 Situated cognition
 Participationism
 Developmental
Practicism
Context (ch. 4)
 Domain
 Activity
 Life-setting
 Societal structure
 Cultural practice
Coding
 Perception
 Conception
 Semiotics
 Practices

Situated agents (Clark 2013) :
“perception and action working in productive
tandem to reduce surprisal”
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practice :=
A recognisable
pattern of action
expected to achieve
desired results
in a familiar situation (context).

Why do we need practices?
Computational complexity.
Problem solving is exponential, pattern matching is linear.

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Systems of practices
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praqtal.levinsky.ac.ilCh. 4

by Karen Arnold
A recognisable
pattern of action
expected to
achieve
desired results
in a familiar
situation
(context).

by Karen Arnold
Hybridisation

Hybrid realities

How do you do your...
● Work
● Shopping
● Dating
● Travel
● Leisure
● Education
Unplugged Online Hybrid

Hybrid education :=
Erosion of boundaries between the spaces of education:
● on/off line/onsite
● mobile/static/situated
● in/formal
● teacher/learner
● work/study/leisure
Criticality (Friere), inquiry (Dewey), playfulness (Papert)

Educationas
designpractice
&designsciencedesign
design?

Let’s talk about Design…
21
Herbert Simon
Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at
changing existing situations into preferred ones.
The more objects are turned into things – that is,
the more matters of facts are turned into matters of
concern – the more they are rendered into objects
of design through and through.
Bruno Latour
Reflective conversation with the materials of the situation
Donald Schön

changing
existing
situations
into preferred
ones.
matters of
facts are
turned into
matters of
concern
Reflective
conversation
with the
materials of
the situation

Latour’s 5 advantages of design
1. Humility, modesty
2. Attentiveness to detail
3. Creating meaning
4. Always redesign
5. Ethical dimension
Latour, B. (2008). A Cautious Prometheus? A Few Steps Toward a Philosophy of Design (with Special
Attention to Peter Sloterdijk). In J. G. Fiona Hackne & V. Minto (eds.), Proceedings of the 2008 Annual
International Conference of the Design History Society http://www.bruno-latour.fr/node/69

Simon, Schön and others
Holmberg, J. (2014). Studying the process of educational design – revisiting Schön and making a case for
reflective design-based research on teachers’ ‘conversations with situations’. Technology, Pedagogy and
Education, 23, 293-310.
Value-driven
Change-
oriented
Complex challenges
(“wicked problems”)
Representation
sensitive
Iterative
Inquisitive Empathic

SO, Learning Design..
• Yes, it’s actually design for learning, but..
• If education is about “creating the conditions for the learner to learn”
(Laurillard), then education **is** learning design.
• A shift of practice

The 5 questions of learning design
• Who are you designing for?
• Where are they now?
• Where do you/they want to get them to?
• How will you know you got there?
• What is the path that would take them there?

Context, Practice, Design
by Karen Arnold
Practice := desire + context + pattern of action

Context, Practice, Design
Practice := objective + context + pattern of action
Context
P o AO
D
A
Context*
P o AO
A
Context*
P o A*O*
A
D
A*

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Practices as dynamical (complex) systems

Back
to
design

Value-driven
Change-
oriented
Complex challenges
(“wicked problems”)
Representation
sensitive
Iterative
Inquisitive

Inquisitive

Design as
Inquiry
Reflective
Practitioner
Design
Science
Practice-based design
research

The
Learning
Design
Studio
yishaymor
.org/lds
44
(compare to ch.9, practice
based design research)

The paradox of education is precisely this - that as one
begins to become conscious one begins to examine the
society in which he is being educated. The purpose of
education, finally, is to create in a person the ability to look
at the world for himself, to make his own decisions, to say to
himself this is black or this is white, to decide for himself
whether there is a God in heaven or not.
45
To ask questions of the universe, and then learn to live with those
questions, is the way he achieves his own identity. But no society is really
anxious to have that kind of person around. What societies really, ideally,
want is a citizenry which will simply obey the rules of society. If a society
succeeds in this, that society is about to perish.
- James Baldwin, "A Talk to Teachers" speech, 1963

The purpose of education is…
To encourage, enable and support learners to develop their ability to
construct knowledge.
Self-efficacy Curiosity Grit Integrity
Epistemic Practices Pedagogical Practices

Epistemic practices: practices for
constructing knowledge
Pedagogical practices: practices
for supporting others in
constructing knowledge

Knowledge
Types – (ch. 2)
 Propositional knowledge
 Procedurally realized routines
 Practical knowledge
 Experiential knowledge
 Episodic knowledge
How is it…
 Formulated?
 Represented?
 Constructed?
 Validated?
 Endowed?
And what about?
 Design knowledge
 Epistemic (meta)
knowledge

Enter Signature Pedagogies
Erik Erikson once observed that if you wish to understand a culture, study
it’s nurseries.
[…]If you wish to understand how professions develop as they do, study their
nurseries.
Signature Pedagogies [..] are the types of teaching that organize the
fundamental ways in which future practitioners are educated for their
profession. [..] novices are instructed in critical aspects of the three
fundamental dimensions of professional work: to think, to perform, and to
act with integrity.
Shulman, L. S. (2005). Signature pedagogies in the professions. Daedalus, 134, 52-59.

Enter Signature Pedagogies
Erik Erikson once observed that if you wish to understand a culture, study it’s nurseries.
[…]If you wish to understand how professions develop as they do, study their nurseries.
Signature Pedagogies [..] are the types of teaching that organize the fundamental ways in which future
practitioners are educated for their profession. [..] novices are instructed in critical aspects of the three
fundamental dimensions of professional work: to think, to perform, and to act with integrity.
A system of pedagogical (and implicit epistemic)
practices in a well-defined context.

Anatomy of a signature pedagogy
A Signature Pedagogy has three dimensions. [..]
■ A Surface Structure, [..] concrete, operational acts of teaching. [..]
■ A Deep Structure, a set of assumptions about how best to impart a
certain body of knowledge and know-how. [..]
■ An Implicit Structure, a set of beliefs about professional attitudes, values
and dispositions.

A grammar for signature pedagogies
Surface structure Deep structure Implicit structure
Pedagogical Practices Pedagogical Principles
Pedagogical Values &
beliefs
Epistemic Practices Epistemic Principles
Epistemic Values &
beliefs
Why?What?How?
Vision & ValuesDesign PrincplesDesign Patterns

A grammar for signature pedagogies (2)
■ Vision statements: aspirational statements. this is how we want to world
to be.
■ Value statements: normative propositions.
■ Design Principles: imperative propositions derived from the vision and
values.
■ Design Patterns: operational structures. a recurring problem in a defined
context and a validated method of addressing it.

Design patterns
Each pattern describes a problem that occurs over and
over again in our environment, and then describes the
core of the solution to that problem, in such a way that
you can use this solution a million times over, without
ever doing it the same way twice.
— Christopher Alexander
Context
Problem Solution
● A three-part rule
● A “thing in the world” and the proce
to create that thing

Participatory Pattern Workshops

Eduplop.org
twitter.com/yishaym/status/798631323703201792
59

Köppe, C., Nørgård, R. T. & Pedersen, A. Y. (2017). Towards a Pattern Language for Hybrid Education. Proceedings of
the Vikingplop 2017 Conference

Canals & Mor (under review),
Design Principles for Task-
Based Computer-Assisted
Language Learning,
Language Learning &
Technology

Watch this space..
■ Köppe, C., Nørgård, R. T. & Pedersen, A. Y. (2017). Towards a Pattern
Language for Hybrid Education. Proceedings of the Vikingplop 2017
Conference
■ Canals & Mor (under review), Design Principles for Task-Based
Computer-Assisted Language Learning, Language Learning & Technology
■ Nørgård, R. T., Toft-Nielsen, C. & Whitton, N. (2017). Playful learning in
higher education: developing a signature pedagogy. International
Journal of Play, 6, 272-282.

Design
PracticeInquiry
Data

So….

So….
■ Predictive coding
■ Practices
○ Hybridity
○ Dynamical systems
■ Design
■ Inquiry
○ Learning Design Studio / SNaP!
■ Signature pedagogies
■ Data

Thank you!
Yishay Mor
yish@yishaymor.org
http://yishaymor.org

Education as a design practice and a design science

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