Developing the classroom as a “figured world”

Abstract

This article introduces an empirical analysis of the potentials and contradictions of a narrative playworld intervention aimed at changing the pedagogical practices of a Finnish mixed-age elementary school classroom in spring 2004. In the playworld, students and teachers explore different phenomena by taking on the roles of characters from a story and acting inside the frames of an improvised plot. The analysis is based on an understanding of school as a historically and culturally formed activity system. The playworld, on the other hand, is understood as a collective imagined and materialized figured world. The findings show that for the teachers, the main contradiction in the playworld was between keeping control and promoting student initiatives. For the students, the contradiction arose between the student role and that of agent in the playworld. However, the contradictions also created the main developmental potentials of the activity. That the playworld was not only a tool for transforming classroom work but a world in which to belong made it possible to sustain the activity and make it a regular part of classroom practices.

Teaching aquatic science as inquiry through professional development: Teacher characteristics and student outcomes

“…Inquiry‐based PD that builds teachers’ scientific process skills can increase teachers’ understanding of science and confidence in their ability to teach science (Bencze, ; Bulunuz & Jarrett, ; Nadelson et al, ; Raino, ). When teachers participating in PD improve in their self‐efficacy with science process skills, use of constructivist teaching practices typically increases (Alexander, Heaviside, & Farris, ; Beamer, Van Sickle, Harrison, & Temple, ).…”

Micro-Policies Of Adult–Child Joint Play In The Context Of The Finnish Ecec System

“…The playworld activity took place every week at the same time, and it rarely, if ever, had to be cancelled or changed. In socially-demanding situations, such as quarrelling between children or chaotic situations, the playworld activity was generally sustained (for examples of such situations, see Rainio, 2008a;2008b;Paananen & Rainio, 2018;Hakkarainen, 2009). These ethnographic findings created an interesting contrast with Maiju's study, in which play yielded to other conflicting aims in the group.…”

“…Although there were other elements in Anna's study that possibly contributed to making play such a sustained activity in the classroom (see Rainio, 2008b, Lindqvist, 1995Ferholt et al, 2019) we have focused on the micro-policies that helped make play sustainable. We conclude that at least four policy-level factors seemed crucial for play to receive such persistent recognition:…”

Sísifo y el conocimiento práctico

“…Me refiero concretamente a las que se agrupan bajo la conceptualización de las comunidades de aprendizaje y el aprendizaje situado (Engeström, 2001(Engeström, , 2008Lave y Wenger, 1991;Rainio 2008;Wenger, 2003).…”

“…que estimulan esta reflexión sobre los sistemas de actividad implicados y sus interacciones como ayudas para el cambio (Rainio, 2008;Sanino, 2008).…”