Learning from Decoding across Disciplines and within Communities of Practice

Abstract

This final chapter synthesizes the findings and implications derived from applying the Decoding the Disciplines model across disciplines and within communities of practice. We make practical suggestions for teachers and researchers who wish to apply and extend this work. Learning from Decoding across Disciplines and within Communities of PracticeJanice Miller-Young and Jennifer BomanWe suggested at the beginning of this issue that the "Decoding the Disciplines" model not only provides a framework for inquiry into teaching and learning disciplinary concepts, but also holds much potential for bridging thinking and teaching practice across disciplines. The chapters subsequently presented have extended the Decoding model in several ways, using it for epistemological and ontological bottlenecks. By analyzing interviews about seven bottlenecks from diverse disciplines, we uncovered common themes that illustrate experts' ways of thinking, practicing and being (Chapter 2, this issue). For example, these expert approaches required not only the ability to perform tasks such as deconstructing problems and recognizing patterns, but also the confidence to take agency in pursuing knowledge and to take time to explore different perspectives before coming to a decision. These ways of thinking, being, and practicing were employed even when thinking through concepts which our interviewees initially thought were relatively 'simple', cognitive bottlenecks. Also, by analyzing these interviews through different theoretical lenses, we have proposed several new lines of questioning for use in Decoding interviews (see below). Finally, by applying the Decoding interview within two different communities of practice we have shown how it can influence both teaching and curriculum. In all cases, we have been struck by the power of the Decoding interview in revealing basic assumptions about disciplinary thinking as well as the role it can play in developing the community and trust necessary for collaborative teaching and/or research projects.

Beyond Decoding the Disciplines 1.0

“…Janice Miller-Young and her colleagues at this Canadian university stressed the way in which the paradigm created a "climate of trust" within the group that greatly facilitated both communication and exploration, and the word "trust" appeared no less than 26 times in their 15-page article (Miller-Young et al 2015. See also Miller-Young andBoman 2017b;Petit et al 2017;Yeo et al 2017;Miller-Young and Boman 2017c).…”

Epilogue

“…In “How Did I Get Here? Reflections on Learning from Multidisciplinary Communities of Practice” (2016), Janice Miller‐Young credits several multidisciplinary communities of practice with both contributing to and challenging her knowledge and confidence in SoTL. Michelle J. Eady, Corinne Green, Ashley B. Akenson, Briony Supple, Marian McCarthy, James Cronin, and Jacinta McKeon chronicle their virtual “network group” of mutual learning, support, friendship, and collaborative authorship in both “Supporting Writing Collaborations through Synchronous Technologies: Singing Our SSONG about Working Together at a Distance” (Eady et al., 2019) and “Beyond the Conference: Singing Our SSONG” (Green et al., 2020).…”