ERIC Number: ED552232
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2012
Pages: 241
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: 978-1-2678-8966-9
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Teaching into the Heart of Knowing in Online Education: Aesthetics & Pragmatics
Chapman, Jocelyn Elizabeth
ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, California Institute of Integral Studies
The purpose of this dissertation is to show how aesthetic experiences and nontrivial conversations are at the heart of learning and can be designed for and practiced online. Aesthetic experiences are moments of acute attention, imbued with meaning (Parrish, 2009). Nontrivial conversations are conversations that increase possibilities for learning and generating knowledge (Pask, 1972; Sharples, 2005). Together they form a complementarity, meaning that in relationship they describe a phenomenon, in this case knowing or meaning making. Fostering nontrivial conversations and triggering aesthetic experiences is a non-dogmatic way of orienting education towards student-centered constructivist learning. Higher education is in the midst of large-scale transition, both conceptually and technologically, in response to global, social, economic, political, technological, and learning research trends. This transition has been slow and partial, but is accelerating. Conceptually, if not in practice, education is shifting from a model of knowledge transmission to collaborative knowledge construction. Technologically, online education has become largely accepted. The rapid expansion of online education does not contradict that it remains in many ways a wild frontier, a place where possibilities for increasing learning by methods unique to the online environment are being newly discovered and explored (Laurillard, 2005). This expansive "place of possibilities" is where this inquiry is located, expressly directed at facilitating learning. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]
Descriptors: Electronic Learning, Aesthetics, Pragmatics, Constructivism (Learning), Student Centered Curriculum, Higher Education, Educational Change
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Publication Type: Dissertations/Theses - Doctoral Dissertations
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A