1. Doing research together: what are the possibilities and restrictions of professional development structures? Els De Geest, Christine Hirst, Marie Joubert RECME research team
NAMA - 8 March 2008
And it is really doing research together because we do not know the answers - your ideas are as good as ours

2. The RECME Project What it is about:
Finding out interrelated factors of effective CPD
Researching 30 existing and on-going initiatives. We attend their group meetings and follow this up with visits to individual teachers in their schools
We are now in the stage of data collecting
Most importantly: the philosophical underpinning of this project is the co-constructing of meaning with the wider mathematics education world

3. Rationale for this session…
Doing research together: what are the possibilities and restrictions of professional development structures
Rationale for this session…
Why is it that at times when you really thought a CPD initiative would work well it does not, and vice versa? To what extent does the structure of the initiative influence this?
In this session we will use the notion of ‘affordances’ (Greeno, 1994) to make sense of the structures of CPD initiatives in terms of interactions they allow and restrict. It is one of the theoretical frameworks we are using in the RECME project.
Mention els’ example of low attaining network for identification and exemplification

4. What we will do in this session…
Doing research together: what are the possibilities and restrictions of professional development structures
What we will do in this session…
Explore Greeno’s notion of “affordances”
Link educational theory with practice - trying it out
Find out what it can offer us as ‘providers’ and ‘clients’ of CPD
Co-construct meaning of what interrelated factors of effective CPD are

5. Greeno’s notion of affordances
Doing research together: what are the possibilities and restrictions of professional development structures
Greeno’s notion of affordances
Background
Based on Gibson’s description of affordances:
Gibson (1979): perceptions are formed as part of an interaction and will depend on what information is available. He defined affordances as the opportunities for action for the observer provided by an environment, and proposed that observers perceive these affordances rather than abstract physical properties of objects and environments. The affordance that will be perceived is determined by the perceiver’s psychological state in that moment
Example: the postbox
Example Gibson: a postbox. My perception will be different if a) I have got a letter in my hand (affordance=posting letter system); b) it is busy on the pavement and I better not bump into the postbox (affordance=obstacle); c)I think of architectural objects and see it as an object of beauty (affordance=architectural object)
Then dog

6. Greeno’s notion of affordances
Doing research together: what are the possibilities and restrictions of professional development structures
Greeno’s notion of affordances
How Greeno extended Gibson’s theory:
Placed Gibson’s theory within the realm of mathematics education
Involves shifting attention from individuals to interactions
Offers a more detailed analysis framework for affordances
Used it mainly for task analysis

7. Greeno’s notion of affordances
Doing research together: what are the possibilities and restrictions of professional development structures
Greeno’s notion of affordances
Elements of Greeno’s theory
Affordances: are the possibilities that are offered
Attunements:these are the regular patterns of an individual’s participation.
Constraints:these restrict and/or enable the affordances
Examples of (in short here and more in depth perhaps do that with Els’ netowrk example - next slides)
Affordances
Attunements
Constraints

8. Greeno’s notion of affordances
Doing research together: what are the possibilities and restrictions of professional development structures
Greeno’s notion of affordances
Summarising:
Background
Based on Gibson’s description of affordances
How Greeno extended Gibson’s theory
Elements of Greeno’s theory:
Affordances
Attunements
Constraints

9. Doing research together: what are the possibilities and restrictions of professional development structures
Sometimes it is easier to look at examples where things did not work out as anticipated…
Els’ low attaining network in Slough
What happened….

10. Another example The fleas…..
Doing research together: what are the possibilities and restrictions of professional development structures
Another example
The fleas…..

11. A video of CPD for analysis using Greeno’s theory
Doing research together: what are the possibilities and restrictions of professional development structures
A video of CPD for analysis using Greeno’s theory
Look at the video. Could you
Link these to Greeno’s theory
Try to think when there was a shift in participation - what and why was this?
Describe these shifts in the language of Greeno

12. Thinking about your practice…
Doing research together: what are the possibilities and restrictions of professional development structures
Thinking about your practice…
Discuss in small groups an example from your own experience of a CPD initiative you
Attended
Ran
Observed
Can you:
Link these to Greeno’s theory
Think when there was a shift in participation - what and why was this?
Describe these shifts in the language of Greeno

13. What we said we would do in this session…
Doing research together: what are the possibilities and restrictions of professional development structures
What we said we would do in this session…
Explore Greeno’s notion of “affordances”
Link educational theory with practice - trying it out
Find out what it can offer us as ‘providers’ and ‘clients’ of CPD
Co-construct meaning of what interrelated factors of effective CPD are

14. Co-constructing meaning..
Doing research together: what are the possibilities and restrictions of professional development structures
Co-constructing meaning..
Evaluation form with a difference

15. More about RECME, contributing and contacting us (please do!)
Doing research together: what are the possibilities and restrictions of professional development structures
More about RECME, contributing and contacting us (please do!)
Portal:
(or NCETM > Research > RECME)

16. Doing research together: what are the possibilities and restrictions of professional development structures
References
Csikszentmihalyi, M (1997) Finding Flow New York:Basic Books
Gibson (1977) The Theory of Affordances in (Eds) R.Shaw and J. Bransford Perceiving, Acting and Knowing: Toward an Ecological Psychology Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
Greeno, J (1994) Gibson’s Affordances Psychological Review 101,
Greeno, J and van de Sande (2007) Perspectival Understnading of Conceptions and Conceptual Growth in Interaction Educational Psychologist 42(1)

17. Thank you! Then flea joke….
Doing research together: what are the possibilities and restrictions of professional development structures
Thank you!
Then flea joke….