Paper computer supported collaborative work, creativity processes and innovation in teacher groups

COMPUTER SUPPORTED COLLABORATIVE WORK, CREATIVITY PROCESSES AND INNOVATION IN TEACHER GROUPS. Sune Weile1, Eva Sjælland2, Janni Nielsen3 1

Aalborg University, MIL (DENMARK) Aalborg University, MIL (DENMARK) 3 Professor and PhD. Aalborg University, MIL (DENMARK) 2

Abstract The purpose of the project was to investigate and develop pedagogical innovations in education focusing on collaborative work processes of creativity and innovation. [1] The aim was to investigate how innovation and creativity processes in communities of practice [2] can support reflection, knowledge sharing, and professional development, [3] when the collaborative work processes takes place on digital interpersonal platforms.

The project studied how teachers in a Danish “gymnasiums” reflected on their own practices in their teacher subject groups, and how these reflections showed themselves in the narratives that were created within the communities of practice of the educational organization.

A theory of creativity [4] integrated with a theory of ICT collaboration [5] was developed as framework to understand the teachers’ creative collaborative processes and how these processes may enhance career development focusing on reflection, knowledge sharing, and professional development on digital platforms in teacher subject groups.

On this basis a process model was developed and tested in two teacher subject groups in face-to-face and on a digital platform. The analysis showed that the teachers do apply processes of creativity and innovation in order to develop solutions to challenges that they face in their daily lives. But these processes are difficult to transfer onto digital platforms. The investigation also showed that the narratives of a community of practice influence how a professional co-operation is organized, and how the cooperation on the digital platforms unfold.

The conclusion of the project is that computer supported collaborative work in education is best underpinned if existing narratives about the use of ICT is taken into account and when the collaborative work processes are founded on the professional challenges and problems of teacher groups.

Keywords: Innovation, ICT, creativity, collaboration, teacher subject groups, administration

1 INTRODUCTION AND GOAL These years, the focus within the Danish educational sector is in on the development of creative skills and innovative skills of the young people. [6] This is an answer to several challenges. A part of the manual jobs is moving to foreign countries, and it is estimated that in the future we have to make a living from developing and using good ideas rather than from the speed of our manufacture. [7] This happens also as an answer to the global challenges the world is facing such as hunger, lack of water and energy, pollution, and war. It will, as was already pointed out by the UN in 2000 [8], demand new ways of thinking, if such extensive challenges are to be met. The hope is that part of the solution is innovative and creative citizens.

Thus, the educational institutions are expected to be able to rise to the task of educating young people to a world of change. From political quarters, new reforms are passed and new demands are made for measures that the educational institutions continuously must fulfil including motivation, digital education, and innovative skills. [9][10] In addition, the business community of Denmark makes demands on the future employees, which are not always in harmony with the skills the young people acquire in the educational institutions. [11] [12] Furthermore, the digitized society of the future will demand that we are able to participate as global, democratic citizens. [13][14] Big demands are made on the management of the schools to continuously implement new knowledge into the organization. Big demands are also made on the teachers to implement the new initiatives in the teaching, which in turn demand in-service training of the individual teacher. It is difficult to implement new

initiatives into practice if the teachers are not able to develop their own professionalism. This is also true when it comes to demanding innovative and creative thinking of the students [10], because how are the teachers supposed to teach innovation to the students and make creativity a part of the teaching, if they do not know how?

2 THE PROBLEM SPACE For the individual high school teacher, this calls on in-service training. As professional practicians, the teachers are trained to reflect on their own practices in many different scenarios.[3] This is true both in the classroom, alone, and in cooperation with other teachers. New measures mean that the teachers must be willing to widen their fields of practice through in-service training and cooperation with other colleagues. In Denmark, the schools support the in-service training by assigning large groups of teachers to courses so the measures of the school are met. Generally, the schools are good at educating the teachers when it comes to common measures across subjects such school strategy on digital education or classroom management [15], however the report also states that the schools lack focus on the in-service training in the individual subjects and do not succeed in that matter among the teachers. This is especially common in the teacher subject groups.

In Denmark, a teacher typically teaches two subjects, which they have been studying at the university e.g. biology and social studies. In the individual school, they are organized in so-called teacher subject groups with teachers who teach the same subject. The teacher subject groups are in charge of developing the subject in the school, holding various events for the students and so on. It takes cooperation and in-service training when one’s field of subject is widening, and it is this in-service training and the following cooperation, in particular, which the management has difficulties in supporting according to the report.

This means that the implementation of a measure, such as innovation in the teaching, by the management only happens on a superficial level and is in danger of not taking root in the individual subjects, when there are no clear strategies, and follow-up by the management, for the teacher subject groups. Therefore, the question is how the school can make sure that new knowledge is being developed and established in the teacher subject groups and, in connection with that, whether processes of innovation and creative application of knowledge can lead to solutions to the problems the teachers face in their daily work life. One of the major challenges in the daily life of the individual teacher is that teaching, preparation, marking and grading, and meetings fill up the day. Therefore, it is difficult to make room for further cooperation with colleagues. It is, then, obvious to investigate whether the digital platforms of cooperation, which all high schools in Denmark have access to, can support this cooperation.

2.1 The research question Our research question of the project was to investigate, if ICT can support creative application of knowledge and innovation in the cooperation process of the teacher subject group. To answer the above, we listed a series of sub questions: •

Can creativity processes and innovation processes support reflection, knowledge, and sharing?

•

Which narratives concerning sharing of knowledge and ICT arise among teachers and management?

•

Of what importance are these narratives to the work of the teachers?

In this article, we have chosen to focus especially on the last two questions, which turned out to be decisively important to our project. In the following, some superior theoretical angles that are fundamental to the understanding of the conclusion of the project are presented. Then, we describe our investigation design.

Finally, we are presenting the conclusions of the project.

3 THEORETICAL ANGLES 3.1 The narrative self and the communities of practice The two questions we have chosen to focus on in this article are specifically revolving around which narratives arise in organizations. I.e. how one talks about topics such as sharing of knowledge. At the same time, it is about what the implications of how we talk about things are for the way we understand our surroundings. Thus, our interest lies in how human beings act and communicate with each other, and what

the significance it has on our perception of the world. Ludwig Wittgenstein’s theory on language games, which he develops in “Philosophical Investigations”, has an important point here: “This does not mean that reality does not exist independently of language, only that our access to reality necessarily must go the through language”.[16] Therefore, our interest is also to investigate how the teachers talk about terms like sharing of knowledge, ICT, innovation and so on, because it has a decisive significance on how we understand the terms ourselves. Jerome S. Bruner, cognitive psychology scientist, in his “Making Stories” [17] point to the fact that human beings use narratives to create coherence and understanding. When situations arise that do not turn out as planned or are hard to handle, narratives make the un-manageable manageable. At the same time, this means that human beings continuously change their narratives, because the practice in which that person finds him- or herself is changing. There is no core identity that can be revealed. Man consists of floating identities that are created and changed in the various cultures, social contexts, and practices in which he participates. [17] Thus, the narratives are creating meaning to an understanding of our past; where we come from, our present; where we are, and our future; where are we headed and why? This means that an investigation of narratives can give an insight into how the individual person (but also groups) interprets the context of which he or she is a part. What narratives arise e.g. about sharing of knowledge among the members of the teacher subject groups, when they are talking among themselves? And is this narrative supporting a specific way of cooperating in the teacher subject groups? Such a focus will show how meaning is developed and negotiated in the specific context. A conversation, therefore, becomes a situation where we as human beings organize and negotiate our knowledge and experience in narratives.[18] In this connection it is important to point out that, as part of our investigation of narratives, we make us of Etienne Wenger’s theory on communities of practice[2] in order to investigate how the teacher subject group “tells” the teacher subject group and how they work together as a community of practice. This sets a frame in order to understand the existing cooperation of the teacher subject groups and the narratives that exist within the school. Wenger finds that the communities of practice in which we take part plays a part in constituting us as persons. Both in the way we act and in our perception of our own practice.

A part of the project, then, turned out to be about the significance of the narratives of teachers and management for the cooperation in the school, the perception of the sharing of knowledge, the application of ICT et al. As we will see, it turned out to be an important conclusion that what narratives existed among managers and teachers was very decisive for the further development of the school. As our focus was to investigate if processes of innovation and creative application of knowledge could take place on digital platforms, we will briefly outline relevant basic theory in that field in the following.

3.2 Innovation processes Normally, the notion of innovation is being interpreted as the development of a new idea and to implement that idea in practice. Our understanding of innovation is based on the researcher Lotte Darsø who has worked and made research on the human factor’s influence on administration and on the production of innovation.[1] She defines innovation as “seeing possibilities and being able to implement these with an added value in general”.” [1] She does not only see the added value as an economical asset, but also as social and cultural assets. Another important point Darsø emphasizes is hence that innovation must be created in interaction with others. She also thinks that the innovation skills on one hand involve to investigate already existing and implicit knowledge aiming at opening up to new fields of knowledge. On the other hand innovation is also about the wish to dig into the so far non-existing and to conceptualize impossibilities. The basis for innovation is interaction with others and this requires confident relations. In our project we focused on the question of confident relations and how the co-operation could support innovative processes and hence underpin teachers’ own reflections, the knowledge of sharing and professional development. The goal was not to examine the teachers’ innovation skills ie. Their abilities to think in an innovative way, but more to look at their abilities to join the process.

3.3 Creative solutions As mentioned before, it was our goal to find out if teachers were able to develop creative solutions as an answer to the challenges they face in their everyday lives. The idea was that the co-operation could create co-ownership to the project and give the teachers the opportunity to develop creative solutions within their teacher subject groups. Over the years many definitions of creativity have occurred and one sees a wide span from the old Greeds’ speeches of ingenuity. [4] In our project we set our point of departure in the

hypothesis that creative processes enhance innovation. Darsø defines creativity as the ability “to play with ideas, thoughts, possibilities, and materials.” [1] Darsø furthermore points out that creativity and innovation are closely connected: “..because innovation can be enriched and more original through creative processes and by recognizing creative techniques.” [1] Thus, our focus was put on the creative process rather than on what specific definition of being creative. We have, however, included researcher in creativity, Lene Tanggaard’s, definition of creativity because it is relevant in combination with the professional practitioner, ie. the teacher in our project, who always acts on the basis on his/her own experiences. Tanggaard’s final definition of creativity is: “to walk to the edge knowing the domain’s rules and limits.” [19] Tanggard furthermore points at a number of crucial conditions for creativitity: energy, drive, passion and humility combined with the fact that all creativity moves on the edge of what already exists. “The new” will always be a re-management of what already exists. [19] Our point is that we think that creativity can help challenge this experience so it is not entirely based on routines, which is also what Schön among others questions. We are not saying that the understanding of creativity is something entirely new, but instead it is the re-management of an already existing domain. Furthermore, it is essential for the project’s point of departure that Tanggaard defines creativity as team based and thinks that we must put more emphasis om creativity in our education system. Here the students ought to learn what plays a crucial role in the creative processes; seeing possibilities in cases in which solutions are not present in advance, interdisciplinary connections, cooperation and performance. The education system can thus play a crucial role in the promotion of creativity.

[19]

3.4 ICT and virtual co-operation in teacher subject groups In our project we have tried to develop a model of process which could help support the innovative processes and creative knowledge applications. The first part of the co-operation was when the teachers met physically while the last part of the co-operation took place digitally. A specific target was to find out what happens during the innovative processes when moving them to digital platforms. In the analysis we set off in Elsebeth K. Sorensen’s [20] teory about virtual learning environments that she has made based on a study of virtual learning environments in Denmark and Ireland in 2004. In this study puts emphasis on the quality of co-operation and learning processes. She refers to Etienne Wenger who points at the importance of understanding “that it is not possible to directly “design learning”, but only to “design for learning.” [20] and concludes that there are immense challenges regarding the design by moving the adults’ co-operation and learning processes unto digital fora.

Sorensen points at the need to hang on to each other because it may have an effect on how groups work together on these digital platforms. The need might turn out getting even bigger in an everyday life where the frequency of visiting these digital platforms vary. It goes hand in hand with the assumption that interaction and communicative actions in a virtual, asynchronous and written universe are subjected to similar communicative conditions as seen in a synchronous, oral universe. But that is not how it really is. Sorensen calls it “the missing link” and elaborates; “In such a collaborative learning approach one can view the common communication and interaction as being some kind of “medium” for learning and co-operation”.[20] Sorensen’s point is that the digital platform as a medium form the co-operation to a larger extend. She thinks that we are more closely connected to time and space in our own self-regard and that there has been too little focus on what is happening with the communicative and interactive actions when we move ourselves from one social co-existence in the physical reality in to another social co-existence in the virtual reality. Here all communicative social interaction is without linkage to time and space. In our project this played a major part, because it quickly turned out that the co-operation among the teachers changed immensely when it was move to digital platforms.

4 RESEARCH DESIGN Our primary target in the project was to find out how the teachers co-operate with a professional issue taking departure in our model of process. The goal for the observation of the participants was to shed light on the process of development in the teacher subject groups’ co-operation while being face-to-face and later on meeting virtually where the co-operation continued on a virtual platform chosen by the teacher subject groups themselves. Subsequently we carried through a short evaluation interview with the two groups. The teachers’ subject groups have had a crucial part in our project, as it was here we tested our model of process. We think that it is essential to get an insight into how both administration and teachers at this time perceive teacher subject groups’ co-operation in the Danish “gymnasiums”, because it may help strengthening the development of our process model. We have therefore chosen to carry through a research interview with the school’s principal and focal group interview with representatives from three different

teacher subject groups. We will later illustrate that the purpose is to find out how administration and teachers see the teacher subject groups’ role in connection with professional development, focus areas, sharing of knowledge and the use of digital platforms.

All the interviews were recorded as sound files and later on transcribed. After that we analyzed the separate unities of opinions which were gathered in a number of themes later on fx. the sharing of knowledge within the teacher subject groups, and use of digital platform etc. This led to a number of narratives dealing with the overall themes.

4.1 Results of the analysis In the analysis of our interview and co-operation in the teacher subject groups, it became rather clear that a number of the themes can be seen in the conversations. The following three themes are relevant in this connection because they all deal with the co-operation in the teacher subject groups: • • •

The sharing of knowledge in the teacher subject groups The development of knowledge in the teacher subject groups The use of digital platforms

Revolving around these three major themes, we saw a number of narratives among both teachers and in the administrations. It turns out that the teachers and administration have different perceptions of what the three themes actually mean. It can be seen clearly in the following statements taken from the interviews and observations: • • • • • • • •

Teachers: The sharing of knowledge must take place informally and must be based on a wish to do so Administration: The sharing of knowledge must take place structurally and must be of necessity Teachers: Professional development in the teacher subject groups takes place through co-operation when we have the time Administration: Professional development must be structured in order to give an overview Teachers: Digital platforms make it difficult to share knowledge Administration: Digital platforms are essential for the sharing of knowledge Teachers: The sharing of knowledge does not mean to share data but more about how to do things Administration: The sharing of knowledge means to share teaching materials

As it can be seen from the above, the administrations and the teachers have various opinions of what eg. the sharing of knowledge actually means and how it takes place on the digital platforms. Our project showed that if the administration will help to support the teacher subject groups in their co-operation, they must be aware of the various narratives already existing, how they are expressed, and to which extend they need alterations. There are indications that innovative processes and creative use of knowledge may help support the development of these narratives and hence the co-operation in the teacher subject groups may be vital for the general development of the school. If the administration is willing to back it up with the necessary time and space needed.

5 CONCLUSION In this project, we have examined how creativity- and innovative processes can support reflection, sharing of knowledge and professional development in selected teacher subject groups in the Danish “gymnasiums”. In this connection, we developed and tested a process model. We think that the teacher subject groups ought to play a much larger role in the professional development in the “gymnasium” in Denmark because it creates motivation for development processes among teachers and secures the organizations’ directions on more precise focal areas. Creative use of knowledge and innovative processes can secure the focus for the individual teacher and support reflection, which is essential for an ongoing development of the teaching practice. Our observation of analysis did not point unambiguously to the fact that actual reflection took place nor any sharing of knowledge and professional development among the teachers. It did however, stand out clearly that a dialogue is going on in which all three parts are touched upon.

At the same time we think that when society to a much larger extend than earlier demands creative skills from students to join innovative processes, the teachers must apply those skills and knowledge as well. This kind of knowledge is obtained through the practice which they are a part of and through taking an active part in the processes which ought to take place in the teacher subject groups and not only in the class rooms.

Our project points out that teachers are professional practitioners who manage to reflect upon their own practice. Our research suggests that the individual teacher’s common practice has crucial influence on the professional development taking place within the teacher subject group as a whole. We there think that the teacher subject groups’ co-operation is very important for whichever professional challenges the school may face. The project’s conclusion points out that it may apparently be possible to frame parts of these processes and let the teacher subject groups focus on one specific issue or challenge.

It is also obvious that the teachers do not employ the various possibilities offered by ICT to work collaboratively. Instead the teacher subject groups have developed strong narratives about how digital platforms work as a storage of information with more importance for the co-operation than previously assumed. We must also bear in mind that while working asynchronously there is a risk of the dialogue not appearing automatically. The process must hence be framed further on the digital platforms so a level of freedom and autonomy can support a more creative use of knowledge. On the other hand, the dialogue must be framed in order to minimize the risk of being left unfinished or dead. If the teacher subject groups have to co-operate and have ongoing virtual dialogues, we must try to establish the process wisely and not allow the “missing link” in the digital dialogue. The dialogue must have its roots in a common practice and new narratives must be created.

By seizing the various ICT options for collaborative, dialogical co-operation, we think that there must be a possibility of making a reflecting practitioner within the teacher subject group as a whole. It does, however, call for a cultural shift taking over from previous narratives that see ICT as a backstop for professional cooperation. This will not take place overnight, but must instead focus on how to make it meaningful for the individual teacher to participate in digital co-operation.

It means that if the school is to change its practice within a number of areas, the teachers and the administration have to aware of how they talk about the challenges. It implies that if a school is to take up new challenges or wishes to change procedures, it is essential to create a common ground for reflection.

Such a thing could start within a certain process containing an examination of the precise challenge or in finding solutions based on knowledge and experience. In order for this process to have an added value for both teachers and for the “gymnasium” as an organization, we think that the creative processes and the innovative processes may play a vital role in that specific course of events.

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