Research and the Theoretical Field - Pauldowling.me

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Chapter 2 The Theoretical and Empirical Fields Weeks 2-3
This chapter will introduce the strategy of differentiating between a theoretical
and an empirical field and will present the structure of the former as it is
presented in Brown & Dowling (1998). Key terminology relating to the
theoretical field will be deployed in relation to the work by Alexander Luria as
it is described in Brown’s & Dowling’s book. The theme from chapter 1 will
also be picked up again in a detailed exploration of theoretical categories in
the work of Basil Bernstein. You will need to appoint a summariser, S3, a
coordinator, S4, and an editor, S5 for this chapter.
There will be four activities in this chapter and they may all be started at the
beginning of week 2, though Activity 2.2 should be complete by the end of that
week and Activity 2.3 should be complete by the end of the second week;
Activities 2.1 and 2.4 may continue throughout the rest of the module.
Participants will remain in the teams to which they were assigned in Chapter
1.
This chapter includes a collaborative writing activity (as distinct from a
summary of a discussion) for this module. This is a very difficult task, but a
potentially very productive affordance of online courses.
A substantial number of additional references have been provided. However,
it is assumed that most of the reading outside of the core texts will be limited
to online resources that participants themselves identify. The additional
references are provided for those participants having access to a good
educational research library.
You should look at the activity in chapter 3 as the first post to B10 in
that activity will have to be made before chapter 2 ends. You will be
assigned to teams for activity 3 during the running of activity 2.
The chapter addresses the intended learning outcomes:
• Understand the term ‘theory’ in the context of empirical work.
• Understand the relational nature of theory in respect of a specific author.
• Be able to interpret empirically a specific theoretical framework.
• Understand the relationship between the theoretical and empirical fields.
Total amount of time: 15 hours; summarisers, S3, S4 and S5 will spend an
additional 1-2 hours each.
RESEARCH & THE THEORETICAL FIELD