Abstracts - Earli

J 2130 August 2007 17:00 - 18:20Room: 0.100CPaper SessionProfessional developmentChair:Marold Wosnitza, Universität Koblenz-Landau, GermanyFalse beliefs in written online tutoring – How do lay misconceptions impact on experts’assessment and adaptation?Bettina-Maria Becker, University of Münster, GermanyRegina Jucks, University of Münster, GermanyRainer Bromme, University of Münster, GermanyTutoring research has identified the recognition and remediation of tutee errors as an importanttutorial feature. While ample evidence has shown that error feedback fosters understanding, faceto-facetutors often tutor in a standardized way, ignoring tutees’ voiced misconceptions. In thiscontribution, we report research on the role of misconceptions in written tutoring via email,focusing on the applied setting of online health counselling. The email communicational setting isespecially challenging for the medical professionals, because they have to rely entirely on thewritten lay query as the only source of information on correct and faulty knowledge. In Study 1,we manipulated the layperson’s displayed knowledge in a 1x3 design. 83 medical expertsanswered a tutee’s query which either displayed various false or various true lay beliefs or whichdid not display any beliefs. How do the medical tutors adapt to these indications of layknowledge? Semantic and linguistic analyses do not show a general adaptation but rather provideevidence of a partial knowledge ‘repair’ on a local level. In Study 2, 72 medical experts receivedthe query in one of the above described versions and assessed the layperson’s knowledge in a 20-item questionnaire. Results show that different levels of knowledge were ascribed to the differentquery versions with regard to the topics for which the beliefs were manipulated. Beyond that, therewere no differences in knowledge assessment. Our results suggest that tutors do not processexplicit misconceptions in lay email queries as hints on the systematicity and commonness of falsebeliefs in lay knowledge. Rather, the misconceptions do only influence the tutors’ knowledgeassessment and adaptation on a local level. Possible explanations for our findings elaborate on therole of politeness principles in tutoring. Also, implications for medical professional education andfor future research will be discussed.Learning to include - learning to learnMarietjie Oswald, Stellenbosch University, South AfricaEstelle Swart, Stellenbosch University, South AfricaThis paper presents the learning experiences of a small group of teachers in South African schoolsas they developed an inclusive school community. The process of transformation to bring theSouth African education system in line with policy initiatives is a continuous, complex andchallenging one for those responsible for implementation. Any transformation or change process ismultidimensional, involving changes in conceptions, skills, practice and theory. The purpose of thestudy was to explore how teachers craft new professional theory and practice when developinginclusive classroom communities. The unit of analysis was therefore those activities and artifactsthat indicate and embody teacher learning in practice. Data were collected by means of formal– 574 –