Complete thesis - Murdoch University

(Gobet and Wood, 1999).learning process as a dialogue which is seen to be:These are basic premises of Laurillard (1993)’s model of thediscursive – both teacher and learner conceptualisations should be accessible to each otheradaptive – the focus of the dialogue is based on the relationship between the two conceptionsinteractive – requiring learner action and teacher feedbackreflective – supportive of the process to link feedback to goal.Acquiring membership of a disciplineAs noted previously, competence in any domain requires in addition to domain knowledge,physical and cognitive skills.In addition, competence is defined, contained and developed within communities of practice.Wenger (2000) suggests competence comes about through the communities’• joined enterprise – members hold themselves accountable to the collectively developedunderstanding of what the community is about• mutual engagement – norms and relationships are established through mutual interaction• shared repertoire – communal resources are produced (eg routines, styles, tools),and refers to historical and socially defined standards in the community.There are a number of important issues to be addressed regarding communities of practicein relation to learning. If it is present, then how do learners come to know the community,how are the community members and their resources represented in the environment, whatdoes the community mean to the learners, how do learners see themselves in relation to thecommunity, and what is the learners’ potential for membership in that community (Baraband Duffy, 1999)?Since the discourse of a discipline is central to the way its knowledge is constructed andtransmitted, the means by which learners acquire discursive knowledge is important. Whileexpert members of a discipline share knowledge about discursive practices in their community,this is mostly tacit, and, as also noted previously, traditionally, given little emphasis withinthe (formal) educational environment. To the implicit model of inducting students into thediscursive practices of a discipline has been added that of integrating such practice intocurriculum design.138