Knowledge ecology for conceptual growth:Teachers as active agents in developing a PluriLiteracies approach to Teaching for Learning (PTL)

2017

This article explores how a group of educators and researchers enacted an inclusive process of conceptual growth involving teachers and teacher educators as active agents, knowledge builders and meaning-makers in the development of a Pluriliteracies approach to Teaching for Learning (PTL). The evolution of a working model based on five emergent principles, foregrounded the need for stakeholders across different languages, cultures and disciplines, to work together from the start so that learning spaces were created where teacher development went alongside researcher development, and theorizing was not only inclusive of praxis but validated by it. A growth cycle emerged using theories of pra…

A window on CLIL

2010

A pluriliteracies approach to content and language integrated learning – mapping learner progressions in knowledge construction and meaning-making

2015

Over the past decades content and language integrated learning (CLIL) research has predominantly focused on the language proficiency of CLIL learners. The results are very promising and show that working language skills in learners, especially reading and listening skills, can be improved through a CLIL programme. Studies focusing on subject learners are still few but they indicate that learners maintain or under certain conditions can improve their subject learning when compared to learners learning in L1. However, more recent studies have raised challenging questions concerning academic language competence which indicate that CLIL instruction may not be reaching its full potential. Unrave…

Positive Learning and Pluriliteracies

2017

Deeper learning and the development of transferable knowledge and skills are highly desirable goals in Higher Education programs. However, current studies indicate that these goals are rarely achieved. In this article, we will present a model of deeper learning that promotes the development of disciplinary literacies and transferable knowledge. Based on our joint work we will outline a revised course design that aims at putting the principles of deeper learning into practice through a focus on affect, student engagement, knowledge construction, meaning making and active demonstration of understanding as well as reflective practice. Further, we will outline a research agenda for evaluating a…