Search results for "activity theory"
showing 10 items of 22 documents
Activity Theoretic Approaches
2016
Activity theory is an approach to the study of human practices—including mathematical and educational practices—in which mediation, including mediation by artefacts/tools, is a central construct. The chapter is of four sections. The first section provides an overview of AT. Section 9.2 traces early influences of AT in mathematics education research. Section 9.3 considers foci of a set of mathematics education papers recent at the time of writing. Section 9.4 explores emphases and tensions in papers considered in Sects. 9.2 and 9.3.
An Activity Theory Perspective on Creating a New Digital Government Service in Finland
2019
Digitalization of government services is a central goal in many countries. At policy-making level, digital government services are often expected to simultaneously reduce cost and provide citizens with better and more versatile services. Development of new digital government services, however, often involves companies, which typically have differences in their approach to the development and implementation of new digital services compared to the public sector. This study applies activity theory as a lens to identify the similarities and differences between the private and public sector in the development and implementation of a new government digital service. The aim is to identify the cont…
The sense of a patient: An ethnographic multi-site field study exploring the influence of manikins on nursing students' learning
2022
The purpose of this ethnographic study was to gain insight into the influence of full-body human-like manikins on nursing students’ learning. The research question that guided the study was: How do the presence and use of human-like manikins influence nursing students’ learning? Data were collected during 15 educational sessions, using different manikins for various activities. Applying cultural-historical activity theory, this study explored the use of manikins as a mediated activity. The study’s main result was the interplay of five categories. In the first category, manikin as an object, manikins were used to teach and learn technical skills. In the second category, manikin as a subject,…
Mediating Mathematics Teaching Development and Pupils’ Mathematics Learning: The Life Cycle of a Task
2011
A developmental research project in Norway, Learning Communities in Mathematics (LCM), a collaboration between university and schools, uses mathematical tasks as a basis for developing community in project workshops and for teachers’ design of tasks for classrooms. An aim in the project is that teachers and didacticians, through inquiry into design and use of tasks and reflection on and analysis of their use, will learn more about creating effective learning situations for pupils in mathematics. The processes involved are exemplified through an account of the design and use of the Mirror Task. An activity theory analysis traces the elements of learning of participants, teachers and didactic…
Voicing the challenges faced by an innovative teacher community
2011
This research draws on sociocultural theories of learning and activity theory to explore the challenges faced by an innovative community of teachers in Central Finland. The aim of the teacher community was to develop a stream of foreign‐language (FL)‐mediated teaching and learning in the locality from kindergarten to upper secondary level. To achieve this goal, the teachers needed to form coherent groups within the member schools, as well as between the schools. The aim of this research is to give voice to the challenges identified by the teachers and in so doing give voice to the teacher community itself. Recognising the voice of this community also contributes to a broader conceptualisati…
Tool use in mathematics: A framework
2015
International audience; In the course of research into the interpretation of tools in the didactics of mathematics I found both voids and conflicts. This paper presents the results of my research and a resultant statement on tool use in mathematics education. The statement incorporates constructs from several theoretical frameworks and I consider the consistency of my statement on tool use with regard to activity theory.
Collaboration for Inclusive Practices : Teaching Staff Perspectives from Finland
2021
accepted in publication Collaboration between educators is considered to be the key issue when implementing inclusive practices within schools. An open-ended questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were used to extend the current understanding of collaboration between teaching staff. The questionnaire was administrated to 167 classroom teachers, subject teachers, special education teachers and teaching assistants in primary, secondary and special education public schools in Finland. Also, semi-structured interviews with 20 participants were used to deepen the understanding of the elements included in the teaching activity in diverse classrooms. The results indicate coordination, cooper…
Cyberharassment Victimization on Three Continents : An Integrative Approach
2022
This article introduces and applies an integrative model of cyberharassment victimization. The model combines routine activity theory (RAT), the general theory of crime (GTC), and the personal resources approach to analyze risk factors for victimization while acknowledging the protective role of a sense of mastery. Survey respondents were aged 15 to 25 years (N = 4816) from the U.S., Finland, Spain, and South Korea. Logistic regression models were used to analyze cyberharassment victimization. RAT-related factors were positively associated with cyberharassment victimization. Low self-control was positively associated with cyberharassment victimization in the U.S., Finland, and Spain but not…
Activity Theory as a Lens to Identify Challenges in Surgical Skills Training at Hospital Work Environment
2015
In this paper the concepts from activity theory (AT) are applied for identifying the challenges and contradictions emerging in surgical residentâs curriculum based training at hospital. AT is utilised as a lens to identify contradictions that cause disturbances, problems, ruptures, breakdowns, and clashes which emerge while surgical skills training is implemented in a new way at hospital. We especially aim at finding solutions for contradictions which emerge while the new and old working culture are confronted and the workers are required to balance themselves between the patient care demands and workplace learning requirements. We are using the conceptual theoretical approach to describe…