Basics of Educational Science in Oulu

Our meeting in Oulu started with two debates:

1. for and against:

“Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL)’ and the use of Virtual Learning Environments suggest that learning at the vocational education level can take place completely on-line”.

2. for and against:

“All learning at the vocational education level can and should have a measurable outcome”.

I took part in the first debate giving some support to the team who was debating against the premise that learning at the vocational level can take place completely on-line.

This was an interesting discussion that cantered around the video which was filmed in the 80’s and was predicting the future of technology use. As we were all seeing this ‘imagined future’ now to a great extent, we did agree that learning online has a great potential.

The arguments against did centre on humanistic element and the importance of having that human contact and support in learning. Also I disagreed with the fact that Virtual Learning Environment is so advanced technically at the moment that it can cover all aspect of learning styles and individual needs which can be perhaps better addressed in the live situation.

The debate was very lively and animated which contributed to the idea that live interaction is important.

The second debate was my group Pink against the team Magenta. Our groups ‘premise was that all learning can’t be measured. The Magenta group based their argument around the fact that our concept of measurement was too narrow and not focused on measuring the process like for example Management tools. Also the important questions were: Who does the assessment? Quality of assessment and what is the assessment for?

Our group showed a presentation that summed up our arguments which were based round the idea that assessment is a subjective process and that some subjects, like for example art are not easy to measure in a very logical and precise way. So this is the reason we gave a short task with three different paintings that we asked from the students to be assessed with a certain criteria.

The results varied a lot and this did show to an extent how subjective art assessment can be. But of course this is just to suppose that students went to a gallery to buy a work of art. This was not a real classroom situation.

Also another important point that we tried to put across is that Idealism has influenced education as it gives emphasis to theory before practice. Also that Theoretical subjects are valued more than practical ones.

 This can be seen in our presentation with references to Plato's Idealism, Aristotle's deductive reasoning and , Descartes Cartesian dualism. Also we made references to Dewy on "aspects of communication that are difficult to measure e.g. social needs, conversation, self-expression and building and maintaining relations".

In addition to that we made references to Bandura's philosophy and Montessori teaching and it's view on why should teachers not give the grades.

Our presentation can be viewed here: