Técnicas para estudiar relaciones entre variables

To study something historically means to study it in the process of change; that is the dialectical method’s basic demand. To encompass in research the process of a given thing’s development in all its phases and changes – from birth to death – fundamentally means to discover its nature, its essence for “it is only in the movement that a body shows what it is”. Thus, the historical (that is in the broadest sense of history) study of behaviour is not an auxiliary aspect of theoretical study, but rather forms its very base (Vygotsky, 1978, pp.64-65).

Social constructivism is associated with the works of Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934). The excerpt above, taken from his book ‘Mind in Society’ highlights that the process of enquiry is essential in research into learning and development. It is proposed that through the process of enquiry, we understand nature better and through that understand human phenomena. John-Steiner & Mahn (1996) explain this factor as research is to “unite separate functions into new combinations and complexes” (p.194) which indicates that through the process of enquiry could arise new understanding. Vygotsky (1978) asserts that the process of enquiry

110

is a “scientific explanation of both external manifestations and the process under study” (p.63). This suggests that the process of enquiry is highlighted in the theory of social constructivism.

This section serves to provide an understanding of social constructivism in research and learning in order to provide the foundation of this research. One fundamental factor of social constructivism is its holistic approach. Vygotsky emphasises the need for a holistic approach to research when he used ‘the chemicals in the water metaphor’ (Vygotsky, 1987). Research entities cannot be separated to be studied as the whole meaning will be lost. This approach is taken by this study because the focus is on the holistic approach of mobile learning activities via mobile phone applications. There is no concentration on a single activity or a single mobile phone application, but instead of a multitude of activities and applications selected based on the students' preferences. This generates a more comprehensive understanding of the implementation aspects of mobile learning to support HE students in Malaysia, which addresses the aims of this research.

Vygotsky (1978) concludes, through his observation of children and problem solving, that “the most significant moment in the course of intellectual development, which gives birth to the purely human forms of practical and abstract intelligence, occurs when speech and practical activity, two previously completely independent lines of development, converge” (p.24). When combined, thought and action can transform the process of learning and based on this idea, Palincsar (1998) suggests the use of activities as a unit of analysis in research. This was based on the fact that it is not possible to separate “social, motivational, emotional, and identity processes, and the study of generalization is the study of processes rather than the study of personal or situational attributes” (Palincsar, 1998, p.354). Therefore divorcing the individual from their context and social influences is not deemed possible, hence mobile learning activities are studied within the context of the research, a Malaysian HEI course in which research participants take part. After all, learning takes place through the active engagement of the learner through these activities. One common overarching feature of using activities as a unit of analysis is as discussed by Jonassen (1999) and Carnell & Lodge (2002) which is meaning making. The act of meaning making is derived naturally and embedded in activities within a context. Thus, the focus of this research is on mobile learning activities as a form of meaning making in the context of a Malaysian HEI.

111

Learning and development are processes experienced by the learner within the external, natural world and along with other people, and through these processes, new conditions arise for both the learner and his/her nature as stated in Vygotsky’s (1978) explanation below:

The dialectical approach, while admitting the influence of nature on man, asserts that man, affects nature and creates through his changes in nature new natural conditions for his existence. This position is the keystone of our approach to the study and interpretation of man’s higher psychological functions and serves as the basis for the new methods of experimentation and analysis we advocate (pp.60-61)

The dialectical approach in Vygotsky’s perspective is the “notion of synthesis to analyse a central psychological too–verbal thought” (John-Steiner & Mahn, 1996, p.195). Vygotsky (1978) examined mind and matter in an interconnected way, as he believes that developmental process is in constant dialectical change from higher mental functions. Hence, the application of the dialectical method is to the genesis of thought and language in the development of the individual human being. Through his work, Vygotsky uses the “dialectical method to analyse, explain, and describe interrelationships fundamental to human development” (John-Steiner & Mahn, 1996, p.195).

Besides understanding the social constructivism perspective on research, it is also deemed important for this study to understand the theory’s perspective in learning. Learning in the perspective of social constructivism is a social activity as the learner interacts with others and also with the environment around them (Jonassen, 1999). This means that meaning and understanding are derived from social encounters within the student’s context. Blanck (1990) describes this as mental activity that results from “social learning, of the interiorization of social signs, and of the internalization of culture and of social relationships” (p.44). This indicates that learning is a mental activity that occurs through negotiation of meaning with others within a given context. McRobbie & Tobin (1997) expand on this further by stating that social constructivism recognises the importance of social and personal aspects of learning. In the personal sense, meaning is constructed by individuals as new information interacts with their extant knowledge. Although it is acknowledged that there is a reality, learning is personal and subjective and only exists in the minds of the learners. However, learning does not happen only in the mind of learners because while knowledge is personally constructed, the constructed knowledge is socially

112

mediated as a result of cultural experiences and interaction with others in that culture (McRobbie & Tobin, 1997; and von Glaserfeld, 1993). This suggests that the learning process happens when there is interaction in a social context.

Van de Veer (2007) further points out that Vygotsky’s theory centralized the fact that that “in order to understand the inner mental processes of human beings, we must look at human beings in their sociocultural context” (p.21). The respective learner and his or her environment cannot be separated from learning that takes place. According to Palincsar (1998), “Social constructivist perspectives focus on the interdependence of social and individual process in the co-construction of knowledge” (p.345). This means that through the lens of social constructivism, learning is perceived as a process of socially constructed activities within a context. It can be concluded that sociocultural context is essential to one’s learning process; therefore a learning designer needs to create learning activities to support the learner’s learning process within their environment.

In addition Vygotsky (1978) also emphasises culture and society in his argument in that all higher mental constructions are social in origin and are embedded in the context of the sociocultural setting of the learning environment. Apparently Vygotsky’s translation of culture is that it is the essence which permeates social processes and which provides the foundation for the materialization of the learner’s mental process (Wertsch & Tulviste, 1992). In this research the HE students' backgrounds and their relationships with the mobile phone are considered as part of the design of the research process. Understanding ‘cultural’ experience and social relationships using the mobile phones can add to the understanding of the learners’ acceptance of mobile learning activities designed to support their studies.

Vygotsky (1978) also recognises that the learner and their environment cannot be separated, and that environment also depends on the learner. Van der Veer (2007) explains that “for human beings it is difficult to define the environment if only because human beings attach meaning to aspects of their environment and because this environment is partly a social environment that changes in responses to the person’s actions, capacities, age and so on” (p.23). Context prevails in the process of learning.

Another key factor in the social constructivist learning process is mediation. Mediation is to bring about agreement of the intervention process through technical tools or artefacts which in this study is the mobile phone. Mediation facilitates the activity of learning. In terms of

113

Vygotsky’s position in relation to the mediation of tools or artefacts as part of research, he points out that “we need to concentrate not on the product of development but on the process by which higher forms are established” (Vygotsky, 1978, p.64). This indicates that the mediation process needs to be focused on (and not only the end result) and he later explained that the higher forms of mental construction are developed through these mediated processes. Wertch (1990) suggests that mediation processes do more than simply facilitate a learning activity but are also “products of the sociocultural milieu in which they exist” (p.114). This means mediation is viewed as fundamentally shaping and defining activity. This mediation was a central consideration in the study’s research design. Through the mediation process mobile learning activities are shaped and defined in order to meet the aim of the study. It could safely be said that the activities in mobile learning processes are also the products of mobile learning activities.

The central tenet of social constructivism is that human action is mediated by tools or artefacts in the form of cultural tools such as a language (Vygotsky, 1978). Bruner (1962) in the preface to Vygotsky’s book “Thoughts and Language” (1962) describes mediation as defined by Vygotsky as:

He believed that in mastering nature we master ourselves. For it is the internalization of overt action that makes thought, and particularly the internalization of external dialogue that brings the powerful tool of language to bear on the stream of thought. Man, if you will, is shaped by the tools and instruments that he comes to use, and neither the mind nor the hand alone can amount to much....And if neither hand nor intellect alone prevails, the tools and aids that do are the developing streams of internalized language and conceptual thought that sometimes run parallel and sometimes merge, each affecting the other (p.vii)

John-Steiner & Mahn (1996) state that tools are not used in isolation; rather they are produced socially and culturally, such that learners actively engage in activities with them. These cultural tools carry out a mediation function which stimulates mental processes and thereby bring about higher mental processes (Wertsch, 2007). It would seem that the “prime function of the tools was to shape minds and tools were in turn shaped by the minds that worked on and with them” (Edwards, 2007, p.94). This means that tools are used to facilitate

114

further construction of knowledge. It is proposed that human action through the mediation role of tools has the potential to change the structure of learning activity (Vygotsky, 1981).

Tools, which can be technological tools, can help individuals to construct knowledge in authentic ways (Jonassen, 1990). Technology is perceived not only as a ‘product’ but as a system which one learns and also a managed ‘process’ which channels and captures learning flow (Jonassen, 1990). Using these tools, students have the opportunity to explore a variety of viewpoints and obtain different kinds of information related to their learning for example through social mediation being mediated by technological tools such as the mobile phone (Cook, Pachler & Bradley, 2008). The mediation process also entails that interaction between contexts is stimulated through organized learning activities using these tools, which also impact individual competence. It has been established that for social constructivists meaningful learning emerges when learners are engaged in social activities which are mediated by these tools (Palincsar, 1998). Thus by using these technological tools, in this research the mobile phone, the mediation process through activities, namely mobile learning activities, can be said to facilitate the co-construction of knowledge.

Learning is an ‘inter-mental process’, and as well as social and cultural one (Vygotsky, 1962). In his book ‘Mind in Society’, Vygotsky (1978) explains the concept of inter-mental. He posits that “every function in the child’s cultural development appears twice: first on the social level, and later on the individual level; first between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological)” (Vygotsky, 1978, p.57). Inter-mental process means that development is both individual and social at the same time in the process of development. It seems that learning is first developed socially (interpsychologically) which is then extended into intrapsychologically within the individual for higher order processes (Wertsch, 1979 and Blanck, 1990). In designing the research process for this study these concepts are taken into consideration. This means that understanding derives from the collective views of learners in their context and also their individual perspectives, as indicated by Palincsar (1998), who states that social constructivism focuses on the “interdependence of social and individual process in the co-construction of knowledge” (p.345). In other words, what students experience socially by interacting with their context outside them will create meaning and understanding inside them, and this will influence the design of mobile learning activities in this study. The simplistic notions of ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ are interdependent as illustrated by Cole & Wertsch (1996), “social processes give

115

rise to individual processes and that both are essentially mediated by artefacts” (p.253). This means that human thoughts develop from social to the individual.

There are some criticisms of social constructivist theory as portrayed by Davydov. Davydov’s speech on Vygotsky’s influence on educational research (translated by Kerr) argues that there are some aspects of the theory that are not fully developed, because Vygotsky died at a young age (Davydov & Kerr, 1995). For example, Winner (1993) argues that due to the emphasis on socially constructed technologies research might miss the dynamics beyond the theory such as social class. If there are missing dynamics in social constructivism, then the theory cannot be depicted as a holistic theory as described earlier. Winner (1993) advocates examination of dynamics such as patterns for quality of life in a technological society, discussing social and moral choices further and evaluating life patterns as a whole. However, John-Steiner & Mahn (1996) argue that although construction of meaning is based on social interaction, the process is not limited to only this action. Wertsch & Tulviste (1992) present their key reflections on Vygotsky’s work; they acknowledge that there are aspects, such as ‘natural line development’, in Vygotsky’s work that need further deliberation. Published peer-review journals or discussions in conferences may address these issues as social constructivism gains more interest in research.

In this section, social constructivism as the process of enquiry is discussed. The understanding of the learning process based on social constructivism is also explored. LeCompte & Preissle (1993) state that the “purpose of theories is to help us sort out our world, make sense of it, guide how we behave in it, and predict what might happen next” (p.120). This is also supported by Bednar et al. (1991) as they emphasise the importance of linking theory to practice in the design of interventions as “effective design is possible only if the developer has a reflexive awareness of the theoretical basis underlying the design” (p.90). The challenge is for researchers to identify critical aspects of learning theory to translate them into pedagogical elements which can be designed into the intervention. This could be done by aligning and mapping social constructivist theory to be adaptable for learning design (Biggs, 2002). Mayes & de Freitas (2004) propose that as part of the design process, learning theory needs to be ‘unpacked’ to create a pedagogical approach. In this research this pedagogical approach comes in the form of learning principles to guide the design of mobile learning environment. This means I need to take the underlying assumptions of a theory in general and translate them into an appropriate design for learning.

116

The next sections aims to provide discussion about how social constructivist theory has been ‘unpacked’ in order to produce pedagogical learning principles which form the basis of the design for mobile learning activities. In the next section, the suitability of the theory and mobile learning are highlighted.