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I have organized this letter into three parts, describing my To summarize, this letter demonstrates my strong record in pursuing internationally recognized research in the areas of learning sciences, classroom pedagogies and teacher education with a specific focus on (a) sociocultural approaches to teaching and learning; (b) dialogue and learning in classroom settings, as well as in informal and online contexts; (c) design, use, and evaluation of learning technologies in education; (d) new models of teacher education in international contexts and teacher professional development globally; and (e) relationship between theories of learning, and policy and practice I. Professional Background I received my Ph.D. in Education from the University of Exeter, U.K., in 1994, which focused on collaborative writing and learning processes with computers, social interaction, discourse and learning in peer group work, and on sociocultural theories of learning and development. More recently, my research work has concentrated extensively on the methodological questions in the analysis of classroom interaction, discourse and learning, collaborative interaction and learning processes in science and mathematics classrooms, multimedia enriched science learning in early years and elementary classrooms, as well as in the use of digital video technology in mathematics and science education in school, teacher education and informal learning contexts. After finishing my Ph.D., I was a member of the University of Oulu, Finland, Faculty of Education as a researcher and teacher educator. I have held two distinguished scholarly positions awarded by the Academy of Finland. During the years 1995-8, I worked as a Junior Fellow of the Academy of Finland and during the years 2000-5, I held an Academy Fellow post. Both of these research positions have allowed me to conduct my own programs of research which have involved research collaboration with national and international project partners as well as the supervision of doctoral students. In addition to my research work and supervision of doctoral students, I have actively taught teacher education and education students at the University of Oulu. This has also included teaching educational courses for the Open University students in the northern part of Finland. In the year 2003, I established a Research Center for Sociocultural Studies of Learning and Instruction at the University of Oulu (https://norssiportti.oulu.fi/learn/). The center has several full time doctoral students funded by external research grants. In the autumn of 2005, I was nominated to a full professorship in pedagogy at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. At this time, I was working as a visiting professor at the University of California Santa Barbara, Gevirtz Graduate School of Education. In California, I was also invited to act as a co-director of the Cultural Landscapes Teaching and Learning Research Collaborative based at a non-profit foundation, Austin Val Verde (www.austinvalverdefoundation.com) and later as a Director of Education regarding international educational programs. This research collaborative extends and complements the work of the Center for Sociocultural Studies of Learning and Instruction. During the time I was ending my visiting professorship period at UCSB, I was invited to apply for a directorship of a new interdisciplinary research organization CICERO Learning based at the University of Helsinki, Finland (www.cicero.fi). From May 2006 onwards, I have acted as the director and professor of the CICERO Learning research organization. CICERO Learning is a Cross-disciplinary Initiative for Collaborative Efforts of Research on Learning. CICERO Learning (CL) is a network of high-level research groups from the research-intensive universities in Finland. It was established in the year 2005, and is coordinated by the University of Helsinki. CL invites the acknowledged researchers in Europe and globally to join in the research co-operation. Conducting cutting edge research on learning, CL aims at academic innovations and synergies between the research community and industry. CICERO focuses its current research and development work on the following themes:
In sum, my doctoral education in the U.K., research possibilities offered by the posts and grants of the Academy of Finland, teaching and supervision experiences in different Finnish universities, my scholarly visit to the University of California, Santa Barbara and now the directorship of the CICERO Learning organization have all contributed to my professional experiences and expertise as well as to the initiation and execution of my research programs as described below. II. Programs of Research In this section, I shall describe the programs of my own research. First, I shall provide a brief introduction to two research centers that I have been involved in establising. Second, I shall elaborate on some of my core research projects.
The Research Center for Sociocultural Research on Learning and Instruction advances scientific and applied knowedge of human thinking, learning and development in educational contexts from early years education to school-based learning, and to professional learning in higher education contexts. The research unit applies and further develops recent educational and psychological research on learning and instruction which locates cognition and intelligent activity in social and cultural practices. According to the sociocultural research tradition, cognition and intelligent activity are mediated by cognitive tools, physical and conceptual artefacts as well as socially distributed and shared processes embedded in cultural contexts. In taking a sociocultural perspective towards learning and instruction, the research center develops and examines models that make visible the interdynamics between the individual and social in learning and development, including knowledge creation and innovation in educational contexts. Methodologically, the center is challenged by the development of appropriate analytical tools to understand and illuminate the processes involved in the construction of knowledge and expertise in collaborative interactions within a community of learners. Pedagogically, the center develops and evaluates innovative learning situations for meaningful and powerful education.This includes applying and developing technological tools and materials which support communal meaning making, distribution of expertise and social knowledge creation. In sum, the core research areas of the research unit are collaborative and communal learning practices, inquiry-based learning processes and activities, conceptual learning, professional learning as well as tehnology-mediated learning and instruction. The Center carries out research studies in collaboration with national and international organizations, ranging from kindergartens to schools and to university-based institutions. The Center promotes the integration of theoretical and practical knowledge in developing innovative modes and tools for learning and instruction. Close integration between theory and practice is regarded as promoting rapid dissemination of new innovations into the field. The researchers of the Center represent educational sciences, educational psychology and teacher education. Six of the researchers of the Centre are undertaking their doctoral studies. The Centre collaborates actively with its national and international partners. The research center has received funding for its research projects from the Academy of Finland, Cultural Foundation of Finland and from EU.
The Cultural Landscapes ‘Living as Learning’ Research Collaborative is a consortium of diverse school communities, classroom teachers, students, families, university educational researchers and art and science professionals who have developed and are committed to educational programs that support students’ classroom-based academic experiences by extending them into the broader landscapes of their communities. In doing so, we are asking and addressing the question of when and where is a school in the 21st century and who has access to learning? In so doing, we have come to see that the classroom walls are permeable and therefore the learning that occurs within the larger community becomes a powerful location where all members of the community can be seen as learners and teachers for one another. Our innovative programs include: students and adults learning to become ‘cultural guides/docents’ who navigate for guests the social-cultural context of AVVF; students, families and teachers interacting with and learning from distinguished local and global artists, authors and scientists; teachers and students holding summer institutes for their professional learning; utilizing AVVF’s GreenStream video conference technology to explore gardens and the arts locally and globally. We document and evaluate our programs and disseminate our work at local and global in professional venues, organized lectures and educational institutions. Our collaborative believes that the lived experiences of community members are academic resources from which students, teachers, families and community members can learn and take professional action to change their worlds. By honoring existing cultural landscapes of our lived experiences, all participants develop sophisticated academic thinking practices in reading, writing, arts, math and science. These, in turn, allow participants to see themselves as active and contributing members of their communities further re-shaping the cultural landscapes of where we live. For further information about the Collaborative, please contact Drs. Ralph Córdova and Kristiina Kumpulainen, Co-Directors of the Cultural Landscapes Living as Learning Research Collaborative, at rcordov@siue.edu and kristiina.kumpulainen@helsinki.fi. (c) Introduction to the core research projects In the following, I shall briefly introduce individual research projects that have contributed to the larger research centers mentioned above. Project 1 MATIS, Mathematics Teacher Learning in the Information Society MATIS, the Mathematics Teacher Learning in the Information Society -research project investigates the application and adaptation of a cultural artefact, MILE-International, in Finnish pre-service mathematics teacher education. The technological learning environment consists of a digitalised video database of authentic classroom practice in mathematics education as well as of communication and search tools to support collective inquiry and teacher learning. The project will explore how mathematics teacher education aiming at reflective and inquiry-oriented practice is supported and changed by this technological artefact. In addition, the research project will explore communal reflection as a mechanism for identity building in technology-based mathematics teacher education, and carefully analyse the processes of mathematics teacher learning at the intersection of new technologies, learning cultures and societal demands. By investigating the social and cultural contexts constructed around the technological learning environment, the research project aims at increasing scientific knowledge about the processes of mathematics teacher education and learning embedded within and constituted by the social practices in which the learners and teachers engage during their application of the digitalised case-based material. Studying cultural and personal changes in mathematics teacher education classrooms is likely to provide valuable information about how cultures, their artefacts, and individuals create and re-create each other. In all, the project will develop pedagogical guidelines and instructional activities for meaningful and empowering mathematics teacher education in the information society. Project 2 PICCO, The Dynamics of Children’s Science learning and Thinking in a Social Context of a Multimedia Environment This research project investigates children's science learning and thinking in social context of a multimedia environment in an early year’s classroom. The goal of the research project is to widen theoretical, methodological and pedagogical understanding of children's conceptual development in an activity context based upon tool-mediation and socially shared learning activities, child-initiation and spontaneous exploration. The research project approaches conceptual learning from the perspective of cognitive and sociocultural psychology in order to illuminate the sociocognitive processes of science learning when modern multimedia technological possibilities are in children's use. The theoretical and methodological foundations of the research project are laid by theories and set of concepts derived from cognitive and social psychology, cognitive science, studies of discourse, learning and social practice and from artificial intelligence. The empirical data of this research project is derived from one Finnish day care centre. Twenty-three children aged between six to seven years participated in the study. The data collection was conducted in a four week period during which the children took part in a learning unit on space and time. The learning activities and tools in the unit consisted of child initiated; exploratory activities during which children had versatile tools in their use, including a multimedia learning tool, PICCO. The data of the research project consists of video recordings of children's interviews before and after the experiment as well as of the children's individual and social activities during learning unit. Children's exploration paths during the use of the multimedia environment have also been recorded. Subsidiary data of the project consist of teacher interviews and parent diaries. The analyses of the empirical data of this research project are currently undergoing. In all, the results of the research will be important for theoretical and applied research as well as for educational practice with early year’s learners. Project 3 JLEARNJ, Learning at School as a Communal and Interactive Practice This research project investigates the processes and conditions for learning and instruction in a third grade classroom that was encultured into working and acting as a community of inquiry across the curriculum. Theoretically, this study aims at investigating the potential of the sociocultural perspectives on learning and instruction to support the development, implementation and evaluation of the processes and conditions for learning and instruction across different pedagogical situations and across the curriculum. Methodologically, this study aims to contribute to the development of multiple analytical tools to examine the communicative practices of interactive rich classrooms in diverse settings from both social and individual viewpoint. Pedagogically, this study aims at creating a rationale for supporting meaningful, student-centered and problem-based learning across different pedagogical situations in the classroom. The research project will be realised as a series of case studies in which the interactive practices of the case study classroom are analysed qualitatively by using fine-grained micro level analyses methods. The subjects of the study are seventeen third-grade students from a Finnish elementary school, and their teacher. The empirical data corpus of the case studies consists of nine hours of videotaped classroom sessions gathered from three different domains, namely from philosophy, science and mathematics. The data selected for both quantitative and qualitative analyses cover whole class or half class discussions in different pedagogical situations that are of interest in this study. The results of the study will be published as a series of four articles in refereed scientific journals and gathered in the doctoral dissertation of M.Ed. Kovalainen. Project 4 COLISM, Community of Learners is Science and Mathematics The objective of the COLISM-research project is to develop pre-school, primary and secondary school mathematics and science education on three dimensions. Firstly, the project investigates the implementation of a new form of educational approach to mathematics and science instruction based on the idea of distributed expertise in a community of learners. The goal of the community is that its participants consisting of students, teachers, and scientists collaboratively create a continuous and supportive network to support their mathematics and science learning and professional development. In this network expertise is shared and jointly constructed. Secondly, the project investigates the practices of these communities within and between classroom contexts. Particular attention is paid to the nature of social interactions that take place in these learning communities through different channels (e.g. face to face interaction, teleconferencing, electronic mailing) and how they give rise to the construction of scientific knowledge among its members. Students’ learning processes, personal attitudes and achievements in learning mathematics and science including the development of conceptual structures and meta-cognitive skills as well as teachers’ pedagogical practices and epistemological beliefs in planning, implementing and evaluating their work will also be considered. Thirdly, the project develops guidelines for mathematics and science curricula, the design of effective learning situations and evaluation. Emphasis is placed on student-centred and problem-based learning activities, collaborative learning methods, meaningful learning, authenticity, complexity, integration of mathematics and science learning, and on the use of information and communication technology. In addition to learning mathematics and science, the curriculum concentrates on developing students’ thinking and problem solving skills as well as risk management in the changing society. Project 5 MILE-INTERNATIONAL, A Multimedia Interactive Learning Environment for Primary Mathematics Teacher Education The purpose of this 3-year developmental research project conducted in the period of 1999-2002 is to develop European primary school mathematics education with the help of information and communication technology. The research project has its roots in MILE, which is a multimedia interactive learning environment developed for primary mathematics teacher education at Freudenthal Institute in the Netherlands. In the present project an international digital school, MILE-International, will be developed for mathematics teacher education in collaboration between three countries namely, Finland, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The goals of this development project are:
The project is funded by the EU Comenius 3.1. programme. Project 6 FACCT, Functional Analysis of Children's Classroom Talk This research project funded by the Academy of Finland (years 1995-8) investigates social interaction and learning in innovative, theory-driven learning situations within the context of primary school education. Student-centred learning situations designed to support collaborative learning were situated in three curriculum areas - language, science/technology, and mathematics - each involving a distinct and different task. The role of technology in supporting learning and shaping classroom interaction was also investigated in one of the learning situations designed for the present study. Together with empirical research, the research project aimed to validate an innovative methodology which promises to reveal a great deal of information about the processes, conditions and effects of classroom interaction patterns on students' learning and collaborative meaning-making. The theoretical basis of the interaction analysis framework developed in this research project draws on the sociocultural and socio-constructivist perspectives to learning as well as on discourse and conversation analyses. Major results of the research project are:
The results of this research project are multi-faceted and they can be used and applied in teacher education and classroom-based instruction. In addition, the results can be used by researchers and learning theorists to underpin future work dealing with social interaction and learning in educational contexts. III. Professional activities and service My professional activities have included active dissemination of my research work in the form of journal articles, books, keynote presentations as well as conference paper and poster presentations. My research publications have appeared in Learning and Instruction, Instructional Science, International Journal of Educational Research, Journal of Experimental Education, Computers and Education, Computers and Writing, European Journal of Educational Psychology, Journal of Classroom Interaction and in a number of other journals, edited books, and conference proceedings. I also serve on several editorial boards, act as a reviewer for a number of scientific journals and conferences as well as present my work regularly at the annual meetings of AERA, EARLI and other national and international conferences. In recognition of distinction achieved in research, I have received together with my research collaborator Dr. Sinikka Kaartinen a nomination for the outstanding publication award from the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI) in the year 2003. I have attached this article to this application letter. I have recently served as a board member for the European Educational Teacher Education Network (www.eten-online.org) and a co-ordinator for the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI) Special Interest Group (SIG) Social interaction in learning and instruction (wwwedu.oulu.fi/ktk/earli). In addition, I engage in active dialogue with several international and national scholars via my scientific work, including invited keynote lectures and discussant roles in national and international scientific meetings and conferences. I am also currently acting as an external evaluator for an US-European FIPSE program. The centers of research and individual programs of research that I direct have provided national and international graduate students with a platform to conduct their scientific research in innovative and authentic contexts. These contexts have enabled doctoral students to be encultured into the practices of scholarly research work, helping them to grow professionally throughout their doctoral education into active and contributing participants of scientific communities.
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