Mezue, Ijeaku Iheoma;
(2022)
The student as a learner, a knower and a facilitator: Share epistemic agency enacted as an innovative school-based mathematics pedagogy.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
This study is an inquiry into my students' participation and empowerment in all aspects of their mathematics learning that aims to explore the possibility of improving their relationship with and knowledge of mathematics. It considers the learning process in general, as well as the way it shapes the knowledge that it facilitates, and the different relationships that students have with this knowledge. This study is guided by the belief that improving my students’ mathematics knowledge requires the establishment of an innovative pedagogy based on knowledge creation. I elaborate the concept of shared epistemic agency to explain the phenomenon of students taking responsibility for the advancement of their own mathematics knowledge and that of the classroom community. The concept draws on Damşa’s notion of shared epistemic agency, Scardamalia & Bereiter’s discussion of knowledge building, and Nonaka’s analysis of knowledge creation. I carried out action research that applied these principles over one academic year, requiring the participants of my classroom to blend their authority with mine as they assumed the roles normally reserved for the teacher. Using six key characteristics of shared epistemic agency that I identify in the existing research, as well as the unit of analysis, I analysed the qualitative data that was collected. I show that the shared epistemic agency that is necessary for knowledge advancement in a secondary school mathematics classroom emerged as the students participated in my innovative pedagogical environment. Moreover, I demonstrate that this agency can be reconceptualised in terms of particular kinds of student behaviour and a particular kind of learning community. I argue that the student, in such an environment, is a competent, adaptive Participant who takes up flexible positions as a learner, a knower, and a facilitator. The classroom that developed as a democratically interactive learning community sustained the emergence of the Participant.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | The student as a learner, a knower and a facilitator: Share epistemic agency enacted as an innovative school-based mathematics pedagogy |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2022. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10149674 |
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