Author: Eulàlia Torras Virgili
Programme: Doctoral Programme on the Information and Knowledge Society
Language: Catalan
Supervisor: Dr Elena Barberà Gregori
Faculty / Institute: Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3)
Subjects: Science and Knowledge, Research, Culture, Humanities, Psychology
Key words: Learning communities, Interactive learning environments, Computer-mediated communication, Professional knowledge, Professional discourse, Higher education
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Summary
Professional knowledge is epistemologically different from other kinds of knowledge. Students are considered to have built academic discourse when they are able to produce speech based on concrete academic content whereas professional knowledge should enable students to manage situations in professional practice. In this sense, professional knowledge is more demanding than other kinds of knowledge. Our objective was to analyse the nature of professional knowledge and change in professional discourse in the framework of online learning environments. Analysing the nature of professional discourse helps us understand the characteristics that make it special and that relate to managing situations in professional practice. Analysing change in professional discourse enables us to know which factors are involved in building professional knowledge and to adjust online learning environments accordingly. This paper describes the results of an analysis of different cases related to the construction of professional knowledge in the educational field. The results we obtained show us that professional discourse built using ICT is structured by a very small fraction of identified topics of professional discourse (less than 5%), furthermore, relevant differences are evidenced depending on the type of learning activity, kind of content, and task scenarios conducted (tacit or explicit). Regarding change in professional discourse, students expressed tensions in their conception of practice and interacted as a structured professional community although different characteristics depending on the type of activity, kind of content, and task scenarios were observed in all cases.