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Bricolage: Towards an Architecture of Teaching Virtues, Values and Ethics

Ian Ling, Berise Heasly & Margaret Ling

Ed-Acumen, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Introduction

This article is in the form of a synopsis of a workshop offered by the directors of Ed-Acumen at the Dialogue Australasia Network (DAN) Conference in Adelaide, SA, June 2013, in the expectation that the approach taken might be applied in teaching and learning at primary, secondary and tertiary levels.

In doing this, we touched upon the five-strand approach that forms the base for Religious and Values Education (RAVE) programs in Australasian schools. There was, however, a greater emphasis on values, philosophy and reflection in our presentation – these were underpinned by a focus on higher order thinking skills to be used in a democratic approach to teaching about values, philosophy and reflection in the classroom. We planned the presentation to model our own preferred focus of teaching and learning that promotes inductive thinking and personal reflection. This links the classroom processes of explaining, exploring and expanding with the ‘Bloom 2’ deductive cognitive processes of analysing, evaluating and creating.

Accordingly: Ian’s brief was to model inductive data reduction in order to produce a group definition of ‘virtues’, ‘values’ and ‘ethics’; Berise’s brief was to present the working definitions of ‘virtues’, ‘values’ and ‘ethics’ and how to apply these definitions in classrooms, including six elements from her recent PhD; finally, Margaret had the brief to apply a critical and creative lens to the processes and interactions that occurred between participants and both presenters.

Thus: Ian demonstrated the usefulness of valuing the input of all participants in the workshop (to be adapted to classroom, tutorial and/or seminar contexts) in order to make fuller meaning of personal, workplace and cultural learnings; Berise applied the learnings she acquired during the development of her PhD research to create a formalised system (called ‘edu-tensegrity’) to the democratic development of virtues, values and ethics within classrooms, tutorials and seminars; Margaret monitored the deliberative processes within the presentation of moving from deductive to inductive thinking, focusing on the responses and active inputs of the participants as they experienced the elements of bricolage (‘bits and pieces’) within the session.

1 Inductive data reduction exercise – Ian Ling

This section consists of a summary of the data – relating to virtues, values and ethics – that I gathered in the preliminary part of the workshop presentation:

identifying, through analysis, the constructs contained in each comment;

deconstructing and evaluating each construct, by means of inductive analysis, in order to identify a set of recognisable concepts;

constructing, through synthesis, a set of common concepts in order to produce an inductive synthesis representing a set of emergent themes.

I made a preliminary presentation of the constructs, concepts and themes just before the workshop was concluded.

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I was aided in the process of analysing, evaluating and construction of the data by the ‘Data Sort’ facility in a MS Excel spread sheet array:

this allowed me to identify the separate themes containing a range of concepts, each of which were sorted alphabetically;

I was able to link back all concepts to the constructs and to the original comments and the source.

Once the sorting was completed, I copied the array into a MS word document as a table and identified separate themes and concepts. Using the contents of the tables, I prepared a commentary, drew conclusions and prepared a final comment.

1.1 Virtues

The IDR associated with the meaning of ‘virtues’ resulted in the emergence of four themes: attitudes and behaviours, being good, being virtuous and being superior; the results are contained in Table 1 and each theme is discussed below the table.

Table 1 Themes, concepts and constructs associated with ‘virtues’

Respndt1 Comment Construct Concept Theme

LT My favourite quote from Proverbs: Beauty in a woman without virtue is like a gold ring in a bull’s snout

Like a gold ring in a pig's snout is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion (Proverbs, 11:22)

Acceptable attitudes and behaviours

Attitudes and behaviours

KD Truths for living. Truths for living

LT

A virtuous person is one whose life aligns with their beliefs about what is right behaviour; ergo, virtues are right actions and behaviours.

Personal beliefs that align to beliefs about what actions and behaviours are right

KX Personal attitudes and behaviours that are long standing and based on conscious decision.

Long-standing personal attitudes and behaviours that have been consciously determined

Conscious determination of attitudes and behaviours

MG

A range of substantial positive dispositions (both intellectual and ethical) which both underpin my behaviour, thoughts, but which I can also develop and refine as a skill.

Substantial and positive intellectual and ethical dispositions that are able to be developed and refined and which underpin personal behaviour

Positive dispositions that underpin personal behaviour

MD Human attributes which contribute to a ‘good’ life personally and as a community.

Personal and community human attributes that contribute to a good life

Good human attributes

Being good SQ

I prefer values and ethics which in turn are always under assessment and re-fashioning.

Less preferable than values and ethics each of which is subject to assessment and re-fashioning.

ML

The good characteristics that a person has. These are the qualities (e.g., honesty, reliability) or the qualities that our society thinks are important.

Good characteristics of a person reflecting honesty, reliability and other qualities regarded as being important to our particular society

Qualities thought to be good

KX Something akin to Aristotle’s and McIntyre’s but not quite.

Close to what Aristotle’s and McIntyre’s define as 'virtues'

Classical concept of virtues

Being virtuous

1 The initials are related to pseudonyms give to the respondents.

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Respndt1 Comment Construct Concept Theme

SQ It echoes an older framework Echoes of an older framework

SQ I don’t use the term; it assumes that one has innate characterisations that are therefore considered superior.

Assumption of an innate characterisation that personifies superiority

Assuming a position of superiority

Being superior

1.1.1 Attitudes and behaviours

Three concepts emerged from the comments: having acceptable attitudes and behaviours; a conscious determination of attitudes and behaviours; positive dispositions that underpin personal behaviour.

1.1.1.1 Having acceptable attitudes and behaviours

LT made a biblical reference to Proverbs:

My favourite quote from Proverbs: Beauty in a woman without virtue is like a gold ring in a bull’s snout.

This was misquoted; perhaps, a more accurate allusion is to ‘show discretion’, or to ‘be discrete’:

Like a gold ring in a pig's snout is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion (Proverbs, 11:22)

There is a subtlety here: behaviours and attitudes that are admired; internalised attitudes that match behaviours and appearances.

KD’s meaning was succinct and to the point: ‘Truths for living’. Presumably, these are abiding truths, acceptable to a particular established culture, to an accepted and desirable way of living. LT spelt this out in much greater detail, suggesting that virtues were personal beliefs relating to actions and behaviours that are believed to be ‘right’:

A virtuous person is one whose life aligns with their beliefs about what is right behaviour; ergo, virtues are right actions and behaviours.

To summarise, in this group virtues are seen to be truths of life (perhaps eternal?) that help us to internalise acceptable, appropriate attitudes and behaviours.

1.1.1.2 Conscious determination of attitudes and behaviours

KX saw virtues as part of a conscious determination to establish long-standing attitudes and behaviours; they are ‘personal attitudes and behaviours that are long standing and based on conscious decision’.

This suggests that the attitudes and behaviours are considered, weighed and determined; they do not happen by chance. Perhaps they have to be ‘taught, not caught’.

1.1.1.3 Positive dispositions that underpin personal behaviour

MG saw virtues as being personal dispositions that are substantial and positive; intellectual and ethical:

A range of substantial positive dispositions (both intellectual and ethical) which both underpin my behaviour, [my] thoughts, but which I can also develop and refine as a skill.

The dispositions are able to be developed and refined, implying that some conscious effort must be made to develop appropriate personal skills – both cognitive and affective – that underpin one’s attitudes and behaviours.

Overall, this group of five respondents saw virtues as consisting of truths that influence our attitudes and behaviours; some of these truths might be eternal; however, there is a stronger belief that they are consciously determined; once established, they will be long-lived and result in actions and behaviours that are ‘right’.

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1.1.2 Being good

Two concepts emerged from the comments: ‘good’ human attributes and qualities thought to be ‘good’.

1.1.2.1 Good human attributes

MD considered virtues as contributing to a ‘good’ life: they are ‘Human attributes which contribute to a “good” life personally and as a community’. RP implied that, while concerned with ‘being good’, they have an inflexibility that makes them less preferable than values and ethics: ‘I prefer values and ethics which in turn are always under assessment and re-fashioning’. LK was much more specific, seeing virtues as being qualities thought to be good. They are:

…the good characteristics that a person has. These are the qualities (e.g., honesty, reliability) or the qualities that our society thinks are important.

These perspectives suggest that virtues contribute to creating a ‘good life’; they imply qualities and characteristics regarded as being ‘good’: virtues are persisting constructs that are regarded as being important to a given society.

1.1.2.2 Being virtuous

KX and PR saw virtues as being constructs that have an Aristotelian perspective on moral and political practice: what is ‘good’. Specifically, KX saw being virtuous as being ‘close to what Aristotle and [Alasdair] McIntyre define as “virtues” ’; PR saw being virtuous as containing ‘echoes of an older framework’.

1.1.2.3 Being superior

RP was dismissive of virtues, arguing that the concept assumes a position of authority and superiority:

I don’t use the term; it assumes that one has innate characterisations that are therefore considered superior.

I noted from these comments that the concept of ‘virtues’ is rather ‘other-worldly’, even out-of-date – virtues might be regarded as the ‘truths of life’. A conscious effort is required to develop the cognitive and affective behaviours that will position one as being ‘virtuous’. At best, virtues focus on characteristics and qualities that have moral underpinnings that relate back to Aristotle; at worst, virtues represent a moral positioning that suggests innate characteristics of superiority.

1.2 Values

The IDR associated with the meaning of ‘values’ resulted in the emergence of three themes; organised in decreasing order of frequency, they were: worthiness, improving society, and internalising truths. These details are contained in Table 2.

Table 2 Themes, concepts and constructs associated with ‘values’

Respndt Comment Construct Concept Theme

KX2

The values and worth attributed to a thing, attitude or concept which a person of group uses to enhance their community.

The worth attributed to a thing, attitude or concept an individual uses to enhance their community

Being a worthy citizen

Worthiness

NY

The things that are important and worthy of preservation and priorities to a social group or community or individual.

The priorities of a social group, community or individual that are worthy of preservation

The set of priorities worthy of preservation

2 The initials are related to pseudonyms give to the respondents.

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Respndt Comment Construct Concept Theme

TN Moral concepts which guide or can be seen in the way people live their lives.

Evident moral concepts made visible in the way people live their lives.

Living good lives

TO Concepts that drive decision-making, on an individual and group level.

Concepts that drive individual and group decision making.

Good decision making

Improving society

BB A collection of ideas which work towards the betterment of a person, group or society as a whole.

The collection of ideas that work towards the betterment of a person, groups of people, and society as a whole

Making society better

TJ Those ideas, concepts and terms that I hold to be true and that I hold close to my heart.

Those ideas, concepts and terms that I hold to be true and that I hold close to my heart.

Important personal truths

Internalising truths OK

What I think is important in life determines what I do what I think, what I believe.

The important things in life that determine what I do, think and believe

EI Values are the things that I hold as important

The things that I hold to be important

1.2.1 Worthiness

Three concepts emerged from the comments: being a worthy citizen, the set of priorities worthy of preservation and living good lives. Each concept was considered by only one respondent.

1.2.1.1 Being a worthy citizen

KX related values to being a worthy citizen as a result of considering specific issues, attitudes and concepts that will enhance society:

The values and worth attributed to a thing, attitude or concept which a person of group uses to enhance their community.

NY developed this perception by considering those priorities that are worthy of preservation, that is:

The things that are important and worthy of preservation and priorities to a social group or community or individual.

TN stressed the importance of having moral concepts that promote a good life; values refer to:

Moral concepts which guide or can be seen in the way people live their lives.

The focus of these comments lies on enhancing the community by setting, promoting and preserving moral priorities that lead to good and worthy lives.

1.2.2 Improving society

Two concepts emerged from the comments: good decision making; making society better.

1.2.2.1 Good decision making

For TO, values should be at the heart of good decision making: they are the ‘concepts that drive individual and group decision making’.

1.2.2.2 Making society better

In support of this, BB pointed out that the aim should be to make society better. Values are

A collection of ideas which work towards the betterment of a person, group or society as a whole.

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Taken together, these two concepts suggest, in order to improve society, values that have both merit and worth are required.

1.2.3 Internalising truths

A single concept emerged from the comments: values are concerned with important personal truths.

1.2.3.1 Important personal truths

There was close agreement on the part of three respondents. TJ referred to factors held ‘close to my heart’:

Those ideas, concepts and terms that I hold to be true and that I hold close to my heart.

OK referred to important, determining thoughts and beliefs:

What I think is important in life determines what I do what I think, what I believe.

EI saw the matter very simply; ‘Values are the things that I hold as important’. The conclusion to be drawn is that the internalising of important personal truths results in values

that are significant, deeply felt and are ‘self’ determining.

Overall, ‘values’ ensure, through the internalisation of important personal truths, the preservation of community moral priorities that have both merit and worth.

1.3 Ethics

The IDR associated with the meaning of ‘ethics’ resulted in the emergence of three themes; organised in decreasing order of frequency, they were: internalising truths, shaping society and improving society. These details are contained in Table 3.

Table 3 Themes, concepts and constructs associated with ‘ethics’

Ref Comment Construct Concept Theme

LO3

Ethics are determined by people’s understanding of themselves and what they have learned over time.

A determination, over time, of people’s understanding of themselves.

Important personal truths

Internalising

truths

RQ That which protects and enhances the good ordering of the sanctity of the individual.

Protecting and enhancing the sanctity of the individual

MN

My ethics enable me to make considered and well thought through decisions about tricky situation. The decisions are arrived at through the use of a decision making model.

The guide to the decision-making model that I employ to make to make decisions about issues and situations that are tricky

EI A system of belief and inner voices that affect the way a person reacts to events or stimuli in their lives.

A belief system that affects the way a person reacts to events or stimuli in their lives

Personal belief systems

KH

I mean the framework of beliefs that enables us to articulate and act out what we know to be important. If it is important then it is right.

The framework of beliefs that enables us to articulate and act out what we know to be important and right.

MN

A conjunction of actions and values. The things I think, say or do are driven by the values I hold. These values, in turn are derived from my beliefs and which I deem to be truths.

The actions and values, derived from my beliefs, that I deem to be truths

3 The initials are related to pseudonyms give to the respondents.

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Ref Comment Construct Concept Theme

RQ

A set of rules or guiding principles which shape one’s behaviour in relation to other individuals and society in general.

A set of rules or guiding principles that shape the behaviour of both individuals and the society in which they live

Rules and guiding principles for society

Shaping

society

LO

Ethics is not taught per se. Rather it is an accumulation of knowledge and understanding through experiences and discussion in various way. This may be through parents, teachers, friends, church, laws, governments.

An accumulation of knowledge and understanding through experiences and discussion involving parents, teachers, friends, church, laws, and governments

BB The working out of a guiding framework, a morality. It is public and can be stated.

The working out of a stated, guiding framework that is for the greater good

The greater good

RQ That which protects and enhances the good ordering of the sanctity of the individual.

That which protects and enhances the good ordering and sanctity of the individual.

CQ The study of what is good or bad, right or wrong.

What is good or bad, right or wrong

Being a moral citizen

Improving

society LO

The process of deciding what is right or wrong to guide behaviour and decision making.

Determining what is right or wrong in order to guide behaviour and enlighten decision making

1.3.1 Internalising truths

There were two concepts that emerged from the comments: important personal truths and personal belief systems.

1.3.1.1 Important personal truths

The constructs identified within this concept were related to people’s understanding of themselves, the sanctity of individuals and personal decision making. LO commented, as follows:

Ethics are determined by people’s understanding of themselves and what they have learned over time.

RQ saw ethics as being

that which protects and enhances the good ordering of the sanctity of the individual.

Finally, MN saw ethics as providing guidance to decision making:

My ethics enable me to make considered and well thought through decisions about tricky situation. The decisions are arrived at through the use of a decision making model.

These comments suggest that the important personal truths associated with ethics develop from the accumulated wisdom that individuals gain by experience in order that they might become autonomous beings able to engage in wise decision making.

1.3.1.2 Personal belief systems

Ethics are instrumental in developing personal belief systems. EI sees this as an affective influence, enabling responsible reactions. Ethics is:

A system of belief and inner voices that affect the way a person reacts to events or stimuli in their lives.

KH applied ethics to determine what is important and right:

I mean the framework of beliefs that enables us to articulate and act out what we know to be important. If it is important then it is right.

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MN saw ethics as the source of personal truths. They are:

…a conjunction of actions and values. The things I think, say or do are driven by the values I hold. These values, in turn are derived from my beliefs and which I deem to be truths.

The conclusion to be drawn is that a personal belief system depends on ethics to provide personal truths using a framework of actions and values that enables individuals to determine what is important and right.

1.3.2 Shaping society

There were two concepts that emerged from the comments: rules and guiding principles for society, and the greater good.

1.3.2.1 Rules and guiding principles for society

The constructs identified within this concept focused on societal rules and guiding principles (RQ), and the importance of experiential learning (LO). RQ saw ethics as follows:

A set of rules or guiding principles which shape one’s behaviour in relation to other individuals and society in general.

LO focused on the ways in which these rules and principles might be obtained:

Ethics is not taught per se. Rather it is an accumulation of knowledge and understanding through experiences and discussion in various way. This may be through parents, teachers, friends, church, laws, governments.

In this sense, ethics is seen as the setting of rules that shape the behaviour of individuals in a particular society; these rules represent the accumulated wisdom of that society.

1.3.2.2 The greater good

BB highlighted that ethics is concerned with a guiding framework: ‘The working out of a guiding framework, a morality. It is public and can be stated’; the focus is for the greater good. BB extended this to the sanctity of the individual: ethics is

…that which protects and enhances the good ordering of the sanctity of the individual.

In this sense, ethics provides a moral framework for societies that care for the moral welfare of communities and the individuals who comprise those communities.

1.3.3 Improving society

There was one concept that emerged from the comments: being a moral citizen.

1.3.3.1 Being a moral citizen

CQ considered ethics to be ‘the study of what is good or bad, right or wrong’; LO focused more positively and precisely: ‘the process of deciding what is right or wrong to guide behaviour and decision making’.

Here, ethics involves both process and product; a moral citizen has the ability to distinguish between good and bad, right and wrong; these processes guide behaviour and assist in enlightened decision making.

Overall, ethics internalises personal truths and personal belief systems that are derived from an accumulated wisdom that empowers individuals and communities to determine what is important, good and right in order to produce an enlightened, moral community.

1.4 Reflection on the process

It is always surprises me that the process of inductive data reduction, as used in this exercise, produces such rich and powerful material. The process of deconstruction, followed by reconstruction – involving analysing, evaluating and creating (the ‘new’ Bloom taxonomy (‘Bloom 2’) of cognitive behaviours – see Anderson et al. 2000; Clark, 1999/2013 and the summary in Figure 1),

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involving only the 24 individual comments obtained ‘spontaneously’ – represents the application of a recent ethnographic research methodology involving ‘the bricolage’ (see Ling 2011; Kincheloe et al. 2012). The ‘bricolage’, originally a French term meaning ‘bits and pieces’, but now used in ethnographic research, refers to using ‘bits and pieces’ of language as a means, inductively, of making meaning of a more complex whole.

Figure 1 Comparison: Bloom and Bloom 2

Source: Anderson LW et al 2000, accessed at

http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html

At the conclusion of our presentation at the DAN Conference in Adelaide, South Australia in July

2013, a participant asked me, ‘Do you think this approach could be used in middle level secondary classes?’ While I have only used this particular approach with adults, I have, in the past, used ‘brainstorming’ in Human Relations classes in middle level secondary school classes. Often as not these were associated with ‘Taught, not Caught’ values clarification exercises. It seems to me that this approach would work very well. The students could respond as individuals, small groups or whole classes; they could enter their responses into a spread sheet; they could identify the emergent constructs (analysing); the teacher could help them to identify concepts appropriate to the level at which they were working; they could evaluate these concepts (evaluating); they could cluster common themes in order to identify emergent themes (creating). I have no doubt that this process could readily be adapted to RE classes, as this was the context in which the original question was raised.

I would be interested to further this line of investigation with interested teachers, administrators and academics.

2 Using thinking skills to inform decision making – Berise Heasly

Arising from my PhD thesis, a formalised system of using thinking skills to inform decision making – both academic and personal – was constructed and presented. Following from Ian’s exercise, I listed my working definitions of virtues, values and ethics for educational purposes. These are listed below.

Virtues

The accumulation of assimilated personal, disciplined attitudes and dispositions for behaviours seen as the best expression of what an individual can be (Heasly 2012, 53).

Values

The accumulated behaviours that a culture, society, nation, or tribe has mastered, understood, taught, revered and demanded as expression of the best in an individual who belongs to that culture, society, nation, or tribe (Heasly 2012, 55).

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Ethics

The considered result or outcome in action by the individual in daily contribution to the owned culture, society, nation, or tribe (Heasly 2012, 63).

2.1 Research findings

I then presented a set of findings relevant to the discussion of virtues, values and ethics in twenty-first century classrooms at school, undergraduate and postgraduate level. Each element is presented as a personal account, below.

2.1.1 Nine independent themes

The following nine themes resulted from micro-analysis of the responses of:

teachers, either at secondary or tertiary level from Victoria, New Zealand and England;

a lengthy questionnaire relating to dependent, independent and inter-dependent methods of learning.

Below is the list that I developed from an analysis of these responses:

1. Questions and questioning

2. Curriculum frameworks

3. Discussion

4. Focusing on students

5. Sequential processes

6. Thinking skills

7. Teaching the process of decision-making

8. Consensus and democracy

9. Teaching of and about virtues, values and ethics

Source: (Heasly 2012, 113).

As a result of the identification of these themes, it became apparent to me that a formalised system of applying thinking skills to the teaching of students would increase the efficiency of using both inductive and deductive methods of learning.

2.1.2 Six steps of decision-making

The first stage of the formalised system arising from this research was a pattern relating to logical and ethical decision-making – the steps of which are familiar within education. Teachers can safely try this in any secondary humanities subject area. It can also be used to test incidents in tertiary politics, sociology, ethics, philosophy, religious studies, comparative religions studies as well as characters studied in literature of any language. Of course, care is needed so that mistaken conclusions don’t exclude cultural mores of diverse national backgrounds. The Six Steps of Decision-Making are as follows (Heasly 2012, 161):

1. Define the problem

2. List possible options, no matter how unusual

3. Investigate each possible option carefully

4. Invite expert opinion, advisement and research internet.

5. Choose the best likely option, listing other options in order of preference

6. Carry out the action, then evaluate.

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2.1.3 The ‘ME’ diagram

If we are serious about teaching the student, rather than teaching a topic, it is useful to recognise that we begin, in an auto-ethnographical sense, with the student as an individual, i.e., as the subjective ‘ME’ (see Figure 2, above; or Heasly, 2012 at http://vuir.vu.edu.au/21451-/1/Berise_Therese_Heasly.pdf). For retention of learning to take place, the auto-ethnographical approach is crucial: it calls into consciousness the experience of the individual in the current world around them.

In the classroom, especially at secondary level, deductive thinking skills – such as analysing, hypothesising, synthesising, predicting and more – are used to scrutinise the broadened picture of daily experience for each individual. This can be done in journal-writing, creative writing, historical critique and more. The approach can be tested in Business studies, Social and Integrated studies, History, Archaeology and other subject areas.

Exploring each set of influences met almost universally by each student, sometimes concurrently and sometimes chaotically, the student experiences democracy and respect, as the teacher is modelling how and why each person’s experience will vary widely.

As a consequence of these curriculum content elements, inductive thinking skills can be developed widely by including exercises (both oral, aural and written) for forward thinking, planning, career advisement, extra-curricular activities like drama, and school musicals. The more opportunities there are for students to explore new possibilities and new scenarios, the more confidence is established in inductive thinking skills as an asset for qualitative and quantitative research today.

Figure 2 The ME diagram

Source: (Heasly 2012, Figure 4.3, 161)

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5

6

3

1

2

1 1

SUBJECTIVE ME

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2.1.4 The Heasly Uncertainty Grid/Behaviour Uncertainty Grid (HUG/BUG)

When students in my classroom were asked to reflect on experiences and issues from earlier phases of their lives, some students agreed, while other disagreed, with the value of those experiences. Often, the main discovery was how complex the world was; they were left with a feeling of uncertainty. As a consequence, students were able, using the Heasly uncertainty grid/Behaviour uncertainly grid (nicknamed the HUG/BUG), to observe a wide spectrum of choices – some of which were positive; some of which were negative. The grid is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3 The Heasly Uncertainty Grid (HUG/BUG)

Source: (Heasly, 2012, Figure 4.4, 168)

The outcome, as prompted and shaped by me, enabled my students to see degrees of

behavioural choices that had a negative (see red shaded elements) or positive (see green-shaded elements) impact on their ability to ‘get on with their learning’. I noticed, over the years, that the HUG/BUG – used in English, literature studies, social studies, business studies, philosophy and in religious studies – underpinned a strong development of independent thinking and learning.

And so: Edu-tensegrity was born!

2.2 Categories of Influence & Edu-tensegrity

Edu-tensegrity is the shape and evolution of all the elements of education for the twenty-first century into a multi-dimensional, self-supporting structural system which I have called the geodesic dome. Within that dome are my 12 ‘categories of influence’ which provide the foundation for the concept of edu-tensegrity. A comprehensive discussion on the concept of tensegrity appears in my thesis (see Heasly 2012, 230-239).

My ‘12 Categories of Influence’ and the concept of ‘Edu-tensegrity’ may be used to build a new architecture for teaching virtues, values and ethics that puts the student at the centre of the teaching and learning process; they are listed below:

OUTCOMES (Negative)

OUTCOMES

(Positive)

Behaviour Con-

sequences Features ELEMENTS Features

Con-sequences

Behaviour

Aggression Stultification Laziness PHYTJCAL RESPONSE

Skills

Appetites Strength

Perseverance

Courage

Tyranny

Deceit

Unpredict-ability

Hopelessness

Hysteria

Moodiness

EMOTIONAL RESPONSE

Wishes

Dreams

Response-ability

Honesty

Greed

Avarice Narcissism Selfishness

SOCIAL RESPONSE

Communication

Love Openness

Patience

Justice

Forgiveness

Jealousy

Envy

Prejudice

Inconsistency

Arrogance

Presumption

INTELLECTUAL RESPONSE

Inquiry

Logic Critical skills Discernment

Abuse – self or other

Despair Nihilism SPIRITUAL RESPONSE

Quest – satisfaction wholeness

Personal paradigm

Integrity

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1. Dimensions of daily life

2. Dimensions of education

3. Dimensions of thinking

4. Curriculum theorists

5. Curriculum theorists

6. Constructs about knowledge and the thinking curriculum

7. Historical and philosophical constructs

8. Teachers and teaching

9. Instrumental contributions

10. Outcomes and issues of dependence and rich learning

11. Construction of a belief system, the good life and a career

12. Integration of student, teacher and curriculum.

Source: (Heasly, 2012, 231)

2.3 The Geodesic Dome

Locating the categories of influence on a structure such as a self-supporting geodesic dome – that simultaneously involves both compression and tension between the component parts – not only allows for the representation of the 12 categories that I identified in my research (see Figure 4, below) but encourages the inclusion of traditional educational elements.

The human standing on one side is a representation of every student, who comes to the Education scene today from outside, and can only see a small part of the whole. There is so much to recognise, understand, explore, experience, learn, evaluate, test and choose.

The non-coloured sections are representations of so many of the parts of the whole of what Education has been in the past, is in the present, and perhaps may be in the future of this nation.

Figure 4 Categories of Influence set in a geodesic dome

Source: Heasly 2012, 256, Figure 7.1

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3 Bricolage: Margaret Ling’s Reflections

Twenty-four people filed, tentatively, into the room; every pre-booked seat was filled; there was a sense of expectancy. The word ‘bricolage’ in the title of the session might have created an exotic interest! There was a convenient matrix of four columns of chairs with six seats in each row; a spare row at the back of the room gave us a ‘safe haven’ to do some observing and provided a place for Ian to attempt the impossible – to collate a set of responses to be presented to the group in the final 10 minutes of the 75 minute session. Cunningly, Ian had placed a handout on each seat: participants who sat on chairs in the first two columns had a section referring to ‘virtues’; the third and fourth columns had a section referring to ‘values’; the fifth and sixth columns referred to ‘ethics’. This made for easy collection, later.

Brief introductions followed, aided by a PowerPoint slide indicating what was planned for the session: personal perceptions of virtues, values and ethics (the participants); key issues associated with thinking skills as highlighted in Berise’s recent PhD thesis; inductive data reduction – Ian to demonstrate the process as applied to the collected data on virtues, values and ethics; and a concluding discussion. All this in 75 minutes: the time constraint was to become a big issue! It first showed during the introductions, which were rushed.

Ian pressed on! There was an audible gasp then a shocked silence when he asked the group to complete, ‘in one or two sentences’, the statement: ‘When I use the term [VIRTUES, VALUES, ETHICS] what I mean is…’ They were given ’10 minutes’; suddenly, they realised that they had to be ‘involved participants’; there was no place to hide. They realised that their input was important. After seven minutes, Ian recognised that everyone had completed the writing task and, with my help, we gathered the responses in columns in order to keep the responses in groups to speed up the recording element that was to follow. Ian retreated to the back row and proceeded to enter the responses into three sections on a spread sheet.

Berise took over and proceeded in a more measured and perhaps familiar manner, initially highlighting that we were in the midst of creating meaning through inductive rather than deductive processes. The group seemed more comfortable – though some might have felt a feeling of disquiet about the process of inductive data reduction that was to be demonstrated later. Berise referred to the twenty-two year ‘journey’ relating to the genesis, development and completion of her research, the focus of which had been on ‘critical, creative thinking’ about ways of approaching teaching about virtues, values and ethics – both as perceived by a cohort of national and international educators who had responded to an extensive questionnaire, and as had emerged by a personal disclosure that comprised an auto-ethnographic element in her thesis. Cleverly, she linked her experiences to the pedagogy for thought, dialogue and values that had been developed by Nigel Fancourt in his plenary session held earlier that day; she was pleased by Nigel’s response. Subsequently, Berise briefly addressed her research findings: her working definitions of virtues, values and ethics; the nine independent themes that emerged; the six steps of decision-making, the ‘ME’ diagram, and the ‘HUG/BUG’ uncertainty grid; the 12 categories of influence imposed on a geodesic dome that supported her concept of edu-tensegrity. The handouts were more useful and attended to than the PowerPoint slides. The explication – the hows and whys – was good; the personal stories were engaging; the links to classroom learning were clear; the impact of inductive and developmental thinking was leavened by the humour of the applications recalled; the cross-links with the conference sessions helped make meaning. Berise’s 35 minute contribution might be entitled ‘A short, quick introduction to inductive thinking’.

An extension of time enabled Berise to answer some questions about her thesis; it also enabled Ian to complete the transcription of the 35 separate written responses made by the 24 respondents: it was a daunting, adventurous and risky undertaking that nearly came off – but not quite. Two examples of the process of analysing the construct in each comment, evaluating the concept contained therein and synthesising to (almost) construct an emergent theme would have been more enlightening had there not been a battle between Ian’s cuff and the computer keyboard, failure to realise that a password had been left to cover such contingencies; the whole temporarily subsided

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into confusion and apologies. Fortunately, the audience remained supportive and were placated by the news that a completed spread sheet would subsequently be made available to all workshop participants.

At the end of the session there were many smiles and nodding heads. Some participants remained to discuss possibilities of inductive data reduction in their RE classes; one such person saw benefit in involving a class of boys in writing, entering the data, undertaking the data reduction, developing their own themes – and thus making their own meanings. Berise engaged in follow-up with details of how some current research might be advanced, directing attention to the easy availability of a repository copy of her thesis from Victoria University Melbourne.

4 References

Anderson LW, Krathwohl DR, Airasian PW, Cruikshank KA, Mayer RE, Pintrich PR, Raths J, Wittrock MC 2000, A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: Pearson, Allyn & Bacon Anderson LW et al 2000. In Don Clark 1999/2013, Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning. Retrieved from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html.

Clark D 1999/2013, Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning. Retrieved from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/-hrd/bloom.html.

Heasly BT 2012, Towards an architecture for the teaching of virtues, values and ethics. Unpublished PhD thesis, Victoria University Melbourne Australia. Available online at Victoria University Institutional Repository, http://vuir.vu.edu.au/21451/1/Berise_Therese_Heasly.pdf.

Ingber D 1997, The architecture of life. Scientific American, January, 1998, 48-57.

Kincheloe JL, Mclaren P & Steinberg SR 2012, Critical pedagogy and qualitative research: Moving to the bricolage, 14-32. In Steinberg, S. R. & Cannella, G. S. (Eds.) Critical qualitative research reader. New York: Peter Lang.

Ling IM 2011, Making Meaning of the Bricolage: Becoming an Inductive Data Reduction Bricoleur. Melbourne: Curriculum Consultants International, available at https://www.academia.edu/6432331-/Making_Meaning_of_the_Bricolage_Becoming_an_Inductive_Data_Reduction_Bricoleur .

About the authors

Dr Ian Ling is currently Adjunct Professor in the College of Education, Victoria University, Melbourne Australia where he has taught, supervised and researched applications of inductive data reduction techniques in qualitative research (using, in particular, ethnographic methods including bricolage) both in Australia and in Thailand. Prior to this he was Director of Curriculum and Professional Development at Wesley College, Melbourne. He is a director of Curriculum Consultants International. Dr Berise Heasly has been thirty-six years in secondary education: initially as a humanities teacher; increasingly as a teacher and researcher in the fields of religious studies, philosophy, philosophy for children, English and other VCE studies. She completed her PhD in the field of virtues, values and ethics in 2012. Mrs Margaret Ling taught humanities and social education in secondary schools for 30 years; subsequently, for ten years, she was Manager Schools Programs, Australian Drug Foundation. Ian, Berise and Margaret are directors of Ed-Acumen, a company formed in 2013 to offer opportunities for the e-publishing of articles and monographs designed to sharpen and develop insights related to the theory and practice of education. Posted by Ed-Acumen, 26 March 2014 Available at