Dear All

Picking up where I left off last week i.e. . . . I have been perusing
postings as they have been made over the past few weeks and must admit to
noting that the exchanges have created within me a steadily growing sense of
tension as I endeavour to hold on to the original stated theme of the
e-seminar.

In an attempt to respond to that tension and to see if the process of review
can be moved forward, I  propose to go ‘back to basics’ and to undertake an
action enquiry under Jack's usual sequential headings:

1. What is my concern?
I am concerned that this e-seminar will not be able by means of an act of
corporate effort to come to a conclusion that identifies a clear response to
the question: ‘The nature of educational theories: what counts as evidence
of educational influences in learning?’

2. Why am I concerned?
At the moment I see the archive (which embodies the interests of its
contributors) taking on the appearance of the expanding Universe after the
Big Bang – I see galaxies  forming which have their own internal threads and
consistencies but I cannot discern a sense of common purpose within the
whole. I feel that our expanding Universe must now start to contract - or
else it will dissipate itself to no purpose.

3. What do I think I can do about it?
Carrying out a review of the archive will not respond to or resolve my
concern. That review is for each group that inhabits each galaxy to carry
out. I shall review a piece  of published work -
http://www.bath.ac.uk/%7Eedsajw/module/kathy.htm  “An infant/primary Action
Research module” by Kathryn Yeaman - that is regarded as being a
good-quality action research enquiry. In that enterprise I shall attempt to
develop and use standards of judgement that are based on:

*  having respect for evidence
* identifying the nature of evidence
*  invoking the logic of question and answer
*  maintaining an aesthetically engaged and appreciative response
*  an awareness of taste
*  an awareness of thymos

These standards are discussed more fully at
http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/monday/pmcritbera00.html and the original
document from which they came  (BERA Review 2000) is at
http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/values/pmreview.doc

Needless to say, if you have a concern for this e-seminar that matches mine,
as expressed in 1 and 2 above, then I hope you also subscribe to my
assertion from an earlier posting (at
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A2=ind0506&L=bera-practitioner-researcher&T=0&F=&S=&X=3AFFFA7003352C7ED8&Y=esspem%40bath.ac.uk&P=10194)
which was stated as: “. . . Thus I am convinced that, by addressing within
dialogue the concerns of another, my own concerns become explicated and
resolved.” I am hoping that, if others (or just one other) will join me in
dialogue in this enterprise, then a process may be identified which will
help others to review their own galaxy and thus contribute to meeting the
stated aims of this e-seminar.

I shall leave until tomorrow the completion of the final parts of Jack’s AR
cycle plan i.e.

4. What kind of 'evidence' can I collect to help me make some judgements
about what is happening?
5. How do I plan to collect such evidence?
6. How shall I check that my judgement about what has happened is reasonably
fair and accurate ?

- Peter