Authentic, Dialogical Knowledge Construction: a blended and Mobile Teacher Education Program

Background: Knowledge construction and technology have been identified as critical for an understanding of the future of teacher education. Knowledge is discovered, applied and created collaboratively from authentic starting points. Today’s new mobile and blended learning environments create increased opportunities for such processes, including learner-centered approaches, authenticity and dialogical and knowledge construction. However, teaching still requires appropriate learning design and structuring. The presented study explored, and was designed and implemented, using the DIANA (Dialogical Authentic Netlearning Activity) pedagogical model, which is seen one of the learning designing models for existing digital, open and mobile learning environments.
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the challenges inherent in the adoption of the DIANA model and to examine student teachers’ reflections concerning authentic and dialogical knowledge construction. The focus is on the learning process.
Sample: Participants were 63 student teachers between the ages of 28 and 57 who were following the study module ‘Networks in Vocational Education’ between 2014 and 2015 at the School of Professional Teacher Education, in Hämeenlinna Finland.
Design and methods: This qualitative study uses a deductive content analysis to discern relationships between the data and the existing theory. The data for this study was drawn from an online questionnaire and participants’ self-reflective accounts.
Findings: The results indicate that achieving deep-oriented learning through dialogical actions is the most challenging part of using the DIANA model. Some of the students had difficulty understanding the concept of ‘authenticity’.
Conclusions: The findings of this study suggest enhancing learner-centered scaffolding and guidance, particularly at the outset of the learning process. In addition, methods that develop dialogical skills and competences ought to be integrated into teacher education as extensively as possible, in order to make collaborative work and problem-solving genuinely dialogical and equal.