Browsing by Author "Cliff, Alan F"

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    How do academics come to know? the structure and contestation of discipline-specific knowledge in a design school
    (Springer, 2004) Cliff, Alan F; Woodward, Rob
    This paper reports the results of a small-scale (n = 9) interview study of the 'ways of knowing' of academics in a Design School at a South African polytechnic. The focus of the study was on exploring the perceptions of these academics about discipline-specific knowledge in their fields. The paper presents an analysis of the responses, derived from semi-structured interviews, to questions concerning the origin, development, structure, and contestation of knowledge. Responses were classified and tabulated in terms of their relation to theories of epistemology and the findings analysed in relation to how they might be said to be descriptive of qualitatively different views of the construction and contestation of discipline-specific knowledge. The analysis suggests that there are some areas of commonality, such as the agreement that their knowledge has an eclectic base and that its structure is influenced by personal, historical, professional and technological imperatives in the discipline. On the other hand, there are some tensions in beliefs about the structure and contestation of knowledge. The analysis draws out tensions between the established canon and popular culture; between individual intuition and professional benchmarks; and between Eurocentric and Afrocentric knowledge bases. Concluding comments suggest that these tensions have important implications for both the content and methodology of teaching.
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    Teacher-learners' conceptions of learning: evidence of a "communalist" conception amongst postgraduate learners
    (Springer, 1998) Cliff, Alan F
    Recently, research on mature students' approaches to learning, conducted within a students'-experiences-of-learning framework, has suggested that these students tend towards being deep-level learners. The studies reported in this paper were focused on the self-reported conceptions of learning of a group of mature students enrolled in a postgraduate degree course. A primary aim of these studies was to assess the extent to which these students reported "sophisticated" conceptions of learning, as might be expected from mature, postgraduate learners. A secondary focus was to assess the extent to which academic context might be said to have influenced learning conceptions over time. The studies suggest that, for this sample of students, quantitative conceptions appear to predominate. In addition, a conception of learning that does not appear to "fit" within the conceptual model used to assess these conceptions is presented and discussed. Empirical data suggesting the stability of these learning conceptions over time is discussed in the light of its implications for teaching on postgraduate degree programmes where students appear to hold quantitative conceptions of learning. But the paper also argues for the need for further research into a conception which holds that learning is a moral obligation or service to a community.