Cracking Our Own Codes: Designing Instruction for
Greater Clarity and Appropriate Control
(will appear in vol 18 of International Journal on Learning, 2012)
Mark Stoner,
Department of Communication Studies
Center for Teaching and Learning
California State University, Sacramento
Co-authors:
Steve Higgins
School of Education
Durham University
Diego Bonilla
Department of Communication Studies
California State University, Sacramento
Patterned Human Behavior
In instructional contexts
May function as code
People attribute meaning
When you see such a room, what does it mean?
What roles does it imply? What patterns of behavior can
we anticipate by those playing the roles?
How do you know?
When you see such a room, what does it mean?
What roles does it imply? What patterns of behavior can
we anticipate by those playing the roles?
Let’s consider another kind of “patterned human behavior”
in an instructional context . . .
Sample assignment
Follow-a-thread assignment: a short essay (3-4 pages) that
explores, in greater depth, a topic from the readings by digesting two
or more relevant citation or citations. (5 points) Assignment may be
repeated once.
To “follow a thread” is to examine the treatment of a concept or theory
across related essays or studies.
Your task is to select and read related essays and explain how the
concept they jointly treat is operationalized, applied, modified, or
critiqued. Remark on what you learn about the nature of our
knowledge about the concept treated by various scholars.
Essays that score all five points will present some insight rather
than just reporting the contents of the studies. Include a
bibliography and cite sources in APA (6th ed.) style.
What patterns of instructional discourse do you see?
What do you anticipate being most meaningful to students?
Basil Bernstein defines code as
• “a regulative principle, tacitly acquired,
• which selects and integrates
1. relevant meanings,
2. the form of their realization and
3. evoking contexts.” (p.109)
Let’s go back and see how this applies to our two cases…
Bernstein, B. (2000). Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity, rev. ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
This site is a meaningful code precisely because it selects and
integrates relevant meanings, the form of their realization and
evoking contexts.”
This site is a meaningful code precisely because it selects and
integrates relevant meanings, the form of their realization and
evoking contexts.”
Sample assignment
Follow-a-thread assignment: a short essay (3-4 pages) that
explores, in greater depth, a topic from the readings by digesting two
or more relevant citation or citations. (5 points) Assignment may be
repeated once.
To “follow a thread” is to examine the treatment of a concept or theory
across related essays or studies.
Your task is to select and read related essays and explain how the
concept they jointly treat is operationalized, applied, modified, or
critiqued. Remark on what you learn about the nature of our
knowledge about the concept treated by various scholars.
Essays that score all five points will present some insight rather
than just reporting the contents of the studies. Include a
bibliography and cite sources in APA (6th ed.) style.
This is a code precisely because it selects and integrates
relevant meanings, the form of their realization and evoking contexts.”
When instructing, we use at least three message systems. . .
Curriculum
•Relationship of units of content and time
allocated
•Timing of content
•Time on task
Pedagogy
3 Instructional Message Systems
•Repertoire of strategies for presenting and
processing content
•Allocation of qualification to make knowledge
claims
(that vary among disciplines)
•Allocation of responsibility for learning
Evaluation
•Predominant type of evaluation
•Levels of knowledge assessed (à la Bloom)
•Authenticity of evaluation
…which are regulated by two forms of control
These instructional message systems respond to two forms of control:
Classification “refers to the degree of insulation between categories of
discourse, agents, practices, contexts, and provides recognition rules
for both transmitters and acquirers for the degree of specialization of
their texts.” (p.214)
Framing “refers to the controls on the selection, sequencing, pacing
and criterial rules of the pedagogic communicative relationship between
transmitters and acquirers . . . .” (p.214)
Bernstein, B. (1990). The Structuring of Pedagogic Discourse, Vol IV Class, Codes and Control. London: Routledge.
We can relate classification and framing like this:
Strong
Reproduction
Classification
Production
Weak
Strong
Framing
Here’s a case from my experience.
Strong
Reproduction
Classification
Communication, Self and
Society @ Time 2
Communication, Self and
Society @ Time 1 (ComS 163)
Production
Weak
Framing
Strong
The course needed greater structure (framing) to function as a
communication course (classification)
Some highly classified and framed courses can
benefit by changing the nature of the message systems
to move toward “production” or creativity in outcomes…
Strong
National Physics course syllabus
Reproduction
Longair’s alternative
design
Classification
Production
Weak
Framing
Strong
Let’s connect the message systems relative to the forms of
control by using them to examine a course design:
http://hypergraphia.wikispaces.com/Instructional+Design+Tool
(a sample of Diego’s programming magic)