Bridging the gap between research and practice : using phenomenographic findings to develop training for career practitioners

This is a self-archived version of an original article. This version may differ from the original in pagination and typographic details. Author(s): Title: Year: Version: Copyright: Rights: Rights url: Please cite the original version: CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Bridging the gap between research and practice : using phenomenographic findings to develop training for career practitioners © The Author(s) 2021 Published version Kettunen, Jaana; Tynjälä, Päivi Kettunen, J., & Tynjälä, P. (2022). Bridging the gap between research and practice : using phenomenographic findings to develop training for career practitioners. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance, 22(1), 247-262. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10775-02109483-2 2022 Vol.:(0123456789) International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance https://doi.org/10.1007/s10775-021-09483-2 1 3 Bridging thegap betweenresearch andpractice: using phenomenographic findings todevelop training forcareer practitioners JaanaKettunen1 · PäiviTynjälä1 Received: 30 December 2020 / Accepted: 20 May 2021 © The Author(s) 2021 Abstract This study contends that phenomenography offers both a useful research method and practical tools for developing education and training for career practitioners. After introducing the basic principles of phenomenography, the study reviews previous research on its potential in developing pedagogical practices. It explores how the phenomenographic findings were utilized to design an online skills training programme for career practitioners. The study finds that phenomenographic research serves three practical pedagogical purposes: (1) revealing how learners understand certain concepts or phenomena, (2) elucidating how these understandings differ; and (3) identifying critical aspects in helping learners to widen and deepen their understanding. Keywords Phenomenography· Qualitative research· Guidance Résumé Combler le fossé entre la recherche et la pratique : Utiliser les résultats phénoménographiques pour développer la formation des praticiens de carrière Cette étude soutient que la phénoménographie offre à la fois une méthode de recherche utile et des outils pratiques pour développer l’éducation et la formation des professionnels de l’orientation. Après avoir présenté les principes de base de la phénoménographie, l’étude passe en revue les recherches précédentes sur son potentiel dans le développement des pratiques pédagogiques. Elle explore comment les résultats phénoménographiques ont été utilisés pour concevoir un programme de formation en ligne pour les professionnels de l’orientation. L’étude constate que la recherche phénoménographique sert trois objectifs pédagogiques pratiques : (1) révéler comment les apprenants comprennent certains concepts ou phénomènes, (2) * Jaana Kettunen jaana.h.ke[email protected] 1 Finnish Institute forEducational Research, University ofJyväskylä, P.O. Box35, 40014Jyväskylä, Finland International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance 1 3 élucider comment ces compréhensions diffèrent et (3) identifier les aspects critiques pour aider les apprenants à élargir et approfondir leur compréhension. Zusammenfassung Die Kluft zwischen Forschung und Praxis überbrücken: Nutzung phänomenographischer Befunde zur Entwicklung eines Trainings für Berufsberater In dieser Studie wird dargelegt, dass die Phänomenographie sowohl eine nützliche Forschungsmethode ist wie auch praktische Werkzeuge für die Entwicklung der Ausund Weiterbildung von Berufsberatenden bietet. Nach einer Einführung in die Grundprinzipien der Phänomenographie gibt die Studie einen Überblick über frühere Forschungen zu ihrem Potenzial für die Entwicklung pädagogischer Praktiken. Es wird untersucht, wie die phänomenographischen Erkenntnisse genutzt wurden, um ein Trainingsprogramm für Online-Fertigkeiten für Berufsberatende zu entwickeln. Die Studie stellt fest, dass phänomenografische Forschung drei praktischen pädagogischen Zwecken dient: (1) Aufdecken, wie Lernende bestimmte Konzepte oder Phänomene verstehen, (2) Aufzeigen, wie sich diese Verständnisse unterscheiden und (3) Identifizieren von kritischen Aspekten, die Lernenden helfen, ihr Verständnis zu erweitern und zu vertiefen. Resumen Cubriendo el vacío entre investigación y práctica: Utilizando resultados fenomenográficos para desarrollar la formación de profesionales de la orientación para la carrera Este estudio sostiene que la fenomenografía ofrece tanto un método de investigación útil como una herramienta práctica para desarrollar la educación y formación de los profesionales de la carrera. Tras introducir los principios básicos de la fenomenografía, el estudio revisa el potencial de las investigaciones precedentes para desarrollar prácticas pedagógicas. Explora cómo se utilizaron estos resultados fenomenográficos para diseñar un programa online de formación de habilidades para los profesionales de la carrera. El estudio halló que la investigación fenomenográfica sirve para responder a tres propósitos pedagógicos prácticos: (1) muestra cómo el alumnado entiende ciertos conceptos o fenómenos, (2) especifica las diferencias entre estas maneras de comprender y (3) identifica aspectos críticos para ayudar al alumnado a ampliar y profundizar en su comprensión. Introduction Since its emergence in the late 1970s, phenomenography has gained wide acceptance as a method of investigating the qualitatively different ways in which people experience or understand the same concept or phenomenon (e.g. Bowden & Green, 2005; Bowden & Marton, 1998; Bowden & Walsh, 2000; Marton, 1981, 1986, 1994; Marton & Booth, 1997). Although phenomenography remains a novel approach in guidance and counselling research, it has demonstrated its potential as a means of exploring career practitioners’ conceptions of key issues in the field (e.g. Kettunen 1 3 International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance & Makela, 2018; Kettunen & Sampson, 2019; Kettunen, Lee, & Vuorinen, 2020a; Kettunen etal., 2020b; Nykänen, 2011). In the present article, we argue that phenomenography offers both a useful research method and practical tools for develop education and training for career practitioners. In so doing, our purpose is to bridge the acknowledged gap between the research and practice in the field of guidance and counselling (e.g. Murray, 2009; Sampson etal., 2014). Early phenomenographic research focussed exclusively on describing participants’ conceptions and experiences of target phenomena. During the1990s, the focus shifted from the descriptive to the theoretical with Marton and Booth’s (1995) elaboration of phenomenographic theory, which conceptualized learning as an extension of awareness. This invited exploration of what critical aspects of a given phenomenon are discerned by a learner in experiencing that phenomenon in a particular way (Runesson, 1999), and how different ways of experiencing a phenomenon may evolve. This led to the development of a variation theory (Marton, 2015; Marton & Tsui, 2004), which specifically addresses the use phenomenography in pedagogical and educational design, and phenomenographic research has since played an important role in the development of pedagogical frameworks for teaching and learning (e.g. Booth & Woollacott, 2015; Trigwell etal., 2000). To date, pedagogical applications of phenomenography and variation theory have focussed mainly on the development of teaching and learning in higher education (e.g. Åkerlind, 2015; Collier-Reed & Ingerman, 2013; Wright & Osman, 2018), but there is increasing interest also in primary and secondary levels (e.g. Ling, Chik, & Pang, 2006; Pang & Ling, 2012). Pang and Ling (2012) have presented a way of helping educators to use phenomenography and variation theory in developing their teaching and improving student learning. In other studies variation theory was introduced directly to the teachers (e.g. Åkerlind, 2008, 2015; Rovio-Johansson, 2013) and researchers collaborated with the participating teachers in using variation theory as a resource for planning, designing and delivering teaching activities. The phenomenographic approach is still rarely utilized for pedagogical planning and teaching in the education and training of guidance and counselling professionals, and the present study seeks to bridge this research gap. We begin by briefly outlining the basic tenets of the phenomenographic approach, and we review previous evidence for the potential of phenomenography and variation theory in developing pedagogical practices. We go on to describe how the phenomenographic findings from a study of career practitioners’ conceptions of social media competency in career services were utilized to design a training programme for career practitioners. The phenomenographic research approach The purpose of phenomenographic research is to explore how people, whether students, teachers, professionals or laymen, understand or experience phenomena and concepts. The core aim is to capture the variation in different conceptions or experiences and the relationship between them. In other words, researchers divide different conceptions into distinct categories, and identify the aspects that differentiate these conceptions. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance 1 3 One fundamental principle of the phenomenographic approach is its non-dualist ontology; that is, persons and the world are viewed as inseparable (Bowden, 2005; Marton, 2000), and a conception or way of experiencing is understood as a relation between the person and the phenomenon. It follows that different ways of conceptualising or experiencing the target phenomenon are seen as differing but internally related, representing different meanings of the same phenomenon (Åkerlind, 2003; Marton, 2000). The object of phenomenographic research, then, is the phenomenon as experienced rather than the phenomenon in itself. This second-order perspective addresses how phenomena are variously perceived by different people rather than pursuing a first-order perspective that seeks to describe phenomena ‘as they are’ (Marton, 1981). Phenomenography also acknowledges that an individual may have more than one conception of a particular phenomenon (Marton & Booth, 1997), and that their conceptions may change over time (e.g. Åkerlind, 2003; Paakkari etal., 2016). Owing to perceptual limitations, the number of different ways of understanding an object in every situation is also limited—that is: ‘different people may notice, pay attention to or focus on different features of the same thing’ (Marton & Pang, 2006). As these different conceptions are understood to be logically related, the primary outcome of phenomenographic analysis is a structured set of logically related categories—known as an outcome space—which describes the qualitative variation in people’s ways of experiencing or understanding the phenomenon in question at the collective level (Marton, 1986). These categories are typically organised as a nested hierarchy of understandings from least to the most complex, becoming increasingly advanced, powerful or sophisticated at higher levels of the hierarchy (Marton & Booth, 1997, p. 107). As well as identifying these different categories, phenomenographic studies seek to identify the aspects that differentiate each category from every other so revealing their qualitative differences. These dimensions of variation are invaluable for pedagogical purposes because they help to identify educationally critical aspects, which clarify what is needed for developing a more complex, complete or advanced understanding (Marton & Booth, 1997). The pedagogical value ofphenomenographic research Phenomenographic research has always had a pedagogical focus and sought from the outset to add value to pedagogical practice (Collier-Reed & Ingerman, 2013), and its potential as a practical tool for improving educational practice has long been recognized (Booth & Ingerman, 2015; Åkerlind, McKenzie & Lupton, 2014; Tight, 2016; Booth & Woollacott, 2015; Trigwell etal., 2000). Phenomenographic studies help to improve practice by exploring variations in participants’ experiences of phenomenon in question, revealed by the dimensions of variation, which highlight the differences between the different conceptions (e.g., Åkerlind, 2008; Kettunen & Tynjälä, 2018; Runesson, 2006). For example, a phenomenographic approach enables educators to more fully understand how and why learners are struggling, and how these issues can be overcome (Entwistle, 1997). 1 3 International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance From a phenomenographic perspective, learning reflects changes in learners’ conceptions relating to a phenomenon (Marton & Pang, 2006). From this standpoint learning amounts to being able to discern certain aspects of the phenomenon that one previously did not focus on or which one took for granted, and simultaneously bring them into one’s focal awareness. Importantly, conceptual change is not seen to involve rejection or replacement of an existing understanding but it is understood as expansion of current awareness that enables additional aspects of the concept to be discerned (Åkerlind, 2008). These changes can characterised as ‘learning that enables the learner to experience a phenomenon in a way she has not been able to experience it previously’ (Marton & Booth, 1997, p. 155). While phenomenographic research seeks to unpack the different ways in which a phenomenon is understood, variation theory informs pedagogical application of the findings (e.g., Collier-Reed & Ingerman, 2013; Lo & Marton, 2012; Marton & Tsui, 2004). In this way, phenomenographic research informing the what of teaching and curriculum design is complemented by variation theory’s focus on how teachers can design learning activities to direct students’ attention to aspects that might otherwise be overlooked, so expanding their understanding of the phenomenon (Åkerlind etal., 2014; Marton & Tsui, 2004). Phenomenographic data can provide direction for teachers or trainers to help learners expand their thinking and to identify learners in need of guidance, based on a set of categories that specify the different ways in which individuals understand and describe a given phenomenon. These qualitatively different conceptions represent to different levels of complexity, reflecting different ways of experiencing a given phenomenon. By identifying variations in critical aspects and distinctions between categories, teachers can devise ways of supporting learning through the productive use of variation in their teaching (see Figure 1). Several studies have demonstrated how patterns of variation can be used to improve learning outcomes (e.g. Marton & Tsui, 2004; Runesson, 2006). Once the teacher is aware of the desired level of understanding as represented by a category of description and variations in the critical aspects, they can plan variations around those features to create the desired enacted object of learning (e.g. Tsui, 2004). In this context, the term critical aspect refers to an aspect of learning that brings a particular meaning to the learner’s attention, and the term enacted object of learning refers to the possibilities offered by the teacher and utilized by learners in a given situation. The actual enacted object of learning can be assessed by monitoring what has been learnt (lived object of learning) and how the experienced object of learning develops (Marton, Runesson, & Tsui, 2004). Rather than measuring learning outcomes in terms of performance, variation theory stresses measurement of changes in the learner’s conceptions of or approach to the learning object (e.g. Micari etal., 2007; Van Rossum & Hamer, 2010). Applying pedagogical design: using phenomenographic findings toplan teaching It is well described that critical aspects of a learning object are useful as vantage point for plan teaching (Marton, 2015). Pang and Ki (2016) state that the critical International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance 1 3 aspects should be based in a phenomenographic analysis of learners’ various ways of experiencing the object of learning. In one recent phenomenographic study, Kettunen, Sampson Jr and Vuorinen (2015) explored career practitioners’ conceptions of social media competency in the context of career services. Based on focus group interviews with Danish and Finnish career practitioners, their analysis identified four distinct categories of description (Table1). The results revealed qualitative variations in career practitioners’ conceptions of social media competency, ranging from use for information delivery to use for co-careering purposes. The dimensions of variation highlighted differences in conceptions and served to identify critical aspects for training, curriculum development and development of learning objectives (for more detailed results, see Kettunen, Sampson Jr, & Vuorinen, 2015; Kettunen, 2017). Planning teaching onthebasis ofvariation: apractical example The results in Table1 were used to plan teaching for guidance and counselling practitioners. The four categories serve to clarify the variation in professionals’ conceptions of social media competency, progressing from Ability to use social media for delivering information (the narrowest view) to Ability to utilise social media for co-careering (broadest view). The five dimensions of variation in Table1 indicate the critical aspects that pedagogy should highlight to help individuals to broaden their conceptions (see Wright & Osman, 2018). In this way, the dimensions of variation serve to clarify what might usefully be brought to the learner’s attention (Marton & Booth, 1997; Marton etal., 2004) Figure1 Using categories of description to plan teaching (based on Thompson, 2008, p. 72) 1 3 International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance Table 1 Career practitioners’ conceptions of social media competency in career services: Descriptive categories and dimensions of variation ( reproduced from Kettunen etal., 2015) Dimensions of variation Categories Category 1: ability to use social media for delivering information Category 2: ability to use social media for delivering career services Category 3: ability to utilise social media for collaborative career exploration Category 4: ability to utilise social media for co-careering Approach to social media Technology focused Content focused Pedagogically focused Systemically focused Function of social media in career services Means for delivering information Medium for one-to-one communication Interactive working space Impetus for paradigm change and reform Online skills Media literacy Online writing Online discourse Online presence Ethical principles Accuracy, validity Privacy Confidentiality Professional proficiency Personal characteristics Motivated Patient Confident Innovative International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance 1 3 by progressively and systematically highlighting what changes and what stays the same when learners’ understanding moves from narrower conceptions (Category 1) towards more complicated ones (Categories 2–4). A well-designed sequence of tasks invites learners to reflect on the effect of their actions so recognising the variations in critical aspects. To maximise learners´ capacity to change in this way, theory-based pedagogical guidelines (Marton, 2015; Marton etal., 2004) recommend the patterns of variation. (1) Separation—variation in precisely one dimension, to highlight that particular dimension while keeping others constant. (2) Fusion—simultaneous variation in several dimensions to highlight how they relate. According to Åkerlind (2008, 2015) separation should be followed by fusion. In similar vein Marton, Runesson and Tsui (2004) recommended the use of ‘contrast’ and ‘generalisation’, but this refers to the concept as a whole rather than to individual aspects or dimensions. Phenomenographic data support flexible adaptation of learning resources to the needs of each educator and study group. Kettunen etal. (2015) established an empirically derived evidence-based foundation for the development of international training programmes for guidance and counselling practitioners. Because skills and competences in the use of information and communication technologies (including social media) are often considered secondary in career guidance and counselling context, they tend to be poorly developed during initial and continuing training (e.g. Barnes etal., 2020; Cedefop, 2009; European Commission, 2014). Although experienced in face-to-face guidance and counselling, practitioners may feel somewhat deskilled when they beginning to work online. In planning the international training programme, the teaching team decided focal aspects, as well as which aspects to vary or hold constant, on the basis of Kettunen etal.’s (2015) findings, consciously designing patterns of variation to achieve the desired learning outcomes (Kettunen etal., 2020a, b). As they were planning an intensive 5-day course, it was decided to apply the principle of separation to a single dimension of variation (online skills), followed in each case by a fusion phase. While phenomenographic research provided the basis for what was regarded as important to learn, the underlying teaching and learning philosophy was grounded in social constructivist (e.g. Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989) and socio-cultural theories (Säljö, 1975). These informed decisions regarding how to organise the training, employing a student-centred approach and problem-based or case-based twenty first century learning principles for professional education. On this view, learning is a situated process within a community of mutually supportive learners, and research-based knowledge is linked to practice through hands-on training and empirical examples provided by instructors and participants. The course assigned great importance to experimentation and collaboration in interactive workshops to enhance knowhow, adopting a goal-oriented approach based on the sequence theory–application–discussion. Building on this idea, teaching through variation invokes the central idea of constructivism: learners as constructors of meaning (Tynjälä, 1999; Watson & Mason, 2005). As noted above, the teachers selected online skills as the object of learning. The next section describes how the content associated with each category in Table1 was utilised for the purposes of educational design. 1 3 International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance Marton, F., Runesson, U., & Tsui, A. (2004). The space of learning. In F. Marton & A. Tsui (Eds.), Classroom discourse and the space of learning (pp. 3–40). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Marton, F., & Tsui, A. B. M. (2004). Classroom discourse and the space of learning. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 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