Yrjö Engeström

报告题目：

From Future Orientation to Future-making: Steps Toward Adolescents’ Transformative Agency in School Learning

摘要：Researchers and educators often express worries about the lack of civic engagement and active future orientation among school students. We conducted a Change Laboratory intervention with a group of eighth-grade students in a middle school in Helsinki, Finland, aimed at supporting the students to work on their experienced conflicts of motives and to implement projects they found significant for their own lives and futures. We followed and fostered the conception and implementation of the students’ five projects for the school year 2020–21. The theory of transformative agency by double simulation (TADS) was used to analyze the process of the students’ agency formation. In their projects, the students moved along the path of TADS and created tangible products aimed at influencing social problems. The findings show that it is time to move from an emphasis on future orientation toward actual future making by means of concrete activities in which young people can productively engage in social issues beyond subjective individual interests. The results are interpreted in the broader context of overcoming school alienation among students.

Annalisa Sannino

报告题目：

Nudging for Equity and Sustainability: 

A Transdisciplinary Transformative Perspective on Learning and Agency

摘要：The keynote engages in dialogue with and expands on recent developments of nudge theory, arguing that, despite its emerging collective stance, this perspective is still predominantly tied to individualistic assumptions which limit its use for meeting the urgent equity and sustainability challenges of our time. This keynote offers another perspective by means of an overview of the theory of transformative agency by double stimulation (TADS) and examples from empirical studies conducted in educational and work settings building on TADS. This is a perspective that transcends the limitations of the traditional individualistic focus of the nudge theory, while at the same time recognizing ways in which individual actions intersect with the shaping of collective activities. Potential complementary features between TADS and nudging are also highlighted.

Katsuhiro Yamazumi

报告题目：

Teachers’ Collaborative Concept Formation toward School Transformation: A Change Laboratory to Expand School Instruction in a Japanese Elementary School

摘要：This presentation aims to analyze and clarify how teachers’ expansive learning in a Change Laboratory, conducted by teachers and interventionist researchers at a Japanese elementary school, was catalyzed by the instrumentality of the Change Laboratory as a process of concept formation in the wild. In this study, I analyzed data from 10 Change Laboratory sessions lasting two–three hours each, conducted approximately once a month from March 2023 to March 2024.

In the Change Laboratory, teachers were initially faced with conflicting motives in the area of the curriculum called “integrated education,” which was created as part of this school’s curriculum development. Such subjects as “walking” and “playing” (both are unique to the school) are part of the integrated education curriculum, which aims to create a tacit and indirect education that is not instruction-based. The critical conflict for teachers here was the clash between opposite motives: Should this integrated educational approach remain the way it is, or should it change? Through the participants’ joint analysis, they articulated and grasped that the fundamental contradiction in the school’s activity system was between the subject-teacher system, which aims for a high degree of specialization in teaching individual subjects by individual teachers, and the school-wide, cross-curricular curriculum and pedagogical methods, such as integrated education, which reflect the history of the school. To resolve this contradiction between subject and integrated education dialectically, teachers have collaborated to create a germ-cell concept for future making. The germ-cell concept is an initial abstraction and is the core of the formed concept. According to the epistemological principle of ascending from the abstract to the concrete in dialectical thinking, this is the starting point for the process of collective formation of a new concept of the activity system. It also becomes the seed from which existing activities are transformed in an expansive manner, from which new forms of complex practices are created. In the Change Laboratory, the germ cell approaching the holistic system of “Fostering the inquiring child” was discovered by teachers. This involves combining the contradictory and heterogeneous elements of integrated education with subject education, thereby creating a new whole.

Germ-cell concepts are not born out of blue. As the teachers formed the germ-cell concept, they drew on ideas and artifacts from their school’s past and used them anew in the Change Laboratory to break away from contradictions and move into the zone of proximal development as alternative possibilities. At the same time, the germ-cell concept was grounded in practice, which created the groundwork for the new concept prior to its conscious formulation.

Jianzhong Hong

报告题目：

The Object-Oriented Interaction in Educational Innovative Collaboration

摘要：While numerous studies have highlighted the significant role of individuals in educational innovative collaboration, and some studies have begun to emphasize the role of objects in innovative collaboration and subject-object interaction and among involved members, there remains a notable gap in differentiation among various types of interactions and in-depth research on object-oriented interactions in collaboration. Grounded in Cultural-Historical Activity Theory and the collaborative learning insights by Finnish scholar Engeström and his colleagues, this study aims to explore the influence of object-oriented interaction in enhancing the performance of educational innovative collaboration. The core research question is: Can the construction of shared objects improve the efficiency and quality of the collaboration? Through the examination and analyses of three of our recent research cases, we revealed the diversity and criticality of object-oriented interactions in the process of innovative collaboration. These interactions are not only manifested in the innovative/transformative agency from top-down or bottom-up but also play a fundamental role in the formation and maintenance of shared objects. Implications for future practices of educational innovative collaboration were discussed in the study.

Lian Zhang

报告题目：

Constructing and Developing EFL Teachers’ Knowledge Base: A Sociocultural Case Study

摘要：This study investigates the construction and development of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ knowledge base through a sociocultural theoretical lens. The research examines a professional development program designed for outstanding teachers, employing a case study methodology. Findings reveal three key dimensions: First, participants demonstrated significant development across multiple domains of their knowledge base, including pedagogical content knowledge, academic research competency, humanistic education principles, general pedagogy, subject content, educational values, learner understanding, technological integration, and professional development. Second, teacher learning was facilitated through engagement in sociocultural practices, specifically program-based lectures, research projects, and research lesson preparation and delivery. These activities were characterized by intensive, contextualized dialogic interactions between participating teachers and teacher educators/experts, with scientific concepts serving as mediating tools. Third, the study suggests that EFL teacher education and development should be grounded in context-specific research on teacher knowledge base, emphasizing the importance of constructing localized conceptual and knowledge systems for teacher cognitive development.

Lili Qin

报告题目：

The Philosophical Roots, Paradigm, and Derivation of the Potential Score Calculation Formula in Dynamic Assessment for Second Language Acquisition

摘要：This talk explores the intricate relationship between the philosophical roots, paradigms, and the derivation of the potential score calculation formula in the context of dynamic assessment (DA) for second language acquisition (SLA). Beginning with the philosophical foundations, we will discuss the contributions of seminal theorists such as Vygotsky and Feuerstein, whose concepts of the zone of proximal development and mediated learning frame our understanding of learner potential.

The talk will then transition into a discussion of the paradigms underpinning DA, highlighting its departure from traditional static assessment methods. These paradigms emphasize the importance of viewing assessment as a dynamic process that supports and enhances learner development through interactive and responsive feedback mechanisms.

Finally, we will delve into the detailed derivation of the learner potential score (LPS) calculation formula, illustrating how different variables—such as learner performance, instructional support, and interactional dynamics—integrate to provide a nuanced assessment of learner potential. By presenting empirical examples and practical applications, this talk aims to illuminate the significance of this formula and the imperatives of refining the formula more which will inform language instruction and tailor individualized learning experiences.

Through this talk, I hope the attendees will gain a deeper understanding of how the philosophical, paradigmatic, and mathematical dimensions of dynamic assessment converge to enhance our approaches to second language acquisition. The discussion will highlight the implications for future research and practice, advocating for the continued integration of DA in language education frameworks.

Ge Wei

报告题目：

Transforming Teacher Education through Online Collective Learning in a Digitalized Change Laboratory

摘要：In the context of comprehensively advancing educational digitalization, online collective learning among teachers has paved the way for constructing a high-quality teacher education system. However, the effectiveness of this mode of learning faces both theoretical and practical challenges due to factors such as the diverse identities within the teacher collective, varying levels of technological proficiency, the intricacies of online interaction processes, and the sustainability of teachers' learning outcomes. Drawing on cultural-historical activity theory, formative intervention methods such as the Change Laboratory offer a practical framework for participatory analysis and collective action by teachers, aiming for substantial transformation at both institutional and individual levels.

This presentation focuses on reforming the existing teacher education programme and provides an overview of the expansive learning and transformative agency that occurred during a digitalized Change Laboratory (2021-2022). It includes a detailed description of the participants' experiences and the promising changes currently being implemented. The findings indicate that the Change Laboratory method is highly valuable for teachers' online collective learning. It not only catalyzed expansive learning across multiple teacher subjects and promoted bottom-up institutional innovation but also activated teachers' transformative agency, ensuring the sustainable development of their learning outcomes.

Through this research, key theoretical elements of teachers' online collective learning were distilled, offering an effective methodological pathway for technology-assisted transformation of teacher education in future.