BERA e-Symposium 16 May – 23 July 2005

1. Terms of reference extracted from Jack’s public communications marking the launch of the e-symposium

I’d like to connect . . . to a discussion on the contributions of our living educational theories and our evidence of our educational influences in our own learning and to the future of educational research . . . 

. . . to let each other know where our educational theories can be accessed and where we can see evidence of our educational influences in our own learning, the learning of others and in the learning and education of social formations.

I’ve invited Peter Mellett and Moira Laidlaw to start the review process on the 16^th June in relation to the theme of the e-seminar on the nature of educational theories, what counts as evidence of educational influences in learning?  because of their ongoing contributions to practitioner research.

I have asked Pete to revisit his BERA 2000 review on Educational Action Research within Teaching as a Research-based Profession to help us to clarify the standards of judgement we use in our educational theories . . . [and] to see if the principles set out in his BERA review . . . are consistent with the principles in the living educational theories and in the evidence of our educational influences we shall be sharing in the course of this e-seminar.

2. Focal points extracted from the above – calls for evidence highlighted

. . . a discussion on the contributions of:

•    our living educational theories 

•    our evidence of our educational influences in our own learning 

 to the future of educational research . . . 

. . . to let each other know:

•    where our educational theories can be accessed

•    where we can see evidence of our educational influences in 

o    our own learning 

o    the learning of others

o    in the learning and education of social formations.

. . . revisit [the] BERA 2000 review on Educational Action Research within Teaching as a Research-based Profession to help us to:

•    clarify the standards of judgement we use in our educational theories 

•    see if the principles set out in [the] review are consistent with the principles in the living educational theories and in the evidence of our educational influences we shall be sharing in the course of this e-seminar.

John Wisdom: obituary in The Independent 15.12.93

He argues for the fundamental character of the particular case in all forms of reasoning, such as a mother refers to in explaining things to her child. He argues for the priority of "mother's method" over "father's", where the father resorts to general principles in his explanations. It is the mother who has to come to the rescue when the child asks for an explanation of the father's general principles - what they mean and why the child should believe them. ...