The LCT dimension of Semantics is useful for teachers and researchers who are interested in cumulative learning and knowledge-building. This workshop demonstrates how teaching can build knowledge in segmental and in cumulative ways. Participants will analyse a selection of teaching materials. The strengthening and weakening of semantic gravity and semantic density will help them evaluate the extent to which cumulative knowledge building is evident in the materials.
The workshop will: introduce the dimension of Semantics and its concepts of semantic gravity and semantic density show how semantic 'waves' reveal segmental and cumulative learning patterns provide participants with opportunities to analyse a sample of teaching materials and interpret their potential for knowledge building enable participants to use Semantics to think about segmental and cumulative learning in their own courses and teaching practices
This workshop will be useful for lecturers, teachers who want to improve aspects of their teaching and assessing practices. It is also be invaluable for researchers who are interested in understanding teaching practices. No prior knowledge of Semantics is assumed.
Most people have an intuition that knowledge is built differently in different fields of study, or that in each field, there are some people who are widely accepted and others who aren’t. This workshop will explain, in accessible terms, how Specialization can help us to differentiate between types of knowledge and understand some aspects of the ‘rules of the game’ in many different fields of knowledge, both inside and outside formal education. The workshop will give you the tools to answer the following questions about any knowledge field: What makes this field special? (The Specialization plane) How does this field build knowledge, and knowers? (Knowledge-knower structures) Who’s in charge where? (The epistemic-pedagogic device)
This workshop will be useful for anyone interested in using Specialization in their research or educational practice, or those who are simply curious about the dynamics of knowledge in different contexts. No prior knowledge of Specialization is assumed, and there will be plenty of opportunities to ask questions in a non-threatening environment.
Professor Karl Maton is Director of the LCT Centre for Knowledge-Building at the University of Sydney and Honorary Professor at Rhodes University and the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.
