Cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) activity-system framework as a lens for understanding e-teaching¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 2 claims (2 for) · 1 study (1 qualitative), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 2 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The article applies Engeström's CHAT, in which the activity system is "object-oriented, collective, and culturally mediated human activity," as the unit of analysis for e-teachers' work. CHAT broadens Vygotsky's triad of subject, object, and mediating artefact "to include rules, community, division of labour, and outcome." The authors code interview statements under these elements (subject, object, tools, rules, community, division of labour) and use the five CHAT principles — including multivoicedness, historicity, and contradictions as sources of change — to interpret how web-based teaching transformed the teachers' practice.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Analysis requires adopting the activity system, not the individual action, as the main unit of analysis, and attending to the system's history

Constraints¶

• The article applies the framework to one context of high-school distance education in one Canadian province with one group of e-teachers

Target Learners¶

• high-school distance education e-teachers

Target Learning Objectives¶

• understanding and transforming teachers' online teaching practice toward learner-centered forms

Claims¶

• E Teachers Widen Object Toward Independent Learning [+M]
• Tool Change Most Disruption Online Teaching [+M]

Related Theories¶

• Activity theory: a mediated activity system framework for analyzing cognition in context
• Cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) as a framework for analyzing community service-learning
• Activity theory frames human activity as a system of six interacting elements (subject, object, tools, community, rules, division of labor)

Examples¶

• Make collaboration paramount in pedagogy because humanity is intrinsically collective
• Support e-teachers' transition with professional development focused on reflecting on online-versus-F2F differences and the potential of the tools
• Interpret CHAT study results by starting with simple start-to-finish change analysis, then working through relationships among activity elements

Key Sources¶

• Murphy, E., & Rodriguez-Manzanares, M. A. (2009). Sage without a Stage: Expanding the Object of Teaching in a Web-Based, High-School Classroom. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 10(3). https://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl. doi:10.19173/irrodl.v10i3.579