ED-MEDIA 1999 Proceedings Book - Association for the ...

own beliefs in favor of the "delivered wisdom" (p. 733). On the other hand, Shulman (1992) argues that, for
example, experts’ comments provide additional perspectives or lenses through which to view the events of the
case. So, they add complexity and richness that gloss rather than simplifying or trivializing the events (p. 12).
In the MUST-project the use of multiple modes of representation has been applied in different ways. Firstly,
the earlier mentioned edited non-scripted videotapes and audio comments on the video represent science
lessons in elementary classrooms in different modes. Moreover, other modes of representation are depicted by
all kinds of textual information.
Ownership an voice in the learning process
A third design principle is to warrant ownership and voice in the learning process by prospective
teachers. This implies that they are encouraged to reflect on their knowledge construction processes and take
responsibility for setting learning goals and pursue learning processes. In the design of the CD-ROMS of the
MUST cases this principle has been applied by constructing an open non-linear interface. A second, and more
important, way to account for this design principle is to formulate assignments that have an open character and
stimulate the users to reflect on their learning processes.
The voice of practise: teacher educators
Especially the four teacher educators in the MUST-team refer repeatedly to the issue, that students are
not familiar with working in a constructivist learning environment. The teacher educators question how much
responsibility their students may handle. Moreover, they are worried about their role both in terms of their
responsibility and in terms of practical implications. The former point may be illustrated by a remark of one of
the teacher educators: she stated that it is her responsibility to do her utmost that students will reach the
predefined learning objectives, so she wants to implement one of the multimedia cases in a rather traditional
setting. This setting consists of a science method course, which is assessed by a uniform test for all students.
The latter point consists of concerns of teacher educators to assign all different types of more open assignments,
such as portfolios. Or as one of them formulated it: For time reasons it is simply impossible for me to grade all
these assignments.
Conclusions: towards flexibility-in-use
In this paper a dilemma is sketched between the ideal of multimedia cases in a constructivist learning
environment and the reality of teachers and students in teacher education programs. In order to overcome this
dilemma, the MUST project introduced the notion of flexibility-in-use. This notion implies that, especially,
teacher educators have a considerable freedom in the way they want to use the multimedia cases, because from
an implementation perspective it is neither possible nor desirable to impose a change in practice on teacher
educators. By doing so, we take the warning of Louden and Wallace (1994) seriously. They warn reformers
not to fall into the trap of the constructivist paradox. This means that reformers press teachers to make the
transformation from conventional to constructivist practise in a single step. We opt for a more realistic reform
agenda in which learning to teach with multimedia cases is perceived as a process of gradual reformation and
elaboration of teacher educators' established patterns of teaching.
References
Honebein, P.C. (1996). Seven goals for the design of constructivist learning environments. In B.G. Wilson
(Ed.), Constructivist learning environments (pp. 11-24). Englewood Cliffs: Educational Technology
Publications.