This paper explores research in educational psychology and learning theory in a search for insights to enhance business ethics training Useful educational principles uncovered are then applied to the development of an ethics training initiative for sales professionals. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research to help enrich business ethics training.

This chapter considers Wittgenstein’s philosophy, particularly as elaborated in Philosophical Investigations and later works, as it has obtained relevance in science education research. The specific focus is on contributions related to students’ learning of science. Wittgenstein’s writings have been used in science education in several ways: to argue for an alternate conception of rationality in theories of learning science, to support theories examining the discursive and social nature of learning, to advocate for investigations of science classrooms that parallel ethnographic and (...) sociological investigations of professional science labs, and to develop alternative research methodologies. An examination of this influence in science education necessitates discussion of the frequent implicit attempts made to reconcile Wittgenstein’s analytic philosophy with empirical habits firmly grounded in a cognitivist tradition. Particular attention is given to the way in which a typical focus in science education on students’ “meaning making” is likely at odds with Wittgensteinian philosophy. It is argued that the exemplars provided in his later work suggest that conceptual clarity is necessary for coherence in asking empirical questions and interpreting results and that they imply an alternative, descriptive orientation for researchers. (shrink)

This thesis concentrates on investigating the social construction of learning and teaching in a classroom that was encultured into working and acting as a community of inquiry across the curriculum. The theoretical and methodological premises of the study draw on sociocultural and sociolinguistic views on learning and instruction. Through this framework, the study aims at investigating the development, implementation and evaluation of the processes and conditions for communal inquiry across different pedagogical situations and across the curriculum in the case study (...) classroom. In addition, the study aims at creating a pedagogical rationale for supporting meaningful, student-centred and problem-based learning in classroom. The research project was realised as a series of qualitative case studies. The subjects of the study were seventeen third-grade students from a Finnish elementary school and their teacher. The empirical data corpus consists of nine hours of videotaped classroom sessions gathered from the domains of philosophy, science and mathematics. Detailed, micro- and multilevel analyses were completed on the transcribed video recordings of whole classroom interaction. The results of the research project indicate that social interactions in the case study classroom were quite dominantly characterized by multilateral interactions amongst classroom members. Instead of mere information exchange, the nature of knowledge in this classroom was largely based upon sharing and defining views as well as negotiating evidence. In general, the students in this classroom clearly took charge of the cognitive work whereas the teacher’s responsibility was more directed towards managing the interactional practices during the joint discussions. However, there were occasions when the teacher stepped in as an analytic authority. The teacher scaffolding was grounded in the on-going interactions and varied in both quantity and quality whilst engaging in dialogue with individual students demonstrating different participation modes. Overall, the results of the study indicate that teacher scaffolding in this classroom supported communal inquiry from both the cognitive, social and socio-emotional perspectives. (shrink)