| Drawing on Dewey's (1938) theory of experience, Schwab's (1969, 1971, 1973, 1983) essays on practical deliberations, and Jackson's (1968) belief that researchers must use every means at their disposal to make sense of educational situations, this narrative inquiry examined the act of human problem solving within a computer lab milieu. This study of diverse human learning in an informal educational setting (Marsick & Watkins, 2001; Beckett & Hagar, 2002) will add to the practical knowledge base and greatly inform how those individuals working within the technology setting interact with one another and with those students with whom they share their expertise. Martinez (1998) asserts that "citizens of the 21st century must be...adept problem solvers, able to wrestle with ill-defined problems. Problem solving ability is the cognitive passport to the future" (p. 605). Given the critical importance of problem solving to the fields of technology and education, this study is both timely and valuable.;This narrative inquiry led to both practical and theoretical advances. Practically, the research study captured how technology lab employees approach and solve daily problems while sharing their learning with students in the context of the technology lab environment. Theoretically, the investigation revealed practical knowledge contributions at the intersection where teaching education and technology meet. Overall, the study can assist in the development of a new "epistemology of practice" (Schon, 1995), by bridging the gap between "the knower and the known" (Dewey & Bentley, 1949; Fenstermacher, 1994).;Because the sharing of experience sits at the core of this investigation, narrative inquiry is arguably the best way to study the chosen topic. In narrative inquiry, story serves as both the research method and representational form (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990). The narrative for these stories was gathered through employing such research tools as field notes, unstructured interviews, informal conversations, and self-reflective writing. These field texts were then transformed into research texts using the processes of broadening, burrowing and storying and restorying to interpret and analyze the storied data. In this study, technology lab employees were the central participants. Supporting research participants included students and the lab supervisor. |
