Design research on an online summer school in mathematics education

An insight into philosophical commitments

Abstract

Design research in education pursues two goals simultaneously: the development of a design and a local theory that clarifies how the design can achieve the intended effects and under what conditions. The results are obtained in an iterative cyclical process including both the implementation of the design and the research on its implementation. Each cycle contains a prospective phase, in which the design is determined, and a reflective phase, in which the implementation of the design is examined. The nested connection of theory and design development leads to a reciprocal relationship between the two final products.

This article introduces an example of design research from mathematics education, in which an online summer school for doctoral students was to be framed in response to the sudden lockdown situation at the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. At short notice, the original summer school was moved into the virtual space of a digital conference system resulting in new framework conditions; previous design principles were adapted and a rhythmical organization of space and time was theorized and implemented. Rhythm analyses show that design decisions to realize ontological, epistemological and axiological commitments intertwined and thus fostered students’ interactive learning processes. Consequently, the suggestion is made to merge the three commitments into a three-dimensional framework concept of ethico-onto-epistemological commitments. Such a framework concept would have the function of reconciling ethical, ontological and epistemological dimensions in design research in the pursuit of robust teaching-learning processes and incorporating the ethical responsibilities of design researchers conceptually for both design and local theory.