Abstract
Phenomena studied within the field of professional learning and development are often highly complicated as well as highly variable. In general, we accept that (professional) learning has many facets, overlap** elements and interconnected aspects. Yet, when empirically examining these phenomena, we tend to reduce the complex reality to a set of tangible variables and actors that can be explained by (at most a combination of) theoretical frameworks. As such, we treat professional learning ‘problems’ as if they were ‘tame’ problems that are well-defined, stable, and prone to control and prediction. Starting from the notion of wicked problems (Rittel HWJ, Webber MM. Policy Sci 4:155–169, 1973), the current state of the art of visual analysis as a methodology for approaching research questions in the field of professional learning is presented. Visual analysis complements and extends insights from traditional analysis as it enables researchers to discover hidden patterns and deal with big data. After giving a general introduction to what visual analysis is, this chapter presents an empirical example of how it was used to examine the implications of missingness in longitudinal multilevel data on teachers’ engagement.
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Notes
- 1.
The visualisation itself can be accessed via webadress and viewed using the free Tableau Reader software (see www.tableau.com). To see the interactivity within the visualisation, a screencast is also made. The screencast can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lv5VR7HKeN4
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The authors wish to thank Amanda Winters and Carlos Eduardo Ortega for the technical development of the visualisation and Dr. Katrien Vangrieken for providing the data.
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Kyndt, E., Aerts, J. (2022). Addressing ‘Wicked Problems’ Using Visual Analysis. In: Goller, M., Kyndt, E., Paloniemi, S., Damşa, C. (eds) Methods for Researching Professional Learning and Development. Professional and Practice-based Learning, vol 33. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08518-5_15
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