Leeds University Business School

Principles of Activity Theory: Relevance to Information Behaviour and Learning

Mira Slavova

AIMTech Research Group, LUBS

Wednesday, 21 March 2007, 12 – 1 pm

Variety of disciplines:

•HCINardi and Kaptelinin (1996, 2006)

•Cognitive ScienceCole and Scribner (1974)

•EducationLave and Wenger (1991)

•Cultural PsychologyCole (1996)

•Management Information Systems, Developmental

Work Research

Engestrom (1987, 1990)

Worldwide:

• UK & IrelandU of Bath, U of Birmingham, U of Bristol,

U of Limerick

• USAUCSD, U of Miami

• AustraliaU of Wollongong

• Finland, Sweden, Norway, DenmarkU of Helsinki, U of Umea, U of Oslo, U of

Bergen, U of Aarhus

• Russia & UkraineMoscow State University

Kharkov National University

Use of Activity Theory

Derived in areas involving complex systems:

•Collaborative uses of technology e.g. multi-agency cooperation at incident grounds

•Varied virtual and physical contexts e.g. use of mobile technologies

•Expanded set of activitiesTechnology beyond work, at home and in everyday life

•Human experience in generalNot only cognition but the totality of action, reflection and

emotion.

Value from Activity Theory

•Activity Theory and Russian Cultural Psychology. • CHAT: cultural-historical activity theory.

•After the revolution of 1917 demand for:• Psychology taking into account the social nature of men (as

opposed to ‘bourgeois’ individualistic psychology)

• Psychology based on dialectical materialism i.e.

• Primacy of matter

• Dialectical logic

•Lev Vygotsky (1896 - 1934)•Aleksei Leontiev (1903 - 1979)

Origins

•Unity of consciousness and activity• The human mind is bourne in the interaction with the world.

It emerges and develops in order to make interaction more successful. Evolutionary origins of the mind as an organ.

•Social nature and cultural determination of mind• Applies to both poles of the interaction.• The human subject is social, shaped by culture, influenced

by language, acting with or through other people in organizations, groups communities.

• The world itself is social. The entities people deal with are other people and culturally produced artifacts.

•Interaction between human beings and the world is understood in terms of culture and society.

Ideas: Russian Cultural Psychology 1920s – 1930s

Within a single function there are internal and external components

Internalization/Externalization is redistribution of internal and external components within a function (not elimination of external/internal processes)

•Stages of restructuring:• No mediation• External mediation• Internal mediation

Natural psychological functionsUnmediated functions such as mental ability and perception which develop as a result of practice, maturation or imitation. Common for humans and animals.

Higher psychological functionsMediated processes, instrumental acts. Result from the restructuring of natural psychological functions in a cultural environment.

Mediating Artifacts•physical artifacts mediating external activities (e.g. art, maps, diagrams)•signs intended to help people affect others or themselves (e.g. language, numeric systems, algebraic notation)

Vygotsky: Internal-External

•Internalization is the process during which phenomena external to the subject (physical or social) become individual and internal.

•Externalization is the process during which phenomena internal to the subject become collective and external.

•Individuals and collectives are two poles of a single individual-collective dimension.

•The two dimensions internal-external and individual-collective are independent:

• memorizing a map for driving (alone)• memorizing music for playing in an orchestra

Vygotsky: Individual-Collective

•Historical account of the evolution of the mind as an organ, the variety of mental phenomena, the ‘psyche’. Needed a concept allowing for evolutionary explanations e.g. ‘life’.

•Organisms are orientated to the environment• Responsiveness: respond to stimuli producing direct biological

effects• Sensitivity: respond to signals i.e. stimuli producing indirect

biological effects

•Stages of problem-solving (development of mind):• Sensory (fish)• Perceptual (animals)• Intelligence: effectiveness, fast learning, high transfer (apes,

humans)

•The notion of activity is used to explain the transition from a ‘pre-mental’ sensory responses (not mediated by a representation of objective reality), to problem-solving mediated by objective reality.

Leontiev: Activity and theDevelopment of Mind

•Within activity mental and non-mental phenomena can be defined and differentiated.

•Purposeful activity is the basic unit of analysis. Need. Objectified motive.

•Primacy of activity over the subject and the object. Analysis of activity allows understanding both.

•Hierarchical Structure:• Activity ↔ motive• Action ↔ goal• Operation ↔ instrumental constraints

Structure of Activity

Triadic Nature of Activity

• Mediating artifacts. Tools. Instruments.• Monistic vision. Cartesian separation is overcome.

Subject Object

Tool

Leontiev: Division of Labour

• When a person participates in a socially distributed activity, his actions are motivated by one object but directed to another.

• Eg. Hunt. Out of the context of the collective activity the actions of the bush beaters appear to have no meaning.

• Within socially distributed activities the distinction between motivating and directing objects is forced on the individual by the organization of activity.

• Individual activities can develop complex relationships between motives and goals. Division of labour dissociates motives and goals.

Engestrom

• Formulated an interpretation of activity theory for use in education and developmental work research.

• Main influences:• Theories on signs and semiotic mediation (from Pierce to Popper)• Theories of intersubjectivity (from Mead to Trevarthen)• Russian cultural-historical psychology (from Vygotsky to Leontiev).

• Human activity is: • Pictured in its simplest, genetically original structural form. The smallest unit

that preserves the essential unity and quality behind any complex activity. • Analyzable in its dynamics and transformations, in its evolution and historical

change. No static or eternal models will do. • Analyzable as a contextual or ecological phenomenon. Models have to

concentrate on systemic relations between the individual and the outside world. • Analyzable as culturally mediated phenomenon. No dyadic organism-environment

models will suffice. Culturally mediated, triadic or triangular structure of human activity.

Engestrom

Extends Leontiev’s analysis to the supra-individual level.

• Introduces community as a third component of activity

• Norms and division of labour as additional mediations. Norms mediate between the subject and the community. Division of labour mediates between the object and the community.

Structure of activity in transition from animal to man:

Engestrom

Structure of human activity:

E.g. Hunt: bush beaters, hunters (S); animal (O); hunting (production); dividing shares (distribution); communication (exchange); eating, surviving (consumption).

Development & Disturbances

• An activity system is constantly in a state of flux induced by its internal tensions.

• “a virtual disturbance- and innovation-producing machine”, Engestrom, Y. (1987)

• changes occurring in the system trace its history and development.

• Disturbances

• deviations from the standardized habitual scripts of the activity.

• gaps, overlaps and disco-ordinations disrupting the normal flow of work.

• manifestations of internal tensions with the activity system. indicate that the activity system has reached a significant phase and it is on the cusp of developmental change.

Contradictions

• Contradictions:

• long-term frictions within the activity system which are obviated by the disturbances.

• The primary contradiction is the “double nature” of the activity. It is contained within each of the constituents of the activity system. E.g. primary contradiction within the subject.

• Secondary contradictions exist between the elements constituting the activity. Working relationships between these elements are conflicted or rearranged. E.g. Division of labour lagging behind possibilities offered by advanced instruments.

• Tertiary contradictions are reactive in nature. They emerge as a result of the introduction of culturally more advanced forms of the activity. E.g. pupil goes to school to play with his friends but parents and teachers try to make him study seriously.

• Quaternary contradictions between activity systems

Principles of Activity Theory

• Object-orientedness

• Objectives give meaning to what people do.

• Hierarchical structure

• Conscious actions

• Automatic operations

• Internalization-Externalization

• Internal/mental vs. external/physical

• individual/intrapsychological vs. collective/interpsychological

• Mediation

• Development

•Information behaviour/practices: socially and culturally constituted ways to identify, seek, assess, use and share information

•Paradigms for studying information behaviour/ practice:• Behavioural/ Behaviourist (Wilson)

• Cognitive (Dervin, Kuhlthau)

• Social (Chapman, Savolainen)

• Similar to the variety of approaches in HCI, ranging from cognitive science to ethnomethodology.

• Why Activity Theory?

• Rich enough and practical

• Post-cognitivist theory of interaction

Information Behaviour/ Practice

PAMIS Research Questions

• Explore the relationship between policing tasks, relevant information resources, and the technological delivery mechanism.

• How do newly introduced mobile technologies affect the system of policing activity:

• Dynamically change the hierarchical structure of activity

• Influence underlying motivations, goals and operational constraints

• Impact the task-related community

• Affect individual roles and division of labour within police teams

• Challenge existing work norms

Contributions

PAMIS aims to contribute to the existing theoretical literature on information behaviour by introducing a social constructivist approach with a strong cognitive basis (Activity Theory).

• Context and situation. Activity system.

• Technology. Mediation.

• Affective Response. Unity of cognition and emotion, reflection and action.

• Design. Implications for HCI.

Fieldwork

Across activities:

• Investigation: Detective Teams

• Community Policing: Stop and Search

• Traffic Policing: Traffic Violations

• Supervision: Sergeants, Divisional Commanders

Across Police Forces:

• Hampshire

• Lancashire

• Leicester

• Kent

• Metropolitan

• West Yorkshire

Stop

Tools: Communication skills

Examination skills

PO MP

Rules: Search guidelines

Community: Assisting officers,

CC

Division of Labour: PO searches,

MP co-operates

Outcome: Grounds for arrest

(Y/N)

Check

Tools: PDA or

Standard radio andCommunication skills

POEquivocal

information

Rules: Requirements of IT

system

Community: IT support officers,

CC

Division of Labour: PO provides input,CC accesses PNC, IT supports systems

Outcome: Grounds for Search (Y/N)

Search (Optional)

Tools: Communication skills

Examination skills

PO MP

Rules: Search guidelines

Community: Assisting officers,

CC

Division of Labour: PO searches,

MP co-operates

Outcome: Grounds for arrest (Y/N)

Record

Tools: PDA and printer or pen and paper form,writing skills

POStop and Search event

Rules: Required fields, presentation quality

Community: PO, MP

Division of Labour: PO gives reason, produces receipt,MP self-identifies

Outcome: Stop and Search record

Follow-up

Tools: Analytical tools

Supervisor Stop and Search record

Rules: Access to records

Community: PO, Support staff

Division of Labour: PO provides account, staff provide

record, supervisor analyses record

Outcome: Intelligence, policy,

action

Leeds University Business School

Electronic and Mobile Learning in the UK Emergency Services

Mira Slavova and Alistair Norman

AIMTech Research Group, LUBS

Wednesday, 21 March 2007, 12 – 1 pm

Engestrom: Learning Activity

• Learning begins in the form of learning operations and learning actions embedded in other activities, above all in work.

• Learning activity has a systemic structure of its own:• Prerequisites are school-going, work, and science/art.

• In the network of human activities, learning activity mediates between science/art on the one hand and work or other central productive practice on the other hand.

• “The essence of learning activity is production of objectively, societally new activity structures (including new objects, instruments, etc.) out of actions manifesting the inner contradictions of the preceding form of the activity in question. Learning activity is mastery of expansion from actions to a new activity. While traditional school-going is essentially a subject-producing activity and traditional science is essentially an instrument-producing activity, learning activity is an activity-producing activity.”

Mobile Learning in UK Emergency Services

• Distinct from mobile decision support

• Gain additional benefit from existing mobile systems

• 20,000 plus mobile devices – primarily in car terminals (6k) and handhelds (14k)

• Handhelds are mostly Blackberries

Use of Mobile Devices

• Access to intranet resources (e.g. ‘points to prove’)

• Access to Force Control Centre Homepage as a portal to Force and wider resources

• Word documents on in-car Mobile Data Terminals and handhelds

Immediate Learning Aspirations

• Organisational learning

• Capture information on successes and failures. Learning from best practice.

• Electronic portfolios for promotion

• Collect evidence of vocational skill and experience.

• Support for promotion exams

• Distribute questions on revision topics.

Longer Term Aspirations: A problem

• Lots of people fail promotions:

• Not because they can’t do it but

• Because things (e.g. emergencies!) get in the way of attendance and learning

• Training is a blunt instrument:

• Same course for officers lots of experience and others with no real experience in an area

• Temporal disconnect between the course, the experience and the exam.

• Cost of £500 in fees before the start of the programme, additional costs of attendance etc.

Longer Term Aspirations: A Solution

• Mobility• Access to learning materials outside of the classroom setting

• Access• To help and support – trainers, peers, experts, web links, Centrex (central police training

organization)

• Resources which allow officers to explore further learning

• New types of material• Multimedia scenarios – more than just text and buttons

• Personalization• Diagnostics before a module – tailor class and other support to the person

• Revision questions sent to them after a class session (and maybe as primers before as well) – tailored to their strengths and weaknesses

• Revision questions in the run up to exams

• Feedback• Feedback to managers, trainers and the training department

• Integration within the overall programme

Mobile Learning Issues

• Learning is an activity system in its own right but:• It is subordinate to other systems (policing, emergency response etc)

• It is connected to many other activities

• It uses tools which are developed for other primary uses (PDAs, MDT, GPRS, Tetra)

• Threatens established norms and the division of labour especially the training role

• Motivations are many and varied

• Definitions of success, benefit and value are many and varied

Activity: Police Briefing

• Motive: need to hold up-to-date information about criminal activity within an area

• Subject: board sergeant, intelligence unit

• Object: (delivering) the brief

• Tools: SMARTboard, paper, pen, Mobile Data Terminals, standard police information systems, intranet, handheld devices

SMARTBoards

Briefing