Abstract
In this article, we frame productive learning in a sociocultural perspective to show how it ties into a cluster of concepts on activity and transformation and illuminates the relation between learning processes and learning products. Based on two case studies, we argue that understanding learning as action entails developing the students’ argumentative competency. Activities do not, however, per se support productive learning. Educational activities may be reproductive, unproductive and even counterproductive. We ask if the learning potential in conflict and disruption is underestimated, and we argue, with reference to Dewey and Bakhtin, that students in higher education learn more productively when they are exposed to the divergent voices and conflicting perspectives of the research community. The educational challenge is to structure multivoiced learning processes that are conducive for the learning outcomes.
Notes
1. During 2006, ‘productive learning’ had as many as 45,000,000 hits on the search engine Google.
2. A heated debate on this question started in Norwegian newspapers in March–April 2005.
3. The VLE used is LUVIT, developed at Lund University in Sweden.
4. For details of methodology of the qualitative study, see Dysthe, Samara and Westrheim’s (Citation2006) Studies in Higher Education.