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Education Commission Research : A Distributed
Change Laboratory (DCL)
The Distributed Change Laboratory (DCL) is the WITFOR Education Commission research
project. The DCL is a research-action project whose first objective is to assess the relevance
of the Change Laboratory (CL) methodology in the regional context. The second
and main objective is to adapt the CL methodology to this context and apply it over the
network of communities of the WITFOR Education Commission project, as a collegial
support framework, supported through an internet community portal.
The CL methodology was developed by a group of Finnish researchers led by Yrjö Engeström
since the mid 1980s. Based on Engeström’s theory of expansive learning, the Generic
Change Laboratory method was developed in 1997, as a condensed way to carry out
Developmental Work Research, an activity theory based methodology for studying and
developing work practices in collaboration between the researcher and the practitioner.
Used in Finland in tens of public and private organizations representing many branches
of industry, the CL has been applied successfully in health care services in in Finland (Engeström,
Virkkunen et al., 1996) and in the USA (Hall & Hord, 1987 & 2001) (NTTAC,
2005), as well as other innovation schemes, e.g. for the integration of ICT in schools
(Engeström, Engeström & Suntio, 2002). The purpose of the method is to help a work
team or the members of an organizational unit to encounter the problems they face in
their daily work and systematically analyze the systemic causes of these problems and
design and implement a new form for the activity to overcome the root cause of daily
problems (Virkkunen, 2003).
The DCL research project brings about a systematic and methodological reflexive dimension
to the professional development proposal of the WITFOR Education Commission. It
thus appears as a coping strategy, as defined by the UNESCO MOST project for the management
of social transformations.
To read the complete document download the Education Commission Report (PDF 106 KB).
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Themes