Till Schümmer: Different Perspectives for the Pattern Scout: From Descriptive Pattern Mining to Design-Based Research

Pattern scouts (Schümmer, 2008) are people who carefully observe practice in a community and detect potential pattern candidates. Together with the practitioner, pattern scouts analyze the forces of a specific practice and co-construct a pattern or a pattern language.

Pattern scouts do not invent new solutions to design challenges. The main contribution of the pattern scout to a scientific audience is the analysis of solutions that feel good. His explanations help to get a better understanding of the problem domain and show why solutions not only feel good but are good. They analyze the interventions made by observed practitioners in order to explain their validity. However, this contribution is rarely recognized in a scientific community.

In contrast to this, design-based research (Design-Based Research Collective, 2003) focuses on the construction of interventions and afterwards studies the effects of the intervention. Compared to the pattern approach where established solutions are identified, design-based research lets the researcher design an envisioned solution.

In the paper, I argue that these contrasting views should be combined: Pattern authors should be encouraged to reflect on best practices in their domain and at the same time construct additional solutions that extend the current practice. This combination of approaches will be illustrated with patterns form the e-learning domain. I present the genesis of selected patterns from a pattern language for thesis supervision and show how analytic and descriptive elements of the patterns go together with design visions for future e-learning environments.

References Design-Based Research Collective. (2003). Design-based research: An emerging paradigm for educational inquiry. Educational Researcher, 32(1), 5-8.

Till Schümmer. (2008). Best practice for the pattern scout. In: Technology-enhanced learning: design patterns and pattern languages, co-edited by P. Goodyear and S. Retalis. To appear.

Please note that the slides will not all be shown at the Symposium ;-).