Belief, Inquiry, Argument and Reflection as Significant Issues in Learning about Information Systems Development Methodologies

Author(s):  
David A. Banks

This chapter examines some of the issues that are driving the development of a master’s course designated as “Information Systems Development Methodologies.” The course takes a “reality as a social construct” view of the world, the purpose of the approach being to encourage students to challenge assumptions and enhance their abilities to research, reflect, critique, and develop strong arguments to support their understanding of the subject area. An interpretive approach such as this can challenge those students whose experiences of previous educational settings have been more strongly oriented toward rote or positivistic teaching and learning styles. The chapter outlines a number of approaches that have been adopted to help students deal with interpretive approaches to learning and to introduce them to issues of belief, inquiry, argument, and reflection.

Author(s):  
Steve Clarke

In philosophical terms, a key issue of communities of practice (CoPs) can be located within one of the key philosophical debates. The need for CoPs is traceable to the inadequacy in certain contexts of the so-called scientific or problem-solving method, which treats problems as independent of the people engaged on them. Examples of this can be drawn from the management domains of information systems development, project management, planning, and many others. In information systems development, for example, the whole basis of traditional systems analysis and design requires such an approach. In essence, in undertaking problem solving, the world is viewed as though it is made up of hard, tangible objects, which exist independently of human perception and about which knowledge may be accumulated by making the objects themselves the focus of our study. A more human-centered approach would, by contrast, see the world as interpreted through human perceptions: the reason why the problem cannot be solved is precisely because it lacks the objective reality required for problem solving. In taking this perspective, it may or may not be accepted that there exists a real world “out there”, but in any event, the position adopted is that our world can be known only through the perceptions of human participants. This question of objective reality is one with which philosophers have struggled for at least 2,500 years, and an understanding of it is essential to determining the need for, and purpose of, CoPs. The next section therefore discusses some of the philosophical issues relevant to the subjective-objective debate: a search for what, in these terms, it is possible for us to know and how we might know it.


Author(s):  
Darren Dalcher

Information systems development failures are prevalent in many domains and countries. The aim of this chapter is to explore some of the issues related to the study of such phenomena. Failure situations are not set-up in advance as the subject of studies. Analysing causes and relationships retrospectively depends on the ability to obtain rich and subjective contextual information that can be utilised for shedding a light on the circumstances that precipitate failures. This chapter makes the case for the use of case history and ante-narrative methods for understanding such rich and complex scenarios.


Author(s):  
Stephen K. Probert

This chapter describes research in progress on the philosophical concept of authenticity – used as a framing device for providing an interpretation of aspects of both ethical and practical action on the part of information systems (IS) professionals. Ethical codes and prescriptive IS development methods for IS professionals can be found in most developed countries in the world. Here it is argued that ethical codes and IS methods may be of limited value in IS work. One key problem here is that IS analysts and designers have to intervene in organisations (and thereby intervene in the lives of the members of those organisations). It is argued that an important issue for IS research is whether they choose to do so in (what will be characterised as) an authentic manner, rather than doing so in sincere adherence with either a code of professional ethics or with a series of methodological precepts.


2011 ◽  
pp. 2984-2990
Author(s):  
Steve Clarke

In philosophical terms, a key issue of communities of practice (CoPs) can be located within one of the key philosophical debates. The need for CoPs is traceable to the inadequacy in certain contexts of the so-called scientific or problem-solving method, which treats problems as independent of the people engaged on them. Examples of this can be drawn from the management domains of information systems development, project management, planning, and many others. In information systems development, for example, the whole basis of traditional systems analysis and design requires such an approach. In essence, in undertaking problem solving, the world is viewed as though it is made up of hard, tangible objects, which exist independently of human perception and about which knowledge may be accumulated by making the objects themselves the focus of our study. A more human-centered approach would, by contrast, see the world as interpreted through human perceptions: the reason why the problem cannot be solved is precisely because it lacks the objective reality required for problem solving. In taking this perspective, it may or may not be accepted that there exists a real world “out there”, but in any event, the position adopted is that our world can be known only through the perceptions of human participants. This question of objective reality is one with which philosophers have struggled for at least 2,500 years, and an understanding of it is essential to determining the need for, and purpose of, CoPs. The next section therefore discusses some of the philosophical issues relevant to the subjective-objective debate: a search for what, in these terms, it is possible for us to know and how we might know it.


Author(s):  
Stephen K. Probert

This paper describes research in progress on the philosophical concept of authenticity–used as a framing device for providing an interpretation of aspects of both ethical and practical action on the part of information systems (IS) professionals. Ethical codes and prescriptive IS development methods for IS professionals can be found in most developed countries in the world. Here it is argued that ethical codes and IS methods may be of limited value in IS work. One key problem here is that IS analysts and designers have to intervene in organisations (and thereby intervene in the lives of the members of those organisations). It is argued that an important issue for IS research is whether they choose to do so in (what will be characterised as) an authentic manner, rather than doing so in sincere adherence with either a code of professional ethics or with a series of methodological precepts.


2016 ◽  
pp. 33-50
Author(s):  
Pier Giuseppe Rossi

The subject of alignment is not new to the world of education. Today however, it has come to mean different things and to have a heuristic value in education according to research in different areas, not least for neuroscience, and to attention to skills and to the alternation framework.This paper, after looking at the classic references that already attributed an important role to alignment in education processes, looks at the strategic role of alignment in the current context, outlining the shared construction processes and focusing on some of the ways in which this is put into effect.Alignment is part of a participatory, enactive approach that gives a central role to the interaction between teaching and learning, avoiding the limits of behaviourism, which has a greater bias towards teaching, and cognitivism/constructivism, which focus their attention on learning and in any case, on that which separates a teacher preparing the environment and a student working in it.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chester Allan Abegael Jangao ◽  
Glendell Jadraque ◽  
Jenessa Amion ◽  
Kc Marie Regalado ◽  
Meljhon Arañez ◽  
...  

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