Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to operationalise and apply a three-level analysis of double
stimulation in a Change Laboratory with teachers.
Design/methodology/approach – Within qualitative inquiry, this Change Laboratory intervention was
conducted as case study, by way of an intensive analysis of an individual unit. The macro-level deals with the societal problem and the collective solution found to tackle it. An intermediate level looks at the Change
Laboratory as a methodology able to boost expansive learning through chains of first and second stimuli.
The micro-level analyses the participants’ interactions during the sessions and traces the terms connected to the first and second stimulus.
Findings – This analysis suggests that the conflicts of motives experienced by the participants at the micro
level refer to the aggravated contradiction identified at the macro level. Conflicts of motives seem to be
superior in number during the first block of sessions, when the first stimuli are analysed. The micro analysis
indicates the 6th session as the turning point of the intervention, when the participants take the auxiliary
stimulus and turn it into and effective and meaningful sign. The intermediate level helps to trace the third
transition from the formation of the second stimulus to its implementation, reflection upon and further
development and generalisation.
Originality/value – Vygotsky’s method of double stimulation is crucial to develop one’s agency and to
explain how individuals deliberately influence events. Yet the literature is fragmented and made of brief
accounts, and this paper for the first time inspects double stimulation on different levels within a Change
Laboratory intervention with teachers.