Chapter+&+readings+notes

This is a set of notes on the chapters from Driscoll generated by last year's group. You can add, edit, use and abuse them any way you like. I do hope you'll expand on them. If you have notes on any of our readings you would like to add, or thoughts you want to add to these items, please do.

Chapter 1
Learning theory is a set of constructs linking changes in performance or the capability to perform with what is thought to bring about these changes. inputs (external to the learner) and means (internal) I thought this chapter did an excellent job of asking questions as means of investigating the learning. Some key questions I took away from this reading include:
 * // Educational technology // is the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using and managing appropriate technological processes and resource
 * // Instructional technology // is "the theory and practice of design, development, utilization, management, and evaluation of processes and resources for learning,"

How does the mind develop? What is knowledge? How does the mind acquire knowledge?

Theories about anything typically originate with questions. Definition of inquiry- Shulman (1985) Learning involves aquiring knowledge. When knowledge is acquired- What does it look like in the mind?

One observation I made is that 'learning is recursive'... I am not sure exactly why then in our renewed Mathematics curriculum we have gotten away from spiral outcomes. Which honours the natural process of learning and builds on the existing foundation already in place.

Ebbinghaus – ideas become connected or associated through experience. Thorndike – sensation and impulse rather than association between ideas. Results of this experiments convinced Thorndike that an animal learned to associate a sensation and an impulse when its action had a satisfying consequence. Pavlov – classical conditioning – ring bell and dog salivates. Gestalt – insight – failed attempt and then apply the correct solution.


 * ** Epistemology ** – a theory of knowledge
 * ** Learning constructs ** -
 * ** Objectivism ** – reality is external and independent of the learner and comes to be known through sensory experience
 * ** empiricism ** – the belief that sensory experience is the only valid source of knowledge
 * ** realism ** – the belief that all things in the world can be known
 * ** Idealism ** – the belief that knowledge consists of only ideas or representations about reality
 * ** interpretivism ** – reality and knowledge are constructed by the knower through rational thought
 * ** rationalism ** – the belief that reason is the source of knowledge (i.e. the mind actively constructs knowledge)
 * ** relativism ** - is the concept that points of view have no absolute [|truth] or [|validity]
 * ** Pragmatism ** – reality exists but cannot be known directly; knowledge comes through signs and is always provisional.
 * ** Logical positivism ** -
 * ** Social constructivism ** - wherein groups construct knowledge for one another, collaboratively creating a small culture of shared artifacts with shared meanings

RADICAL BEHAVIORISM - CHAPTER 2 SUMMARY NOTES
is associated with the work of Skinner (1904 - 1990). It is characterized by the experimental analysis of behavior and behavior management. Applications for instruction include: behavior modification, Personalized Systems of Instruction (Keller), instructional objectives, performance analysis and improvement. Skinner noted 5 main obstacles to learning: a fear of failing; the task is not broken down into small enough steps; there is a lack of directions; there is a lack of clarity in directions; positive reinforcement is lacking. His remedies are to give the learner immediate feedback; break the task into smaller steps; repeat directions frequently; work from the simplest to the most complex tasks; and to give positive reinforcement.


 * **Radical behaviourism** – behaviourism as it was founded
 * **Reinforcement theory** – views learning as a formation of stimulus-response association
 * **Stimulus-response associations** – are formed through conditioning - you do something and you get a response
 * **Classical conditioning** – neutral stimulus is paired with another stimulus. You pair something that normally occurs and pair it with another that doesn’t normally occur and have them together for awhile and eventually the stimulus that doesn’t normally occur will occur without other stimulus. Pavlov’s dog – salvates when bell is rung after steak is removed.
 * **Operant conditioning** – subject produces a response under conditions and you get rewarded when you get it right.

Respondent behavior – Pavlov – dog salivating. Behavior that is elicited in reaction to a stimulus. Operant behavior – emitted by an organism. Responses that operate on the environment. Ie) students raising hands

Positive reinforcement –makes behavior more likely to occur. Negative reinforcement – take it away and it makes a behavior more likely to occur.

Law of Effect – behavior is more likely to reoccur if it has been rewarded or reinforced. A response is less likely to reoccur it its consequence has been aversive.

Premack principle – you can watch TV (high frequency behavior) as soon as you finish your homework (low frequency behavior)

Learned helplessness and passive acceptance of negative phenomena that are seemingly beyond one’s control are explained by radical behaviorism. (Dogs and shocks and escape routes)

Punishment – has an advantage when a behavior needs to be stopped quickly but has many associated problems and is therefore only effective if used sparingly and, some argue, with advance warning and explanations. Walters and Grusec, 1977 Present an aversive stimulus contingent upon response

Extinction – when previously existing reinforcements are removed thus causing a reduction in the frequency of a response.

Response cost like extinction, involves the removal of reinforcement contingent upon behavior. By exacting a fine, requiring the offender to give back some previously earned reinforcer. Eg. A traffic fine

Timeout Removing the learner, for a limited time, from the circumstances reinforcing the undesired behavior.

Weakening a response – reinforcement removal

CHAPTER 3 COGNITIVE INFORMATION PROCESSING

 * **Cognitivism** - focuses on the inner mental activities - opening the "black box" of the human mind is valuable and necessary for understanding how people learn.
 * **Cognitive information processing** - non observable transferring from input to output - can't see stimuli and response.
 * **Short term memory STM** - also called working memory - when you are actively thinking about ideas
 * **Long term memory LTM** - permanent storage of information - capable of retaining an unlimited amount and variety of information.
 * **proposition** - knowing about something - certain vocabulary or knowledge about something
 * **productions** - procedural knowledge - how to do something - following directions - chains
 * **Scheme, schema, schemata** - organized networks of prior knowledge - a way of knowing or understanding something
 * **Complex processing -** schemata interacting and combining to make more complex schematas - know French and Spanish and trying to understand Portuguese using these other two schematas.
 * **Prior knowledge** - what you already have information about
 * **Metacognition** - awareness of thinking and the self-regulatory behaviour that accompanies this awareness.
 * **Cognitive load** - amount and type of processing required during instruction - when you have prior knowledge it is easier but if you have had some experience with the information it makes the connections easier
 * **Primacy** - remember things at beginning and at the end of the instruction
 * **Chunking** - deliberate placing together of elements to create meaning
 * **Accretion** - roughly equivalent to fact learning in that information is remembered that was instantiated within a schema as a result of text comprehension or understanding of some event
 * **Restructuring** - the creating of entirely new schema which replace or incorporate old ones.
 * **Tuning** - when existing schema evolve to become more consistent with experience

Sensory Input (visual, auditory) attention and pattern recognition Short Term Memory (working memory) with rehearsal and chunking Encoding and retrieval from short term to Long Term Memory

Instructional Implications for Cognitive Information Processing Providing organized instruction Graphic organizers, representations, concept maps Arranging extensive and variable practice Automaticity of basic skills is desirable Enhancing learners’ encoding and memory Selective attention, dual coding, multiple memory connections, Break down (Chunking) Writing things in your own words (elaboration in encoding) Read actively and relate (elaboration in encoding) Elaborate on new info with examples that are personally meaningful Overlearn material (rehearsal, automation) Review (to overcome forgetting curve) Learn in a way that info needs to be recalled (encoding specificity) Enhancing learners’ self control of information processing

CHAPTER 4 Meaningful Learning and Schema Theory

 * Schema Automation and Cognitive Load
 * Ausubel – Meaningful Reception Learning
 * Meaningful Learning and Schema Theory – accretion, tuning, and restructuring - may be through ever expanding analogies that come closer to representing the real world.

Schema are packets of information – economical to remember an anchoring idea rather than all of the details. Integration of concepts from information processing theory and schema theory forms basis of cognitive load theory.

CLT is the strain that is put on working memory by the processing requirements of learning a task. Pg 136

When learning something new (ie no schema already present) learners must hold all elements of the task individually and simultaneously.

Chapter 5 Situated Cognition

 * Learning in practice
 * when context changes learners often fail to transfer knowledge acquired
 * apprenticeships

Chapter 3 we learned that: declarative knowledge - knowing what procedural knowledge - knowing how

In situated cognition theory, cognition is assumed to be social and one learns a subject matter by doing what experts in that subject matter do. Evolves naturally from Vygotsky's sociocultural theory. Thought is adapted to the environment, or situated. What people perceive, how they conceive or their activity and what they physically do develops in a fundamentally social context.

Shifts the focus from the individual learner to the socio-cultural setting and to the activities of the people within that setting. (Other theories look at learning as a process why which a learner internalizes knowledge whether it is discovered, transmitted or experienced with interaction with others.) Pg 157

Knowledge accrues through the lived practices of the people in a society.

If knowledge is co-produced by the learner and the situation in the context of culture or society, then the position of the learner in that society becomes an important variable. eg. boys vs girls, dominant cultures in a multicultural setting.

Social contexts both contrain and aid cognition. ie taking tests but applying learning in real life

makes us realize that we need to examine learning as participation in interactions that succeed over a broad range of situations.

1. We are social beings 2. Knowledge is a matter of competence with respect to valued enterprises (singing in tune) 3. Knowing is a matter of participating in pursuit of social enterprises, active engagement 4. Meaning, our ability to experience the world and our engagement as meaningful, is ultimately what learning is to produce

Defining ways of belonging to a community of practice pg 167 legitimate peripheral participation Apprenticeship - pg 167


 * Cognitive Apprenticeships
 * Brown et al. - how tailors learn
 * opportunity to practise the skills and knowledge they spend years studying
 * authentic environment
 * risk of exploiting the learner if it becomes tedious, inefficient, repressive, servile, or bound by tradition pg 175

Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt (CTGV) initiated the Jasper Woodbury Problem Solving Series - situated context in making math problems meaningful and hopefully relevant to students. Learn through the adventures of a boy named Jasper. Critics would argue that students are in the role of observers rather than participants. However, research shows it is effective in getting students to solve analogous and partially analogous problems.
 * Anchored Instruction**

In a traditional classroom a teacher sets the learning agenda and goals and the means by which they are pursued and achieved. When a classroom becomes a learning community the teacher and students work collaboratively to achieve important goals. They typically emphasize distributed expertise 177
 * Learning Communities**

planned interdependence - it becomes important to learn and do within the community.

Taking tests shows how well students can participate in the kind of interaction that the test affords. But, it does not show how well students have learned to participate in social practices of a community.
 * Assessment in-situ**

Which view is correct? **Situated or cognitive?** pragmatists would argue for parallel developments from the situative and cognitive perspectives (Greeno) pg 181 and Rose (1999) saying we cannot advocate for a single conceptualization of how people become proficient knowing the complexity of learning.


 * Virtual Learning Communities**

kids search for what they want google ignore what they don't want - tivo consume what they choose - iPod become their own media - FB

Communities are resilient hosptiable multi-facted

participatory pedagogical outlook

Chapter 6 Cognitive Knowledge Development - Pg 185
Jean Piaget 's Genetic Epistemology

Types of Knowledge: Physical - actively learned from environment. Rooted in action. Perception of environment. Logical Mathematical knowledge - abstract and must be invented. Social knowledge - culture specific. Learned from people within one's culture

Stages of Development - Pg 195

Sensorimotor Pre-Operational Concrete Operational Formal Operational

Assimilation - seek to apply their knowledge in as many new situations as possible. Perceiving new objects in terms of existing schema Accommodation - When existing schema must be modified to account for new experiences Equilibration - Master developmental process encompassing both assimilation and accommodation. Anomalies of experience create a state of disequilibrium which can only be resolved when a more adaptive mode of thought is adopted

Pg 198

Criticisms pg 200 chart Not everyone gets there Ages at which children reach the stages varies May be an artifact of the particular tasks Piagetian experiments employ

Neo-Piagetian View Pg 205 Case suggests that a computer simulation model helps explain increasingly sophisticated mental structures. As processing becomes more efficient - that is - there is an automatization of problem-solving operations -freeing up capacity to solve more complex problems. Young learners must devote more memory capacity to performing a single operation.

Case also looks to biology of the brain and myelinization that may set the stage for learning ceilings and progressions. pg 206

Computational ModelKlahr and Wallace - 70's - information processing concepts

"Presuppose, in the Piagetian spirit, that children are active, self-directing cognitive entrepreneurs who develop their minds trhough a great many spontaneously generated information-processing activities: Flavell, 1984).

Expertise is not to be coneived as simply an accumulation of knowledge. Rather it is a process of building rich conceptual structures - mental models that restructure with experience.


 * Instructional Implications of an Information Processing View:**

The role of rules in children's thinking 217 Conceptual change Experiences that induce cognitive conflict and indicate inadequacies of their thinking.

Chapter 7 Interactional Theories of Cognitive Development Pg 223
Bruner 1996 (pg 226) - The cultural context of cognitive development and learning is examined. View education as more than curriculum and instructional strategies. Rather, one must consider the broader context in how culture shapes the mind and provides the toolkit by which individuals construct worlds and their conceptions of them and their powers.

Bruner - Going beyond the information given. The aim or education is to make the learner into a self-propelled thinker. Thinking is the outcome of cognitive development. The intelligent mind creates from experience; goes beyond data to new and possibly fruitful predictions. The attempt to understand what it means to know and how one comes to know led Bruner through several phases and resulted in two major themes. Sequence invariant but not age specific: 1. Three modes of representation: Page 229/230 Table En-active, tactile instruction, manipulative's iconic, (diagrams, help the imagination) symbolic (language, musical notation, mathematical notation)

Sequence and instruction - generally progresses from enactive, to iconic to symbolic math games, to manipulative's to symbolic modes speed of learning or learning transferability spiral curriculum - pg 233

Any domain of knowledge can be represented in ea.ch of those three modes. May not go in sequence. Learners with a well-developed symbolic system may be able to bi-pass the first two stages

2. The role of culture in the course of cognitive growth. How the transitions occur from stage to stage? Here we see Bruner's increasing emphasis on **interaction.** Interaction between genetic predispositions and experience.

rearranging or transforming evidence in such a way that one is able to go beyond the evidence to new insights. Bruner contended that a true act of discovery is not a random event.
 * Learning by Discovery** - all forms of discovery by the use of one's own mind - 234
 * Expectation of finding regularities and relationships in the environment and devising strategies for searching and finding what the regularities and relationships are.
 * Includes an attitude of constructivism - in other words - it is not random. (potshotters go about it randomly) pg 235
 * Discovery, like surprise, favours the well prepared mind. (235) Disney - Tower of Terror (surprise)
 * Discovery is aided by models to help guide discovery.

Reflection Rhizome model of connections

Bruner's Discovery learning became detached from its context and was being used as if discovery of anything, no matter how random, was valuable Pg 235

Discovery teaching involves not so much the process of teaching what is out there but discovering what is in their own heads - Bruner Guided practise in inquiry and sufficient prior knowledge, then constitute the minimum conditions for discovery learning to be successful. Contrasts that lead to cognitive conflicts can set the stage for discovery (restructuring in Piaget's words) Theories offer different reasons why they work but they work reliably in instruction.

Model of Inquiry Teaching Stevens and Collins - a list of Strategies that work - See page 239 Control Structure for ID Page 240

Bruner - Intelligence is the internalization of "tools" provided by a given culture" pg 242 Members of different cultures because of the specific and unique demands of living in their societies, make sense of their experiences in different ways. eg. candy sellers learned alternative procedures for interweaving mathematical and economic procedures for currency exchange.

What goes on in schools should equip students with cognitive skills required for control and utilization of resources of the culture. It is not about committing results to mind. Rather, it is to teach him to participate in the process that makes possible the establishment of knowledge. **Knowing is a process; not a product. Bruner pg 234**

Bruner believed theories of development and instruction should go hand in hand. Cognitive development can be facilitated, and in fact, accelerated through effective instruction. Some cultures, environments, push cognitive growth better, earlier, and longer, than others. An intellectually evolved man is therefore ultimately a question of values.

To develop self-propelled learner - A theory of instruction must bring together the nature of knowledge, the nature of the knower, and the nature of the knowledge-getting process. 244 Bruner Interaction of the first two influences decisions about what mode of representation should be emphasized in instruction.

Effective instruction aims to tread the fine line between economy of representation and the power of representation to convey important meanings.

eg logos - economy of representation

Bruner on Motivation reinforcement and motivation feedback that is corrective is important but it must also be meaningful and within the information processing capacity of the learner. Students can find satisfaction in a product and in how well it helps classmates (ie) - our study guide and weekly synopsis of events. Discovery learning can therefore promote a sense of self-reward in which students become motivated to learn because of the intrinsic pleasure of discovery.

Skateboarders - motivation from within

the inter-relations of the individual, the inter-personal, and the cultural-historical
 * Vygotsky - The Social Formation of Mind**
 * influenced by Pavlov's ideas about reflexology and conditioning but moved away from these to his cultural-historical theory or pedology - science of child development.
 * Unlike Piaget or Bruner, he concentrated on the mechanisms of development to the exclusion of specific or distinguishable stages.
 * child development is too complex to rely soled on one characteristic


 * Vygotsky's Developmental Model**

that biological and cultural development do not occur in isolation. important to consider both as they mediate the development of intellectual capabilities. That it is important to study the natural development of cognitive skills in humans - that how human beings came to develop higher psychological processes from a sociohistorical perspective is important.

believed experiments should be conducted which provide maximum opportunity for the subject to engage in a variety of activities that can be observed, not just rigidly controlled. Vygotsky employed 3 techniques: 1. introducing obstacles that will disrupt normal problem solving. (different languages for ex) 2. provide external aids to problem solving that can be used in various ways. 3. asking children to solve problems that exceed their current knowledge and skills

Emphasis on illuminating PROCESS. Not how well did they do but how did they seek to meet task demands?


 * Mediation** - the individual actively modifies the stimulus situation as a part of the process of responding to it.

example - Wax tablet technology in Aristotle's day - His model of memories in the mind were impressions in wax tablets. Today - computer models of the mind for complexity of technology.

Three types of signs: 1 Indexical Signs bear Cause - effect (smoke - fire) relationships 2. iconic signs - pictures or images 3. Sybollic signs - language and mathematics
 * Science of signs** - semiotics - Chapter 5 Notice similarity to Bruners modes of cognition

Vygotsky proposes that we learn the meaning of signs through mediation. Originally through something that was not a sign operation - ie a child stretching out a hand being interpreted as pointing by an adult - comes to mean that for the child.

Higher processes are created when mediation becomes increasingly internal and symbolic. (important for proponents of reading) Vygotsy proposed two concepts of understanding this process: 1. internalization pg 252 2. Zone of proximal development

Internalization Zone of Proximal Development
 * to reveal the gap between a child's actual development level and the higher level or potential development.

Chapter 9 Motivation Pg 308
Cognitive processes are important mediators of motivation. Staying with the food analogy, humans seek food to satisfy hunger but not any food will do. Likewise, deciding to engage in a learning task and persisting with that task are not simple matters.

Can be influenced by one's need for achievement or locus of control (internal vs external orientation)

Curiosity and Interest

Maslow's heirarchy - need for self-actualiztion is just as intense as the need for food/shelter drive to survive - When basic needs are met then the craving for experience takes over.

The use of fantasy in providing learners with meaningful context

Learners who Self Regulate set goals for their learning and then attempt to monitor, regulate, and control their cognition, motivation and behaviour.

Observing one's performance comparing to a standard or a goal reacting and responding to the perceived difference

The importance of:
 * Three phase cycle of self-regulation**
 * 1.Forethought** (setting goals, choosing learning and motivational strategies, deciding to participate, arranging environmental conditions)

making judgements about learning performance infer causal attributions evaluate goal attainment in ways that promote self improvement
 * 2. Self-Reflection**

employ strategies to focus attention, enhance encoding, and execute task. Adjust performance as needed.
 * 3 Performance**

Developing self-regulation skills ie grad students - what should I read we have been encouraged to be self-regulating in this class

Keller's Model of Motivation pg 333

In considering instructional implications Keller proposed four conditions for motivation that must be met to have a motivated learner: ARCS: 1 Attention (stimulating curiosity helps) 2 Relevance 3 Confidence 4 Satisfaction

Abilities Model Unconscious Incompetence ‐ The individual neither understands nor knows how to do something, nor recognizes the deficit, nor has a desire to address it. 2. Conscious Incompetence ‐ Though the individual does not understand or know how to do something, he or she does recognize the deficit, without yet addressing it. 3. Conscious Competence ‐ The individual understands or knows how to do something. However, demonstrating the skill or knowledge requires a great deal of consciousness or concentration. 4. Unconscious Competence ‐ The individual has had so much practice with a skill that it becomes "second  nature" and can be performed easily (often without  concentrating too deeply). He or she may or may not be able teach it to others, depending upon how and when it  was learned.

Gange's Theory of Instruction Chapter 10
Reason to study the theory of learning is to teach effectively or to design effective instruction. For example:


 * Radical behaviourism (Chp 2) provides the foundation for performance analysis and improvement.
 * Ausubel's meaningful reception learning (Chpt 4) serves as a foundation for Reigeluth's Elaboration Theory.
 * Notions about situated cognition (Chapter 5) provide the basis for authentic instruction and apprenticeship models


 * Bruner - provides a basis for Inquiry Models developed by Collins and Stevens (83)


 * Bandura's work in self-efficacy and social learning theory and Keller's model of motivational design suggests ways to enhance students' motivation to learn.

Gagne's Theory of Instruction grew over 20 years.


 * behaviourist roots
 * brings together cognitive information-processsing perspective on learning with empirical findings of what good teachers do in their classrooms. Gange's theory serves as a basic framework for a prominent ID theory (Gange, Briggs and Wager, 1992).

Conditions for Learning:

In Contrast to Gange's Theory is Constuctivism


 * not a single theory but represents a collection of similar approaches which have been gaining currency in education and training.
 * stem from a view of learning compatible with Piaget, Bruner and Vygotsky.

Instructional Theory in General
 * instructional psychologists are concerned with how to best enhance learning.
 * Instructions is the deliberate arrangement of learning conditions to promote the attainment of some goal.

**From Computer to Compost** Rethinking Our Metaphors for Memory **William L. Randall** ST. THOMAS UNIVERSITY, brandall@stu.ca This paper introduces the compost heap as a metaphor for autobiographical memory. As an alternative to the computer, such a metaphor, it is argued, comes closer to capturing the dynamics of memory across the lifespan and how it feels to us as we age, particularly memory's narrative dimensions. After citing concerns expressed by psychologists and others regarding //computationalism//, the paper considers four entailments of the compost heap analogy that may serve, very roughly, as counterparts to such concepts as //encoding//, //storage//, and //retrieval//. They are: //laying it on//, //breaking it down//, //stirring it up//, and //mixing it in//. The paper concludes with reflections on the advantages of a more organic model of memory and some suggestions for further inquiry concerning issues of interest to the psychology of aging.

Increasingly, however, teachers and learners have made use of open-ended resources like the WWW. We believe that such resources require additional skills for both teachers and learners that must be identified and supported. Skills in inductive and deductive inference are insufficient - learners are typically information seekers, not the end point of a communicative act. They are energized by "problems" that have emerged in the course of their learning or from their everyday experience. Their task is as much to identify and make sense of the “problem” as it is to discover solutions. As we move into the Information Age and are inundated by increasing volumes of information, the need for reasoning skills that go beyond acquiring and applying knowledge is ever more evident. A major feature of the research described here will be to adopt a model of reasoning derived from the writings of C. S. Peirce (1931-1958). Peirce proposed three modes of inference rather than the traditional two: abduction, deduction and induction. Here is how Peirce describes the three modes: Deduction is the only necessary reasoning. It is the reasoning of mathematics. It starts from a hypothesis, the truth or falsity of which has nothing to do with the reasoning; and of course its conclusions are equally ideal. The ordinary use of the doctrine of chances is necessary reasoning, although it is reasoning concerning probabilities. Induction is the experimental testing of a theory. The justification of it is that, although the conclusion at any stage of the investigation may be more or less erroneous, yet the further application of the same method must correct the error. The only thing that induction accomplishes is to determine the value of a quantity. It sets out with a theory and measures the degree of concordance of that theory with fact. It can never originate any idea whatsoever. No more can deduction. All the ideas of science come to it by way of Abduction. Abduction consists in studying facts and devising a theory to explain them. Its only justification is that if we are ever to understand things at all, it must be in that way. (Peirce, 1955, p. 150)

Chapter 11 Constructivism p pg 385

 * Richards lecture notes:
 * Topic || Constructivist || Objectivist ||
 * view reality as || reality is determined by the knower – creates reality or the interpretation of reality || reality is out there – external to knower ||
 * || structure is dependent on human mental activity and a product of the mind – how you create the structure || structure is determined by the entities properties and relationships among them ||
 * || relies on experiences and interpretations of an individual || structure can be modelled – can build a working model ||
 * view the mind as || builder of symbols - creating || processor of symbols ||
 * || actively producing symbols ||  ||
 * || perceiving or interpreting nature || mirroring nature ||
 * || conceptual symbol for constructing reality || abstract machine for manipulating symbols ||
 * view thought as || embodied - grows out of bodily experience || disembodied – independent of human experience ||
 * || grows out of physical social experience || governed by external reality ||
 * || imaginative enabling abstract thought || manipulating abstract symbols ||
 * || more than mirroring reality || mirroring reality ||
 * || gesalt properties – how things fit together || decomposable - building blocks ||
 * || relies on ecological perception- cognitive model – more than a machine can do || algorithmic - classification ||
 * meaning || doesn’t rely on correspondence to world - invent things wholly abstract || meaning corresponds with entities and categories to the world ||
 * || meaning is dependent on understanding || independent of any organism ||
 * || meaning is determined by the understander || meaning is external to the understander ||
 * symbols || tools for constructing reality || represent reality ||
 * || representation of internal reality || building blocks of external reality ||
 * Overall || internal || external ||
 * Overall || internal || external ||

Application of Constructivism: - relevant context – situated cognition - cognitive apprenticeship – solve real problems - cognitive perspective theory – multiple theories- apply own interpretations - negative sometimes – goals and objectives would not be defined you would negotiate, learners help define their learning - task and content analysis – not working on single best result but the pathways and how thoughts are constructed – giving them the tools to construct their own learning Evaluation - less criterion referenced - more goal free - less as control tool and more as self-evaluation tool

Often contrasted with Objectivism - the view that knowledge of the world comes about through an individual's experience of it and that knowledge exits independent of learners; and the learning consists of transferring knowledge from outside to within the learner.


 * suggests that values and facts are all mixed in together
 * sociopolitical environment
 * tension between efficient management and control provided in traditional learning and effective design that allows for the following principles without deteriorating into chaos.
 * Brett Wilson's analogy of a hot air balloon (how much rope you give the learner)

Relevance, Competence, Desire (RCD Model)

Job aids, check lists (Medical list), just in time instruction Focus groups - beware of easily measure outcomes to explain complex problems Resist the temptation to stop at single solutions to complex problems

id In instructional design - A traditional model of Instructional design vs. Concept Analysis that is more complex. Understanding concepts and notions. Using multiple layers of objectives; clusters of rich objectives, not defining every goal/objective for the learner; recognizing and adapting to new and emerging goals and objectives.

Simple to complex Rules to exceptions Exceptions to rules


 * Support learners in pursuing their own goals
 * interdependency of content and method - McLuhan
 * Resist the temptation to cover large volumes in a shallow way.
 * Teachable moments, collaborative, reflective
 * Resist the temptation to prepackage everything
 * anchor instruction in realistic or meaningful situations
 * build metaphors
 * recognize the value ladenness of instructional strategies

Drawbacks of Contructivism more costly; more resources needed; less content covered possibly, may feel messy and chaotic at times.


 * Behavioural and cognitive Information processing theories are objectivist - pg 387 (empty vessels)
 * Constructivist theory rests on the assumption that knowledge is created by the learners as they attempt to make sense of their experiences. (active organisms - rhizome model - seeking meaning, growing, making connections and interconnections).
 * Constructive processes operate and learners form, elaborate, and test possible mental structures until a satisfactory one emerges.
 * New and conflicting experiences will cause perturbations in these structures so they must be restructured to make sense of the new information. (Like schema development (Chp. 4) and accommodation (Piaget - Chapter 6) and Bruner and Vygotsky

What constructivists argue, however, is that knowledge constructions do not necessarily bear any correspondence to external reality. That is, they do ot have to reflect the world as it is to be useful or meaningful. Rather they are viable as long as they help us make sense of the world around us. The help us understand the best construction of humankind's experience with the world.

Constructivists would argue that not all constructions are equally viable and that there are limits imposed by human biological characteristics and by what is possible in reality.

Eco's rhizome mode - a tangle of tubers with no beginning or end; changes shape endlessly; makes connections in an unlimited number of configurations; if broken regenerates with new connections;

Presumes that neither knowledge nor the ways we in which we use to describe it are stable.

Rhizome alerts us to the constructed nature of our environmental understanding and the possibilities of different meaning, or truths, or worlds, we live in.

Connectionist models of memory embody characteristics of the rhizome model. Suggests that it is not rules that we learn but connections, which to satisfy constraints of experience and environment, come to resemble rule based performance.

The cognitive system operates at all times to optimize the adaptation of the behaviour of the organism. pg 390

What are instructional recommendations coming from constructivism? Any theory of instruction must deal with learning goals, conditions of learning, and instructional methods to bring about these conditions.

Constructivist Learning Goals

Objectivist - learner must know...

Learning is a continuous, life-long process resulting from acting in situations. (Brown, 89) pg 390

The primary concern of consructivists is deployable knowledge learned in context. The ability to write persuasive essays, to engage in informal reasoning, to explain how data relate to theory in scientific investigations, to formulate and solve moderately complex problems that require mathematical reasoning.

The basic goals of education are deceptively simple. To mention three: education strives for the retention, understanding, and active use of knowledge and skills. Perkins (1999). Knowledge does not come into its own until the learner can deploy it with understanding.

goals expressed by other constructivists: Spiro - cognitive flexibility reflective criticism (connoisseurship) Culler - post structuralist thinking the ability to solve ill-structured problems Jonassen acquire content knowledge in complex domains along with critical thinking and collaboration skills (Nelson) to develop personal inquiry skills the ability to identify and use different ways of knowing (morrison and Collins) is thought to be fostered by constructivist pedagogy

Are these not similar to Gange's higher order rule using (problem solving) - especially heuristic problem solving and cognitive strategies. ie diagnosing hypertension or creating a balanced diet.

Constructivists are interested in having learners identify and pursue their own learning goals.
 * not all students are as capable as required to pursue independent projects and independent environments afford an opportunity to play as much as to learn
 * Critics might ask why constructivists are not more concerned that the gap will be too great between the schema of some students and the tools and information that they are provided.

Constructivist learning goals are best met through a variety of instructional conditions that differ from any proposed by theorists like Gange.

What might they look like, then?


 * Constructivist conditions for learning:**
 * Pg 393 -**
 * 1) Embed learning in complex, realistic and relevant environments.
 * 2) Provide for social negotiation as an integral part of learning
 * 3) support multiple perspectives and the use of multiple modes of representation (cognitive flexibility)
 * 4) Encourage ownership of learning (motivation)
 * 5) Nurture self-awareness of the knowledge construction process (reflexivity)

students cannot be expected to deal with complexity unless they have the opportunity to do so. Learning environment complexity. Construction kits (eg. geometric supposer program, concrete and abstract entities that challenge students conceptions and misconceptions Sim City, Heuristic
 * 1. Embed learning in complex.. **

Difference between complex and realistic - vs. authentic and real world (musician in a youth orchestra) Sometimes not possible. Complex and realistic can be equally as challenging and engaging.

collaboration in learning environments allows for individuals to understand others' views whereas reading privately or listening may not be sufficient to challenge one's egocentric thinking. The transmission or sharing of cultural knowledge - how concepts and culture are understood and applied by its members. Transformative view - both the initiate and others (peers or teachers) are transformed by communication. Advances in technology beginning with the personal computer and more recently, Web 2.0 tools, have made possible communication and collaboration and the sharing of artifacts of learning across time and distance. Potential for technology to play a revolutionary role in supporting new forms of conversations in educational setting. A whole new genre of research and application has emerged as computer supported collaborative learning.
 * 2. Social Negotiation**

accommodates the diverse, irregular, and complex (ie medical diagnosis of a viral infection) prevent oversimplification, overgeneralizing, over reliance on rules
 * 3. Support Multiple perspectives and Modes of Learning**

multiple metaphors to help understanding - each offering understandings. ex. body as a machine, body as an organicist. Neither metaphors are wrong - each ofers different understandings of how the body functions

Spiro says use multiples forms of models, multiple metaphors and analogies and multiple interpretations of the same information. These are hallmarks of Cognitive Flexibility theory. Revisiting the same material, at different times, for different purposes and from different perspectives, in rearranged context is essential for advanced knowledge acquisition.

Spiro called this multiple juxtapositions of instructional content or "criss-crossing the landscape" and suggested that hypermedia provides and excellent tool for achieving it.

A rich and flexible knowledge base can be built that allows learners to explore multiple models

(abduction? induction and deduction) rhizome model?

Constructivists widely accept that hypermedia can be used to effectively encourage students to think about ideas, theories, literary works, for a variety of perspectives

arranging instruction to meet individual needs is not an idea new to constructivism. It is part of learning theories in general. What distinguishes the the constructivist perspective is the placement of the student as the principal arbiter i making judgments as to what, when and how learning will occur (as in this class) Students are not passive recipients of instruction designed for them. Instead, they are actively involved in determining what there own learning needs are and how they can best be satisfied. Students are not likely to become autonomous learners if they lack opportunity to manage their own learning. Perkins pg. 400
 * 4. Ownership in Learning**

Critics would question whether students are prepared and able to take ownership and manage their own learning. In fact, Clark (1982) concluded that students are not the best judges of their own learning needs. They often prefer methods not well suited for facilitating their individual achievement. Investigations of learner control in computer-based instruction have reached the same conclusion. Learners apparently choose the quickest route through the instruction whether or not it best meets their needs. Pg 400

Two issues: able? willing?

A tacit assumption of constructivist learning is that students possess whatever metacognitive skills are necessary to successfully navigate in those environments. If they do not have them then designers of such environments need to embed aids to help them navigate through. (in our course: study guides, questions, vocabulary facilitates Deployable knowledge learned in context

Reflexivity - the ability of students to be aware of their own role in the knowledge construction process. More than just metacognition (ability to think about one's own thinking and to be aware of their own role in the knowledge construction process) Reflexivity is an attitude that prompts learners to be aware of how and what structures create meaning. The ability to invent and explore new structures or new interpretive contexts. They are free to explore alternative sets of assumptions or different world views.
 * 5. Self Awareness of Knowledge Construction**

Reflexivity is supported by the juxtaposition of instructional content and the resulting emphasis on multiple perspectives (this class being an example).

CIP perspective - the book is declarative knowledge; different schemata to understand the various theories By contrast - from a constructivist point of view we might recognize that all the theories help to make sense of the phenomenon of learning.

Different assumptions lead to different pictures of learning and therefore of instruction.

May choose one or another in building a personal view or you may reject all the theories and pose a new set of assumptions and explore a potentially new theory of learning.

Nurturing self-awareness of knowledge construction is a learning condition that constructivist assert is essential to the goals of reasoning, understanding multiple perspectives, and committing to a particular position for beliefs that can be articulated and defended. A mash-up! This class.

Constructivist Methods of Instruction see Page 402 for goals, conditions of learning and methods of instruction

Micro-worlds and Hypermedia Designs

Collaborative Learning and Problem scaffolding - groupware to manage the interaction among members

Goal Based Scenarios and Problem Based Learning

Software shells and Course Management tools bubble dialogue, star legacy

Probably no accident that constructivism is gaining in popularity as computer technologies for collaboration, communication and representation are coming widely available. Technology offers an effective means for implementing constructivist strategies (time consuming and expensive without - resource based learning from the 80's)

Roots in psychology and philosophy compatible with cognitive developmental perspectives, like Piaget, and with interjectional and cultural perspectives like Bruner and Vygotsky Contextual aspect of learning is emphasized

Other terms it is know by: generative learning constructivism embodied cognition

Constructivist Perspective of Instructional Design From a perspective of Instructional Analysis

teachers should identify and ameliorate gaps and provide "just in time" instruction ie Teaching yourself a word processor Hold learners in their Zone of Proximal Development to provide just enough help and guidance but not too much

Many theories provide isnight into some aspect of learning and development. What one theory conceals, another reveals. Pg 261

For criticism to develop in any depth in ET, students must be exposed to a much larger body of work than is the case today. To experience, to analyze many instructinal systems, to try out a variety of courseware materials, on-line resources, perspectives, (student, teacher, IDEr). Need to develop normative criteria in the critical process of evaluating ET

Belland - what if ET was an art? Need criticism, scholarly inquiry, semiotics (a language of criticism or apreciation). What laws govern the creation and interpretation of signs?

Technology is not value neutra.

Baudrillard asks, in a post modernist twist, "What is the nature of simulated reality? - What happens when the simulation tries to copy reality? where realilty copies the simulation? FB

Praxis - practice informed by theory

Sir Ken Robinson - Agricultural Model of Learning - organic process, tend and nurture, evergrowing, changing, pruning, protecting, orienting

Dreams nurture the soul - Yeats Finding your passion changes everything