Cognitive Strategies For Virtual Learning Environments

COGNITIVE STRATEGIES FOR VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

Bruno Carvalho Castro Souza [email protected] Regina F. F. de A. Bolzan, M.Eng [email protected] Janae G. Martins, M.Eng [email protected] Alejandro M. Rodriguez, Dr [email protected]

Federal University of Santa Catarina; Post-Graduating Program in Production Engineering, Technological Center ó Campus ó Trindade, P.O Box 476 ó ZIP Code 88040-900 ó Floriano polis, SC, Brazil. University of Vale do Itajaıó Itajaı, SC, Brasil. University of Brasılia, UNEB ó Brasılia, Brasil.

Overview

Learning can be considered as a conjunction of a number of factors, both internal and external origins. This paper offers a reconcilement of these factors in interdependent unity, building a ”total learning environment„ , adding up emotional sensorial, motivational and intellectual aspects. It also approaches the use of reconcilement in virtual learning environments, seeking for technological tools for permanent and renewing quest of knowledge, in contrast with the behaviorist model repetition of content and stimulus-response conditioning. Key words: Virtual Learning, knowledge, Cognitive Strategies.

Introduction

Historically, the educational process has always been linked to the social evolution of humanity itself (Gadotti, 1999). Therefore, to understand it in its plenitude, it would necessary a detailed analysis of the cultural, social, economic, technological and politica aspects, present in society. This is not the intention of this paper. Rather, the focus is the interactions between the individual-pupil and the possible technological learning environments, analyzing the factors that influence the efficiency of such learning suggesting alternatives to improve the effectiveness of the process. Therefore, imperative to acknowledge some cognitive learning strategies, including some virtua environments and the interactions between apprentice and master.

Cognitive Learning Strategies

The history of the psychology of learning retraces, pertaining to the study question, to the IV century a.C., specifically to the school of philosophy established Plato to spread out the ideas of Socrates. In the book VII of "the Republic", Plato displays the myth of the cave, an alegory according to which the world that we know is nothing bu a shade in a wall of the cave of reality projected by the pure ideas that are planted, since birth, in our soul. In other words, knowledge is always the projection of our innate ideas (Pozo, 1999). This doctrine resurged in the racionalist and idealistic thoughts Descartes, Leibniz or Kant, being revisited by authors representing the current cognitivis movement, like Fodor and Chomsky. Aristotle, disciple of Plato, developed another doctrine: the tabula rasa, according to which the knowledge comes from the senses endow the mind with pictures, interlinked according to three laws: proximity, similarity and contrast. Aristotleés influence will be felt in the psychology of learning through consequences in both the estruturalism and, mainly, in the behaviorism of Skinner Regarding behaviorism, it is a form of response to subjectivism. For the behaviorists, study of higher mental processes for the understanding of human behavior is unnecessary one learns through conditioning and repetition (Pozo, 1999). The impulse given by diverse external factors to psychology, especially the technological evolution, the new theories communication, linguistics and cybernetics, brought a new paradigm, represented information processing, that enables the study of the mental processes denied behaviorism. These new studies, supported in technological bases and searching interdisciplinarity in such fields as philosophy, computer science, medicine and psychology itself, had generated the cognitive school. The relevance of these two doctrines to learning process is significant. Historically, as well as in the present, there predominance of the behaviorist approach in educational methodologies used in schools practically all levels. Theorists like Chi and Rees (1983), Gagne Glaser (1987), Mandler (1985), Shuell (1986), among others, support that there are reasons enough to believe the possibility that the cognitive approach may be adopted as the model of learning near future. Actually, some experiments are already being carried out in such direction, bu they are embryonic studies and do not really represent a clear movement towards

LEARNING THEORIES (Stimulus-Response)

CONDUCTS

Unified elements through syntactic rules

Correspondence between learning and external environment

Stimuli, species and individuals are equipotent

Antimentalist Reductionism

External Ambientalism

Anomalies due to lack of organization Hume s Problem.

Passive Subject

Anomalies due to incapacity of signification acquire. Contends Problem.

Figure 1: behaviorism as a scientific research program. Source: Pozo (1999)

One of the main criticisms to behaviorism is its incapacity to produce origina theoretical responses. As a consequence, new programs are being elaborated, whose basic difference consists of a release of the behaviorist conceptual core, eliminating, mainly, rejection of cognitive processes and increasing information gathering (Pozo, 1999). central concept of cognitive psychology, the basis of this new program, is broader than concept of information processing itself. According to Rivi` re (1987), "the most genera and ordinary things we can say of Cognitive Psychology refers to the explanation behavior, mental entities, states, processes and definitions of mental nature, all which demand an unique level of speech". This means, therefore, that the actions of individual are determined by his mental representations, according to some authors Piaget and Vigotsky. Fig. 2, counter-pointing fig. 1, shows the strategy of scientific research according to cognitive psychology.

MEMORY THEORY

CAUSAL COGNITIVE PROCESSES

REPRESENTATIONS

Recursive Decomposition. Elements united due to syntactic rules. Correspondence?

Same potentiality?

Subject as an active data processing unit

Interaction of variables: subject and task

Organization?

Signification acquisition?

Figure 2: Information processing as a program of scientific inquiry. Source: Pozo (1999)

Thus, learning capacity would be determined by the way that the individua represents his knowledge, together with his memory capabilities and his causal cognitive processes. To acquire these representations, the human being uses his mechanisms assimilation as channels, understood here "as a broad sense of an integration to previous structures" (Piaget, 1967) and uses, therefore, his senses as a door towards perception of the external world together with the mental processes of information handling. The greater or minor effectiveness of this assimilation depends on learning factors, varying from person to person, and constituting learning strategies. These strategies take in account emotional, motivational, sensorial, and intellectual factors using a computer era terminology, logical-mathematical factors).

Emotional Factors

Goleman (1995), places the issue of emotional intelligence as a new type of ability requiring a development of aptitudes natural to the "human heart". His theory appears the context of a society with a rising increase of violence in practically all its forms (crime suicides, drug abuse and other indicators of social distress); individualism, even consequence of social pressures, reaches an unprecedented exaggeration, causing therefore, a growing competitiveness, mainly in the job market and academic fields. conjunction of factors brings the isolation and deterioration of social relations, generating a slow disintegration of community life and the need for self-confidence. Placing this scenario under a learning perspective, it is inferred that emotiona education - or, in other words, emotional learning - urgently needs to be rethought. human brain has mechanisms to deal with emotions, but such mechanisms come from biological evolution that goes back to the origin of life itself (Pinker, 1998). Our menta

as disclosed by its distinct biological signatures (...). Using the new technologies that allow the exploration of the brain and the body as a whole, the researchers are discovering physiological details that enable the verification of how different types of emotions prepare the body for different types of responses: § In anger, the blood flows to the hands, making it easier to draw a weapon or to hit the enemy; the cardiac beats speed up and a wave of hormones, adrenalin, among others, generate a pulsation, a strong enough energy for vigorous performance. § In fear, the blood runs to the muscles of the skeleton, like those in your legs facilitating the escape; the face is livid, since the blood is taken from there At the same time, the body is paralyzed, even if for a brief moment, to perhaps allow the person to consider the possibility of, instead of reacting, running away to hide. Existing circuits in the emotional centers of the brain trigger torrent of hormones that puts the body in general alert state, making it uneasy and ready to act. The attention is focused in the immediate threat, to better calculate the response to be given. § The feeling of happiness causes one of the main biological alterations. activity of the cerebral center is triggered, inhibiting negative feelings favoring the increase of existing energy, silencing those that generate concern thoughts. But no particular physiological change occurs, except for a sense tranquility, which makes the body recoup quickly from the stimulation caused by disturbing emotions. This pattern gives the body total relaxation, as well energy and enthusiasm for the execution of any task and to achieve a grea variety of goals. § Love, and the feelings of affection and sexual satisfaction, implies parasympathic stimulation, which constitutes the physiological opposite mobilizes one to "fight-or- run away" which occurs when the feeling is of or anger. The parasympathic standard, called "relaxation response", is a set reactions that cover the whole body, causing a general state of calm satisfaction, facilitating recovery. § The rising of eyebrows, in surprise, provides ampler visual sweepings, and more light for the retina. This allows us to get more information on unexpected events, making it easier to perceive accurately what is happening, and elaborate the best plan of action. § Around the world, the expression repugnance is similar and sends the same message: some thing is unpleasant to the taste or smell, in actuality metaphorically. The face expression of repugnance (...) suggests, as Darwin observed, a primeval attempt to cover the nostrils to prevent a harmful odor to spit out deteriorated food. § One of the main functions of sadness is to propitiate an adjustment to a grea loss, like the death of somebody or some major disillusionment. Sadness causes a loss of energy and enthusiasm towards life's activities, in particular diversions and pleasures. When sadness is deep, approaching depression,

energy was caused to keep the vulnerable human beings in sadness state so they remained close to home, where they felt safer."1 This emotional diversity shown by Goleman demonstrates that there are moments and situations that propitiate more effective learning. An educational methodology would provoke a feeling of happiness, or, at the very least, respect moments of sadness anger, would have better conditions to form new mental structures2 and to more efficiently relate all acquired knowledge.

Motivational Factors

Motivation brings inlaid the concept of impulse for action and the maintenance such action. Schank (1995) states that learning is a natural process that happens in form of a " waterfall": first, the apprentice creates a goal, then generates a question finally, answers the question. This process brings implicitly the importance of motivationa factors in learning: when there is a desire to learn to ride a bicycle, for example, a goal wa created. During the process of "riding a bicycle", the apprentice will fall, loose balance feel foolish, and all this will make him question exactly, even if internally, what he is doing wrong - why can't he succeed in riding a bicycle? He will then look for answers to questioning, and will learn. However, Schank doesn't expose the initial motivational role: why would someone want to ride a bicycle? Also, following the same reasoning, why didnét the apprentice up when he fell for the first time? This motivation "to continue trying" is a consequence the internal pressures generated by curiosity or challenge, both feelings of inadequacy. for the learning to occur entirely, a constant stimulation of the student's motivation necessary. To successfully keep the motivation, researchers develop new educationa proposals, like self-orientation and personal effectiveness as educational goals (Barrel 1995). This way, the students can make their own learning decisions, cultivating existing desire in all human beings: independence (Goodlad, 1984). Another important motivational factor is the relevance of learning. Students learn more effectively when wha they are being taught has direct relation with their reality, offering them a chance become agents of their own lives (Freire, 1996). "When professors add new information to the previous knowledge of the student, they activate his interest and curiosity, and apply their teachings with a sense of intention" (Presseisen, 1995). It is not enough, therefore, simply adopt the "natural waterfall" proposed by Schank. The teacher needs to show student that it is good to get your feet wet, "to climb the waterfall".

Sensorial Factors

Senses are open doors to information in the world. All our knowledge comes directly from the mechanisms that we possess to absorb reality and to represent it. As biological phenomenon, a human being has systems of perception capable of stimulating

guarantee the adaptation3 of the species. The quality of this perception varies from person to person, and from culture to culture. "To perceive is to know, through the senses objects and situations (...) the act of perceiving can also be characterized by the limitation of information. It is perceived according to a perspective. The possibility of apprehending the totality of the object only occurs in the imagination, which constitutes, on the other hand, a form of organization of the conscience internally protected against error"4. Under this definition, there are some hidden basic aspects of learning. One of them is the limitation on the amount and the quality of information that can be perceived. can easily be understood when we study, for example, Classic History. No matter hard we read about the subject, no book will be able to transmit the feelings, the odors the colors accurately, the social tensions and politics that existed at the time. Another aspect poses the question of perspective: one perceives what one wishes to perceive. practical learning, this means that it is of little value to insist on teaching a pupil whose basis of knowledge differs from the professor's, since his perspective of the subject another - it would be like trying to talk with a Chinese person without knowing how speak Chinese. In this case, according to the concept of perception by Penna, there is real perception of the object of study, but an inadequate mental construction that shelters the mind against error. In other words, "no human being (...) can dominate presented elements under a way not manageable by the nervous system" (Greenspan, 1999).

Intellectual Factors

For Piaget, all learning derives from mental relations of abstraction and balance. other words, the human being is constantly seeking the improvement of his higher reasoning capabilities. Thus, using mechanisms of assimilation, adjusting and adaptation people learn through their mistakes and victories, analyzing them through menta operations and grouping relations. This process is what Piaget calls balancing mechanism. It can also be included in the intellectual factors, the operations, the relations, groupings, the construction of schemes and the structuring, all according to Piaget. fact, such mental manipulations derive from the representation of reality that each one For Piaget, intelligence is constructed in continuous form, through processes of menta abstraction resulting from the relations between the individual and the object. These relations happen, in a higher form, as abstract operations that perceive reality associating mental structures and creating projects of assimilation of reality. That is where denomination of intellectual factors comes from: its effectiveness depends on the logical mathematical mental coordination, influenced by all the other factors, such as perception emotion and motivation. The importance of intellectual factors is as essential to determine the quality learning as all other factors. Some educators tend to place too much emphasis in intellectual aspects, forgetting, however, that these same factors depend upon a series external circumstances (Antunes, 1998; Gardner, 1995). In other words, it is important think, but the world is not only made of thoughts.

Learning, therefore, depends on a conjunction of dual factors, involving physica (sensorial and intellectual) and sensational (motivational and emotional) aspects, complex relations between themselves and the external environment: TOTAL LEARNING SPACE

MOTIVATION FACTORS

IN

L RN A TE

IZED LEARNIN G S PA C

E

EMOTIONAL FACTORS

INTELLECTUAL FACTORS SENSORIAL FACTORS

Figure 3: The interaction of factors in learning spaces

Figure 3 considers the existence of two learning spaces: one that is internalized where emotional and intellectual factors act more effectively; and a more general space that allows more complex interactions between the individual and the environment mediated by the motivational and sensorial factors. According to this reasoning, there no learning without all the factors being involved, in greater or smaller degree, in creation of knowledge (Greenspan, 1999).

The Virtual Environment

The optimization of such learning factors in an educational program technological bases facilitates a better exploitation of the studentés cognitive capabilities For this to occur, it would be necessary to build a virtual environment where the pupil motivated to join; where he could show initiatives and feel good about it; where he would interact, through his senses, with the object of study; and where he would be allowed guess the objectés rules, patterns of behavior, and its relations with his reality. Also would be important to let him make mistakes, and to construct his own "base knowledge" on the subject. Schank suggests several learning environments that make use of various cognitive strategies striving to construct these ideal conditions for learning. His architecture

student into exploring diverse possibilities, so he may build different perspectives on wha is being studied6. For an effective use of all the cognitive learning strategies, it is necessary develop an environment that permits interactions between factors as described in fig. Such environment needs to take in consideration not only the factors themselves, but their interactions, and to allow emotional, sensorial feedback or both, giving motivationa continuity to the learning process. It is important to remember that, as Piaget defends change is the natural state of the human being - we are in constant balancing process perceiving it as "a succession of the subjectés active compensations in response to exterior disturbances and to certain regulating factors, at the same time, of retroactive (ring systems or feedback) and anticipatory nature, constituting a permanent system of compensations" (Piaget, 1966). An environment of such nature can also be constructed in the Internet, using technologies of artificial intelligence and of broadband data communication. Todayés Internetés interactive nature allows the environment to supply the student with feedback, creating challenges, stimulating curiosity and offering perspective (motivationa factors). It also enables the creation of complex problems pertinent or adjacent to studentés object of study, leading him to use his logical-mathematical faculties and establish relations between premises (intellectual factors). The possibilities of contacting other people, or intelligent tutors themselves - something a virtual environment necessarily would have - gives the pupil the option of relaxation, of focusing on other areas exchanging experiences, and relief of any emotional tension inherent to the solution particularly difficult problems (emotional factors). Finally, the ample scope of available multimedia features makes the exchange of information possible between the environmen and the pupil using different senses, complementing and strengthening all importan content, calling for the use of several mental abilities7 (sensorial factors). The creation complete environment is already possible with the tools currently available by simply forming a multidisciplinary team and having appropriate financial support for the project.

Conclusions

Cognitive learning strategies can be understood as a conjunction of factors define a variety of interactive ways responsible for the amplitude of an individualés knowledge. The knowledge of such factors (emotional, motivational, sensorial intellectual) allows the educator to prepare all pedagogical content more efficiently and offer his students, effectively, a much better learning process. These factors are important in the creation of virtual environments. The experiences of Schank demonstrate the potential of a natural educational approach, but maintain the existence of these factors implicit. The realization of their existence could define a new methodology of work in construction of such environments, focused not only on natural learning, but also in interaction between emotional, sensorial, motivational and intellectual factors in 6

See also SCHANK, Roger & CLEARY, Chip. Engines for education. New Jersey (USA): Lawrence

formation of a permanent learning cycle, where the individual would be continuously motivated, moved, challenged, and sensorially interpellated, in a learning space full stimuli and feedback. Research in this area could find support in the theories of LeDoux, Goleman Greenspan, regarding the emotional and motivational factors; in the Gestalt theories and the biological foundations of the senses, for a more profound approach on sensoria aspects; in the studies of the cognitivists, like Piaget, Pinker and Pozo, about intellectual aspects; and in the works of scientists on artificial intelligence, like Dennet Schank and Minsky, among many others.

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