Situated Cognition For Personal Use

Situated cognition Looking at the basis of scenariobased instruction

How should we talk about teaching or instruction? • • • • •

Do we impart knowledge? Do we direct and guide learners? Do we shape the learning process? Do we represent knowledge? Do we create an environment for learning?

What is a pedagogical approach? • We need to examine our attitudes and conceptions of the teaching process. • What are our expectations from how we were taught? • What concepts or theories of teaching are comfortable for us?

Examining Pedagogy • Derived from the Greek words for – child ( pais → paed → ped ) – leader ( agogos )

• Has come to mean the art and science of teaching. – as art it is the application of techniques for effectively imparting knowledge. – as science it is a body of organized concepts and principles for guiding the instructional process.

Androgogy • Suggested by Malcom Knowles [ (1970). The Modern Practice of Adult Education. Association Press, New York.

• Derived from Greek words for – man ( andro ) – leader ( agogos )

• Approaches for teaching children not appropriate for teaching adults.

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What do you want as adult learners?

Four assumptions of adult learners Based on Knowles

• • • •

Self-directed Experiences are a resource for learning Learning based on social roles Learning is problem-oriented and immediate

Being self-directed • Adult learners see themselves as producers or doers • They value their performance as workers • As such they want to be involved in the learning process through self-evaluation – need a model of ideal performance – need diagnostic experiences – need help with comparing current performance with desired performance

Use prior experience • New learning has meaning as it can relate to prior experience • Use approaches that tap prior experience – – – –

case studies role playing simulation skill exercises

• Emphasize practical application

Social context for learning • Adult readiness to learn is tied to social roles – – – –

first job managing a home career development civic responsibilities

• Cultural setting – professional community – organizational community

Orientation to learn • • • •

Concerns of one’s organization Concerns of one’s job Concerns of one’s career Problem focused – “subjects” are subsumed under practical concerns – future problems or concerns need to be articulated

Teaching for adults Return to the question: “How should we look at adult learning?”: • Imparting knowledge to learners, or as • Guiding the studies of learners, or as • Creating learning environments • Or as all three

Evolving perspective of instructional design • Analysis of a discipline • Analysis of outcomes • Analysis of learning situations

Analysis of a discipline • Traditional view going back to Aristotelian concepts of the mind – mind is a “tabla rasa” – reality is out there to know

• Need to properly represent content that permits development of efficient and effective instructional sequences • Focus on stimulus conditions

Associative learning

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Influences of associative learning • Importance of stimulus conditions • Conditions of learning – specific conditions lead to specific learning outcomes • Prerequisite knowledge • Direct instruction to convey ideas

Analysis of outcomes • Behavioral outcomes – elicit desired responses or actions – no assumptions about mental processes – focus on the results of responding

• Thinking (cogntive) outcomes – Mental operations – Mental representation

Behavioral learning Consequences

Action

Influences of behaviorist approach • Focus on desired behavior – behavioral objectives • Complex tasks are broken into smaller tasks to be mastered separately • Minimize errors • Immediate reinforcement of correct behavior • Learning by doing, repeated practice

Cognitive learning

Influences of information processing approach • Expert vs. Novice knowledge and performance strategies • Task/content representations – Flowcharts, concept maps, etc.

• Managing memory load – chunking information, sequencing instruction

• Elaboration – creating links to prior knowledge

Situated cognition

Instruction

embedded in an authentic situation

results in meaningful learning

Analysis of learning situations • Learning is a combination of physical, cognitive and social factors • Knowledge derives from the relation of an individual and a social or physical situation • Rather than an objective reality out there, there is a constructed reality in the mind • Learning derives from participation in the practices of the culture

Learning is the consequence of A complex interplay between variability in the individual and variability in the environment

Situated learning • Cognitive Apprenticeship • Communities of Practice/Stories • Authentic Practice – tools and artifacts

• Reflection • Multiple Practice

Cognitive apprenticeship • Layers situated cognition onto other forms of learning – – – –

Content Methods Sequence Sociology

Implementing cognitive apprenticeship

Implementing cognitive apprenticeship

Communities of practice/ stories “ Legitimate peripheral participation serves to help learners develop a holitic view of what the community of practice is about, and what there is to learn within that community. Opportunities for learning are structured by the requirements of work, rather than teacher-student relations.” [ Orey, M.A. and Nelson, W.A. (1997), The impact of situated cognition: Instructional design paradiagms in transistion. In C. Dills and A.J. Romiszowski (eds.) Instructional Design Paradigms. Educational Technology Publications, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. p. 284 ]

Authentic and multiple practice • Captures the variability of situations • Promotes seeing the problem from different points of view • Provides for sustained exploration of various parts of a problem

Implications for instructional design • Learning environments are created as open systems – permit exploration – have multiple representations of application

• Create rather then design situations (scenarios) – provide an orientation toward action – actions unfold into other actions controlled by the learner rather than the system

Summary • Other viewpoints of learning and instruction are still valid • Those approaches can be embedded in a learning environment of authentic practice as part of the learning resources • Knowledge derived from situations presumed to be more robust than that which is decontextualized and represented in the abstract

Exploring learning scenarios Using scenario-based CAL modules, identify characteristics of these learning environments.