College Student’s Guide to Computers in Education/Chapter 6: Learning and Learning Theory



'''Links to the chapters of the book. You are currently reading Chapter 6.'''

Title Page

Preface

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Inventing Your Future

Chapter 3: Expertise and Problem Solving

Chapter 4: Human and Artificial Intelligence

Chapter 5: Computer-Assisted and Distance Learning

Chapter 6: Learning and Learning Theory

Chapter 7: Increasing Your Expertise in ICT

Chapter 8: Brief Introductions to A number of Key Ideas

Chapter 9: On the Lighter Side

References

Links to Sections of Chapter 6

=Beginning of Chapter 6: Learning and Learning Theory=

The previous chapter included some discussion about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and it emphasized the necessity of feedback in learning. These topics are part of learning theory.

ICT creates some new aids to learning and it creates some new challenges to learning. However, it does not obviate what was known about learning theory and good learning practices before computers became so readily available.

This chapter introduces topics that will be of considerable value to you during your college education and throughout the rest of your life. Most of the topics covered are quite general, rather than being specific to ICT. All of the ideas in this chapter have been discussed in books that I have written for elementary and secondary school teachers. For some reason, our educational system thinks that teachers should know about these ideas, but that they are not part of the regular curriculum for students who do not plan to become teachers. In my opinion, our educational system should include all of these topics in the curriculum that all students study.

Cognitive Developmental Theory
We know that the human brain changes quite rapidly during early years of life, and it continues to change at a significant rate until we are in our mid 20s. Thus, the brains of many younger college students have not yet reached their full maturity.

There has been a lot of research on how a person’s brain develops over time, and the capabilities of an average brain at different stages of this development.

Jean Piaget’s work on cognitive developmental theory has contributed greatly to our understanding of the stages of human development. (Huitt & Hummel, 2003). Piaget developed a theory of four-stage cognitive development that is still widely used. Figure 6-1 outlines the stages and developments Piaget proposed. As you study this scale, think about how well it describes your own cognitive development.

Figure 6-1. Piaget’s cognitive development scale.

A student’s rate of progress through the Piagetian developmental stages is dependent on both nature and nurture. Good and cognitively rich home, neighborhood, community, and school environments make a huge difference.

Formal operations is a broad concept. Each discipline tends to make up its own definition of what constitutes the achievement of formal operations within its own discipline. It takes education and experience to learn the vocabulary, notation, symbols, and methods of reasoning used in a specific discipline. We say that a person has achieved formal operations in a specific discipline when the person has achieved a reasonably high level of expertise in thinking and problem solving within the discipline.

Different disciplines use different vocabulary in talking about a person’s developmental level. In mathematics, for example, it is common to talk about a person’s level of math maturity. Indeed, college course descriptions sometimes indicate that math maturity is the prerequisite for a particular computer science, science, or math course. In essence, the requirement is that a student be at formal operations in math.

Having a high level of math maturity refers to having a high level of being able to represent problems mathematically, understand, think, reason in the language of mathematics, and solve challenging math problems within a realm of the math one has studied. Thus, it is appropriate to talk about a fifth grade student having a high level of math maturity relative to other fifth grade students.

Research in the past couple of decades indicates that movement into formal operations is not automatic. As Huitt and Hummel (2003) note:


 * Data from similar cross-sectional studies of adolescents do not support the assertion that all individuals will automatically move to the next cognitive stage as they biologically mature. Data from adult populations provides essentially the same result: Between 30 to 35% of adults attain the cognitive development stage of formal operations (Kuhn, Langer, Kohlberg & Haan, 1977). For formal operations, it appears that maturation establishes the basis, but a special environment is required for most adolescents and adults to attain this stage.

The correctness of the assertion that (only)30 percent to 35 percent of adults attain the cognitive development stage of formal operations certainly depends on how one defines and measures formal operations. One can find peer-reviewed papers assert that only about half of college students are at the level of formal operations, while other papers that assert that a much higher percentage of college students are at formal operations level. Moreover, a person may be at a formal operations level in one discipline area but not in another.

Thus, for example, a significant percentage of students taking a college algebra course have not yet achieved a level of formal operations in mathematics, even though they may have achieved that level in other components of cognitive development. When such students face the highly symbolic, logical, and abstract aspects of college algebra, their main recourse is rote memorization. This helps explain why so many students do not succeed in this course. The rote memorization approach does not help much in moving students toward achieving a formal operations cognitive level in mathematics.

From your specific point of view, it is important for you to know whether you have achieved formal operations in general, and whether you have achieved formal operations in specific disciplines that you are studying. You may well be able to self-assess, and make a relatively good guess at your level of a Piagetian developmental scale. If you find it necessary to use the memorize and regurgitate approach with little understanding, there is a good chance you are not at formal operations in the discipline you are studying.

I have spent quite a bit of time searching the Web for high quality, free, self-assessment Piagetian cognitive developmental instruments, both in general and in specific disciplines. I have not found instruments. However, the next section contains cognitive developmental scales for Math and for ICT. These may help you in determining your current level of cognitive development in these two areas.

Math and ICT Cognitive Development Scales
Figure 6-2 represents my current thinking on a six-level Piagetian-type scale for mathematics. It is an amalgamation and extension of ideas of Piaget and other researchers. Math is a deep discipline, with higher level content and ways of solving problems built upon lower level math. Notice that this discipline-specific scale has two additional levels above the traditional top level of formal operations on the Piagetian scale.

Figure 6-2. Six-stage mathematical cognitive developmental scale.

ICT is a large, vibrant, and rapidly growing field. The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has developed national educational technology standards for students, teachers, and school administrators. These standards have been widely adopted and serve to provide a good sense of direction for the ICT preparation of teachers and their students (ISTE NETS, n.d.).

Following the same line of reasoning that led to the math cognitive development scale given in Figure 6-2, I have been working on a five-stage ICT cognitive development scale. My current version is given in Figure 6-3.

Figure 6-3. ICT cognitive development and expertise scale.

Constructivism
The thinking activities in the previous section are based on a learning theory called constructivism. This theory posits that each learner builds knowledge (learns) by building upon his or her current knowledge.

Learning is a process of building neural connections that tie in with one’s current neural connections. Thus, one way to think about constructing new knowledge is to think in terms of growing new neural connections and strengthening current neural connections. However, the ideas of constructivism predate these current insights into brain science. It has long been recognized that new learning is built upon previously learned knowledge and skills. A poor education at any point along the path is a handicap to future learning. Thus, it behooves you to identify important deficiencies in your education and to spend time correcting these deficiencies

When you encountered the word discipline early in this book, your brain likely retrieved several possible meanings. As a child, likely your parents and other caregivers disciplined you. You may take a disciplined approach to certain activities in your life. You are working to develop your level of expertise in various disciplines. You selected an appropriate definition to fit with the context of the paragraph you were reading.

Later in your reading you came to a section that provided considerable more information that I find useful in relating the ideas of an academic discipline to ideas of problem solving and gaining expertise. You broadened your insights into academic discipline—you constructed new knowledge based on your current knowledge. You increased your ability to communicate with others and with the accumulated human knowledge about this topic.

When you encounter a new word or idea when reading an academic text, think in terms of what you need to learn to communicate with other people and with the collected knowledge of humans (for example, libraries), and what you need to learn to make effective use of the word or idea in your own personal life. Work to construct meaning that will serve you in communication and information retrieval, and that will serve you personally now and in the future. Work to build a rich vocabulary that is tied in with your overall knowledge, skills, and life experiences.

Situated Learning and Transfer of Learning
There is a substantial amount of research literature on learning theory—how people learn and how to help them learn. From a teacher point of view, learning theories help in the design of curriculum content, instructional processes, and assessment. From a student point of view, an increasing level of expertise in the overall learning process and various applicable learning theories leads to more efficient and effective learning. Both the teacher and student points of view are important to you, as you learn to teach yourself.

Situated Learning Theory
Situated learning is a theory stating that what you learn is highly dependent on the situation in which you learn it. Brown, Collins, and Duguid (1989), in a seminal article on situated learning, discuss the connections between learning and the learning environment.


 * Recent investigations of learning, however, challenge this separating of what is learned from how it is learned and used. The activity in which knowledge is developed and deployed, it is now argued, is not separable from or ancillary to learning and cognition. Nor is it neutral. Rather, it is an integral part of what is learned. Situations might be said to co-produce knowledge through activity. Learning and cognition, it is now possible to argue, are fundamentally situated.

Suppose, for example, that you grow up using the English system of measurements, and learn about the metric system in a math or science class. You then travel to a country where everybody uses the metric system. The chances are you will have considerable difficulty transferring your math and science classroom knowledge of the metric system into dealing with its everyday use during life in another country.

Situated learning theory helps to explain the value of apprenticeship types of education and training. In apprenticeship situations, the learner is engaged in hands-on activities that are closely related to the desired learning outcomes. For example, an apprentice carpenter gets to carry, measure, and saw wood. The apprentice gets to help put pieces of wood together to help form objects such as cabinets and shelving.

In summary, apprenticeships provide good illustrations of effective application of situated learning theory. An apprentice is provided with small-group or one-on-one instruction that is quite specific to the desired learning outcomes. This instruction occurs in a situation where the new learning is immediately used to do productive work. The instruction and the assessment are authentic. In many apprenticeship settings, the apprentice does sufficient work to cover or more than cover the cost of providing the individualized help.

Transfer of Learning
Transfer of learning is one of the most important ideas in education. It involves learning in a manner that facilitates retaining and using one’s learning in the future, as well as building future learning upon it. There are various theories about how to teach and how to learn in a manner that facilitates such transfer of learning. Here is a description of transfer of learning from David Perkins and Gavriel Salomon (1992), who provide an excellent, short overview of the field:


 * Transfer of learning occurs when learning in one context or with one set of materials impacts on performance in another context or with other related materials. For example, learning to drive a car helps a person later to learn more quickly to drive a truck, learning mathematics prepares students to study physics, learning to get along with one's siblings may prepare one for getting along better with others, and experience playing chess might even make one a better strategic thinker in politics or business. Transfer is a key concept in education and learning theory because most formal education aspires to transfer. Usually the context of learning (classrooms, exercise books, tests, simple streamlined tasks) differs markedly from the ultimate contexts of application (in the home, on the job, within complex tasks). Consequently, the ends of education are not achieved unless transfer occurs. Transfer is all the more important in that it cannot be taken for granted. Abundant evidence shows that very often the hoped-for transfer from learning experiences does not occur.

For many years, the prevailing theory of transfer of learning was quite simple. The actual transfer was called either near transfer or far transfer. In near transfer, one applied his or her learning to contexts and situations that were closely related to (near) the context and situation of the learning. In far transfer, the application was to contexts and situations that were rather different (far from) the learning context and situation. It was also common to first define near transfer and then define any learning that did not readily transfer as far transfer.

Perkins and Solomon (1992) describe this process further:


 * Near transfer refers to transfer between very similar contexts, as for instance when students taking an exam face a mix of problems of the same kinds that they have practiced separately in their homework, or when a garage mechanic repairs an engine in a new model of car, but with a design much the same as in prior models. Far transfer refers to transfer between contexts that, on appearance, seem remote and alien to one another. For instance, a chess player might apply basic strategic principles such as “take control of the center'” to investment practices, politics, or military campaigns. It should be noted that “near and “far are intuitive notions that resist precise codification. They are useful in broadly characterizing some aspects of transfer but do not imply any strictly defined metric of “closeness.”

The low-road/high-road theory of transfer of learning developed by Perkins and Solomon (1992) has proven quite useful in designing curriculum and instruction. In low-road transfer, one learns some facts and procedures to automaticity, somewhat in a stimulus-response manner. When a particular stimulus (a particular situation) is presented, the prior learning is evoked and used. The human brain is very good at this type of learning.

High-road transfer is based on learning some general-purpose strategies and applying them in a reflective manner. It focuses on critical thinking and understanding. Here is an example. When faced by a complex problem, try the strategy of breaking the complex problem into a number of smaller, less complex problems. This is called the divide-and-conquer strategy. If the resulting problems are simple enough, you may well be able to solve each of them by drawing upon your repertoire of memorized facts and procedures.

Here is a strategy for learning for high-road transfer of learning. When you encounter a new strategy within a course:
 * Identify the generalizable strategy that is being illustrated and used in a particular problem-solving or higher-order thinking situation.
 * Give the strategy a name that is both descriptive and easily remembered. (The divide and conquer strategy listed above is a good example.)
 * Identify a number of different examples in other disciplines and situations in which this named strategy is applicable. Practice using the strategy in these various situations.

An appendix in my book Introduction to Using Games in Education contains a large number of problem-solving strategies that are applicable over a wide range of problems (Moursund, 2006). The book illustrates high-road transfer of many of these strategies in the context of games and game playing.

Study Skills and Learning Styles
There has been a considerable amount of research to identify effective study skills and to help students learn to make effective use of their preferred learning styles.

Study Skills
Let’s begin with study skills. Undoubtedly you have developed personal strategies for when and how to study. You may have developed some techniques that help you to memorize a list—such as a list of names, a list of dates, or a list of spelling words and their definitions. However, there is a good chance that what you have discovered on your own does not adequately reflect the research on effective practices.

I recently used the search term “study skills” in a Google search, and got well over a million hits. When I selected one that looked like it might be interesting, I was pleasantly surprised with what I found (Virginia tech, n.d.). The site includes five short, free online study skills workshops. These are example of DL and CAL. It also contains discussions on 19 topics such as:


 * Where does time go? [Self-assessment]
 * Study skill checklist [Self-assessment]
 * Control of the study environment
 * Note taking—the Cornell System
 * Writing papers

Websites such as the one mentioned above tend to be rather general purpose. They do not focus on what is known about studying and leaning in a specific discipline such as history, math, or music. Clearly, there are significant differences in effective ways of studying math versus effective ways of studying music. For example, do a Google search on “study skills” math and on “study skills” music. Look at a few of the hits that seem relevant to you, and compare what is the same and what is different in effective study skills for these two different disciplines.

Many colleges and universities offer instruction on study skills. It may be worthwhile to take such a workshop or short course—if nothing else, than just to see what you know versus what the course designers and instructors think you should know.

After you do some reading and thinking about your study skills, you might want to ask a study skills question in each course you are taking. Ask the teacher what are some of the best research-based studying and learning methods in the specific discipline or course you are taking. If the teacher asks you to be more specific, ask about note taking or some other specific topic that is giving you trouble.

Note Taking
Taking notes during a class, making notes while reading materials for a class, and reviewing one’s notes has long been an important contribution to learning. There is a significant amount of research literature on note taking—the value of note taking, how to take notes, and how to use one’s notes. For example, quoting from DeZure and Deerman (2001):


 * Research on note taking indicates that taking notes in class and reviewing those notes (either in class or afterward) have a positive impact on student learning. Not surprisingly, the preponderance of studies confirms that students recall more lecture material if they record it in their notes (Bligh, 2000). Students who take notes score higher on both immediate and delayed tests of recall and synthesis than students who do not take notes (Kiewra et al., 1991). Moreover, the more students record, the more they remember and the better they perform on exams (Johnstone & Su, 1994). In summary, note taking facilitates both recall of factual material and the synthesis and application of new knowledge, particularly when notes are reviewed prior to exams.

There are a variety of ways to take notes. Perhaps you have not had formal instruction in effective note taking. If so, then the following quote from Prentice Hall (n.d.) should be of interest to you.


 * While almost all students in American education have been taught to take notes in outline form, recently it has been discovered this is not the most successful way to learn from notes. Learning information in a linear format is time-consuming and often highly unproductive. When you study, your overriding and primary goal should be to understand relationships between and among the topics and supporting detail. Thus, you need to employ a note taking system that helps you understand relationships. There are, in fact, a few different types of note-taking strategies you should use to record notes. We suggest four major strategies: maps, matrices, diagrams and cards. These strategies will help you identify important relationships among topics and supporting details. [Italics added for emphasis]

Learning Styles
My recent Google search of the quoted expression “learning style” produced over a million hits. The search identified many different Websites where students can take free tests to help determine their preferred learning style or styles.

Probably you know about the idea of aural, visual, and kinesthetic learning styles.


 * Visual learners learn through seeing.


 * Auditory learners learn through listening.


 * Tactile/kinesthetic learners learn through moving, doing, and touching.

It may well be that you learn better and faster in one of these learning styles than in the others. If so, try to take advantage of this in designing how you use your studying time.

Frank Coffield et al. (2004) offer a free report that analyzes 13 different learning styles from a teaching-and-learning point of view. The focus in this report is on students in “post-16” education in England, that is, students in educational programs designed for students over 16 years of age.

One of the 13 learning styles highlighted in the report is the Dunn and Dunn learning style instrument, which is described by Thompson and Mascazine (2003):

The model of learning styles created by Dunn, Dunn & Price (1979, 1980, 1990) comprises five major categories called stimuli. Within these five major categories are 21 different elements that influence our learning. Following are the five types of stimuli and the elements they comprise:


 * Environmental includes: light, sound, temperature, and room design.
 * Emotional includes: structured planning, persistence, motivation, and responsibility.
 * Sociological includes: pairs, peers, adults, self, group, and varied.
 * Physical includes: perceptual strengths, mobility, intake, and time of day.
 * Psychological includes: global/analytic, impulsive/ reflective, and right- or left-brain dominance.

Thus, if you want to delve into your personal learning styles more deeply, you will want to explore in some detail how each of these five categories of stimuli affect your learning.

Finally, consider the following quote, again from Thompson and Mascazine (2003):


 * But perhaps the greatest benefit from attending to learning styles in mathematics or science education is that of placing more responsibility for learning on the students themselves. Students who discover and understand their personal learning styles can and often do apply such information with great success and enthusiasm. (Griggs, 1991) Thus, attending to learning styles can be an ongoing consideration and aid in attacking new or difficult learning situations and the processing of information.


 * … And while many elements of individual learning styles may be obvious to educators, students may not be aware or appreciative of them. Thus it is important for educators to help individual students discover, utilize, and appreciate their own unique learning styles. [Italics added for emphasis]

The point is you have your own unique learning styles. They differ from subject to subject. In addition, they may also differ over time. Through study and practice, you can become a more efficient and effective learner.

Reading Speed and Comprehension
Do you know answers to the following questions?


 * How fast do you read in different subject areas?


 * What is your level of comprehension when your are reading in different subject areas?


 * What is your online reading speed as compared to your off line (reading from hardcopy) reading speed?

Many Websites can help you determine your general reading speed and level of comprehension. I enjoyed the site ReadingSoft.com (2000). This site indicates that on average, people read about 25% slower from a computer screen than when reading hardcopy from good quality paper. I also enjoyed the self-assessment at https://rocketreader.com/cgi-bin/portal/fun_tests/perception.

There are a lot of Websites that focus on speed-reading. Many claim that you can increase both your speed and comprehension. Quoting from the Wikipedia:


 * Speed reading is a collection of methods of reading which attempt to attain higher rates of reading without unacceptable reduction of comprehension or retention. Such methods include using various psychological techniques such as chunking and eliminating subvocalization.


 * Some reading research has indicated that instructing a group or class of readers to speed up their reading rate will increase reading comprehension to a limited degree. … However, this is only true to up to a point. When reading rate is increased to beyond the reading for comprehension rate (over approximately 400 wpm), comprehension will drop to an unacceptable level (below 50% comprehension) as measured on standardized reading tests (Cunningham et al 1990).

I wonder if the “below 50% comprehension” statement in the above quotation bothers you. If I am reading a mystery novel and have such a low comprehension level, I will likely have less fun reading the book and I may well not be able to figure out “who done it.” If I am reading a college textbook and have less than a 50% comprehension rate, I suspect that I am going to have a hard time passing the course.

These speed and comprehension results are missing ideas from the theory of constructivism. While reading, you construct knowledge by building on what you already know. If you already know a great deal about the topic you are reading, you can skim, looking only for new ideas. This allows a high rate of speed and a high level of comprehension. Indeed, it is likely that you will score quite high on a comprehension test without even reading the material.

If, however, the material contains content that you know relatively little about, then your brain is faced by a very challenging constructivist task. You do not have a strong foundation to build upon, and you do not have a good basis for picking out the new, important ideas. In this situation, you will likely need to read at a very slow rate and spend a lot of time reflecting and rereading in order to achieve a reasonable level of comprehension. The important message is that you should adjust your reading speed to fit the particular discipline you are studying and to fit the amount of new information you are encountering.

Learning More About Yourself
There are a huge number of different self-assessment tests available on the Web However, as Albert Einstein said, “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” Here are some examples of some things that can be counted (measured):
 * A Google search of the unquoted expression free self-assessment test produced more than a million hits.


 * A Google search of “free IQ test” and produced over 3 million hits. I found a reasonable level of consistency in my personal results from several of these tests. See, for example, http://giqtest.com/html/giqtestStart.html.


 * A Google search of “free Emotional Intelligence test” produced well over a million hits. For example, see http://www.ihhp.com/testsite.htm.


 * A Google search on "free personality test" produced more than 300,000 hits.


 * A Google search on "free career test" produced well over a million hits.

Summary and Self-Assessment
There has been substantial research in learning and learning theory. Some of this research is important to curriculum developers and teachers. It is also important to students.

One of your goals should be to learn about yourself as a learner. Learn your relative strengths and weaknesses. Learn to take advantage of your strengths, and work to overcome your weaknesses.

Another of your goals should be to get better at being your own teacher and in helping others to learn. Spend some time thinking about when and how you help others learn. Assess your skills in this area.

In each course that you take, figure out what works best for you in learning the material, what is an appropriate reading speed, how to self-assess your progress, and how to learn for transfer of learning. Analyze your current cognitive developmental level within the discipline, and think about what you can be doing to increase your cognitive developmental level.

Think back over some of the important ideas in this chapter. Select one that seems particularly important to you. Then analyze it from the point of view of your current level of ICT knowledge and skills.

'''Links to the chapters of the book. You are currently reading Chapter 6.'''

Title Page

Preface

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Inventing Your Future

Chapter 3: Expertise and Problem Solving

Chapter 4: Human and Artificial Intelligence

Chapter 5: Computer-Assisted and Distance Learning

Chapter 6: Learning and Learning Theory

Chapter 7: Increasing Your Expertise in ICT

Chapter 8: Brief Introductions to A number of Key Ideas

Chapter 9: On the Lighter Side

References