Martindale Outline

AECT Orlando, October 22, 2005

The Role of Design and Technology in a New Paradigm of Education

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I’m going to briefly summarize what we know about learning as indicated from brain-based research. Then I will discuss twelve key principles about learners and learning environments based on the psychological research knowledge base, and then what implications these principles have for instructional designers and instructional technologists. What methods, processes, and tools we need.

I. What we know about learning (brain-based learning, learning theory).

Principles of brain-based learning

Caine, R.N., & Caine, G. (1997). Education on the Edge of Possibility. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Biology is taught in schools, but the biology of the students themselves is ignored, in terms of how their brains develop and retain knowledge.

What time should school start? What age to learn languages? What about music, exercise, and recreation? What about the learner’s emotional connection to subjects?

Caine and Caine (1991) Making Connections.

1. The brain is a complex adaptive system.

a. functions on many levels simultaneously (parallel processing)

b. thoughts, emotions, imagination, predispositions, physiology interact

c. examining the parts alone doesn’t explain the system

2. The brain is a social brain.

a. we are highly impressionable in early life, and our brain/mind continues to change in response to engagement with others

b. our identity, and learning, is profoundly influenced by social relationships

3. The search for meaning is innate.

a. we want to make meaning

b. this drive is lifelong

c. we ask, “Who am I”, “Why am I here?”

4. The search for meaning occurs through “patterning”.

a. the brain/mind creates patterns, schematic maps, categories

b. the brain is both scientist and artist

i. the brain attempts to discern patterns, while also giving expression to unique and creative patterns

c. we register the familiar, and seek the novel

d. the brain/mind resists meaninglessness—isolated pieces of information

5. Emotions are critical to patterning.

a. emotions and thoughts shape each other, and cannot be separated

b. the emotional impact of a lesson can reverberate long after the event

6. Every brain simultaneously perceives and creates parts and wholes.

a. “left-brained”, “right-brained”, but both hemispheres function simultaneously

7. Learning involves both focused attention and peripheral perception.

a. “peripheral signals” can be very potent—unconscious signals that reveal our inner attitudes and beliefs have great influence

b. The late George Burns said that the key to being a great actor was sincerity. Once you can fake that you have it made.

8. Learning always involves conscious and unconscious processes.

a. understanding may not occur during a class, but hour, or weeks, later

b. teachers must incorporate opportunities for reflection and metacognition

c. this is one thing I appreciate about blogging—reflection, metacognition, patterns, categories. I can see my thinking and others’ as well.

9. We have at least two ways of organizing memory.

a. There are a number of memory models

b. O’Keefe and Nadel (1978)

i. taxonomic – systems for recalling unrelated information, motivated by reward and punishment

ii. Locale – spatial/autobiographical. Allows for instant recall of experiences. Always engaged, inexhaustible, motivated by novelty.

10. Learning is developmental.

a. in some ways, the brain is pliable, and shaped by experiences

b. in early life there are windows of opportunity to do some hard wiring—music, arts, languages

c. no limit to growth. Neurons can make and strengthen connections throughout life

11. Complex learning is enhanced by challenge and inhibited by threat.

a. we learn optimally in a challenging environment that encourages taking risks

b. under threat we “downshift” and revert to primitive attitudes and procedures.

c. Environment should be relaxed alertness. High challenge, low threat.

d. Genuine learning requires change. Stress and anxiety over change is to be expected. Threat comes from fatigue or helplessness.

12. Every brain is uniquely organized.

a. different genetics

b. different experiences

For further reading, see Chapter 5, “Mind and Brain,” in Bransford, Brown & Cocking (Eds.), How People Learn

II. Twelve Principles about Learners and Learning

In 1990 the American Psychological Association commissioned a special Task Force to do two things:

1. Determine how the psychological knowledge base related to learning, motivation, and individual differences could contribute directly to improving student achievement.
2. Provide guidance on the design of educational systems that best support student achievement.

McCombs & Whisler, (1997). The Learner-Centered Classroom and School: Strategies for Increasing Student Motivation and Achievement.

Twelve Principles about Learners and Learning

Metacognitive factors

1. The nature of the learning process. Learning is a natural process--active, volitional, and internally mediated; the process of discovering and constructing meaning from information and experience, filtered through the learner’s unique perceptions, thoughts, and feelings.

2. Goals of the learning process. The learner seeks to create meaningful, coherent representations of knowledge regardless of the quantity and quality of data available.

3. The construction of knowledge. The learner links new information with existing and future-oriented knowledge in uniquely meaningful ways.

4. Higher-order thinking. Higher-order strategies for “thinking about thinking”—for overseeing and monitoring mental operations—facilitate creative and critical thinking and the development of expertise.

Affective Factors

5. Motivational influences on learning. The depth and breadth of information processed, and what and how much is learned and remembered, are influenced by:

a. Self-awareness and beliefs about personal control, competence, and ability

b. Clarity and saliency of personal values, interests, and goals

c. Personal expectations for success or failure

d. Affect, emotion, and general states of mind

e. The resulting motivation to learn

6. Intrinsic motivation to learn. Individuals are naturally curious and enjoy learning, but intense negative cognitions and emotions (shyness, insecurity, fear of failure, punishment, or ridicule) thwart this enthusiasm.

7. Characteristics of motivating-enhancing learning tasks. Curiosity, creativity, and higher-order thinking are stimulated by relevant, authentic learning tasks of optimal difficulty and novelty for each student.

Developmental Factors

8. Developmental constraints and opportunities. Individuals progress through stages of physical, intellectual, emotional, and social development that are a function of unique genetic and environmental factors.

Personal and Social Factors

9. Social and cultural diversity. Learning is facilitated by social interactions and communication with others in flexible diverse, and adaptive instructional settings.

10. Social acceptance, self-esteem, and learning. Learning and self-esteem are heightened when individuals are in respectful and caring relationships with others who see their potential, genuinely appreciate their unique talents, and accept them as individuals.

Individual Differences

11. Individual differences in learning. Although basic principles of learning, motivation, and effective instruction apply to all learners, learners have different capabilities and preferences for learning mode and strategies. These difference are a function of environment and heredity.

12. Cognitive filters. Personal beliefs, thoughts, and understandings resulting from prior learning and interpretations become the individual’s basis for constructing reality and interpreting life experiences.

For further information, see Chapter 4, “How Children Learn,” in Bransford, Brown & Cocking (Eds.), How People Learn

III. Implications for instructional design, and for technological tools and processes

Reigeluth & Joseph (2002). Beyond technology integration: The case for technology transformation. Educational Technology, 42 (4), 9-13.

A. Implications for instructional design

Need for and description of learner-centered methods for basic skills and higher-level learning via:

1. Self-directed learning
1. Learners participate in deciding what to learn and how to learn it)
2. Problem- and project-based learning
1. (authentic, or at least meaningful, tasks)
3. Collaborative learning
4. Mastery learning
1. (attainment-based rather than time-based)
5. Customized rather than standardized
1. both what to learn and how to learn it

B. Implications for technological process and tools

Need for tools to customize instruction

1. A tool to keep track of what each individual has learned / attained (inventory of attainments)

2. A tool to help decide what to learn next

(what is within reach, leaving some choice for learner) and to help form small teams of learners to collaborate on learning it.

3. Tools to help learn it – goal-based scenarios, simulations, virtual worlds, games, web search tools, tutorials or intelligent tutors, even drills;

tools for team building;

tools to promote quality feedback from peers or others (all utilizing the methods discussed earlier)

4. Tools to help assess learning – criterion-based adaptive testing, computer-based observation rubrics for live performances, rubrics for non-standard and non-digital products

5. Tools to interface all the above tools

Technology can’t reach its potential without systemic change (to customized learning), and systemic change can’t reach its potential without technology.

Questions for panel and audience:

Reach consensus on the differences between learner-centered instruction and current practice in your respective contexts.

What features or tools would you need in order to support learner-centered instruction.