Cognitivism

More and more electronic textbooks are being developed by textbook publishers. How do you think an electronic textbook should be organized, and what instructional strategies should be embedded, that would help learners encode new textbook information so that it can easily be retrieved? Describe a textbook chapter including embedded activities, strategies, supplements, and text manipulations that would help facilitate learning, from a cognitive perspective.

Sometime in the middle of last week a story appeared about a doorman who was dismissed because of bad breath. The story received a great deal of attention, far more attention than is due a story about bad breath.

I first heard this story on the radio, in my car on the way to school. Later in the day I noticed a headline in the New York Post, the primary source for all things crude and salacious. I glanced at the article without really registering any of the information. That evening, while watching the TV news with my wife, I saw a story about the doorman who was suspended for a single day by the management company that operates the building where he has worked for the last 20 years. Because the man in question lives in Brooklyn, not far from where I live myself, the story caught my attention. When I finished watching the report I could identify the doorman, the building where he worked, and locate his house, all facts that I had not retained from either the radio report or the newspaper article.

Why is it that I learned from the TV report but not from the radio or newspaper? According to cognitive theory I learned because I was able to move facts from my sensory memory, through working memory and in to long-term memory. This happened when I paid more careful attention to the information provided by my senses, primarily because I connected that information to my existing knowledge.

The idea that learners learn because they add meaning to certain parts of the constant stream of information supplied by the senses, and they add that meaning because they connect facts to prior knowledge, is important to those who design instructional materials like textbooks. As we move towards an age where technology provides new vehicles for the transfer of information there are exciting new possibilities for textbook designers.

Much attention is paid to the differences in learning styles, but traditional textbooks have only been able to accommodate visual learners, specifically readers. The electronic textbook allows for the inclusion of video and audio so that learners who devote attention to those senses can have information delivered through the sense to which they are most likely to attend. In the meaningful electronic textbook text would be just one of many sources of information.

The real advantage to the well structured electronic textbook would be in its ability to consistently point towards prior knowledge and experience and thereby assist learners in attaching the value to information that moves that information from working memory to long-term memory. Concept mapping would be a key element to the electronic textbook so that learners could create a visible scaffold from prior knowledge to new ideas. Learners could customize instruction to match with prior knowledge and experience. The electronic math textbook could use information provided by the student to generate word problems that connect to real world experience in the areas of interest to the student.

The advantages of this kind of presentation extend to all subjects. Students in English could use photostory to add their own images to the stories they read and establish a visual connection to the text. Social Studies students learning about other parts of the world could see, hear and feel those places by communicating with people from those places. These are the kinds of experiences that students are sure to remember.

Steve F's Blog

Constructivism

Constructivist theory is the final repudiation of the notion that teachers can somehow ‘feed’ information to students. It deprives teachers of the ready excuse, “I don’t know why students performed badly on the test. I taught them everything they needed to know.” Constructivism recognizes that students build new knowledge through prior knowledge and experience. That knowledge is made meaningful because it springs from student interest.
I tried to develop a constructivist approach when teaching students about Federalism and the ratification of the Constitution. History presents a unique challenge to those who would employ a constructivist approach. Students are asked to build knowledge starting from their own experience, but that knowledge regards the experience of others. Events from hundreds or even thousands of years ago are often remote to today’s students. Meaningful connections are often difficult.
In these lessons I tried to relate the concept of Federalism to the experience of students while at school. I asked students to detail the different social structures in which they participated while at school. Students recognized that they were simultaneously part of a class and the greater school. I then asked students to identify the benefits of belonging to each group, and asked them to consider how the laws for each group might be made. From there the parallels to state and federal government, the separation of powers, and other concepts key to understanding this period in U.S. history were clear. This kind of presentation made these concepts meaningful, and that meaning helped retention.
To use a true constructivist approach I would now give more attention to scaffolding in its many manifestations. Conceptual scaffolds could map key ideas. Metacognitive scaffolds would provide a variety of perspectives on the approach to these problems. Procedural scaffolds would organize resource and help to plan the meaningful use of those resources. Strategic scaffolding would provide a problem solving context and allow students to absorb key concepts within that context.

Faulty Construction...

I've been reading, and with no small interest, many of the recommended materials on constructivism. I've read some things more than once because each time I do, I have the same sort of peculiar experience. I read and line by line I find nothing objectionable. I even find some things that make me want to stand up and cheer, "These are noble sentiments." But I get to the end and I think there's something wrong here; this is intellectual sloppiness.
As I understand it, constructivism is based on the recognition of the learners role in creating knowledge. It comes off like a repudiation of an imagined idea of how education used to be. Any well intentioned educator would surely agree that the old school model, where the teacher (the giver) stands before the class (the receivers) and through erudite lecture is able to fill those students with wisdom, does not apply to our world. One wonders if it ever did. Little matter, because we know better now. Our classrooms are learner centered. We allow students to cultivate their interests and thereby create their own knowledge. They made it. They own it. Great.
Here the thing; while we can all appuald the way in which a learner's unique experiences go towards building his or her inventory of knowledge, we're wrong in assuming that each learner "constructs" knowledge. There's a word for each learner's unique consciousness. It's called subjectivity. The process by which individuals come to knowledge is subjective. Knowledge itself is not.
I can offer easy proof. How many of us, when grading a test or quiz, have written 100 on top of every paper, thinking that if each learner constructs knowledge on their own, no one can be wrong? Who has encountered the student who, because of her/his unique experiences, determined that 2+2+5? Knowledge is objective.

I hope that this will post properly. These reflections are a test to see if I'm labelling correctly. I've given a great deal of thought to what I hope to accomplish through this program and I could probably fill this blog with this one post. I won't do that, though.
In brief;
I hope to be able to use technology in a meaningful and engaging way. I want to do more than just read off a power point presentation. I want to instill a belief in my students that they are part of an incredible moment, one in which incredible amounts of information are immeadiately accessible. I want to broaden the world in which my students live. I want to foster communication and understanding. I want to explore the relationship between gaming and learning and make learners of my gamers.
And if I can do all this in the first semester, I can really get busy.

Is this thing on???