ED470032 2002-10-00 How People Learn
(and What Technology Might Have To Do
with It). ERIC Digest.
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How People Learn (and What Technology Might Have To Do with It).
ERIC Digest................................................................... 1
LEARNING OCCURS IN CONTEXT........................................ 2
LEARNING IS ACTIVE........................................................ 3
LEARNING IS SOCIAL........................................................ 4
LEARNING IS REFLECTIVE................................................. 5
A FEW PARTING THOUGHTS...............................................6
REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING................................6
ERIC Identifier: ED470032
Publication Date: 2002-10-00
Author: Driscoll, Marcy P.
Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Information and Technology Syracuse NY.
How People Learn (and What Technology
Might Have To Do with It). ERIC Digest.
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At an educational conference last spring, I attended a session focused on the potential
of instructional technology to transform teaching and learning in schools. One of the
speakers told a story about his 14-year-old son who, like himself, loved technology toys
and always had to have the latest and greatest new thing to come on the market. One
day, this son went to school after downloading to his Palm Pilot[TM] the program from
the TV remote control. Then in one of his classes, the boy used the program to turn on
and off the television in the corner of the room. The teacher was understandably
annoyed, and when she figured out who the culprit was, she hauled him off to the
principal's office demanding that the principal "do something!" At this point in the story,
the speaker paused and asked the audience to consider what an appropriate response
by the principal might be. Surely, this was a teachable moment, for teacher and student.
Although many of us are regular users of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), we are
only beginning to imagine how the technology might be used in the service of teaching
and learning. So what did the principal do? He banned it!
I offer this story not to malign the principal, but to argue that technology integration in
schools is not easy to achieve, no matter how much evidence we have that it can help
learning. It's also important to integrate technology appropriately, as critics are quick to
point out that computers, besides being expensive, can harm young children who sit for
hours in front of them instead of being engaged in the "real world" (Alliance for
Childhood, 2000). So what is known about how people learn and the role technology
may play in their learning? How might that knowledge provide guidelines for appropriate
uses of technology that can help students and teachers? Four broad principles offer a
framework to teachers for thinking about how technology can support their instruction:
* Learning occurs in context.
* Learning is active.
* Learning is social.
* Learning is reflective.
LEARNING OCCURS IN CONTEXT
Read the following sentence: "The notes were sour because the seams split." What
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does it mean? Chances are that you found the sentence confusing, even though all the
words are common and familiar. Now consider that the sentence is describing bagpipes
and read it again. I suspect it makes much better sense now. Without an appropriate
context, comprehension and learning are difficult and unlikely to succeed very well.
Keep in mind, however, that learners will attempt to make sense of anything unfamiliar,
just as you attempted to make sense of that sentence. When they do so, they draw
upon prior understandings and experience, but the meanings they construct may be
quite different from what was intended if they cannot activate an appropriate context for
learning. "Children are ignorant but not stupid: Young children lack knowledge, but they
do have abilities to reason with the knowledge they understand" (National Research
Council, 2000, p. 234).
Technology can facilitate learning by providing real world contexts that engage learners
in solving complex problems (Duffy & Cunningham, 1996; Honebein, 1996; & Cognition
and Technology Group at Vanderbilt, 1992). The Jasper Woodbury Problem Solving
Series (Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt, 1997), for example, is an
interactive video environment that presents mathematical problems through the
adventures of a boy named Jasper. In each episode, Jasper faces a challenge, such as
figuring out how much fuel is needed to fly an ultra-light aircraft into a remote area to
rescue a stranded eagle. Students must apply important concepts in mathematics to
solve Jasper's challenge. Because the video adventures are interesting, students are
drawn into them. Because the challenges are complex, students engage in problem
solving for extended periods of time. And because the episodes are designed to be
sequential and build upon previously acquired skills, students learn to transfer what they
know to new and unfamiliar problems.
Computer simulations and computer-based micro worlds also offer appropriate contexts
for learners to explore and come to understand complex phenomena in a variety of
subject areas (Rieber, 1996). For example, the popular SimCity enables learners to
explore what it's like to build and manage aspects of a city, and with the Voyage of the
Mimi, students can explore sea life and solve problems while learning about whales.
LEARNING IS ACTIVE
Tell me, I forget.
Show me, I remember.
Involve me, I understand.
Chinese proverb
This proverb illustrates well the importance of getting learners mentally involved in
learning activities, generating connections between what they already know and what
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they are being asked to learn and constructing meaning from their experiences. When
students become active participants in the knowledge construction process, the focus of
learning shifts from covering the curriculum to working with ideas (Scardamalia, 2002).
And using technology tools "to think with" facilitates working with ideas and learning
from that process.
Technology tools provide "the means through which individuals engage and manipulate
both resources and their own ideas" (Hannafin, Land, & Oliver, 1999, p. 128). Some
kinds of technology tools can extend memory and make thinking visible. Good
examples include brainstorming and concept mapping software such as Inspiration(r).
Others help to represent knowledge and facilitate communication. For instance, the
Collaborative Visualization or CoVis Project provides visualization software designed to
help students collect and analyze climatological data and visualize effects due to
greenhouse gases and other phenomena (e.g., Pea et al., 1997). Finally, some tools,
like simulations mentioned above, enable learners to experiment with modeling complex
ideas. NetLogo, for example, provides a programmable modeling environment for
simulating natural and social phenomena, such as how segregated neighborhoods can
arise, not from any specific bias, but from the simple desire of people to live near others
who are like themselves.
LEARNING IS SOCIAL
Teachers have long recognized the value of having students work together in a group to
accomplish some types of learning tasks. Students benefit from hearing perspectives
other than their own, and they may bring different strengths to a complex and lengthy
activity. However, a social theory of learning reflects a fundamentally different view,
where knowledge "is a matter of competence with respect to valued enterprises" and
knowing "is a matter of participating in the pursuit of such enterprises" (Wenger, 1998,
p. 4). Learning, then, amounts to increasing participation in and contribution to the
practices of a social community. Concepts such as knowledge building, apprenticeship,
and mentoring become paramount, as learners are conceived to be under the tutelage
of more experienced peers or instructors.
A social view of learning focuses attention on making connections among students
within a school and between students in the school and the broader community. How
can modern technologies support and enhance these connections?
CSILE (or Computer-Supported Intentional Learning Environment; Scardamalia &
Bereiter, 1994) is one example of software that supports a networked, multimedia
environment in which students collaborate on learning activities. They do this by
creating 'notes' to express their ideas or integrate outside information about a topic.
Then they read and respond to the notes of others, all of which builds a communal
database producing shared knowledge about the topic or problem.
The effects of CSILE have been notably positive, with students performing better on
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standardized tests than their non-CSILE counterparts. CSILE students also
demonstrate greater depth in their explanations. At a conference reporting some of the
CSILE findings, Marlene Scardamalia read a few notes posted in one class's database
and challenged the audience to determine who wrote them - a fourth grader, a college
student, or a scientist. I sat in the back of the auditorium and watched most of the hands
go up as people thought the notes must have been written by at least a college student,
if not a scientist. In all cases, however, the notes were written by fourth grade students
in response to the notes and questions of their peers.
With migration to the Internet, CSILE, now known as Knowledge Forum, facilitates
connections between schools and the scientific community, allowing practicing
scientists to serve as mentors to students. Other projects, such as Kids as Global
Scientists, also bring students and various experts together in virtual communities
through Internet links. Such "a dialogue-based approach to learning creates a rich
intellectual context, with ample opportunities for participants to improve their
understanding and become more personally involved in explaining scientific
phenomena" (National Research Council, 2000, p. 226).
LEARNING IS REFLECTIVE
In one of the graduate courses I teach on emerging theories of learning, I want students
to experience the implications of the ideas they are studying. Thus, they might be
required to work in a group, participate in a class project, contribute to a
knowledge-building enterprise, and so on. Several times during the semester, I ask
students to reflect on their own learning, the functioning of their group, and the
operation of the class. A few years ago, early in the semester, students complained so
much about aspects of the course that I brought up the issues in class (usually their
reflections are confidential and sent to me by e-mail). One individual who was a fifth
grade teacher said, "Cooperative learning is fine for kids. But I'm an adult! My learning
shouldn't have to depend on anyone else." As we discussed further how others felt
about learning in a group, the same individual spoke up again, this time rather
bemused. She said, "Maybe I'm reacting the same way my fifth graders do when I try
something new with them." It was an important insight for her that was prompted by
deliberate reflection of the class on what it means and feels like to work in a learning
group.
Learning is facilitated when students get feedback about their thinking, whether that
feedback comes from within, a teacher, or a peer. Then provided the opportunity for
revision, students can achieve at higher levels and reach deeper understandings.
Technologies that promote communication within and outside the classroom make it
easier for feedback, reflection, and revision to occur. Many of the technology examples
presented above facilitate reflection in the dialogue that they promote among learners.
Where dialogue or discussion is not inherent in the tool, teachers bear the responsibility
of initiating and guiding it.
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A FEW PARTING THOUGHTS
Technology by itself does not guarantee learning. Rather, it is in how teachers and
students use available technologies that determines whether transformative learning
happens. Educators can respond to the challenge like the principal who banned PDAs
from his school. Or they can explore the power of technology to help learners achieve
important outcomes. Understanding principles of learning is a good way to begin.
REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING
Alliance for Childhood. (2000). Fools' gold: A critical look at computers and childhood.
Available online: http://www.allianceforchildhood.net/projects/computers/computers
reports_fools_gold_contents.htm
Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt. (1992). The Jasper experiment: An
exploration of issues in learning and instructional design. Educational Technology
Research & Development, 40, 65-80.
Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt. (1997). The Jasper project: Lessons in
curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional development. Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Driscoll, M. P. (2000). Psychology of learning for instruction (2nd ed.). Needham
Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Duffy, T. M., & Cunningham, D. J. (1996). Constructivism: Implications for the design
and delivery of instruction. In D. H. Jonassen (Ed.), Handbook of research for
educational communications and technology. New York: Macmillan.
Hannafin, M., Land, S., & Oliver, K. (1999). Open learning environments: Foundations,
methods, and models. In C. M. Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional design theories and
models: A new paradigm of instructional theory (Vol. II, pp. 115-140). Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Honebein, P. C. (1996). Seven goals for the design of constructivist learning
environments. In B. G. Wilson (Ed.), Constructivist learning environments: Case studies
in instructional design. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications.
Jonassen, D. H., & Land, S. M. (Eds.). (2000). Theoretical foundations of learning
environments. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
LaJoie, S. P. (Ed.). (2000). Computers as cognitive tools, Vol. II. Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
National Research Council. (2000). How people learn. Washington, D.C.: National
Academy Press.
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It). ERIC Digest.
Pea, R. D., Gomez, L. M., Edelson, D.C., Fishman, B. J., Gordin, D. N., & O'Neill, D. K.
(1997). Science education as a driver of cyberspace technology development. In K. C.
Cohen (Ed.) Internet links for science education: Student-scientist partnerships (pp.
189-220). New York: Plenum.
Rieber, L. P. (1996). Seriously considering play: Designing interactive learning
environments based on the blending of microworlds, simulations, and games.
Educational Technology Research & Development, 44, 43-48.
Scardamalia, M. (April, 2002). Creative work with ideas: A luxury? Paper presented at
the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, New Orleans, LA.
Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (1994). Computer support for knowledge-building
environments. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 3 (3), 265-283.
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. New
York: Cambridge University Press.
THE AUTHOR
Marcy P. Driscoll is Professor and Chair, Educational Psychology and Learning
Systems, at Florida State University and Past-President of the Association for
Educational Communications & Technology (AECT). Her seventh book, the third edition
of Psychology of Learning for Instruction, is forthcoming from Allyn & Bacon Publishers.
She is also the co-author of Educational Psychology: A Learning Centered Approach to
Classroom Practice and Essentials of Learning for Instruction with Robert Gagne.
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endorsement by the U.S. government. Visit the Department of Education's Web site at:
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Title: How People Learn (and What Technology Might Have To Do with It). ERIC
Digest.
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Descriptors: Active Learning, Computer Simulation, Computer Uses in Education,
Cooperative Learning, Educational Principles, Educational Technology, Elementary
Secondary Education, Higher Education, Information Technology, Learning Processes,
Technology Integration
Identifiers: Contextual Learning, ERIC Digests, Reflective Thinking, Technology Role
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