Wisdom is not the product of schooling but the lifelong attempt to acquire it.

- Albert Einstein

Models of Teaching and Learning: Participation in a Community of Learners (CoLs)

Gerhard Fischer and Hal Eden Spring Semester 2007 March 14, 2007 source: Rogoff, B., Matsuov, E., & White, C. (1998) "Models of Teaching and Learning: Participation in a Community of Learners." In D. R. Olsen & N. Torrance (Eds.), The Handbook of Education and Human Development New Models of Learning, Teaching and Schooling, Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 388-414
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Aims of this Lecture

distinguish theories of development that cast learning as
- a one-sided process in which only teachers or learners are responsible for learning - a community process of transformation of participation in socio-cultural activities

distinguish between
- theoretical perspectives on learning - models of instruction that are aligned with these theoretical perspectives theoretical perspectives transmission acquisition models of instruction adult-run children-run new media/technologies lecture, access to information simulations, programming, discovery learning, reinventing the wheel integrated environments such as the Swiki, the EDC

transformation of participation

CoLs with varying responsibilities

video from Alexander Repenning

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Participation in a Community of Learners

adult-run education: learning is a process managed by experts who transmit knowledge to learners children-run education: learning is the province of learners who acquire knowledge through their active exploration community of learners
- active learners and more skilled partners provide leadership and guidance asymmetry of roles - learning involves transformation of participation in collaborative endeavor (legitimate peripheral participation (LPP); Lave and Wenger) - all participants are active: no one has all the responsibility and no one is passive symmetry of ignorance - learner/teacher = f{person} learner/teacher = f{context}

question: in which category fits our course?

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Beyond Binary Choices

Choice1: direct manipulation tool-based assistance physical generic human support use planning usable instructionism training (skill/knowledge transfer) Choice2: programming agent-based assistant computational domain-oriented computational support design situated action useful constructionism (Partial) Resolution integrated in DODEs integrated in DODEs (e.g., with critics ubiquitous computing; EDC layered architectures, substrates distributed intelligence meta-design meta-design useful and usable; low threshold and high ceiling self-directed learning and contextualized tutoring

solving new problems lifelong learning (knowledge construction)

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Beyond Binary Choices Continued

Choice1: adult-run individual problem solving planning browsing Choice2: children-run social problem framing situated action search (Partial) Resolution community of learners Envisionment and Discovery Collaboratory co-evolution meta-design use artifacts and work context for retrieval (access and/or delivery); Codebroker

for more information see: Fischer, G. (2005) "Beyond Binary Choices: Understanding and Exploiting Trade-Offs to Enhance Creativity." In J. S. Gero, & M. L. Maher (Eds.), Computational and Cognitive Models of Creative Design, Key Centre of Design Computing and Cognition, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, pp. 71-92. http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/~gerhard/papers/final-heron05-final.pdf

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Adult-Run Model
p 391: in most classrooms the teacher stands at the front of the room, dispensing inert ideas to his passive students, as if they were so many empty vessels to be filled p 392: our schools are factories in which the raw products (children) are to be shaped and fashioned into products to meet the various demands of life students learn
- to solve problems but not how to frame them - to produce correct answers but do not have experience examining how to determine what is correct - to participate in tasks but these tasks are not of their own personal interest - to be motivated by the teacher but not how to develop their own interests

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Child-Run Model
the opposite one-sided approach (supports self-directed learning, but misses contextualized tutoring) children are active constructors of knowledge and adult involvement is seen as a potential impediment to learning curriculum debates: curriculum should build on the great resources of civilization, not on childrens spontaneous impulses a different view of discovery learning Hirsch, E. D. (1996) The Schools We Need And Why We Don't Have Them, Doubleday, New York.

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Discovery Learning as Understood by E.D. Hirsch

The phrase refers to the teaching method which sets up projects or problems so that students can discover knowledge for themselves through hands-on experience and problem solving rather than through textbooks and lectures. Progressivists made discovery learning the chief or exclusive form of teaching starting with the project method.
- The premise is true that knowledge acquired on ones own, with difficulty and by expending lots of time and effort, is more likely to be retained than knowledge presented verbally. - It is also true that knowledge gained in a realistic context as part of an effort to solve a problem is likely to be knowledge that is well understood and integrated. - Unquestionably, then, discovery learning is an effective methodwhen it works.

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Discovery Learning by E.D. Hirsch Continued

But there are two serious drawbacks to preponderant or exclusive reliance on discovery learning.
- First, students do not always make on their own the discoveries they are supposed to make; in fact, they sometimes make discoveries that arent true. Hence, it is essential to monitor students to probe whether the desired learning goal has been achieved, and if not, to reach the goal by direct means. - Second, discovery learning has proved to be very inefficient. Not only do students sometimes fail to gain the knowledge and know-how they are supposed to gain, but they do not gain it very fast. Research into teaching methods has consistently shown that discovery learning is the least effective method of instruction in the teachers repertory.

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Guided Discovery Learning

source: Mayer, R. E. (2004) "Should There Be a Three-Strikes Rule Against Pure Discovery Learning? The Case for Guided Methods of Instruction," American Psychologist, 59(1), pp. 14-19. discovery learning = students are free to work in a learning environment with little or no guidance social constructionism = students are expected to work in groups in a learning environment with little or no guidance some findings reported in this article by the author: guided discovery learning was more effective than pure discovery learning

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Learning Illichs Deschooling Society

source: Illich, I. (1971) Deschooling Society, Harper and Row, New York

the pupil is thereby schooled to confuse teaching with learning, grade advancement with education, a diploma with competence, and fluency with the ability to say something new we need research on the possible use of technologies to create institutions which serve personal, creative and autonomous interaction and the emergence of values which cannot be substantially controlled by technocrats an illusion on which the school system rests: most learning is the result of teaching lecture on April 18: learning webs = heighten the opportunity for all people to transform each moment in their living into one of learning, sharing and caring

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The Discovery Learning Initiative (DLI) and the Discovery Learning Center (DLC)
DL- Initiative foci:
- vertical integration (undergraduate research apprentices, graduate students, post-docs, faculty, community members) - horizontal integration (collaborative design, shared understanding, overcome symmetry of ignorance) - innovative uses of new media and technology serving these goals

vertical integration: learning about learning to be

- model: community feeling in sports - L3Ds Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program (URAP)

horizontal integration Digital Bauhaus (Pelle Ehn):

- to unite the two sides: the hard (technology and natural sciences) with the soft (values, democracy, art and ethics). One remarkable such project was the Bauhaus. Today, in the digital age we can witness new more post-modern attempts to meeting between 'art' and 'technology'.
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Community of Learners
all participants are active: no one has all the responsibility and no one is passive
- consumer designer - access informed participation (end-user authoring and end-user modification)

more skilled partners (e.g., experienced teachers and coaches) provide leadership and guidance asymmetry of roles learning involves transformation of participation in collaborative endeavor analogies of communities of learners in
- communities of practice (legitimate peripheral participation) - communities of interest (making all voices heard, diversity)

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Summary Statement of Rogoff, Matsuov, & White (p 410)

in the community of learners model students appear to learn
how to coordinate to become responsible and organized their management of their own learning to build on their previous interests to learn to sustain motivation to learn to focus on their own improvement, rather than on comparison with others they become skilled in self-evaluation

in the adult-run models students appear to learn

- how to manage individual performance (often measured against the performance of others) - to carry out tasks that are not of personal interest and may not make sense to them - to demonstrate their skills in basic test questions - to figure out criteria by which adults will judge their performance

a possible explanation: attempts to use the community of learners model in U.S.

schools confront unique challenges because most teachers and parents have been raised in a one-sided model of teaching an learning (usually adult-run)
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Motivation Some Claims

the chief impediments to learning are not cognitive but motivational people can learn many things if they want to motivation is a tricky problem in learning because while it plays a major role, it is not well understood Rogoff et al, p 404: inherent motivation is fostered along with development of responsibility for ones choices

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Csikszentmihalyi optimal flow as a motivating and driving force in learning

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Designing Informal Learning Environments for Collaboration

The Computer Clubhouse: Technological Fluency in the Inner City by Mitchel Resnick, MIT Media Laboratory, Natalie Rusk, Science Museum of Minnesota, Stina Cooke, The Computer Museum at: http://web.media.mit.edu/~mres/papers/Clubhouse/Clubhouse.htm A Networked, Media-Rich Programming Environment to Enhance Technological Fluency at After-School Centers in Economically-Disadvantaged Communities, a research proposal by Mitchel Resnick, MIT Media Laboratory, Yasmin Kafai, UCLA, John Maeda, MIT Media Laboratory at: http://web.media.mit.edu/~mres/papers/scratch-proposal.pdf Computer Clubhouse - a network of after-school learning centers for youth from economicallydisadvantaged communities - 75 sites in 14 countries, with 20,000 youth members - Computer Clubhouse Organization at http://www.computerclubhouse.org/index.htm
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The Computer Clubhouse

Clubhouse Principles
Principle 1: Support Learning through Design Experiences Principle 2: Help Youth Build on their Own Interests Principle 3: Cultivate "Emergent Community" Principle 4: Create an Environment of Respect and Trust

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The Clubhouse Culture

the Computer Clubhouse encourages young people to become designers, inventors, and creators as they work on projects based upon their own interests, supported by adult mentors and other youth many young people discover the artist in themselves as they create original music, write scripts, film and edit live video and stop-motion animation, and explore many other types of projects to make their creative dreams come true at the Clubhouse there exists: a Photoshop culture, but no programming culture

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