Changes in Attitudes and Values

My stronghold of design principles includes Gagné’s conditions of learning and instructional events, a framework of principles for stimulating creativity, Bruner’s focus on discover/inquiry learning, Vygotsky’s emphasis on scaffolding, and Dewey’s principles emphasizing problem-based learning and the development of judgment.  I have recently added greater emphasis on functional reinforcement contingencies, realizing it is far more important to me individually than I had expected, and the conceptual labels used in “constructivism,” including “juxtaposition” which now is one of my favorite principles.

Assumptions, Principles, and Conditions of Learning

The following selected assumptions, principles, and conditions of learning probably will guide the practice of my learning designs.

Reinforcement contingencies. Arrange functional reinforcement contingencies (behaviorism) with explicit communication of the expected learner behaviors and reinforcers. Rationale: All activities have consequences. Some consequences function to increase, some to decrease behaviors, and some have no effects. Targeted behaviors will increase with functional reinforcers. Personal freedom and self-regulation may function as positive reinforcers for some learners; social negotiation (Vygotsky) may work for some. Therefore, it might be desirable to offer at least alternative individual assignments in which explicit requirements must be met, perhaps according to a template design, and with closer mentor and/or instructor monitoring for some activities.

Construction of meaning: Provide opportunities for learners to construct meaning from their experiences (constructivism) including the social negotiation of meaning (Vygotsky) in an context or for a purpose relevant to a real-life work or personal interest and containing complexities of authenticity. Rationale: Individuals have the capacity to construct knowledge from experiences and test their constructions against those of others, including peers and teachers. The process of social negotiation also frequently leads to opportunities for rehearsal and feature comparisons (cognitive information processing) helping to improve learning of information and concepts and jostles individuals out of possible egocentric thinking patterns (Piaget). Relating to one’s life interests makes learning more meaningful, providing greater motivation for learning, e.g., example of learning meaning of a penny when consequence is to get or not get something desired by the learner. Including elements of authenticity can prevent oversimplification of applied concepts, e.g., waking the patient to give him/her a sleeping pill. Learning in an authentic environment also challenges us to develop our reasoning and collaboration skills.

Juxtaposition.  Provide juxtaposition of disparate ideas to stimulate discovery of connections from the experiences structured within the learning environment (constructivism and Bruner). Rationale: Individuals can make extensive connections to construct meaning among various ideas and events. Multiple perspectives stimulate reflection about how the different perspectives have “constructed knowledge” and may encourage self-reflection about one’s own thinking and knowledge construction processes, leading to insights and solutions to problems.

Scaffolding. Provide just enough guidance and support (scaffolding, Vygotsky), that is, only the amount required so that “answers” are not given, but still may be sought. Rationale. Providing too little guidance and support will leave the individual frustrated and result in giving up on learning. Providing too much guidance and support will leave the individual no longer challenged and lead again to giving up on learning.

Inquiry: Establish inquiry teaching strategies (Bruner) to support learners in deriving their own concepts or rules or models. Include examples and counter examples and somehow highlight critical or contrasting features. This could be done with concept maps or juxtaposition of various perspectives or results. Provide a structure for learners to form and test hypotheses or predictions or solutions. Rationale: Individuals remember well what they learn through personal inquiry and their processes of problem-solving and critical thinking strategies are stimulated.

Practice (rehearsal): Provide opportunities for practice (rehearsal, information processing) of targeted learning capabilities. Rationale: Rehearsal or practice helps the learning and overlearning of tasks, producing automaticity to make application more efficient.

Organize: Provide explicit organization (chunking, information processing) of instructional components and materials. Rationale: Explicit organization and chunking of instruction provides regularity of structure, supports the connection of information into organized wholes, and the learning of logical relationships as well as concepts and information.

Targeted Strategies: Provide instructional strategies to establish the conditions of learning required for the targeted learning outcomes (Gagné’s verbal information, discrimination, concrete concepts, defined concepts, rules, higher order rules, cognitive strategies, attitudes, motor skills--objectivism). Rationale: The learning of different types of learning outcomes occurs under different conditions. In addition to the critical learning conditions for the different types of capabilities, there is an assumption that necessary prerequisite capabilities are possessed prior to the higher level or more complex ones. This assumption fits within constructivism and inquiry methods, too. In addition the nine basic events of instruction as presumed as minimum conditions, i.e., gaining attention, informing of objectives, simulating recall of prior learning, presenting content, providing learner guidance, eliciting performance, providing feedback, assessing performance, enhancing retention and transfer. Mastery of content and lower order skills are assumed as prerequisites to higher order or more complex thinking and problem solving skills.

Feedback: Although one of the nine events, providing feedback on learning progress is particularly important either directly or as a consequence of the environment and manipulations in an inquiry or discovery or social negotiation process. Rationale: Learning the incorrect outcome or information can proceed without corrective and informative feedback. Feedback supports efficiency in learning a targeted outcome and can encourage more efficiency, more skill proficiency, or more insights and creativity.

Learning Community: provide situations to encourage the development of learning communities of practice in situations that are meaningful (situated cognition) for the learners. Rationale: By establishing situations that encourage mutual engagement, a shared repertoire, and joint enterprises, learners contribute to their learning in negotiations and contributions to the repertoire of knowledge.