Goal
1
Demonstrates
understanding of various theories and concepts that inform the practice of
instructional technology
In instructional technology, many
different learning theories, instructional theories and concepts are necessary
to create effective design. It is important for a designer to have the
background knowledge of theories to design curriculum and lessons that are
appropriate for the situation. In this discussion I will talk about three
theories, cognitive theory, situated cognition, and adult learning theory.
Cognitive Theory
“Cognitive theorists are concerned
with what occurs inside the mind—how we think, process information, remember
and forget information, and acquire and use language to communicate” (Morrison,
Ross, Kemp & Kalman, 2011, p. 388). My understanding of cognitive theory is
that it deals with what is going on inside the thoughts of the person rather
than how they behave. We need to be sure to keep in mind that as a person
develops, the way that they think also changes (Morrison, Ross, Kemp &
Kalman, 2011). The learner can work in an area above their present knowledge
base with the help of peers and adults in a state of social activity and
cooperative learning (Morrison, Ross, Kemp, & Kalman, 2011).
I believe that the learners need to
really learn and think about the topic, not just adjust behaviors as with the
behaviorist theory. Dr. Knowlton helped me focus on this in his slideshow,
“Classical & Operant Conditioning as Behaviorism” (Knowlton, 2008). I
really like the cognitive theory because it deals with the internal person, not
just what can be observed on the outside. With behaviorism, it seems to be more
what can be observed. Cognitivism delves deeper in the “how” the person is
learning rather than the end result.
In IT 500, my project was to teach
high school students about smokeless tobacco and oral cancer. I was able to
apply cognitive theory to my design by presenting them with information as well
as many photographs. The students could then create their own cognitive framework
for the connections of smokeless tobacco and oral cancer. Knowlton (2009) said
in his slideshow Information Processing that
to get memory from short term to long term that a connection needs to be made
with something the learner already knows. The students know, most likely, what
a cancer-free mouth looks like simply from brushing and flossing their own
mouth. Through the information and photographs given the students can make that
connection from a healthy mouth to a diseased mouth.
Morrison, et al (2011), said about
cognitivism, “The more actively students process new material by relating it to
prior knowledge and applying it to new tasks, the better it will be learned (p.
389). When designing my unit for IT 500, I understood this about the cognitive
theory and tried to use this idea by having the learners brainstorm, answer
guiding questions, and role play. On page 3 of my design document
I show how I tried to honor the mind of the high school student who can think
logically and abstractly (Blessing, 2011) through questioning the students
along the way when presenting the slide show. An example of a question that I
might have used had the project come to completion would be: So far we’ve
looked at cancer in the lip of the patient. Can you describe what this looks
like? The student is then able to think about the pictures that they’ve seen
and use their own words to create verbal descriptions of the lesions. By
questioning the students, the instructor will be able to understand better how
they are thinking as well as helping the students connect to prior learning.
The instructor will also be able to modify the instruction according to the
answers of the students if a concept is not being received and understood. Then
s/he can re-question to understand the learning of the students. The students
will also come up with questions based on what they are thinking. This also
helps the teacher know what learning and understanding is happening within the
mind of the student. The students are then headed towards metacognition
(Livingston, 1997).
The website I build for IT 486 was
called “A Visit to the Dentist” with a target audience of second and third
graders. In this, I also applied the knowledge I had gained about cognitive
theory by having the learners interact with the content through games such as
“Can you find the cavity?” on the radiographs
(x-rays) and photographs of decayed
teeth. The learners were presented
with information and then had some sort of interaction with the material
presented. The learners were encouraged to go through the website with their
parents in order for interaction to occur between the parents and the children
as well. By interacting with the content and other learners (the parent), the
child is able to work above their present level as suggested by Vygostky, a
Russian psychologist who studies cognition (Morrison, Ross, Kemp & Kalman,
2011, p. 389). By having the children and parents work together on the tasks of
the website, they are both learning at their own level. The child and parent
also should be creating dialogue and questions, thus helping each other to
learn. All of these tie into the cognitive theory because there is “an emphasis
on social activities and cooperative learning” (Morrison, Ross, Kemp & Kalman, 2011, p. 389).
Situated Cognition
“The activity in which knowledge is
developed and deployed, is now argued, is not separable from or ancillary to
learning and cognition. Nor is it neutral. Rather, it is an integral part of
what is learned. Situations might be said to co-produce knowledge through activity.
Learning and cognition, it is now possible to argue, are fundamentally
situated” (Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989, p. 32).
The quote above reminded me that
connecting activity in a particular situation with the information being
presented instills learning and thinking in my audience. Situated cognition
theory helped me keep in mind that I needed to create a culture in my designs
that would foster learning through activity that helps build a common culture.
Wilson and Myers (1999) say, “Knowledge is not an object and memory is not a
location. Instead, knowing, learning, and cognition are social constructions,
expressed in actions of people interacting within communities. Through these
actions within this community, cognition is enacted or unfolded or constructed;
without the action, there is no knowing, no cognition.” I’ve tried to keep this
in mind with the different activities within the design.
In IT 500, I used different
activities to help build a common culture within the learning environment by
having the learners work together. One of the first activities the learners
were going to be asked to do was a KWL chart (Jones, 2007). They would be
asked, what they (K) know about tobacco, what they (W) want to know about
tobacco, its use and particularly smokeless tobacco use, and after the show is
complete, what they (L) learned. Doing a KWL chart helps my audience create a
community by creating common knowledge about the subject. Therefore, the
students are all situated in the same community of knowledge; they are all
beginning at the same place, or at least a very similar place. The culture they
are creating is one of knowledge about cancer and tobacco use. They can then
build a stronger community through the slide show and ultimately at the
conclusion when they finish the chart with the “what you learned” section. The
community or culture of this situation is created through common learning at a
specific moment in time. You can find information about the KWL chart on p. 4
of my IT500 project document.
Situated learning also prescribes
authentic tasks. In IT 500, I proposed to present a case study to the students.
In a case study, the student learns the major facts associated with the
patient. They learn how the information that they have been introduced to in
the slideshow applies to the real world. By using a case study, the
students are placed in the situation of the patient, or health care
facilitator, and they need to problem solve to get to the answer. After this
presentation, I would have the student write a short paper about how they would
feel if this person were them. The design called for introducing creativity by
playing the “what if” game (Carson, 2010). By writing this paper/playing the “what
if” game, the students are being placed in the situation of the patient. This
information is located on p. 4 of my IT500 project document.
In the paragraph above, I placed the
student in the situation of the patient. It didn’t occur to me when creating
this design I could place the learner in the situation of being the health care
provider or even the family members of the patient. In Student Performance
in a multimedia Case-Study Environment (Wolter, Lundeberg, Bergland,
Klyczek, Tosado, Toro, & White, 2012), the authors had the students
interact with each other by asking questions of the "practitioner".
The practitioner then might need to further research to find the answers. In
this, they were placed in a real world situation like they might be as nurses,
doctors, other providers who are responsible for diagnosing and reporting
findings. Had I read this article prior to doing this design, I’m sure I would
have included it. I really like this idea of specific role play. That study
shows what situated cognition is all about.
For my IT 597 design studio project,
I created a “How to Brush Your Teeth”
video that instructed young learners why
it is important to brush their teeth as well as a couple of techniques. By
giving instruction on how to brush teeth, I was giving the learners an
authentic task. This is something that the learner should be doing twice a day,
every day. By giving them the information as to why it is important to brush, I
was helping them to apply information to the task at hand helping to make it
more important to them.
By creating slideshows that show
what the dentist and hygienist are looking for in a dental exam, I was trying to help the learners see what goes on during
the dental exam. As a dental hygienist, this is what I do every day in my
situation, my job. I was trying to place the learner in the operator’s chair
(the chair the dentist or hygienist sits in).
In the assessment for the x-ray page, I asked the learner to find the cavity on the radiograph.
In the assessment for the exam, the learner was asked about healthy and
non-healthy. Both of these activities are based on the situated learning theory
as they are authentic tasks. This is exactly what the dentist and hygienist are
looking for during the preventive care visit. The dentist and hygienist do this
task several times a day. By giving this task to the children, they are being
placed in the same situation that I am as a hygienist.
Adult Learning Theory
The Adult Learning Theory has many
concepts that make up the theory. According to Conlan, et al (2010) there are
“five assumptions underlying andragogy describe the adult learner as someone
who:
The adult learner needs to know why
they are attempting to learn something. They have to be invested in the project
to be able to retain the information. By knowing this, I was able to apply some
of this to my projects.
In the Adult Learning Theory, one
major concept is “what’s in it for me” (Collins, 2004). High school students
are practicing adults. As such, I also felt that the Adult Learning Theory
would be appropriate to add to my IT 500 project. I proposed using guiding
questions to help the learners realize how the information being presented
would apply to them. By creating the opportunity to apply this to “real life”
the students can see how this could actually happen to them or a family member;
it gives it greater meaning. This creates a better learning experience. This
also allows these learners opportunities “for opinions to be voiced freely”
(Collins, 2004). I talk about this on p. 5 of my IT500 project document.
Another concept mentioned by Conlan,
et al (2010) is that adults are problem-centered. By presenting a case-study, I
present a problem that needs to be solved. The students are given information
to solve the problem of the patient. Ultimately, it isn’t so much a diagnosis
since they know that we are talking about oral cancer, but the problem of how
to deal with the diagnosis if they were the patient.
Although the high school students
aren’t yet adults, they do have years of experiences under their belts (Conlan,
Grabowski, & Smith, 2010). The adult learning theory applies the cognitive
and constructivist theories claim that learning takes place on the backs of
previous knowledge. The students that I geared my IT 500 project towards most
likely have some experience with tobacco use, hopefully just knowledge of
others using it. They also have been exposed to tons of information about
cancer research and cancer awareness. By building upon this knowledge, they can
create new knowledge specifically about oral cancer.
I applied this theory when designing
my project for IT 510, which was an instruction booklet on beginning lessons in
learning Excel. “Adults are most interested in learning about subjects that
have immediate relevance to their job or personal life” (Conlan, Smith &
Grabowski, 2010). I introduced the learner to the booklet by showing how being
able to use Excel was a useful skill that can apply to their schooling or job.
I discuss this in the pre-instructional
strategy section of my design document. Being that the Excel lesson was a self-directed
learning packet, the learner has direct control of their learning. Conlan, et
al, said that the adult learner likes to be able to “direct his or her own
learning” (Conlan, Smith & Grabowski, 2010). The learner could take the
instruction as slowly or as quickly as they needed since no time constraints
were applied.
References
Blessing,
M. (2011). Teaching and learning resources. Retrieved from http://teachinglearningresources.pbworks.com/w/page/31012664/Cognitivism
Brown,
J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the
culture of learning. Educational Leadership, 18 (1), 32-42.
Carson,
S. (2010). Your creative brain. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Collins, J. (2004). Education techniques for lifelong
learning: Principles of adult learning. RadioGraphics, 24(5) 1483-1489.
Conlan, J., Smith, K., & Grabowski, S. (2010, April
19). Adult learning: Emerging perspectives. Retrieved from
http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Adult_Learning
Jones,
R. C. (2007, Sept 23). Reading quest. Retrieved from http://www.readingquest.org/strat/kwl.html
Knowlton, D.S. (2008). Classical & operant conditioning as behaviorism [PowerPoint slides].
Knowlton, D.S. (2009). Information processing [PowerPoint slides].
Livingston, J. A. (1997). gse.buffalo.edu.
Retrieved from http://gse.buffalo.edu/fas/shuell/CEP564/Metacog.htm
Morrison, G. R., Ross, S. M., Kemp, J. E., & Kalman, H. (2011). Designing effective instruction. (6 ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Wilson, B.G. & Myers, K.M. (1999). Situated cognition in theoretical and practical context. University
of Colorado at Denver. Retrieved from: http://carbon.ucdenver.edu/~bwilson/SitCog.html
Wolter, B., Lundeberg,
M., Bergland, M., Klyczek, K., Tosado, R., Toro, A., & White, C. (2010).
Student performance in a multimedia case-study environment. Journal of
Science Education and Technology, 22(2), 215-225. Retrieved from
http://proxy.library.siue.edu:2203/article/10.1007/s10956-012-9387-7