Alain Breuleux

The Cognitive Representation and Processing of Discourse: Function and Dysfunction

Natural language discourse, when viewed from a cognitive and psychological perspective, is a manifestation in extended natural language productions of conceptual representations and thought processes. A discourse reflects knowledge (of the writer or speaker as well as the reader or listener), purpose in communicating meaning through language, and the cognitive processes required to produce and comprehend knowledge and represent it as discourse. Thus, to a cognitive psychologist, discourse is viewed in terms of the knowledge and processes that generated it and that are required to understand it.

A comparison of information retrieval from print and CD-ROM versions of an encyclopedia by elementary school students

Abstract Describes an experiment using 48 sixth-grade students to compare retrieval techniques using the print and CD-ROM versions of Comptons Encyclopedia. Four queries of different complexity (measured by the number of terms present) were searched by the students after a short training session. The searches were timed and the retrieval steps and search terms were noted. The searches were no faster on the CD-ROM than the print version, but in both cases time was related directly to the number of terms involved. The students coped well with the CD-ROM interface and its several retrieval paths.

Multimedia and comprehension: the relationship among text, animation, and captions

We report the results from the second phase of a cognitive study of multimedia and its effect on childrens learning. A sample of 71 children (12‐year‐olds) drawn from three primary schools viewed a procedural text that included a four‐sequence animation with captions on how to find south using the suns shadow. This multimedia sequence was adapted from a section within Comptons Multimedia Encyclopedia using Apple QuickTime. The children were divided into four groups, each of which viewed different media combinations: text only; text plus animation; text plus captions plus animation; and captions with animation. Shortly afterwards the children were asked to undertake two tasks: To recall in their own words what they had learned, and also to enact how they would find south using a model specially designed for this purpose. No significant differences were found among the groups regarding literal recall of what they had read and seen, or in their ability to draw inferences from it. The children in the text plus animation and captions group, however, were more successful at identifying the major steps in the procedure and at enacting that procedure whereas the children who read the text only experienced the most difficulty in performing the procedure.

Partnerships for Knowledge Building: An Emerging Model

Knowledge Building is approached in this study from an organizational perspective, with a focus on the nature of school-university-government partnerships to support research-based educational innovation. The paper starts with an overview of what is known about effective partnerships and elaborates a conceptual framework for Knowledge Building partnerships based on a review of literature and two case studies of school-university-government partnerships. In one case, a Ministry of Education wanted to bring more vitality into schools of small remote villages, and in the other case another Ministry of Education wanted to renew its school-based international cooperation profile. Emerging from this work is a three-component model for going to scale with Knowledge Building partnerships: Knowledge Building as a shared vision; symmetric knowledge advancement; and multi-level, research-based innovation. Characteristics of, and conditions for, effective partnerships for Knowledge Building are elaborated, and an emerging model is developed to help communities establish effective partnerships and contribute to this evolving model.

CollabU: a design for reflective, collaborative university teaching and learning

This paper describes a collaborative university seminar, CollabU, involving five North-American universities in its first implementation in the Winter of 1999. In this report we emphasize the design process, the role of reflective practice, and the implications of the seminar for understanding emerging transformations in university learning, teaching, and scholarship.

The influence of multimedia on learning: a cognitive study

There is a widespread assumption that the addition of still images, animation and sound to text will enhance any information product. The research reported in this paper is investigating such claims for multimedia in an educational context and for a specific user group: grade-six primary school students. The role of text complexity and text type (descriptive or procedural) in influencing the impact of animation was explored. Design criteria such as the level of semantic integration between text and animation, and the importance of including captions with animations, was also investigated. The initial stages of the research used a commercial CD-ROM multimedia product—Comptons Multimedia Encyclopedia—while the later stages have employed multimedia sequences generated for the purposes of the experiments. The findings to date suggest that the impact of multimedia is subtle. Multimedia produced the greatest relative improvement in recall and inference levels in the case of the simple procedural article, but this was also the article which exhibited the greatest integration of text and animation. Experimentation is continuing to establish whether similarly good results can be obtained with a descriptive article when animation integration is improved. Students who have seen only the text are the most successful at recalling what they have read. The addition of animation to a text produces more impact on inference than on recall, and the multimedia group of students scored more highly than the others on inferencing. At a still higher level of comprehension—the ability to identify the main themes in an article or to enact a procedure described in an article—multimedia demonstrated a clear advantage over text alone.

The analysis of writers' think-aloud protocols:Developing a principled coding scheme for ill-structured tasks*

This paper presents a tactic for encoding think-aloud protocols of writers. This tactic involves well-defined semantic grammars at the level of propositions and frames, and produces a reliable encoding without over-constraining the task assigned to subjects. Finally, the tactic leads to the implementation of computerbased tools for the automatic or semi-automatic analysis of protocols.

The Knowledge Building International Project (KBIP): Scaling Up Professional Development Using Collaborative Technology

Classroom-based knowledge building requires advanced pedagogies and collaborative technologies. It qualifies as disruptive innovation: progressively more impressive accounts of what students and teachers can accomplish alter beliefs regarding developmental, demographic, and cultural barriers. To establish knowledge-building communities requires effort from within as well as from outside the classroom. The Knowledge Building International Project (KBIP) has been rooted in school-university-government (SUNG) partnerships, along with their locally based networks of innovation. The chapter starts with a conceptualization of professional development in the digital era, and the main constituents of the Remote Networked School (RNS) initiative are presented. Next, a description of the SUNG partnerships follows. Emphasis is on agency, as it was observed in the RNS and in the SUNG dynamics of partnerships for classroom-based knowledge building: knowledge building as a shared vision, symmetric knowledge advancement, and multilevel, research-based innovation. Following is a descriptive analysis of the Knowledge Building International Project (KBIP 2007–2014) using Engestrom’s (1987) third-generation activity theory framework (Engestrom and Sannino 2010). Referring to Engestrom’s expansive learning cycle (1987), further analysis is provided regarding the overcoming of double binds for KBIP expansion as an activity.

Innovative Models of Web-Supported University-School Partnerships [Abstract]

This study explored how the Internet bridges theory and practice. Teacher educators, teachers, and prospective teachers used collaborative technologies to design networked communities embedded in three distinct perspectives: the networked learning community, the networked community of practice, and the knowledge building community. Networked communities prompted the development of solutions for integration of information and communication technologies (ICTs) at the elementary, secondary, and post‐secondary levels. These communities provide opportunities for sustained theory‐practice dialogue between teachers at different stages of their professional development and opportunities for ‘boundary spanning’ between courses, practica, pre‐ and in‐service education, graduate seminars, and collaborative research activities.

The InforMed Professor: Clinical Instruction of Breast Disease Diagnosis and Management

This paper describes a learning environment in the domain of breast disease and discusses some of the issues in designing a system cooperatively with content, pedagogical, and computer programming experts. The environment uses curricular content, presented in a non-linear fashion, from third and fourth year medical school; all aspects of the curriculum are available simultaneously to enhance the integration of declarative and procedural knowledge necessary in skilled clinical performance. The system represents an interactive, authentic environment where learners construct knowledge, develop higher order cognitive skills such as diagnosis, reasoning, and decision making, apply knowledge and skills, interact with patients, and receive appropriate feedback. The design of the learning environment is based on the theory of cognitive apprenticeship, thus the type and level of information and feedback provided by the system is dependent up on the learners input. The system also allows learners to evaluate themselves by comparing their actions and decisions to those of experts in the field. The collaboration of experts from different disciplines in designing this environment has resulted in a greater degree of sophistication in ways in which the project has been conceptualized and reified. By focusing all experts on the learning goals of the environment and by cooperatively assisting each type of expert to extend their knowledge of the other areas, we have been able to create a system that incorporates the key theoretical principles from each area. The result is a learning environment that emphasizes meaningful learning of knowledge and skills that learners can apply when they are confronted with similar situations in the real world.