Gordon Pask

Learning Strategies and Individual Competence.

In a free-learning task, individuals are assigned to different categories of cognitive competence on the basis of the teaching strategy they adopt. Two major types are distinguished: holists or global learners and serialists or step by step learners, on the basis of analysis of the type of hypothesis that learners test in carrying out the task and a content analysis of the protocols produced when learners are asked to teach back what they have learned. For other tasks, using the same subjects, it is shown that teaching is most effective when the teaching materials are structured so as to match an individuals competence and the converse holds when there is mismatch. The results are interpreted for a theory of learning/teaching and the need for a language suitable for talking about strategies and subject matter structures is discussed.

Learning Strategies, Teaching Strategies, and Conceptual or Learning Style

From the mid- to late 1960s, Brian Lewis, Bernard Scott, and I conjectured that learning strategies, teaching strategies, and even plans of action have characteristic types which can be differentiated (Lewis & Pask, 1964, 1965; Pask, 1961, 1970, 1972; Pask & Lewis, 1968; Pask & Scott, 1971, 1972, 1973). Individual difference psychologies have maintained a similar stance and with greater precision regarding the nature of strategies. An overview of the approach taken by my own group in the 1960s is described in the remainder of this section. Learning and teaching strategies can, under appropriate circumstances, be substantially exteriorized or externalized for observation. Protocols can serve this purpose, but we used maplike representations of what may be known or learned. These representations were open to continuous evolution as further topics and relations between them were added by learners.

The Cybernetics of Human Learning and Performance

A coupler for coupling the signal in any one of a plurality of optical signal transmission lines to all of the remaining transmission lines. The coupler comprises an elongated cylindrically shaped rod of transparent material having first and second endfaces that are substantially perpendicular to the axis thereof, the second endface having a light reflecting layer disposed thereon. Support means disposes the ends of the transmission lines in a bundled arrangement in such a manner that the optical waveguides of which the transmission lines are comprised terminate adjacent to the first endface of the rod, the axes of the waveguides being substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the rod.

Caste: A system for exhibiting learning strategies and regulating uncertainties*

CASTE (Course Assembly System and Tutorial Environment) is a facility for observing and controlling human learning. This paper describes the system and presents data on its use as a conversational system for teaching elementary concepts of probability theory to Technical College Students. A summary is given of the work on adaptive teaching systems that led to the development of CASTE for subject matters where students can and do adapt a variety of learning strategies. For such cases adaptive teaching is not sufficient; a system is called for which learns about a students preferred learning strategy by engaging him in a dialogue about his learning; CASTE is such a system.

Developments in conversation theory—Part 1

This paper is the first in a series describing developments in conversation theory and related work during the past 8 years.

A theory of conversations and individuals (exemplified by the learning process on CASTE).

The main tenet of the theory is that the minimal experimental situation for making psychological observations is a conversation. The logical and structural requirements for making such observations are presented in a series of icons which dynamically represent formalisms in the abstract theory of self-reproducing automata. Two sorts of stable, self-reproducing systems are distinguished: mechanically characterized individuals (M-Individuals) and psychologically characterized individuals. (P-Individuals). A conversation is a P-Individual (a selfreproducing class of procedures) that is executed in one or more of a restricted class of M-Individuals (processors). The theory is exemplified by work on learning and teaching using CASTE (Course Assembly System and Tutorial Environment) which is itself a physical embodiment of the theory in the form of a vehicle for observing conversations. Other exemplifications are given as interpretations, within the current theory, of the paradigms extant in conventional experimental psychology.

Information Theory and Aesthetic Perception by Abraham Moles (review)

as too one-sided, but this is the fun of dealing with a field of science that is rapidly developing and where many questions still are controversial. In any case, Gregory adds a large bibliography where the reader may find the original papers, which he can study and thereby reach his own conclus;ons. Professor Gregory in this valuable account of a difficult subject has shown with great skill that the study of the eye (which is truly an extension of the brain) may one day help to explain ourselves.

The representation of knowables

A formal account is given of the structure of conversational domains. A procedure is described which permits the construction of representations of the domains of tutorial conversations (knowledge structures) together with an account of the use of the procedure for structuring academic subject matters. Mechanized versions of the procedure, a series of computer programs, have been developed and implemented. A description of their form is presented and interpreted for a theory of learning and teaching. The interpretation is related to empirical studies of learning style.

A conversation theoretic approach to social systems

There is a deplorable tendency in contemporary thinking to trivialise the content of deep and fascinating areas of knowledge.

Review of Conversation Theory and a Protologic (or Protolanguage), Lp.

This is the eleventh ERIC/ECTJ Annual Review Paper, preparation of which was supported by the ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) Clearinghouse on Information Resources, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York. The material in this article was prepared pursuant to a contract with the National Institute of Education, U.S. Department of Education. Contractors undertaking such projects under government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their judgment in professional and technical matters. Points of view or opinions do not necessarily represent the official view or opinion of NIE.The preparation of this paper was also supported by the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences under grant MDA903-82-C-0055 to Concordia University, Centre for System Research and Applied Epistemology.