Lauren B. Resnick

Perspectives on socially shared cognition

This volume contains reports on the way thought works, from investigators in psychology, social psychology, anthropology, sociology, linguistics and literature. It argues that our thinking is shaped by others in a process known as socially shared cognition.

The 1987 Presidential Address Learning In School and Out

opular wisdom holds that common sense outweighs school learning for getting along in the world-that there exists a practical intelligence, different from school intelligence, that matters more in real life. As is often the case, this wisdom is difficult to assess directly from a base of scholarly research. But recent research on the nature of everyday, practical, real-world intelligence and learning is beginning to provide a basis for understanding what distinguishes practical from formal intelligence. Drawing on this work, I want to explore in this essay four broad contrasts which suggest that school is a special place and time for people-discontinuous in some important ways with daily life and work. Then, in light of these contrasts, I will consider where and how the economic, civic, and cultural aims of education can best be pursued and whether schooling itself should be reorganized to take account of what we are learning about the nature of competence in various aspects of our lives.

Assessing the Thinking Curriculum: New Tools for Educational Reform

In America, educational reform and testing are intimately linked. Test scores signal the need for reform, as evidenced by the attention paid to declining scores on college entrance exams and standardized tests, to Americans’ weak performances on international comparisons, and to the percentages of students failing certain kinds of items on our national assessments. Tests are also widely viewed as instruments for educational improvement. Calls for better performance by American schools are almost always accompanied by increases in the amounts of testing done in the schools. New tests, or more active scrutiny of tests already in place, are frequently prescribed, both as a source of information for a concerned public and as a form of “quality control” and an incentive to better performance by educators and students. This link between testing and efforts at educational reform is not new—it has been a feature of efforts to improve American schools since at least the end of the nineteenth century (D. P. Resnick 1982). In each new round of reform, testing theory and practice have been refined and elaborated. Tests are so ubiquitous in this country’s educational life, however, and the test instruments we use are often so technically elegant, that it is difficult to imagine proceeding in a different way. Complaints about testing and tests, from those who claim that tests block opportunities for certain social groups and those who point to the limited range of human competence assessed by the tests, bubble up whenever the amount and visibility of testing increase. These complaints sometimes lead to modifications of tests, but there is rarely sustained or widespread consideration of the possibility that the very idea of using test technology as it has developed over the past century may be inimical to the real goals of educational reform.

Mathematics and Science Learning: A New Conception.

Findings in cognitive science suggest new approaches to teaching in science and mathematics.

Discourse, Tools, and Reasoning: Essays on Situated Cognition

In 1990, we were asked by the Scientific Affairs Division of NATO1 to organize a conference on situated cognition and technologies of learning. In planning the conference, held in Lucca, Italy, in November, 1993, and in recruiting participants, we sought to bring together people from several scholarly disciplines, some of whom might not yet have known each other’s work. We needed to explain to them-and, by extension, to the several scholarly communities of which they were members-what we had in mind and why we thought the effort was worthwhile. The terms in which we did so were these: Recent theories of situated cognition are questioning the view that cognition can be understood independently of the social, organizational, and material context in which it is practiced. Sharing with Soviet-origin activity theory an antifunctionalist point of view in which intentionality and affect are viewed as components of activity, Western European and North American theories of situated cognition challenge the dominant view in cognitive science that assumes a cognitive core can be found that is independent of context and intention. Instead, these theorists argue, every cognitive act must be viewed as a specific response to a specific set of circumstances, and only by taking into account the participants’ construal of the situation can a valid interpretation of the cognitive activity be made.

Nested Learning Systems for the Thinking Curriculum

The 21st century will require knowledge and skill well beyond the basic levels of reading and arithmetic that American schools know how to produce more or less reliably. Delivering a “thinking curriculum” to all American students requires major reform in the ways schools and districts organize their work. The transformation of the institution of schooling that will be needed to make this aspirational goal a real achievement is daunting. This article examines cognitive science, systems engineering, and social science concepts that are pointing toward a new foundation for policies and practices that may radically improve the proportion of students who can achieve true 21st-century skills.

Standards, Curriculum, and Performance: A Historical and Comparative Perspective:

This article considers how educational standards are established and maintained, and how they can be improved in American schools. The authors argue that curriculum (what is taught) and assessment (the way we judge what is learned) play the largest role in shaping what is demanded in schools and thus what our students can be expected to learn. Neither issue has received adequate attention in current debate over the state of our schools and the compelling need for school reform. This article addresses both issues in a historical and comparative perspective and argues that higher standards are within reach through the development of new and parallel initiatives in curriculum and evaluation. The authors outline potential improvements through (a) upgrading the curriculum, (b) utilizing new forms of assessment, and (c) rethinking the concept of tracking to .focus on high standards in the middle school. They consider these steps as being among those most likely to meet current needs.

Social factors that contribute to attrition in MOOCs

In this paper, we explore student dropout behavior in a Massively Open Online Course (MOOC). We use a survival model to measure the impact of three social factors that make predictions about attrition along the way for students who have participated in the course discussion forum.

Implementing Literacy Coaching The Role of School Social Resources

This study investigates the influence of a school’s pre-existing social resources on the implementation of a comprehensive literacy-coaching program (Content-Focused Coaching [CFC]). Elementary schools were randomly assigned to receive a CFC-trained coach (n = 15 schools) or to continue with the literacy coaching resources that are standard for the district (n = 14 schools). Ninety-six fourth- and fifth-grade teachers participated in the study (n = 63 CFC and n = 33 comparison). Survey results indicate that teachers in the CFC schools participated more frequently in the coaching activities that emphasized planning and reflecting on instruction, enacting instruction, and building knowledge of the theories underlying effective reading comprehension instruction compared to teachers in the comparison schools. After 1 year, teachers strongly believed that CFC coaching helped improve their instructional practice. Principal leadership was the key resource supporting implementation of the program positively predicting greater teacher participation in coaching activities and perceived usefulness of these activities along with coaches’ training in the CFC program and less experienced teachers. Unexpectedly, a school’s pre-existing culture of teacher collaboration negatively predicted teachers’ coaching experiences. CFC coach interviews contribute to understanding the interactions of social resources within schools that facilitated or hindered program implementation. Implications for the design and implementation of effective instructional coaching policies in districts are discussed.

How Reading Difficulties Develop: Perspectives from a Longitudinal Study

Despite the great current concern with the nature and treatment of reading disabilities, we know surprisingly lttle about how and when these disabilities first become apparent. We are also singularly ignorant of how reading processes change in the course of development. This chapter attempts to respond to these important gaps in our knowledge by reporting on part of an extensive body of longitudinal data collected on several cohorts of children as they progressed through their primary grade reading programs.