Michael F. Young

Principles of Self-Organization: Learning as Participation in Autocatakinetic Systems

Modem science has been built on a Cartesian or Newtonian (mechanical) world view giving rise to an artifactual view of mind and suggesting that particles (learners) are continuously working to destroy order (are recalcitrant), which can only be maintained by an external artificer (the teacher). At the core of the Cartesian worldview is the absolute separation of mind and matter. Beginning with the separation of mind and body, Cartesianism is grounded in a set of dualisms that separate individual from environment and leads to the belief that knowledge refers to a self-sufficient immaterial substance that can be understood independently from the individual, environment, and context in which it is situated. In contrast, we make the argument for an alternative set of assumptions predicated on a relational ontology and grounded in recent developments in the understanding of self-organizing systems. In our view, knowing, meaning, and cognition are actualized through the dynamic between learner (self) and enviro...

Assessment of situated learning using computer environments

Based on a theory of situated learning, assessment must emphasize process as much as product. Assessment must move away from a linear additive model, accepting at the outset the complex, nonlinear, and possibly chaotic nature of real learning. Assessment must adapt to and take advantage of students working with technologies that extend their perceptual and problem-solving capacities beyond what they could do alone. To illustrate these points, several assessment examples are given, including a computer-based planning assistant for a videodisc mathematics and science video, suggestions for computer-based portfolio assessment, and speculations about embedded assessment of virtual situations. In all cases, the theory of situated learning emphasized perception over memory and the codetermined nature of learning and thinking.

The Unit of Analysis for Situated Assessment.

We begin with a discussion of contemporary approaches to assessment highlighting their reliance on a static, linear model of knowledgeable performance. Next we describe an ecological psychology approach to problem solving. Then, we propose the adoption of an agent-environment interaction as the unit of analysis. We continue by describing the problem-solving process from an ecological psychology perspective, to clarify the “intentional unit”. We close with a discussion of functional validity, the value added by access to assessment information during the problem-solving process.

Situations, Interaction, Process and Affordances: An Ecological Psychology Perspective

From an ecological psychology perspective, afull analysis of any learning context mustacknowledge the complex nonlinear dynamics thatunfold as an intentionally-driven learnerinteracts with a technology-based purposefullydesigned learning environment. Further, a fullanalysis must avoid focusing only on theindividual within the learning context and notaccounting for the intentionality andconstraining influence of the designer and thebroader community. Finally, such an analysismust either pin down how learning anddevelopment can be driven by perception of theenvironment alone (detection of affordances),or alternatively from an ecologicalperspective, by a cyclical interaction ofperception and action. This paperpresents these parameters for any model ofcontext or situation in relationship to theissues raised by Akhras and Selfs (this issue)presentation on intelligent learningenvironments. We propose that a full situationmodel would need to incorporate constraints notonly from the environment, but also from theindividual and most precisely from the specificinteraction at the moment of an occasion.

Perception of the Raison D'Ětre in Anchored Instruction: An Ecological Psychology Perspective

In this study we provide evidence that video anchors encourage students to adopt certain contrived goals over their more naturalistic goals. Well designed goals are those that increase the probability that students will detect the raison d‘être of content information as they work toward the contrived goal. In those cases where problem solvers detect the raison d’être of the material, transfer should be enhanced. In experiment 1, participants worked with hypermedia in which either an anchor problem was posed, or they were preparing for a test. They were grouped based on their report of adopting one of four goals. Results showed 72 percent of students assigned the anchor reported their goals as “to solve a meaningful problem,” and students with such goals showed constrained navigation toward relevant information and significantly higher learning efficiency scores than students with any of the other goals. In experiment 2, results demonstrated that when an anchor encourages students to adopt goals that increase the probability that they will detect the raison d‘être of the material, transfer is enhanced. Individuals assigned the anchor reconstructed significantly more information and detected qualitatively different information in a brief transfer video. Goals that enable the problem solver to detect the raison d’être of information enhance learning, focus navigation within nonlinear text, and afford transfer.