Bartlett is still the foremost figure in the constructivist school of MEMORY research, which holds that we do not retain a perfect copy of events that we experienced, but have to reconstruct them when we want to remember them. His most significant and influential work is Remembering (1932), which examines the influence of social factors on memory in an experimental setting. Instead of traditional nonsense syllables, Bartlett used meaningful materials to study the effects of past experience on the assimilation of materials. He showed how individuals, instead of merely reproducing the materials, reworked them in the light of their past experience. The notion of schema or conceptual model originated with Bartlett. His book marked a break with the German tradition in psychology and the advent of methods to study higher thought processes without the use of introspection.
Bruner's view that the student should become an active participant in the educational process has been widely accepted. In The Process of Education (1960) he asserts that, given the appropriate teaching method, every child can successfully study any subject at any stage of his or her intellectual development. Bruner's later work involves the study of the pre-speech developmental processes and linguistic communication skills in children.
Bruner's ideas is that Learning is an active, social process in which students construct new ideas or concepts based on current knowledge. The student selects information, originates hypotheses, and makes decisions in the process of integrating experiences into their existing mental constructs. As far as instruction is concerned, the instructor should try and encourage students to discover principles by themselves. The instructor and student should engage in an active dialogue.
Bruner holds that a theory of instruction should address four major aspects. They are:
The theory of situated learning claims that every idea and human action is a generalization, adapted to the ongoing environment, because what people see and what they do arise together. From this perspective, thinking is a physical skill. As we create names for things, shuffle around sentences in a paragraph, and interpret what our statements mean, every step is controlled not by reinstantiated grammars and previously constructed plans, but adaptively recoordinated from previous ways of seeing, talking, and moving. Situated learning is the study of how human knowledge develops in the course of activity, and especially how people create and interpret descriptions (representations) of what they are doing. Situated learning, include the work of Dewey, Bartlett, Vygotsky, and Ryle.
Linguistic intelligence involves sensitivity to spoken and written language,
the ability to learn languages, and the capacity to use language to accomplish
certain goals. This intelligence includes the ability to effectively use language
to express oneself rhetorically or poetically; and language as a means to remember
information. Writers, poets, lawyers and speakers are among those that Howard
Gardner sees as having high linguistic intelligence.
Logical-mathematical intelligence consists of the capacity to analyze problems
logically, carry out mathematical operations, and investigate issues scientifically.
In Howard Gardner's words, in entails the ability to detect patterns, reason
deductively and think logically. This intelligence is most often associated
with scientific and mathematical thinking.
Musical intelligence involves skill in the performance, composition, and appreciation
of musical patterns. It encompasses the capacity to recognize and compose musical
pitches, tones, and rhythms. According to Howard Gardner musical intelligence
runs in an almost structural parallel to linguistic intelligence.
Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence entails the potential of using one's whole body
or parts of the body to solve problems. It is the ability to use mental abilities
to coordinate bodily movements. Howard Gardner sees mental and physical activity
as related.
Spatial intelligence involves the potential to recognize and use the patterns
of wide space and more confined areas.
Interpersonal intelligence is concerned with the capacity to understand the
intentions, motivations and desires of other people. It allows people to work
effectively with others. Educators, salespeople, religious and political leaders
and counsellors all need a well-developed interpersonal intelligence.
Intrapersonal intelligence entails the capacity to understand oneself, to appreciate
one's feelings, fears and motivations. In Howard Gardner's view it involves
having an effective working model of ourselves, and to be able to use such information
to regulate our lives.
Miller has provided two theoretical ideas that are fundamental to the information
processing framework and cognitive psychology more generally. The first concept
is `chunking' and the capacity of short term (working) memory. Miller (1956)
presented the idea that short-term memory could only hold 5-9 chunks of information
(seven plus or minus two) where a chunk is any meaningful unit. A chunk could
refer to digits, words, chess positions, or people's faces. The concept of chunking
and the limited capacity of short term memory became a basic element of all
subsequent theories of memory.
The second concept, that of information processing, uses the computer as a model
for human learning. Like the computer, the human mind takes in information,
performs operations on it to change its form and content, stores and locates
it and generates reponses to it. Thus, processing involves gathering and representing
information, or encoding; holding information or retention; and getting at the
information when needed, or retrieval. Information processing theorists approach
learning primarily through a study of memory.
"How does knowledge grow?"
Piaget believed that intellectual development occurs in four distinct stages. The sensorimotor stage begins at birth, and lasts until the child is approximately two years old. At this stage, the child cannot form mental representations of objects that are outside his immediate view, so his intelligence develops through his motor interactions with his environment. The preoperational stage typically lasts until the child is 6 or 7. According to Piaget, this is the stage where true "thought" emerges. Preoperational children are able to make mental representations of unseen objects, but they cannot use deductive reasoning. The concrete operations stage follows, and lasts until the child is 11 or 12. Concrete operational children are able to use deductive reasoning, demonstrate conservation of number, and can differentiate their perspective from that of other people. Formal operations is the final stage. Its most salient feature is the ability to think abstractly.
Lev Vygotsky is best known for his:
1. stress on the importance of language in learning development
2. focus on development across the whole lifespan rather than stages
3. zone of proximal development i.e. the gap between what you’re trying
to teach and the current state of development in that area. If the gap is too
large, instruction won’t be effective; too small and the learner won’t
be extended, therefore teachers must have background knowledge of those they
teach.
4. scaffolded instruction involves an instructor or advanced peer working to
support the development of the learner. The instructor should guide the learner
in such a way that the gap is bridged between the learner’s current skill
levels and the desired skill level. As learners become more proficient, able
to complete tasks on their own that they could not initially do without assistance,
the guidance can be withdrawn. Such instruction needs to take place in a social
environment where the interactions reflect mutual respect.(The first reading
"Towards maximising learning through online environments can be considered
scaffolding).
Scaffolding instruction as a teaching strategy originates from Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and his concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD).
Links
Celebrities in in Cognitive Science
The Instructional System Design Process