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This article discusses important factors that designers of learning environments should consider, presented as a cost-benefit analysis. It covers topics such as learning goals, learning styles, learning sequences, and teaching methods.
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Design Issues for Learning Environments Allan Collins (1993)
Issues that designers of learning environments should consider, presented as a cost-benefits analysis of each item: • Learning Goals • Learning Styles • Learning Sequences • Methods
Learning Goals • Memorization v thoughtfulness“To the degree that one knows how to do something automatically… it can free the mind to be thoughtful about other things (e.g., the meaning of the text)” • Whole task v component skills(practice sub skills or put it all together?) “One strategy is to start by scaffolding students in whole tasks, going to component tasks when they seem appropriate.” • Breadth v depth of knowledge(a little about a lot of things, or one thing in depth? Breadth = cultural literacy; later Ss can make a knowledgeable choice to go deeper.)“A possible compromise …is to pursue a few topics in depth, while broadly covering a wide variety of topics.” • Diverse v uniform expertise(should all students learn the same thing? Shared knowledge and common experience v ability to pursue individual interest)* “Our best examples of teaching rely on uniform expertise, but the introduction of new technology and a constructivist pedagogy fosters a change to an emphasis on diverse expertise.” • Access v understanding(power tools in the computer v “basic” skills e.g. spelling and arithmetic)“… it seems inevitable that much of what we now teach in school will not be learned by people in the future.” • Cognitive v physical fidelity(cartoon sketches (simulation) or the real thing?) “It pays to start with cognitive fidelity so that students get the big picture, then move to greater physical fidelity.” (Mayer: SOI and his Integrated Cognitive Structure)
Learning Style Different students learn in different ways, and for each learner there are different ways of approaching the learning of a subject/ skill, etc.
Learning Styles • Interactive v Active v Passive“Clearly there needs to be a mix…Less interactive environments foster thoughtfulness, while more interactive environments foster automaticity.” • Incidental v Direct(Do you learn the meanings of all the words first, or read an article as a whole?) “My own preference is to create as engaging tasks as possible … and let any facts and concepts be learned incidentally.” • Fun v Serious(Learning should be fun, but life is not like that!) “My own view is that it is best to engage students not by creating fun environments, but by creating meaningful tasks.” • Natural v Efficient(Natural learning is functional – learning as we live through something) “Sacrificing naturalness is probably fine as long as we do not sacrifice functionality for the learner.” • Learner Control v Computer or Teacher Control(who decides what and how to learn?) “… give students control over everything but pedagogical decisions…[or] give students information to help them make good pedagogical decisions.”
Learning Sequence Where do we start and how do we proceed?
Learning Sequence • Grounded v Abstract learning (Do we let Ss wander off on their own, or direct the process?) “Students should first learn knowledge and skill in context, and by experiencing multiple contexts they should learn to generalize their knowledge.” • Structured v Exploratory learning(Re learning environment: avoid making mistakes) “Ideally, students would start out in highly structured environments and, as they master the skills of the domain, move to less and less structured environments.” • Systematic v Diverse problems(e.g. the same kind of problems repeated, or many different ones) “…students start with systematic variation and move to more and more diverse problems.” • Simple v Complex tasks(What is simple for me may not be simple for you) “In general, one wants to proceed from the simple to the complex, but ideally one should start at the optimum complexity for each student.”
Methods How do we get to Mayer’s model of the Integrated Cognitive Structure?
Teaching Methods • Modeling(Examples of both the physical processes of the subject, and of the thought processes involved in understanding it) *(see Mayer re Signaling, etc.) • Scaffolding(Providing help as needed, providing less at the “top”, where more is known) • Coaching(A range of activities that include modeling and scaffolding) (Who hates the Office Assistant as much as I do?) • Articulation(Ss expressing their ideas about what they are learning) “Making knowledge more available through articulation fosters transfer of that knowledge to new situations.” HUH??? (see Mayer re Transfer) • Reflection(Looking back at past “performance” – through replays or reifications (reconstructions of the process or performance); best is a cycle of performing, reflecting and reperforming.)
