Mohamed Ally tarkastelee verkko-opetusta, -opiskelua ja -oppimista julkaisun Theory and Practice of Online Learning artikkelissaan Foundations of Educational Theory for Online Learning behaviorismin, kognitivismin, konstruktivismin ja konnektivismin näkökumista. Artikkeli päätyy malliin, jossa eri oppimisteoriat antavat aineksia oppijan valmistautumiselle, oppijatoiminnoille ja -vuorovaikutukselle sekä -transferille. Artikkelissa on paljon virikkeitä, joiden avulla voi hahmottaa ja rakentaa formaalia verkko-opetusta.
Luin artikkelia erityisesti oppimisteoriarelevanssin näkökulmasta. Havainnokseni kiteytyi seuraavaa.
– Behaviorismilla voidaan perustella opettaja- ja asiantuntijajohtoista opetusta. Olennaista on tavoitteiden ja oletettujen oppimistulosten selkeä kuvaaminen sekä testit ja mittarit, joilla ulkoisesti arvioidaan opittua.
– Kognitivismi antaa aineksia opittavien sisältöjen järjestämiselle opittavaksi: materialien rakenne ja sisältöjen eteneminen, visuaalisuus, ennakkojäsentäjät, erilaiset esitystavat (suhteessa oppimistyyleihin) jne. Itselleni oli uutta oivallus, että kognitiivinen psykologia onkin ennen kaikkea sisältöjen esittämisen psykologiaa, ei niinkään oppimisen psykologiaa.
– Konstruktivismi tunnetusti korostaa oppijakeskeisyyttä, ja se tuokin keskiöön vuorovaikutuksen ja yhteistoiminnan. Oppiminen on monenlaista oppija-opettaja, oppija-oppija ja oppija-sisällöt -vuorovaikutusta.
– Konnektivismi sijoittaa oppimisen verkostoihin, tilanteisiin ja ympäristöihin (oppimisekologioihin), joissa oppiminen tapahtuu “omalla vastuullaan”.
Tiivistäen lukukokemukseni oli:
behaviorismi antaa tavoitteet ja mittarit, kognitivismi sisältöjen esittämisen, konstruktivismi vuorovaikutuksen ja konnektivismi luottamuksen oppimiseen.
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Mohamed Ally examines online instruction, study and learning in his article Foundations of Educational Theory for Online Learning published in the book Theory and Practice of Online Learning. He takes his orientation from learning theories- from behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism and connectivism.
The result of his reflections is a model, in which learning theories provide substance for a preparation of a learner, for learner activities and interactions, and for a learner transfer. In the article there are a lot of stimuli for analysing and organizing formal instruction.
I red the article especially in the perspective of the relevance of learning theories. My perception is the following.
– By behaviorism can be argued the role of external outcomes (goals) and measuring and end assessment of them in teacher and expert centred instruction. It is important to express clearly the goals to be achieved and to organize tests to measure externally the learning (instruction).
– Cognitivism gives advices for arranging and presenting learning contents, i.e. structure and pace in materials, visuality, advance organizers, text, audio, video, game etc. formats for different learning styles etc. Personally I was surprised about the realisation that cognitive psychology is more the psychology of expressing contents than of learning.
– Constructivism is known as a learner centred psychology, and according to it interaction and collaboration are in the middle of constructivist learning. Learning takes place in learner-teacher, learner-learner and learner-content interactions and processes.
– Connectivism locates learning in networks, situations and environments (learning ecologies), in which learning goes on it´s own.
To summarise my reading experience: behaviorism gives goals and measuring for instruction, cognitivism the presentation of contents for teaching, constructivism interaction and collaboration for learning , and connectivism gives the trust in learning where ever it exists.
No wonder that Mohamed Ally takes his orientation from different learning theories such as behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism and connectivism examining online instruction, study, and learning because one definite theory can not reflect all the aspects which are relevant to such a complicated issue like study, or instruction, or learning. But very often some theories object to each other. E.g. behaviorism and cognitivism. Certainly the latter does not totally refute of the former . I can not but agree with you that the role of external goals exposed by behaviorism can be strongly argued. Lucius Annaeus Seneka said that if one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favourable. So setting a clear goal in study, instruction, training or teaching is a must. I also can agree with geneticists arguing with behaviorists about their approach that one doesn’t inherit characteristics from one’s ancestors. Lately scientists from Israel having examined prisoners genes found out that more than 90% of imprisoned people have a gene which is responsible for producing dopamine which causes adventurism or arouses a desire in people to get more and more new impressions.
As for cognitivism, I’d like to say that I almost fell in love with psycolinguistics when I was studying psycology in the university I think that being a teacher of languages I must know the basics of psycolinguistics as well as ethnopsycolinguistics because it can be helpful in understanding peculiarities of multicultural students. Language can not but affect individual’s understanding of the world.Language is a part of culture simultaneously reflecting it.One of the brightest cognitivists Noam Chomsky disputed the behaviorist approaches to phenomena of language dominant and studies of behavior challenging them by his research works. In his work “Language and Mind” published in 1968 in the States and later re-edited twice he stated that “Linguistics …..is simply the subfield of psycology that deals with …… aspects of mind.” While working in the Arctic region of Siberia I experienced teaching Taymir aboriginal students from who I learned that their native language has more than 40 definitions for snow! I believe it is very important to understand and accept psycolinguistics as a basis for teaching multicultural immigrants in Finland. As for me psycolinguistics helped me a lot in preparing my multicultural students living in a extremely faraway region of Siberia at the edge of the world to participate in the American linguistic contests provided by the American government. We got a terrific result because some of them not only had won in it but after fulfilling the American programme got a higher education in the States and now are working all over the world.To summarise my teaching experience: behaviorism gives goals but they must be clear; cognitivism helps to understand the nature of learning and how mind works, so a lecturer/teacher recognising the diversity of learners can predict the result of applied technology and methods;connectivism considered by some scientists as a a pedagogical view and by others as a learning theory for the digital age that explains “…the effect technology has had on how we live, how we communicate, and how we learn.” I’d like also to mention the educational theory of constructionism developed by Seymour Papert who was greatly inspired by constructivist and experiential learning ideas of Jean Piaget. Constructionists state that learning can happen most effectively when people are active in making tangible, palpable objects in the real world. The constructionist teacher who negotiates between the learner and the result of learning is more a mediator rather than an instructor involving students in drawing their own conclusions through creative experimentation and the making of social objects. Constructionism as a technology is widely applied in any project work and impacts on getting new knowledge by learners. Seymour Papert in his work” Constructionism: A New Opportunity for Elementary Science Education” says that “From constructivist theories of psychology we take a view of learning as a reconstruction rather than as a transmission of knowledge. Then we extend the idea of manipulative materials to the idea that learning is most effective when part of an activity the learner experiences as constructing a meaningful product.” Papert has been an enthusiastic supporter of bringing IT to classrooms. So am I. The difference between me and him is that he was teaching (as far as I remember) Maths and IT while I taught foreign languages. The common is that both he and me are keen on using IT in classrooms. This is my site http://www.dudinkafarnorthvera2.narod.ru/index1.html which I made myself without IT engineer’s help I am proud of it!
Thanks Vera for your comment, especially about raising the constructionism into sight as an one important orientation. When we live more and more in one physical-virtual world the role of goals for learning and working is very interesting. Quite the opposite view – no goals – is expressed in a blog post of Leo Babauta (http://zenhabits.net/no-goal/ ). When informal learning is more recognized in education, should we also understand that goals are/should only be tacitly present in ongoing activities?
No doubt a goal is as closely connected to motivation as the umbilical cord connects the baby to the placenta. If a person has no motivation or it is too weak, then the goal is not attainable or relevant. But though Zen Habits is proclaiming that now he lives mostly without goals, he does have his goals. They are tacitly present in his blog. I’ve read some pages written by him and can prove that he has’em. Here it is: “….TAKE the fantabulous guided tour: The Beginner’s Guide to Zen Habits (seriously, it’s good).Please also SUBSCRIBE for regular updates delivered to the inbox of your liking, or if you have some spare cash in your pocket, SUPPORT Zen Habits. And, if that’s not enough, bring yourself on over to see one of the awesome books I recommend. Of course, you can also get one of my books: The Power of Less | Zen To Done | The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life | The Essential Motivation Handbook | Handbook for Life.”
So, his goal is to earn money selling his ideas and books! Why not to sell an idea that people should not have any goals?? Why not to sell a book to earn some for your living?? At the same time Zen says: “Living without goals hasn’t ever been an actual goal of mine”, and also he admits:”Now and then I start coming up with a goal, but I’m letting them go.” Or “…goals are too hard to achieve.” Due to his failures he thinks that “Goals as a system are set up for failure.”
I can’t say why he has failed in achieving his goals. Probably they were not realistic, maybe not relevant. He honestly says that “My answer is that I have no formal qualifications. I am not an expert, or a doctor, or a coach. I haven’t made millions of dollars and I’m not the world’s greatest athlete.All I am is a regular guy, a father of six kids, a husband, a writer. But I have accomplished a lot over the last couple of years (and failed a lot) and along the way, I have learned a lot.”
Goal setting implies goal work. Without the latter the former is just a dream. Also the goal should be clearly-defined. But I believe the most important of all is motivation. The formula of a successful result ( that is achievement) is Achievement = Intelligence + Motivation. Zen has got the motivation to achieve his goal. His main goal is to give his children a chance to get proper education and proper life and to live a proper life himself. In his blog he says that the main motivation to move from Guam to California was to give a chance to his daughter to get a nice education. He also complains that living in Guam they had not enough chances to buy what they wanted for everyday life. He also says in his story (http://zenhabits.net/my-story/ ) that he began to make changes in his life. So, he has raised the level of his motivation .As far as I see from his blog, after having got a strong motivation and rising the level of his intelligence ( he became organized, doubled his income, took control of his finances and began eliminating his debt etc.), his goal is coming true. Look what he says in his story in http://mnmlist.com/ : “As you know, in the last few weeks my family and I cleared out our possessions, and moved to a new city. We’re loving San Francisco, missing our loved ones on Guam terribly … but the most interesting thing to me has been the idea of starting afresh. We’re in a new city, a blank slate for us, and we’re allowed to reimagine our lives. That’s a scary thing, because as humans we cling to the familiar, find comfort in routines and in what we’re used to. We can handle change, but usually in smaller bits. Drastic changes, at the scale of everything we know, are difficult to handle. It’s also a wonderful thing, because a fresh start means you have nothing tying you down, nothing stopping you from creating the life you want.” He has begun to make changes in his life and now he’s been quite satisfied with the new positive outlook on achieving his goal. I hope he will do it successfully.
I think his story is a nice example what people who would like to succeed should do. Maybe while educating himself he just read a nice book on goals and goal management?
It was nice, Pekka, that you raised this important issue because setting a goal and achieving it is a crucial point in any education, training, or learning.
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Kiitos konnektivismista suomeksi! On erittäin hyvää, että sain mahdollisuuksen lukea konnektivismista suomeksi.
edit: Very nice post. I find particularly interesting the theory of “Constuctivism” and I think it has a lot to offer to Psychology, but unfortunately it is usually not taught at all at universities. I’m for sure going to read more about it! Thanks for sharing this post~