Why is lecture still
the most predominant medium of instruction in so many educational
environments? Is learning nothing more than the reception
of knowledge from an expert "teacher?"
John Dewey argued against transmissive
models of teaching over 70 years ago, citing that learners were
not simply empty vessels waiting patiently and quietly to be filled
up with information. He coined the phrase "learn by doing"
as a direct challenge to traditional instruction, positing that
students need to be able to be much more actively
engaged in authentic experiences if true learning is to take place.
This was not a popular idea in his time, as evidenced in a story
about his trip to a furniture manufacturer to purchase some desks
for his classroom, where one witty salesman quipped "I am
afraid we have not what you want. You want something at which
the children may work; these are all for listening."
In addition to active learning, Dewey is also most remembered
for anticipating many of the principles common to modern cognitive
psychology, including the notion of developmental
cognition, believing that the mind was "a growing affair,
and hence as essentially changing, presenting distinctive phases
of capacity and interest at different periods."
Dewey's primary supposition then, was that meaningful (effective)
learning occurred best somewhere between experiential
discovery and rational examination. Experience
without careful reflection was inadequate. It is interesting to
note this convergence of behavioral, cognitive and social psychology
implicit his theories; in many ways it has foreshadowed the collaborative
effect that modern learning theories now posit as essential to
learning environments...
This course will examine in detail the wealth
of theory that attempts to explain why and how learners learn.
It will replicate to some degree the content covered in most undergraduate
Educational Psychology courses. One key difference, though, will
be the context in which these theories are examined--for the most
part we will focus on environments that utilize educational technology
products or systems.
By the end of the course, you are expected to have the capacity
to analyze any educational technology phenomenon through the lens
of learning theory. It will then be your responsibility to decide
if the great "theoretical convergence," as Jonassen
puts it, has actually occurred, and then to explain why lecture
prevails...
|