CEN launch, Andrew Tolmie

Conceptions of learning within psychology of education: frameworks and issuesAndy Tolmie Dept of Psychology and Human DevelopmentInstitute of Education University of London

Contact details25 Woburn SquareLondon WC1H 0AATel +44 (0)20 7612 6888Fax +44 (0)20 7612 6304Email [email protected]

2

Overview of presentation

• What might educational neuroscience be aiming to achieve?

• What needs to be integrated?

• Teachers’ conceptions of learning

• Conceptions of learning among developmentalists working in education

• Some key issues where computational modelling/neuroscience might augment our understanding

CEN Workshop 29.10.08

3

Neuroscience and reduction

• What is the relationship between neuroscience and educational research?

• Common assumption of reduction, raising version of classic mind-body problem and critiques of ‘brainism’

• Varma, McCandliss & Schwartz (2008), Bakhurst (2008) – is it meaningful/ helpful to reduce accounts of educational/psychological events to neural level?

• Varma et al. – reductionism is unproblematic provided not eliminative (i.e. doesn’t replace higher level description)

• But is reductionism even the goal? Focus on learning suggests an alternative conception


4

Learners as multi-level systems

• Nature of learning processes, optimal coordination of these with teaching, are central concerns for educational research

• Diversity of theorising about learning underscores complexity involved

• Influence of work that attempts to integrate cognitive/social dimensions (e.g. Cole & Engestrom’s sociocultural perspective, research on dialogue and learning, EPPE/EPPSE project), addressing aspects of this complexity

• Full account of complexity of learning also needs to consider how brain function shapes – and may be shaped by – learning in typical and atypical contexts

• Emerging framework is system that operates at neural, cognitive and social levels, with extensive interactions between these


5

Aims of educational neuroscience

• Implied objective is to map this system, understand nature of interactions between levels – which is not a reductionist enterprise

• To do this, need to build bridges between- descriptions/explanations at different levels- methodologies that generate data relating to these- perceptions of phenomena/issues that merit investigation

• Bruer (1997) – a bridge too far?

• Varma (2008) – need for multiple bridges


6

Role of developmental psychology

• Implication: need to use variety of methods to address defined sets of strategically selected issues

• Developmental psychology as (necessary) common orienting framework:- concern with models of cognition/neural function in educationally salient

populations- history of application to educational issues- widely shared knowledge of range of relevant theories- acceptance of diverse methodologies, including those usable in RWEs- explicit inclusion in theorising of social as well cognitive/neural

processes - if any psychological framework is understood by teachers, it is this one


7

Teachers’ conceptions of learning

• Gradual decline in psychological input to teacher training, though offset by - psychology graduates going into primary teaching- uptake of post-training qualifications in psychology (of education)

• Conceptions of learning informed by some basic frameworks, overlaid with much experientially-derived insight

- Piaget, especially stage theory, concepts of construction, disequilibration- Vygotsky, especially ZPD, notion of intermental to intramental shift- knowledge taxonomies/curricular organisation between/within disciplines- issues of extension/generalisation, skill/concept/knowledge relations- formalised knowledge of some types of learning difficulty (dyslexia etc)- recognition of the complex role of classroom processes


8

Frameworks in psychology of education

• Conceptions of learning within psychology of education can be seen as elaborations of same concerns, reflecting continuity with teacher experience (both training and teaching)

• Despite specific concerns with educational issues, basic orientation is that of developmental psychology

• So, well-positioned to serve as one kind of bridge from research into practice (though scale of task should not be underestimated)

• Key advantage is that much current research is already concerned with interactions between levels of the ‘learner system’ – at least implicitly


9

Piaget’s genetic epistemology +

• Origin/organisation of knowledge remains central concern, following work of Piaget & Inhelder, though notion of stages/global structures now discredited

• Key research themes include- relationships between procedural and conceptual knowledge (Karmiloff-

Smith’s RR model, Siegler’s overlapping waves model)- nature of representations and representational organisation, role of

language (RR model, Siegler’s rule-based schemes)- triggers for conceptual/representational change (RR model/stability

vs overlapping waves/instability vs Howe on priming effects of conflict)

• Growing interest in relation between cognitive/computational/neural levels


10

Vygotsky’s social constructivism +

• Issue of enculturation also remains key concern, though concept of ZPD has been widened, role of mediation by signs/tools has become less focal

• Key research themes include- relationships between social practice and apprenticeship/situated learning in and out of clasrooms (Rogoff, Lave, Resnick)- nature of/constraints on scaffolding and co-construction, especially

in classroom context (Wood, Cole & Engestrom, Mercer, Webb)- role of guided action and dialogue, especially explicit explanation, in

representational change at different levels (Howe, Wegerif, Tolmie)

• Increasingly explicit concern with relation between social/cognitive levels


11

Domain specificity

• Idea of knowledge domains (circumscribed areas of conceptual/procedural understanding) widely accepted, if not precise division and origin

• Key issues here include- potential influences of modular/evolutionary vs ontological processes,

development vs learning (Tomasello, Spelke, Carey)- relationships/tensions between domains/natural conceptions and

discipline-based knowledge (Vosniadou, Hatano)

• Considerable work on area-specific processes of development/learning: reading, number/maths, science (biology, physics, psychology)

• Varying degrees of explicit linkage between social/cognitive/neural levelsCEN Workshop 29.10.08

12

Domain-general processes

• Contemporary theorising points to diverse range of processes that appear to impact on learning in relatively consistent fashion across domains

• Key strands of investigation include- attention, executive control and working memory (Gathercole)- dialogue and representational change (cf. earlier points)- metacognition and self-regulated learning (Pintrich, Boekaerts)- motivation, self-determination and self-concept (Deci, Dweck, Marsh)

• Variety of explicit linkages between neural/cognitive/social levels – though connection between strands limited as yet


13

Potentially strategic research issues

• Effects of early exposure to print/reading- evidence of general relation between exposure and literacy (e.g. EPPE)- poor language comprehenders show problems learning to read exception

words (Ricketts), WM deficits, SES gradient- evidence on trainability of WM in children with ADHD (Gathercole) – route

for exposure effect?

• Extension and generalisation in curricular contexts- gap between work on prototype extraction and analogical reasoning- possible applicability of RR model (Tolmie & Tenenbaum), but why the

differences between low-level abstraction/high-level connection?


14

Potentially strategic research issues

• Relative efficacy of different triggers for representational growth/change- consistent evidence of impact of dialogue on conceptual change (Howe,

Mercer)- effect of dialogue content more pronounced when initial representation is

more elaborated (Philips & Tolmie) - why is dialogue apparently (differentially) privileged over experience?- possible clue in work on shared activation in joint tasks (Sebanc)?

• List subject to individual preference/interest, but NB attempt here to identify issues of mainstream educational concern: work on atypically developing children important, but crucial to broaden application of multi-level analysis


Technology

CEN launch, Andrew Tolmie