Science of LearningOverview of Cognitive Science for

Teachers

Psychological/Cognitive Revolution

• Freud (1890) • Kohler’s monkeys(1908)• 1900-1960: Two directions

– US: Behaviorism– Europe: Gestalt

• 1960’s- Cognitive Science – Formerly artificial intelligence– Only Nobel prize for psychology

Behaviorism• Pavlov, Watson, Thorndike & Skinner• Create a science of behavior

– No mention of thinking– Only visible factors considered

• Reinforcement of desired behaviors– Treat all students the same– Feedback is most important

• Teaching machines

Gestalt Psychology• Kohler, Wertheimer, Piaget• Focus on Perception

– Illusions suggest some of the inner processes• Brain as an active processor

– Not simply taking in information– Fish is fish– http://faculty.uca.edu/~lglenn/gestaltimages.htm

• Research on understanding

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Constructivsm• Jean Piaget (1940-70s)• Knowledge must be constructed

– Assimilation– Accomodation– Ignore/segment knowledge

• Looked at students mistakes and developed theory of development– Sensorimotor stage– Preoperational stage– Concrete operational stage– Formal operations

Problematic Initial ideas• Earth is flat• When you throw a ball it naturally slows down

and stops• It is much less likely to get ‘heads’ four times

in a row than to get h-t-h-t• Astronaut Question

Astronaut questionThe astronaut is walking on the

moon when he lets go of his pen. Does the pen:

A. Fall to the moon surfaceB. Float up into the skyC. Float in place

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Misconceptions?• All ideas are the product of some experience• Students initial ideas are the building blocks

of future ideas• If misconceptions are not addressed many

students will retain them after instruction• How to you promote “conceptual change”

(aka accommodation that involves major change of ideas)?

Cognitive Science• Understanding thinking using many

perspectives:– Psychology – Computer Science– Linguistics– Anthropology

Artificial Intelligence

• Starts with Allan Newell and Herb Simon (1956) General Problem Solver

• Computers can solve well structured problems (e.g. geometry, chess)– Identify the goal– Search the “solution space”– Hill climbing

• Most problems are not well structured• Later efforts focus on gestalt type approaches

(neural nets)

Contemporary Learning Theory

• Constructivism - Role of prior knowledge• Metacognition - Control over thinking process• Expert/Novice - How do experts think• Transfer - Evidence of understanding• Social Constructivism - role of peers, community• Sense Making - actively trying to understand• Mental Models - representations of phenomena• Constructionism - learning through building

Metacognition• Literally - thinking about thinking• Awareness of ones thinking and knowledge of

skills and limitations– Planning– Checking – Reflection

• Epistemology: knowledge of ideas and their origins– General knowledge of ideas– Specific to field of study eg Nature of Science

Experts vs Novices• Experts do not

– Think at a faster rate– Use more of their brain– Instantly know the answer to everything– Learn without effort

• Experts do– Organize knowledge by important factors– Chunk information for easy use and retrieval– Identify patterns and make inferences

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Transfer• Best test of understanding• Three key types

– Near transfer (parallelograms)– Far transfer (fortress - tumor)– Transfer to real world

• Keys for promoting transfer– Abstraction– Representations of knowledge– Use of analogies

Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) -

Social Constructivism• “Every function in the child's

cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the individual level”

• Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)– The difference between what

you can do by yourself and what you can do with the aid of a coach

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Problem Solving & Sense Making

• Problem Solving– Humans work differently than computers– Students assume they should just know– Experts spend more time planning and checking

• Sense Making– Somewhat undefined: “I know it when I see it”– Effort to try and understand/explain something

something

Mental Models• A mental representation of a

phenomena or event• Depictive simulations allow people to

see things in their minds eye • Representation that is “run-able” so you

can simulate what will happen and make predictions

• Similar to Schemas but bigger?

Constructionism• Learning by creating new things• From Paper (1979) Mindstorms

– Research on LOGO programing– Computerized “Microworlds” where you can

build anything you want• Extended to engineering type projects

– Instead of experimentation, build something