Michael J. Jacobson, Ph.D. Co-Principal Scientist, Learning Sciences Lab

1. Challenges in Learning 21st Century Knowledge, How People Learn, and Pedagogical Paradigms: Implications for Reforming Asian Educational Systems Michael J. Jacobson, Ph.D. Co-Principal Scientist, Learning Sciences Lab Associate Professor, Learning Sciences and Technology Academic Group National Institute of Education Nanyang Technological University Singapore

2. Talk Overview • 21st Century Knowledge and Skills • Policy Challenges • Research Principles for Education from the Learning Sciences • Framework for Pedagogical Paradigms • Examples of E-Learning Tools that Support Type 2 Learning • Lack of Alignment in Asia Pacific Educational Systems • Research Needs and Opportunities • Changing Large Scale Educational Systems

3. 21st Century Knowledge 0 The meaning of knowing has shifted from being able to remember and repeat informationto being able to find and use it. Herbert Simon (1917-2001) Economist and Cognitive Scientist Nobel Laureate

4. The Global Knowledge Economy • Relies on use of ideas rather than physical abilities • Creates, acquires, transmits, and uses knowledge to promote economic and social development (World Bank) • Relies on application of technology rather than transformation of raw materials or exploitation of cheap labor

5. New Learning Demands on Students • Students must master higher-order cognitive, affective, and social skills • Thrive on chaos: Decisions based on incomplete information in novel situations • Collaborate with diverse teams (face-to-face or across distances) • Create, share, and master knowledge filtered through a sea of quasi-accurate information

6. Beyond the Usual Suspects… • Policy makers (and educators) around the globe know these are the issues • Howto transform educational infrastructures and systems in Asia Pacific countries? • What are the principles for learning and teaching that these new educational infrastructures and systems should be based on?

7. Ministry of Education Priorities in Other Countries for E-Learning and ICT • Singapore: • ICT should help shift toward active, student-centered learning • Teach less, learn more • Thailand: ICT should help change the role of teachers and students to be learner centered rather than teacher centered • Finland: Technology-based changes in pedagogy should stress the “knowledge and skills needed to reform pedagogical practices in schools, especially with regard to collaborative teaching and learning, networking, and team work.”

8. Korean Ministry of Education 2003 White Paper: Societal Needs for Education • Need to prepare students for 21st century global knowledge economy • Need to shift from “teacher-centered” to “learner-centered” paradigm for education • Need for students to have creative thinking, problem solving, and communication skills • Role for information and communication technologies (e-Learning) to help implement Korean educational reforms

9. Learning 21st Century Knowledge & Skills: Failure and Success 0 • Program of research at the Kellogg School of Business, Northwestern University (Dedre Gentner’s group) • Learning advanced negotiation strategies • Compromise strategy • “Regular” (novice) view • Both sides “give up” something • Sub-optimal if different beliefs about end outcomes • Both sides “unhappy” • Contingency strategy • Each side essentially makes a bet • Each side is “happy” after negotiation (although the events will make one side or the other “win”)

10. Study of Learning and Applying Negotiation Strategies 0 • Given 2 short cases to study for one week (retail and business sales) • Advice Condition: Give advice about negotiation issues • Comparison Condition: • Contrast and compare 2 cases • Identify important principle • Then engaged in 1 ½ hour role playing negotiating session

11. Results 0 $691,000 $761,000

12. Lessons and Implications 0 • Read & Advise cases group: • Inert knowledge • Non-useable, compartmentalized knowledge • Contrast & Compare cases group: • Successful knowledge transfer • Useable knowledge from comparing multiple cases • Gentner proposes a theory of analogical encoding • Inert knowledge potential problem at all levels • Implications for pedagogies involving problems and cases (PBL) • Example of learning sciences research that suggests large gains in learningpossiblefrom small changesin pedagogy

13. Learning Sciences Research and Principles for Educational Systems • To develop research-based claims about how people learn • Generate principled research that has practical, policy, pedagogical, and theoretical implications How People Learning Knowing What Students Know

14. Intriguing Learning Sciences Findings: Facts and Concepts 0 • Teaching approach: Students must first acquire important prerequisite facts in order to understand higher order concepts • Learning sciences research: Excessive early emphasis on facts can impair higher order conceptual understanding

15. Intriguing Learning Sciences Findings: Types of Memory for Knowledge 0 • Teaching approach: Have students learn & test for memory of factual information • Neuroscience research: Two knowledge types • Declarative (19th century) knowledge: • Facts or events (“Knowing what”) • Memories occur in brainsystems involving the hippocampus • Procedural (21st century)knowledge: • Skills and cognitive operations (“Knowing how”) • Memories occur in brainsystems involving the neostriatum • Learning implication: Danger of teaching and assessments that focus primarily on acquisition of declarative knowledge • Potential “credibility” value to public and policy makers of cognitive-neuroscience research that validates other educational research findings

16. Research-based Learning Sciences Principles that Foster Deep Learning • Provide contextualized learning based on multiple real world problems, cases, or situations • Make explicit important organizing conceptual perspectives (i.e., big ideas) • Provide scaffolds and tools to enhance active learning • Support reflection and development of metacognitive skills • Foster thoughtful collaborations amongst communitiesof learners

17. Learning Environment Alignment Issues • How People Learn: Learning environments should be: • Student centered: prior knowledge and learning-by-doing • Knowledge centered: Big ideas and relevant facts • Assessment centered: Formative and summative • Vital to align pedagogy, content, and assessments with values and needs of society

18. Framework of Pedagogical Paradigms: Keeping it Simple for Policy Makers 0

19. Main Characteristics of Teaching and Learning in Many Asia Pacific Educational Systems • Type 1 Delivery or teacher-centered • Research in Singapore: (National Institute of Education Centre for Research on Pedagogic in Practice) • Ad hoc observations in other Asian countries • Primary assessment approaches • Worksheets & multiple choice tests • Measures of factual recall and low level procedural skills • Achieving 19th & early 20th century goal for learning (literacy levels of reading, writing, & calculating) Remember and repeat

20. Characteristics of Type 2 E-Learning Systems that Foster Deep Learning • Provide contextualized learning based on multiple real world problems, cases, and situations • Provide scaffolds and tools to enhance active learning • Foster thoughtful collaborations amongst local and global communitiesof learners • Designs based on theory and research from the learning and cognitive sciences

21. International Examples of Type 2 Teaching and Learning • Robert B. Kozma, Editor • Highlights of the Second Information Technology in Education Study Module 2 • Sponsored by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement • Cases nominated by national panels in participating countries • 174 case studies from 29 countries • Wide range of grade levels and subject areas

22. Examples of Advanced Type 2 E-Learning Systems • MUVEES (Multi-User Virtual Environments Experientially simulator, Harvard) • NetLogo Computational Modelling (Northwestern) • Knowledge Mediator Problem Based e-Learning (PBeL; Singapore National Institute of Education)

23. Challenge for Education in Asia Pacific Countries: Lack of Alignment in Educational Systems • High stakes pre-college tests: “delivery paradigm” Mainly tests low level cognitive skills related to memorization of factual information • However “learner centered paradigm” approaches & technologies: Develop higher order cognitive skills such as complex problem solving, communication, and creativity • Great need to align: • New societal learning goals • Research-based pedagogies and technologies • Assessments of deep learning

24. Challenge for Educational Researchers in Asia Pacific Countries (and Globally) • Educational research community has failed to provide viable large scale Type 2 summative assessments: • Reliable • Transparent and fair • Also need viable formative assessment tools for real classrooms • Support Type 2 teaching with large classes • Dramatically enhance learning • Vitally important areas for educational research

25. Important Opportunities • Political & social impetus exists for reforming educational systems in Asia Pacific countries • Need for flexible, adaptive, and creative thinking in workforce • Need for advanced knowledge workers • Need for more informed citizenry • Neither can be achieved with Type 1 pedagogies • Vital that educational research be conducted into compelling models of Type 2 approaches • Demonstrate advanced learning skills in students • Demonstrate how new pedagogies and technologies are viable to teachers, principals, and parents

26. Changing Large Scale Asia Pacific Educational Systems • Assessment is the criticaldriver of how complex, multi-level, educational systems function • Bad news: Educational systems will not fundamentally change given continued use of current high stakes assessment procedures • Good news: Changing to new research-based, validated, alternative assessments probably willfundamentally change and dramatically improve the Asia Pacific educational systems that implement them

27. Learning Sciences in Singapore: The Learning Sciences Lab • New research centre at National Institute of Education that partners with Centre for Research on Policy and Practice (CRPP) • Conduct learning sciences research to inform technology enabled pedagogical practices for cultivating 21st century knowledge and skills in Singapore • Invite international research collaborators • URL: http://eduweb.nie.edu.sg/lsl/

28. Conclusion • Challenge to educational research community: How to inform educational reform in Asia Pacific countries? • Two views of insight: • After Bernard Shaw’s (and Langley’s) • Envision what might be • Ask why not? • “Insight is the sudden cessation of stupidity” (John Bransford) • May we all help our many Asian Pacific societies cultivate educational “insight”

29. Contact Information Michael J. Jacobson, Ph.D. Co-Principal Scientist, Learning Sciences Lab Associate Professor, Learning Sciences and Technology Academic Group National Institute of Education Nanyang Technological University Office Block 2 Level 3 Room 52 E-mail: jacobson@nie.edu.sg Phone: 65-9027-9056