Learning at school : the cognitive competencies vs. knowledge controversy revisited

1. Learningatschool: thecognitivecompetencies vs. knowledgecontroversyrevisited Miroslav Rendl Stanislav Štech Charles University Prague FacultyofEducation Dept. ofPsychology

2. Thequestion • Is the child´s learning more efficient if he/she acquires items of knowledge (mostly identified with memorizing and drill) or if he/she constructs, discovers, leads inquiries or solves problems, i.e. learns with understanding - and builds more general competencies? • The real issue: how to make students acquire concepts which are the exterior and condensated expression of the thought process, and not only verbal envelopes? - is shifted and transformed into an artificial antinomy:

3. Thequestion • KnowledgeThinkingskills reformistclichés as epitethonconstans - (mechanical) - understanding, insights memorizingonly - re-productive - productive (creative) - passive student - active student - abstract,decontextualized - related to everydaylife useful - Lowmotivation - motivating, attractive, etc. Whatisthepsychologicalresearch evidence?

4. Particularissues • (1) the objective of school learning (provided that the opposition – subject matter knowledge vs. thinking skills and development of cognitive competencies – is an artificial one?) • 2) the means/instruments of school learning (a) the extent and the forms of mediation by the teacher (b) parameters of the curriculum content • (3) the conditions and the criteria of an effective transfer

5. THE OBJECTIVE OF SCHOOL LEARNING 1 • Drill x understanding. (i) drillandpractice, (ii) generalisationaccording to a principle, (iii) drill plus (Thorndike 1930 - Resnick, Ford, 1981,1984): arithmeticlearning: understandingrequiresroutinization, presentation by theteacherand a set ofexercises to alternate in a cyclicalmovement • Knowingthatandknowinghow, declarative vs. procedural(Anderson 1983): currentneurosciencebrought evidence oftheparallel existence ofseveralmemorysystemswhoselocalization in thecortexdiffers. These serve theproceduralorthedeclarativememory (Squire). Theformerservesthe performance system, thelatterrecollectionand model building, they are neitherantagonistic, nor dependent. Thedifferenceratherconsists in thedifferentformsofthe student´s knowledgeandcorresponds to differentphasesof his/her learningprocess.

6. THE OBJECTIVE OF SCHOOL LEARNING 2 • An example: TIMSS maths task – a geometric figure, its enlargement and the declarative explanation of the procedure. Those who excelled in the declarative assignment never failed in the procedural one, the contrary was not the case + those excellent in the declarative assignment scored higher in the overall test score (Rendl 2010). • Conclusion: „procedural“ doesn´t imply higher quality than „declarative“; if, their difference notwithstanding, they are interconnected, the „declarative“ represents a higher stage of the knowledge process • Despite of these evidences, the know that became of lesser value in the educational discourse than the procedural competencies aiming directly at thinking skills.

7. THE OBJECTIVE OF SCHOOL LEARNING 3 • Directcognitivecompetencesorthinkingskillstraining: thecriticalthinkingmovement, DeBonoprogramsforthinkingdevelopment (1992) andFeuersteinInstrumentalEnrichment – IE (1980, 2004) interpreted as a remedy to thetraditionalschool • But – this has no import on thequestionofwhetherschoolknowledgelearningfosterscognitivecompetencies/thinkingskillsor not • Theprograms help the minority whichlacksthenecessarypre-requisites to createthosecompetenciesthatthe majority acquiresatschool (Feuersteinconfirmseoipsothat „traditional“ schoolinducestheformationofcognitivecompetencies) • evaluationof IE programsrevealsthattheeffectof these programs on subsequentschoollearningisratherweakandselective (strong in verballearning) • Theoriesofintelligence = theoriesofthinkingcompetencies: thereis no generalhomogeneouscognitivecompetence as potentialforknowledgelearnin

8. THE OBJECTIVE OF SCHOOL LEARNING 4 • relations between the working and long-term memory are dependent on the type of the cognitive task (Anderson, 1983; Glaser, 1987; and especially Sweller, 2003, 2004). • As the working memory is more loaded in problem solving and in activities of discovery, it is impossible to stock the necessary information in long-term memory. • problem solving or inquiry learning allows the solution of concrete problems, but it doesn´t lead to a more permanent learning.

9. THE OBJECTIVE OF SCHOOL LEARNING 5 • The more the learner is inexperienced and the task context complicated, the more the working memory is loaded. Paradoxically, the effect of these kinds of learning activites can be considered as negative – especially, if the child is unguided (Kirschner et al., 2006). • To sum up: recent research in human cognitive architecture proved that setting up a stark opposition between competencies/capacities development and memorizing is not justified.

10. THE OBJECTIVE OF SCHOOL LEARNING 6 • A correlative mistake about the objective of school learning consists in the belief that it is because it is focused on concrete knowledge, that it consists in memorizing only and doesn´t develop thinking skills • The result: the „desirable“ approach to learning at school: the learner is solitary (or autonomous and independent); he/she takes advantage of and extracts the necessary knowledge from everyday life problem situations; and necessarily proceeds as a little researcher (discovers)

11. The means/instruments of school learning • The double mediation scheme of Vygotsky • the novice in the culture has no immediate (non-mediated) relation to world. This relation is mediated by (a) other individuals (parents and teachers being the most important among them) – ZPD, scaffolding, tutoring (b) cultural „artefacts“ (material objects or symbols and language)

12. (a)The extent and the forms of mediation by the teacher 1 • „Competence-oriented“ postulate: the most effective and deep understanding stems from an autonomous discovery • „during instruction“ minimal guidance „does not work“ - Kirschner et al. (2006) • many studies prove that guided instruction led not only to the best recall of learned facts, but to a more permanent transfer and a more efficient problem-solving skills as well (Mayer 2001) • Aulls (2002) points out that in order to reach the instructional goals, even teachers and students within the constructivistic instructional design had to abandon the minimal guidance principle and build a scaffolding setting.

13. (A)THE EXTENT AND THE FORMS OF MEDIATION BY THE TEACHER 2 • minimal guidance doesn´t take into account the distinction between various moments (phases) of learning • nor does it respect the difference between problem-solving by an expert/researcher (for whom minimal guidance is preferable) and a novice/student • To sum it up, the studies summarized by Kirschner et al. indicate, again, that the stark opposition between guided and unguided learning is not evidence-based. It is not justified to infer the passivity of the student from the predominance of the teacher’s activity

14. (a)Modality ofinstructionandtheeffectivenessofInstruction/Learning • PISA 2006 survey (competencies testing) Q34: how oftenthe following situations occur in your science classroom?) • 17 classroom instructional settings: 7 competencies-aimed, 3 traditional instruction-focused, 7 including elements from both (frequency 1-all the time – 4-never) • Hypotheses according to the reformist discourse: 1.Finland will score significantly better (close to 1) than Czech pupils allegedely from traditional schools 2. Those scoring close to 1 will be better in PISA results in Science, the country notwithstanding

15. a)Modality ofinstructionandtheeffectivenessofInstruction/Learning • Data show that: • The autonomy of the pupils (trial and error; pupils choice of the curriculum to study; peers discussions in the classroom; testing one´s own ideas) has no positive correlation with the PISA results • Teacher´sactivities like direct teaching, explanations, interpretation and guiding have positive correlation with PISA (competencies!) results

16. (b) The parameters of the curriculum – mediation by the content of learning 1 • The reformists’accent on closeness to personal, everyday life contexts creates a hostile attitude to a de-contextualized curriculum • The emphasis on direct cultivation of cognitive processes, thought skills, transversal competences or metacognitive strategies is related to the diminishing role of contents of thought (labelled as “mere facts”) • the conflict between the highly abstract concepts of learning vs. situated learning

17. (b) The parameters of the curriculum – mediation by the content of learning 2 • “learning in context”- it may have led to the overestimation of this form of learning at the expense of the importance and function of school forms of cognition and learning • Moro (2001), the following theories: learning as apprenticeship associated with the works of Lave (1977, 1988) and Lave and Wenger (1991); learning as guided participation associated with the theoretical work by Rogoff (1990) and learning in the person – tool(s) system usually described as distributed learning, associated with the names of Hutchins studying pilots in a cockpit, or subway dispatchers in work (1995; 1990) and Resnick (1987). • Weaknesses of situated learning

18. (b) Theparametersofthe curriculum – mediation by thecontentoflearning 3 • In this way, situated learning believes in the effectiveness of its approach relying on the familiarity of the context, on the possible continuity or usefulness of spontaneous pre-concepts/naive theories for learning the school curriculum concepts, on the utility, i.e. direct applicability of knowledgethus acquired in everyday social life. As a result of this turn we can see the rejection or loss of significance of obligatory disciplinary concepts; replaced by a spontaneity linked to the diminution in the activity of the teacher and by tasks and problems to be solve which emanate from everyday life • cultural psychologists like Cole, Olson, Torrance, Brossard, Fijalkow, Schneuwly: rupture with the spontaneous notions and the process of abstraction • Abstraction allows the transfer

19. The conditions and the criteria of an effective transfer 1 • The answer to the controversial question differs in the preference given to concreteness (by educational reformists) or to abstraction (linked with the traditional school) • This was verified in research projects comparing the everyday notions and formalized concepts • Formalized learning can start where spontaneous learning in contexts of everyday life reaches a limit of what is possible. Spontaneous learning stands on instrumental usage, knowing how to say something; for example, knowing how the notion “brother” works, or who is a particular brother, to make oneself understood. Formalized learning paves the way for reflection and builds on it. This leads to knowing why something can/cannot be said in a particular way; what is essential about the structures of “kinship” and why a “sister” is the same as a „brother“ according to the law of kinship, even if this is sheer nonsense in the context of everyday usage.

20. The conditions and the criteria of an effective transfer 2 • the intellectualization of mental functions (Vygotsky): it sets in when the mental function becomes dependent on the idea (concept) or is subordinate to it • example of intellectualization of memory • The answer to the controversial question about transfer is that the most important is to practice concepts. And the core curriculum (paradigmatic conceptual network) of every discipline/school subject has the advantage to transcend the everyday, situational and narrow personal experience functioning as limitations and constraints to the transfer.

21. Conclusion • it is possible to overcome the controversy by an adequate structuring of operations, tasks and activities which involves drill, memorizing items of knowledge and abstractions, but which aims at the so-called intellectualization of mental functions • The school seems to be the most appropriate cultural institution to achieve this objective, as it cultivates systematically the link between the common cultural basis of knowledge artefacts, and mental processes and structures