Liz,+Talon,+Zoe,+Andy

RANDOM DISCUSSION

Self taught. Can any learning occur stictly **(stictly? really?)** by oneself? At some point, we all draw on knowledge that was presented earlier. We either use tools, signs, etc and assign new meaning to them to accomplish the task, challenge, etc. at hand.

Cognitive - learn something when you make the connections. You may learn something but it doesn't have meaning until you make the connections. Situative -

Example

multiplication 4x2=13

Cognitive: learn abstract and general knowledge. Then learn specific concrete examples that can be transfered into other situations. Situative: Learn multiplication in a situation ie( 4 groups of 2) then transfer this to other similar situations.

Discovery. How are new discoveries or knowledge formed?

Situative: new knowledge is introduced into the community Cognitive: Create a new connection or add a new point within cognitive ecology

How do you reach children? Some aren't necessarily interested. You also run into free riders, coasters, the single worker, etc.

What guidance can we give to new teachers?

PROOF: How do we empirically test these two theories - situative and cognitive? Depends of goal. Are we trying to determine what learning is, which theory produces larger knowledge, etc.? The problem now becomes assessment. Testing by the cognitive theorists is possible, but not for the situative camp since the assessment is outside of social authentic activity. A key problem is understanding what knowledge is. The situative camp do not define knowledge as the cognitive people do who discuss conceptual change, concept, belief, conflict, assimilation, accomodation, etc. Now, comes the issue of transfer. What exactly transfers and this has direct bearing on how we assess the given theory.

SPECIFIC QUESTIONS: 1) [Many people found Greeno's language a barrier. Anderson was more clear and direct. Is there a relationship between their prose style and their lens on learning theory?] As someone that comes from a physical science, not a social science, it can be difficult to accept at an argument that lacks empirical evidence. In these settings it seems so much of whether your theory is accepted or not relies on how you word it. - Zoe Prose, language, etc. are vital in arguing for a particular learning theory. A significant portion of the arguments between Anderson and Greeno were language based. Anderson said it himself - "we fail to see the difference".

Phenominon **(phenominon?)**: Learning. You learned something Explanations: Situative Cognitive Problem: Lack of empirical evidence. Weakness: Transfer is the biggest weakness