LEARNING AS PROBLEM SOLVING REFERENCES

Learning: as (Problem Solving) Activity By David Jonassen University of Missouri

The Meaning of Learning Project Learning Development Institute

Presidential Session at AECT Denver, October 25-28, 2000

Until recently, if you asked most educators to define learning, they would say that it was a relatively permanent change in behavior. Why? Because that was the definition that they remembered from their learning theories courses. And because behaviorism was the theory they likely studied first, that was the definition they remembered best (a phenomenon known as primacy in the verbal learning research). That definition, or any other, I believe, is inadequate for explaining the phenomenon of learning. Learning is a complex process.... Contemporary theories of learning, including socially shared cognition, situated learning, everyday cognition and everyday reasoning, activity theory, ecological psychology, distributed cognitions, and case-based reasoning share many beliefs and assumptions about learning (Jonassen & Land, 2000). These theories are based on similar ontologies, epistemologies, and phenomenologies. Together, they provide a consonant and coherent theory of meaning making….

Learning as intention—action—reflection. There are at least three fundamental changes in our understanding of learning that are entailed by these contemporary theories. First, learning is a process of meaning making, not of knowledge reception. Humans interact with other humans and with artifacts in the world and naturally and continuously attempt to make sense of those interactions. Meaning making (resolving the dissonance between what we know for sure and what we perceive or what we believe that others know) is a very natural process that results from a puzzlement, perturbation, expectation violations, curiosity, or cognitive dissonance. This dissonance ensures some ownership of the knowledge by learners because it is their discrepancy that they are trying to resolve. Knowledge that is personally constructed or socially co-constructed is necessarily owned by and attributed to the meaning makers, whether they are acting individually or collaboratively. So when encountering a puzzlement or problem, learners must articulate an intention to “figure out” the phenomenon and then act on it, consciously reflecting on the meaning of those interactions.

Print Interview with David Jonasses: http://syndicate.missouri.edu/articles/show/42

See also Learning to Solve Problems: A Handbook for Designing Problem-Solving Learning Environments [Paperback] by David Jonassen