Knowledge and Learning Essays

Knowledge and Learning Essays Knowledge and Learning Essay Knowledge and Learning Essay There are different educational theories and practices describing how students gain knowledge (McAskill, Holmes, Francis-Pelton, Watt, 2004). According to MacAskill, Holmes, Francis-Pelton and Watt (2004) These theories fall roughly into two conceptual categories - the acquisitionist group and the participationist group. The acquisitionist group view learning and knowledge as a cognitive approach that uses cognitive schemes, models, concept images, or misconceptions while the participationist group view learning as an activity in which learners are integrated with a community of practice.In this context, the study will examine two different educational theories from each group - Pask’s Conversation Theory for the participationist group and Landa’s Algo-Heuristic Theory for the acquisitionist group. These theories are chosen because these are two of the most recent educational theories developed. But first, we need to examine the theory of knowledge (or learning) itself. According to Scott (2001) when considering what learning is and how it occurs, it is useful to recall that humans, like other biological organisms, are dynamical, self-organizing systems, surviving - and evolving - in a possibly hostile world.Humans survive by adapting and becoming informed of their environment. This is called learning. ’Learning’, as biological adaptation, happens incidentally in the context of the pursuit of current need satisfying’ goals (Scott, 2001). It is a continuous process. One cannot avoid it even the animals and insects. What is different with being a human is that we learn intentionally. Goals are set consciously and habits and skills are practiced deliberately. Maturana (1989) argues that being self-aware is knowing with oneself’ while consciousness’ is a process that evolves from knowing with another’ in consensual domains.In learning, we acquire knowledge’. To Pask, having knowledge’ is the process of knowing and coming to know. According to him, knowledge is not the storage of representations. However, different researches have different definitions of knowledge. Bloom (1956) distinguish between the concepts of knowledge, skill and value. There are also different sub-types of knowledge. Gagne, Briggs and Wager (1992) describe such sub-types as motor skills, discriminations, intellectual skills, defined concepts, concrete concepts, cognitive strategies, attitudes, problem solving, verbal information, rules and higher-order rules.Romiszowski (1984) classified knowledge in a more complex way. To him, there are four main kinds of knowledge, namely, facts, procedures, concepts and principles) and four main kinds of skill, namely, cognitive, psychomotor, reactive, interactive). These kinds have further subdivisions. Knowledge and learning can be described as process. Kolb (1984) developed a simple model of process. Figure 1 shows Kolb’s learning cycle. Figure 1. Kolbs learning cycle According to Kolb (1984), learning is a cycle. There are four stages of learning - concrete experience, reflection on that experience, abstract conceptualization and active experimentation.Abstract conceptualization is the derivation of general rules or theory construction while active experimentation refers to the construction of ways of modifying the next occurrence of the experience (Scott, 2001). The fact that recurrently pops up in discussions about the goals and objectives of education is the immense speed of developing new knowledge in a modern, information-based industrial society. Knowledge is changing so rapidly that what we learn today may become outdated and obsolete a decade, or perhaps even a few years, from now.The following question arises: If knowledge constantly changes in the course of scientific and technological development, do the cognitive mechanisms of acquiring and applying knowledge, in the process of such development, change as well? Or, to be more precise, do they change as rapidly as the knowledge being acquired by mankind? The answer is no. Experts in any field of scientific, technological or practical activity, who have already learned how to effectively acquire and apply knowledge, use essentially the same cognitive operations and process (out of some repertoire) to learn and manipulate various knowledge.These processes may be different with regard to different kinds of knowledge (for example, knowledge about facts versus knowledge about laws of nature) and/or with regard to different kinds of problems to be solved, but these processes a re the same with regard to the same kinds of knowledge and problems. Thus, while the knowledge acquired and handled may be variable, the ways - methods - of its acquisition and handling represent a constant. Because ways (mechanisms) used in acquiring and handling varying knowledge are constant, we can say that, in this sense, these mechanisms are  ¬content-independent and therefore general.