RICARDO SORIAEDTC 6341

Chapter 10 part 2Fall 2010

Selecting appropriate intellectual learning

environments

We need “productive learning environments” 

Questions educators might ask when they are selecting learner-based intellectual learning environments include:

Does this learning environment provide students with a choice in the goal of the activity and/or strategies to meet the goal?

Does this learning environment encourage prediction and successive approximations to solving problems or creating a desired product?

Does this learning environment provide feedback to students that is informational rather than judgemental?

Does this learning environment have easy-to-start aspects for the novice user as well as a “high ceiling” for more experienced learners so that they can continue to use the tool in increasingly more sophisticated ways?

Does the structure of the learning environment focus on learning and problem-solving processes rather than the product?

Does the learning environment facilitate a three-way interaction between teacher, student, and computer? (Bulll & Cochran, 1991)

Along with these questions, the following questions represent the important considerations teachers can use to select intellectual learning environments.

What is the theoretical approach to learning that is guiding the design of this learning environment?

Is it behavioristic, presenting information in small pieces and containing reinforcement aimed only at the individual learner,

or is the theoretical approach consistent with constructivist notions of learning, providing opportunities for students to investigate and interact with rich problems?

Does the learning environment support opportunities for groups of students to discuss and learn about content?

Is the learning environment well organized? Is it easy to navigate? Are there clear pathways to locating necessary information?

Are there a variety of ways to use the learning environment including an opportunity to make choices about the kinds and levels of learner control?

Are opportunities provided within the structure of the learning environment for students to construct their own links between different kinds of information?

1.Are opportunities provided within the structure of the learning environment for students to construct their own links between different kinds of information?

Current educational practice is built on the factory model/”mass education”which teaches basic reading, writing, and arithmetic, a bit of history and other subjects constitute the “overt curriculum”. Toffler 1980.

Beneath the overt curriculum lies the “covert curriculum” which consists of 3 courses:

one in punctuality, one in obedience, and one in rote, repetitive work that

is far more basic

This cluster of overt and covert curriculum is the result of an industrialized society’s demand for workers who are willing to take orders from a management hierarchy without questioning.

Educators who plan to design learning environments for today’s students must…

design for the whole of learning-the covert as well as the overt.

recognize that much of learning is social, that learning is not for later life but for living, and

Recognize that students are not vessels to be filled but constructors of their knowledge.

For children to succeed in school, they must… see connections between what they are asked to do in school and what they experience doing at home (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzales, 1992)

the following teacher actions are recommended for the creation of positive and productive values environment. These include:

(1) developing learning activities that are meaningful to students;

(2) emphasizing task completion rather than relative performance;

(3) using cooperative and collaborative learning;

(4) contextualizing learning in ways that relate to real-world problems;

(5) designing problem-centered approaches; (6)emphasizing respect for each individual;

(7) using democratic processes; and

(8) providing as much authentic communication as possible.

Teachers must create values environments that promote problem solving , cooperation, communication, critical thinking, and learning how to learn.

Exploring three schoolwide learning environments

Parkhurst Elementary School

Jackson Middle School,

Cibola High School)

Credits: Microsoft 2007 www.microsoft.c

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