Subject: Re: When is CL not appropriate?
From: Larry D. Spence (lds7@psu.edu)
Date: Tue Jun 20 2000 - 11:46:26 EDT
At 09:22 AM 6/20/00 -0500, Paul Hertzel wrote:
>The important distinction, I think, is that the learning (and therefore
>the testing of it) really is a personal, individual thing that takes place
>inside one's mind, but cooperative methods are encouraged as useful means
>toward achieving it.
I disagree and many others would too. Learning is fundamentally
social. It takes place in social settings by communities of
practitioners. It is tested by whether or not it improves practices and
ultimately the quality of human life. That is why testing procedures that
merely attempt to audit individual brain contents ultimately encourage rote
memorization and frustrate meaningful learning.
What is at stake here are some widely different theories of learning. If
you start with the associationist assumptions that Hertel does then
collaborative and cooperative techniques in the classroom are likely to be
more costly in time and effort with little impact on learning. That's one
reason why students resist the techniques. In my experience, changing
techniques without changing assumptions is a waste.
Larry D. Spence, Director
Schreyer Institute for Innovation in Learning
304 Rider Building II (814) 865-8681
University Park, PA 16802 fax: (814) 865-8659
<http://www.inov8.psu.edu>
"The educational system must move one way or another, either backward to
the intellectual and moral standards of a pre-scientific age or forward to
ever greater utilization of scientific method in the development of the
possibilities of growing, expanding experience." John Dewey
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