Knowledge, Learning and Teaching

Andrew Cohen Principles of Learning Section Instructor: Francois Desjardins

Introduction We are born curious. Within us is an inquisitiveness, an instinctive drive to learn about, make sense of, and find ones place in our world. This thirst for knowledge is based on the premise that our world is an objective reality that is not dependent on us: whether or not we comprehend it, it will continue to be. If a tree falls in the forest, and no-one hears it, does it make a sound? Yes to claim otherwise reveals a presumption that human perception determines reality. Reality is altered by our interaction with it, but if reality is altered by our perception of it or if, as von Glasersfeld argues, reality in fact is only our perception of it then there is no objective reality to explore and comprehend. However, our perceptions of reality are flawed: we see, hear, and understand common phenomena differently and incompletely. So what does it mean to know something; how do we gain that knowledge; and how can we cause someone else to know? I propose that knowledge is information, accepted through the sensory and intellectual perceptions a person integrates into their understanding of reality; that learning is the continuous process of building this understanding, this construct; and that teaching is every action which intentionally and purposefully seeks to guide the building of anothers construct. This thesis is primarily Constructivist, with a leaning towards Social Constructivism, while rejecting Radical Constructivism. It also explores how teaching will look if it truly reflects this understanding of knowledge and learning, focusing on the theories and practices of Vygotsky, Dewey and Montessori.

Knowledge is information integrated into a persons construct. We perceive the world through our senses. Our perceptions the barrage of information fed to our brains through our senses are not knowledge; for that information to become knowledge, it must be integrated into our worldview, our construct. Information that is not integrated into a persons construct does not become knowledge; it is discarded. Piaget (1954) identified two linked functions that operate when information is integrated into a construct: assimilation (modifying the information to fit ones construct) and accommodation (modifying the construct to fit the information). Thus a persons construct is modified by new knowledge. We test out our knowledge using subsequent perceptions, and alter or confirm our construct. That modification of our construct leads to new knowledge in the form of connections between existing pieces of knowledge. Our construct also shapes the knowledge by guiding and sifting subsequent perceptions, and then ordering and altering the knowledge to fit within our construct. Our construct tends to build upon itself as far as is possible, highlighting perceptions which confirm or extend the construct. Skills knowing how to do something are a form of knowledge. Skills are developed and refined through repeated actions, physical or mental; for example, catching a ball (physical), or hearing a note and identifying its exact pitch (mental). The skill begins with perceptions, which, when tested and proven, are integrated into the construct.

Habits are skills that have been so refined as to appear to occur without conscious thought. Within the persons construct, the link between a stimulus (public speaking, for example) and the habit (stuttering), has been made repeatedly over time, and thus has been strongly anchored within the construct. Are instincts knowledge? Newborn babies have virtually no construct: their perceptions, which are few (although little is known about whether babies begin to perceive or think in the womb), are not yet organized. Yet within moments of being born, they appear to know (usually) how to suckle. Is this a form of knowledge, or is it merely a physiological phenomenon similar to breathing, which does not involve thought? These phenomena cannot be knowledge gained through perception; either they are simply physiological, or an innate form of knowledge that is somehow transmitted genetically. The former is more likely. Culture is a powerful influence on the shaping of ones construct (Vygotsky , 1978). Culturally-based information values, beliefs, cultural history, and understanding of a cultural groups relationships with others is perceived as children grow up within a culture, and becomes part of the construct. Because this information lies at the core of a cultural groups self-understanding, it is displayed consistently and powerfully within that culture. This leads to cultural knowledge being integrated in very similar ways into the construct of each member of a cultural group. Behaviorists argue that knowledge must be demonstrated to be known, but the demonstration of knowledge merely confirms the knowledge: if I can demonstrate knowledge, then I know that I know. The original knowledge is not dependent upon my demonstrating it. However, knowledge is understood more profoundly, retained longer, and recalled more accurately and easily if it is acted upon or applied in some way. Importantly for teachers, the knowledge of how to demonstrate a piece of knowledge is separate from the knowledge itself; thus, a student may know where the climax in an adventure novel is, but not be able to accurately describe it in writing. Each persons construct is different, based on different perceptions and experiences. Glasersfeld (1989) concludes that there is no perceivable objective reality, that reality is merely the construct of ones mind , and that knowledge need not match up with objective reality, but merely fit within ones own construct (1990?). Why, then, do we retain the concept of delusion? If knowledge is only within the mind, then what the mind perceives as reality must be reality and there is no such thing as delusion. And why do we differentiate between the imaginary and the real? If reality is a construct of the mind, then everything within that construct is equally real, including imagination. Furthermore, there is still a remarkable degree of agreement in our constructs. In the area of perceptions, most agree that the sky is blue, or laughter is enjoyable; however, when it comes to realm s of values, attitudes and beliefs, there is wider divergence. To use Platos Cave analogy, it is not that we perceive the shadows on the wall of the cave so differently from each other: it is in the meaning we attribute to those shadows that we differ. This suggests, not that there is no perceivable objective reality, but that our perception of reality is lacking. Glasersfeld argues that, relying solely on our perceptions, we cannot comprehensively, fully, accurately know objective reality. He explains the earlier argument of Giambattista Vico: to know something means to know what parts it is made of and how they have been put together. Objective, ontological reality, therefore, may be known to God, who constructed it, but not to a human who has access only to subjective experience (1989, page 114). This is true; no-one can claim full knowledge of reality, as we are not in the position of God who knows what parts it is made of and how they have been put together. However, we can know objective reality in part, and we can know more of it. As an analogy, I know about the piano: I can play it; I understand how the mechanism inside a piano operates. However, I do not know everything about the piano how to tune it, how to play certain pieces. Similarly, we can know, through our fallible sensory perceptions, something of objective reality just not all of it.

Learning is the process of building ones construct. Learning is the ongoing process whereby the learner gains knowledge by integrating information into their construct, and then builds and refines the construct, developing higher levels of thinking. The goal of learning is to make sense of our perceptions, to construct meaning. Learning occurs largely through interaction with others (Vygotsky, 1978), although reflection plays a significant part in learning, leading to new connections within the learners construct. Learning occurs within the learners zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978). This is the span between the learners actual level of development the level of tasks the learner can perform independently and the learners potential level of development. Learners can imitate actions or, with assistance, complete tasks that fall within their potential level of development. Vygotsky saw that learning increased learning potential: as a student learns, intellectual development progresses, and the potential level of development moves forward. Learning is effective when it can build on or connect with previous knowledge in a coherent manner (Dewey, 1897). This coherence may be sequential, categorical, or be organized in some other way, but ordering of the perceived information is crucial for it to become knowledge that is retained. Learning can be unstructured, informal, learner-led in fact, most of our earliest knowledge comes this way. However, it is assumed that learners (i.e. childrens ) perceptions should be formally directed in some way, by parents and, in many cultures, schooling.

Teaching deliberately and purposefully aims to guide the building of the learners construct. Teaching encompasses all activity that intentionally guides a learners building of their construct. It purposes in general to assist the learner to develop and refine their construct and further the learners intellectual development and develop higher-level thinking. Teaching is intentional. It deliberately aims to alter the learners construct. I can learn without someone deliberately teaching me; but for teaching to occur, there must be a teacher (directly or indirectly) who aims for the learner to integrate new information into their construct. Teaching is also purposeful, that is, it has a very specific purpose: to foster the learners intellectual development by assisting the learner to develop and refine their construct. Vygotsky argued that the purpose of education was the students intellectual development (1978). Advertising is based upon the premise that it changes the constructs of its audience, but its purpose is to sell products, not to improve the intellectual well-being of its audience with one exception: public service announcements, which in fact are a form of teaching, even though they come to us in the format of advertising. Effective teaching will reflect the above understanding of knowledge and learning. It will recognise that learning is in the hands of the learner; it allow for the differences between individual constructs; and it will deliberately seek to provide an environment and a set of experiences which best help learners use their sensory perceptions and integrate information into their constructs easily and comprehensively. Because teaching is contingent upon learning, the building of ones construct, which only the learner can do , it lies in the hands of the learner. If the learner does not learn, then teaching has not taken place. Teaching, then, must begin with the learner. Each learner brings different experiences, understandings, perceptions, interests and levels of intellectual maturity to a classroom in short, a different construct. Each learner therefore perceives and integrates the information being taught into their construct differently; regarding teaching simply as the

transmission of knowledge does not allow for the way that knowledge is filtered and changed by the learners construct. As knowledge is most effectively integrated when built upon prior knowledge, the teacher should take into account the actual level of development of the learner (Vygotsky, 1978), and the capacities, interests and habits (Dewey, 1897) of the student. Montessori took this further: as each child learns at his or her own pace, she directed teachers to work with students individually, giving collective lessons only rarely (Montessori, 1912), a practice which is echoed in the recent trend towards Differentiated Instruction. Learning best takes place in an appropriate environment. Learners will feel secure; they will know they can explore understanding at their own pace (Montessori, 1912). They will feel free to make mistakes and take risks, as testing ones construct will inevitably lead to mistakes; from the teachers perspective, mistakes help reveal how the learner is building his or her construct. The environment will be perception-rich, engaging multiple senses (Montessori, 1912), as knowledge stems from perceptions gained through the senses. It will be full of experiences, especially hands-on experiences, as learners learn by doing (Dewey, 1897) and making (Papert, 1991), through experience. The teacher has the role of a guide. Montessori (1912) argued that learning occurred through self-directed play, and that teachers should do little if any directing; students learn their own way, at their own pace. Dewey, although he moved the focus of the classroom away from the teacher toward the student (compared to teaching styles of his day), did not advocate learner-led learning to the same extent. He suggested that the teacher should be directing learning, but in a subtle manner. By setting tasks that lead students to explore and discover information for themselves (for example, project-based learning tasks), the teacher is able to guide and direct students as they progress through the task. Learning comes from interaction with others (Vygotsky, 1978), so effective teaching will involve collaborative group work (Dewey, 1897). In the Web 2.0 age, collaboration is not only a learning method, but a skill which will be increasingly essential in the whole of life (Levy, 1997). Dewey, writing more than a century ago, stated that it is impossible to foretell definitely just what civilization will be twenty years from now. Hence it is impossible to prepare the child for any precise set of conditions (1897). The same is true today. Curriculum content is only secondarily useful in preparing students for future careers: its primary purpose should be to help students develop skills primarily, intellectual skills which will be widely transferrable and applicable in an indefinable future. The competencies of aggregating, filtering and connecting (Levy, 1997) prepare students for dealing with a future in which information is exponentially expanded by connectivity; knowledge becomes increasingly shared; learning relies on discerning usefulness, relevance and truthfulness in the midst of a deluge of information; and the teacher-as-guru model is eradicated in favour of teachers being fellow learners, serving temporarily as guides, as their students surpass them in knowledge and in turn become the teachers.

Conclusion Our senses fallible as they are are the gateway to reality. Through our senses, guided by our constructs formed by prior knowledge, we gain knowledge and build our understanding of reality. This process of learning can be guided; it is up to the teacher to deliberately create an environment in which the learner integrates knowledge most effectively, building a meaningful, coherent understanding of reality, and growing intellectually in an ongoing process.

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