EDUC 261: THINKING, LEARNING, & TEACHING
Fall 2010
Professor: Gordon Wells <gwells@ucsc.edu>
Homepage: http://people.ucsc.edu/~gwells
Office hours: by appointment.
Purpose
A major purpose of this course is to examine how educators' conceptions of cognition shape their decisions about instruction in educational settings (both formal and informal). However, the course does not presuppose that a study of cognition is a sufficient basis for instructional design; a second purpose, therefore, is to consider the development of the whole person and the roles that learning and teaching play in that development as it occurs in a variety of cultural contexts, including home, school and community.
The course is designed to involve participants in open and critical discussion of a range of theoretical perspectives on the central topics, both in class and via a web-based Knowledge Forum. While I have my own position on several of these topics, you will not be required to embrace them; rather, the aim is for us all to deepen our understanding and be able to defend our current positions while being willing to change them as a result of further reading and dialogue.
Central Topics
These will be presented as questions:
Weekly meetings will usually include student presentations, small group discussion, and whole class discussion. You will also be expected to participate in discussion on Knowledge Forum.
Response to Readings
Your response should take the form of informal journal entries that makes text-to-text, text-to-self, or text-to-world connections and discusses your opinions of these ideas. Each of the *Required readings should be addressed to some extent, but the readings can be given different weights in your entry. For instance, you can choose to expand on one reading over the others as long as you deal with all the readings in some way. The journal entries should be posted on Knowledge Forum in the View for each week.
In addition, each paper will have one “lead student” whose job is to provide a summary of the article to everyone else in the class. It is the responsibility of the lead student to write a 1-2 page summary for the reading that other members of the course can use to refresh their memories. In the summary, you should discuss the main points or key ideas of the article. These summaries will form a mutually constructed annotated bibliography for the readings at the end of the class. The summary should be distributed the day of the discussion for the reading and posted on Knowledge Forum in the View for the Week.
Final paper
This is a way for you to both demonstrate your understanding of the course material and connect this course to your own research interests. This paper should be of value to you. You will post a brief description about the direction you are taking this assignment on Knowledge Forum. Everyone should read and review each others’ postings, offering comments and suggestions. An oral version will be presented in the last class and the final written version will be due on 6 December.
You may want to think of ways you can use this project to further your own work. For instance, a review of the literature may be the start of a publishable paper. Or, you can do the literature review and a prospectus for your second year project (if you can link it to the readings and themes in this course). You can choose from the following options, or negotiate an alternative. The key is linking it to the course content.
Option 1-Position paper: Drawing on the readings and class discussions, a position paper/essay on some aspect of thinking, learning, or teaching, or the relationship among thinking, learning and teaching. Guiding question: What ideas encountered in the course (readings and class discussions) have been influential, provocative, annoying, and/or illuminating for considering thinking, learning and/or teaching or the relationship among them? For this position paper, you will want to read some articles beyond the weekly readings.
Option 2-Literature review: A critical, theoretically interesting, review of the literature on a selected topic arising from the course and connected to the themes in the course. You will need to read beyond the weekly readings.
Option 3 –A research paper on a topic of your interest: To be negotiated.
There is no single set text, but the following books are strongly recommended:
Bransford, J., Brown, A., Cocking, R. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Bruner, J.S. (1996) The culture of education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Lave, J. and Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
Oakes , J. & Lipton, M. (1999). Teaching to change the world. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.
Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in Society: The development of higher psychological functions. M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, and E. Souberman (Eds.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Wells, G. & Claxton, G. (2002). Learning for life in the 21st century: Sociocultural perspectives on the future of education. Oxford: Blackwell.
* Required readings: Articles marked with an * are required reading.
Unmarked articles: These are additional readings from which individual students will select one or more.
Please print your own copies and bring them to class.
Week 1: Introduction
Overview of the Course: Expectations and Assignments
* Bereiter, C. (1994) Implications of postmodernism for science, or, Science as progressive discourse. Educational Psychologist, 29(1), 3-12.
* Greeno, J. G., Collins, A. M. & Resnick, L. B (1996). Cognition and learning. In D.C. Berliner & R. C. Calfee (Eds.), Handbook of educational psychology (pp. 15-46). New York: MacMillan.
* Bransford, J., Brown, A., Cocking, R. (2000). Learning: from speculation to science, Chapter 1 in How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Week 2: Theorizing about thinking, learning & teaching
* Tomasello, M. (1999) The cultural basis of human cognition (chapter 1). Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
* Nelson, Katherine (2007) Young minds in social worlds, Chapter 1 . Cambridgr, MA: Harvard University Press.
* Schoenfeld, A. (1987). What’s all the fuss about metacognition? In A. Schoenfeld (Ed.), Cognitive Science and Mathematics Education, pages 189-215. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Bruner, J.S. (1986) Two modes of thought. In Actual minds, possible worlds. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
McDermott, R. (1994). Commodities, words, and minds. Mind, Culture and Activity, 1, 124-128.
Week 3: Theories of learning and development
Behaviorist theories
* Oakes , J. & Lipton, M. (1999). Traditional learning theories: Transmission, training, and IQ, in Teaching to change the world (pp. 40-65). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.
Piaget & Constructivist theories
* Gallagher, J. and Reid, D. (1981). Genetic epistemology as a learning theory. In The learning theory of Piaget and Inhelder, Chapter 1, pp. 1-11. Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.
Vygotsky & Sociocultural theories
* Wells, G. (1999). The zone of proximal development and its implications for learning and teaching. In Dialogic inquiry: Towards a sociocultural practice and theory of education (pp.313-334). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pick One
Duckworth, E. (1987) Either we’re too early & they can’t learn it, or we’re too late & they know it already: The dilemma of “Applying Piaget”. In “The having of wonderful ideas” and other essays on teaching and learning. New York: Teachers College Press.
Holland, D. & Lachiotte, W. Vygotsky, Mead, and the New Sociocultural Studies of Identity (Found by Google)
John-Steiner, V. & Mahn, H. (1996). Sociocultural approaches to learning and development: A Vygotskian framework. Educational Psychologist, 31 (3/4), 191-206.
Week 4: Contrasting Constructivist and Sociocultural approaches
* Case, R. (1996) Changing views of knowledge and their impact on educational research and practice. In D. Olson & N. Torrance (Eds.) The handbook of education and human development (pp.75-99). Oxford: Blackwell.
* Cole, M. & Wertsch, J.V. Beyond the Individual-Social Antimony in Discussions of Piaget and Vygotsky. Human Development, 39: 250-256.
Pick One
Brown, A. L., Metz, K. M. & Campione, J. C. (1996). Social interaction and individual understanding in a community of learners: The influence of Piaget and Vygotsky. In A. Tryphon & J. Vonèche (Eds.), Piaget-Vygotsky: The social genesis of thought. (pp. 145-170). Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Hay, K. and Barab, S. (2001). Constructivism in practice: A comparison and contrast of apprenticeship and constructionist learning environments. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 10(3), 281-323.
Bruner, J.S. (1996) Celebrating divergence: Piaget and Vygotsky. Paper presented at the IInd Conference for Sociocultural Research, and The Growing Mind, Geneva, 15 September, 1996. Human Development, 40: 63-73 (1997).
Week 5: Cognitive science & learning sciences approaches
* Bruer, J. T. (2000) Schools for thought, Chapter 2: The science of mind: Analyzing tasks, behavior and representations (pp. 19-50). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
* Nelson, Katherine (2007) Young minds in social worlds, Chapter 2 . Cambridgr, MA: Harvard University Press.
Pick one:
Bruner, J. S. (1990). Acts of meaning. (Chapter 1 for a critique of information-processing). Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
Bransford, J., Brown, A., Cocking, R. (2000). Learning and transfer, Chapter 3 in How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Beach, K. (1999) Consequential transitions: a sociocultural expedition beyond transfer in education. Review of Research in Education, Vol. 24: 101-139.
Palincsar, A.S. and Brown, A.L. (1984). Reciprocal teaching of comprehension-fostering and comprehension-monitoring activities. Cognition and Instruction, 117-175.
Smith, J. P., diSessa, A. A., & Roschelle, J. (1994). Misconceptions reconceived. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 3, 115-163.
Also listen to podcasts at http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/podcast/mbe.asp
Week 6: Situated Cognition
* Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18, 32-41.
* Lave, J. (1991). Situating learning in communities of practice. In L. Resnick, J. Levine, and S. Teasley (Eds.), Perspectives on socially shared cognition (pages 63-82). Washington, DC: APA.
* Barab, S.A. & Roth, W-M. (2006) Curriculum-based ecosystems: Supporting knowing from an ecological perspective. Educational Researcher 35(5), 3–13.
Pick one:
Bereiter, C. (1997). Situated cognition and how to overcome it. In D. Kirshner & J. A. Whitson (Eds.), Situated cognition: Social, semiotic, and psychological perspectives (pp. 281-300). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Oakes , J. & Lipton, M. (1999). Contemporary learning theories: Problem solving and understanding, Chapter 3 in Teaching to change the world, pp. 67-94. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.
(The next three are a set:)
Anderson J. , Reder M. , & Simon H. (1996). Situated learning and education. Educational Researcher, 25(4), 5-11.
Greeno, J (1997). On claims that answer the wrong question. Educational Researcher, 26(1), 5-17.
Anderson J. , Reder M. , & Simon H. (1997). Situated versus cognitive perspective: From versus to substance. Educational Researcher, 26(1), 18-21.
Week 7: Culture and Emotion
* D’Andrade, R.. (1981). The cultural part of cognition, Cognitive Science, 5, 179-195.
* Immordino-Yang, M.H. & Damasio, A. (2007) We feel, therefore we learn: the relevance of affective and social neuroscience to education. Mind, Brain and Education,1: 3-10.
* Stetsenko, A. & Arievitch, I. M. (2004) The self in cultural historical activity theory. Theory and Psychology, 14 (4): 475-503.
Pick one:
O'Loughlin, M. (1997) Reinstating emotion in educational thinking. Philosophy of Education http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/eps/PES-Yearbook/97_docs/oloughlin.html
Moll, L. & Greenberg, J. (1990). Creating zones of possibilities: combining social contexts for instruction. In L. Moll (Ed. ) Vygotsky and education: Instructional implications and applications of sociohistorical psychology (pp.319-348). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Cole, M. (1990) Cognitive development and formal schooling: The evidence from cross-cultural research. In L. Moll (Ed.) Vygotsky and education: Instructional implications and applications of sociohistorical psychology, pp. 319-348.. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Week 8: Teaching in practice
* Sfard, A. (1998) "On two metaphors for learning and the dangers of choosing just one." Educational Researcher 27(3): 4-13.
* Scardamalia, M. & Bereiter, C. (2003) Knowledge building. Encyclopedia of Education (pp. 1371-3) Farmington Hills, MI: Gale
* Collins, A., Brown, J.S., and Newman, S. (1989). Cognitive apprenticeship: Teaching the craft of reading, writing, and mathematics. In L. Resnick (Ed.), Knowing, learning, and instruction: Essays in honor of Robert Glaser, pp. 453-494. Hillsdale, NJ: Elrbaum.
Pick one:
Lave, J. (1996). Teaching as learning, in practice. Mind, Culture & Activity, 3(3), 149-164.
Lampert, M. (1990). When the problem is not the question and the solution is not the answer: Mathematical knowing and teaching. American Educational Research Journal , 27 (1), 29-64.)
Tharp, R. G. & Gallimore, R. (1988). The redefinition of teaching and schooling (Chapter 1, pp. 13-26), A theory of teaching as assisted performance (Chapter 2, pp. 27-43) in Rousing minds to life: Teaching, learning and schooling in social context. New York. Cambridge University
Wells, G. (2002) Learning and teaching for understanding: The key role of collaborative knowledge building. In J. Brophy (Ed.) Social constructivist teaching: Affordances and constraints. Advances in Research on Teaching, Vol. 9.(pp. 1-41). Amsterdam: Elsevier/JAI.
Week 9: Formal & informal educational settings: Home, community, work, and school
*Resnick, Lauren B. (1987). The 1987 Presidential Address: Learning in school and out. Educational Researcher, 16 (9), pp. 13-20.
*Rogoff, B. (1990). Cultural similarities and variations in guided participation, Chapter 6 in Apprenticeship in thinking: Cognitive development in social context. New York: Oxford University Press.
Pick one:
Scribner, S. (1983) Mind in action: A functional approach to thinking. In M. Cole, Y. Engestrom. And O. Vasquez (Eds.) Mind, Culture and Activity: Seminal papers from the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition, (pp. 354-368). NY, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Carraher, T.N.., Carraher, D.W., and Schliemann, A.D. (1985) Mathematics in the streets and in schools. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 3, 21-29. (mathematics)
Greenfield, P. (1984). A theory of the teacher in the learning activities of everyday life. In B. Rogoff and J. Lave (Eds.), Everyday cognition (pp. 117-138). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Week 10: School success/failure, competence/incompetence, ability/disability
* McDermott, R. (1997). The acquisition of a child by a learning disability. In S. Chaiklin and J. Lave (Eds.) Understanding practice, (pp. 269-305). New York: Cambridge University Press.
* Gallimore, R. and Au, K. (1997). The competence/incompetence paradox in the education of minority children. In M. Cole, Y. Engestrom. And O. Vasquez (Eds.) Mind, Culture and Activity: Seminal papers from the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition, (pp. 241-253). NY, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Pick one:
Cole, M. (1998). Can cultural psychology help us think about diversity? Mind. Culture, And Activity, 5(4), 291-304.
Haneda, M. (in press) Contexts for learning: English language learners in a US middle school. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism.
Moschkovich, J. N. (2002). A situated and sociocultural perspective on bilingual mathematics learners. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, Special issue on Diversity, Equity, and Mathematical Learning, N. Nassir and P. Cobb (Eds.), 4(2&3), 189-212.