Intro to CSCL, part 1

1. Intro to CSCL, part 1 Anders Mørch TOOL 5100, 16.02.06

2. Outline • Paradigms in educational research • Computer-aided instruction (CAI) • ITS • Logo-as-Latin • Evolution of theoretical positions on collaborative learning • From individual to social concerns • Key factors that influence research design • Comparing evolution and paradigm shifts

3. Paradigms in educational research • Koschmann argues that CSCL is a new paradigm in computer-supported teaching and learning • He gives examples of three other paradigms that are distinct from CSCL • Paradigm, according to Kuhn (1972): • Goes beyond evolution and gradual change (change by punctuated equilibrium, gestalt-switch) • Provides a new set of topics, tools, methodologies, and premises to be researched • Members of different paradigms cannot easily communicate using their own scientific terminology

4. Paradigms of instructional technology • Computer-aided instruction (CAI) • Since ca. 1960 • Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) • Since ca. 1970 • Logo-as-Latin • Since ca. 1980 • Computer Supported Collaborative Learning • Since ca. 1990 • Note: these fields are active today, but sometimes under new umbrellas and evolved to meet new needs (e.g. instructional design, Lego/Logo, e-learning)

5. Computer-Aided Instruction • Psychological roots in behavioral science • Focus on support for instruction in teaching situations (e.g. classroom) with the computer • The teacher’s role is to acquire knowledge and find efficient ways to share it with the students • Often referred to as to as the “acquisition-transmission” metaphor of teaching and learning • Today often associated with instructional design, such as reusable learning objects and domain-specific repositories that domain experts (e.g. teachers) can search to find teaching material

6. Intelligent Tutoring Systems • The focus here, as often in CAI, is on computer support for individual learning • More emphasis on the learner than the teacher • Psychological roots in cognitive science and Artificial Intelligence (e.g. Newell & Simon, 1972) • The computer provides a cognitive model of human information processing, representing novice and expert problem solving, and track performance • An ITS provides expert advice to students as they solve problems in well-defined domains (e.g. physics, math, medical procedures)

7. Logo-as-Latin • Instead of learning by being taught, this approach focuses on “learning by doing” • Psychological roots in the developmental psych of Piaget and the philosophy of education of Dewey • Constructionism is a term that is often used as a label for this approach • The student “constructs” by creating and running microworlds programmed in Logo (Papert, 1980) • Later efforts have extended this to higher level languages, e.g. using Lego/Logo (e.g. Resnick, 1990)

8. Computer Supported Collaborative Learning • Roots in several fields in the social sciences and socially oriented theories of learning (going back to Vygotsky, G H Mead, and others) • Focus on overarching concerns that attempts to bridge the individual-social gap in interaction • Common perspectives and sources of influence: • Social constructivism • Sociocultural theories • Situated and shared cognition • We return to these in the next article

9. Summary of 4 paradigms • See Table 1.1(p. 16) in Koschmann’s article

10. Evolution of research in CSCL • This paper, by Dillenbourg and colleagues, addresses how research have changed within the field of CSCL • The focus is on psychological concerns of collaborative learning and less on the role of computer as mediating artifact • The computer is seen in the role of providing support of interaction analysis and modeling collaborative learning (we come back to these themes later in the course)

11. Key characteristics of CSCL • A trend toward support of process rather than primarily on outcome, as in other paradigms • Theoretically motivated, using empirical research (this is to some extent a result of the authors background) • Unit of analysis is a complex issue that is positioned on an axis between the individual and the social (‘group’ and ‘activity’ are two key ones) • A trend has been to move from the inner (psychol) concerns to the outer (social) concerns

12. Key characteristics cont’d • Research in CSCL need to be aware of the following distinctions • Learning vs. problem solving • Collaboration vs. cooperation • In many ways CSCL has moved: • From problem solving to learning (e.g. learning by joint problem solving) • From cooperation to collaboration • Priority on process rather than outcome • Joint interaction on common goal rather than strict division of labor into subtasks

13. Theoretical positions • Along an axis from individual to social the following theoretical positions (or perspectives) has been identified as prerequisite for CSCL: • Social constructivism • Sociocultural approaches • Situated and shared cognition • The two articles diverge slightly with regards to how they define the three perspectives • Dillenbourg puts more emphasis on computational models and uses examples from DAI (Distributed AI) to propose models of collaborative learning

14. Social constructivism • Also referred to as socio-cognitive approach • Originated with Piaget and later extended to include social influences on individual development • Unit of analysis is individual development in the context of social interaction, implying two planes: social and individual • An issue becomes how to intertwine the two planes • Experimentation is often conducted by pre and post tests, e,g, to assess the usefulness of collaborative learning compared to individual learning

15. Sociocultural theories • Unit of analysis is the ‘activity’: individuals acting to achieve goals within a community using artefacts and rules to mediate and guide the activity • Vygotsky’s notion that inter-psychological (social) processes precedes intra-psychological processes (inner speech and thought) is important in this perspective (referred to as ‘internalization’) • The role of mediating artifacts in these processes, from everyday tools and computers to language, are also important

16. Situated and shared cognition • This is the most socially oriented of the three perspectives • The environment is seen as an integrated part of the individual (cognitive) activity • A focus is to identify the influence of the social plane • Situated cognition and situated learning (e.g Suchman, Lave & Wenger) • Distributed cognition (e.g. Hutchins) • This perspective in CSCL has been stimulated by apprenticeship learning (e.g. Lave, Rogoff)

17. Three factors that influence research design and experiments • Effects • Conditions • Group heterogeneity • Individual prerequisites • Task features • Interactions • Explanation • Control

18. Role of the computer • Tool • Interaction analysis • Analysing and modeling collaborative learning practices • Negotiation • Argumentation • Mediating artifact • This is not addressed in this article

19. Paradigm shift vs. Evolution • In philosophy of science there has been a debate regarding the mechanisms behind the growth of scientific knowledge • Does it proceed according to paradigm shifts or by incremental (evolutionary) development over time? • The answer can be either/or or both, depending on • How we distinguish between different components of a research field and analyze how they change over time • Technologies, tools and language (artifacts) may have to be treated differently from premises, practices, and perspectives • For those interested: Kuhn and Popper and others have debated the development of Copernicus’ model of the solar system