11.20.06

Resnick, L. B. (1987). Learning in and out of school. 1987 AERA Presidential Address. Educational Research, 13-20.

Posted in Situative perspectives, Annotated References - Class readings, Miscellaneous at 1:06 am by youngsah

Resnick, L. B. (1987). Learning in and out of school. 1987 AERA Presidential Address.  Educational Research, 13-20.

This paper asserted that school was a different, special, and separate place from daily life.  The paper goes on to compare school learning and outside learning on many different fronts including individual cognition v. shared cognition and pure mental exercises v. tool use.  The article also goes on to look at the purpose of education.

I preferred the organization of this paper to the Brown piece.  As someone who was dissatisfied with some of their schooling (and who isn’t) the Situative perspective is nice in that it wants knowledge to have a point when so many school activities are too far removed from actual meaningfulness.  However, should school be different than outside learning, is there a need for teaching things that aren’t directly applicable or used out in the world?  I’m sure some philosophers and theorist might think so.  Me, I’m not sure.

Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 32-40.

Posted in Situative perspectives, Annotated References - Class readings at 12:52 am by youngsah

Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 32-40.

These authors believe knowledge is situated and it should be taught in an authentic way like a “cognitive apprenticeship”.  In this paper, they talk a lot about authentic activities and how school often presents learners with inauthentic activities.  They also compare how just plain folks, students, and practitioners approach things to strengthen their argument.

I generally agree with the idea that there should be more authentic activities in schools but I don’t want to go as far as these authors did.  Also, in some disciplines there would be disagreement about what kinds of activities would be most useful or most practitioner-like.