M.C. Wittrock,a Giant of Educational Psychology

This is the introduction to a set of articles honoring the life and contributions of Merlin C. Wittrock. Wittrock's classic article, “Learning as a Generative Process,” originally published in the pages of Educational Psychologist in 1974, is reprinted, followed by comments from colleagues, friends, former students, and others on Professor Wittrock's lasting legacy.     

Generative Learning Processes of the Brain

This article presents a functional model of learning from teaching that, in contrast to structural models of schemata and knowledge representation, focuses on the neural and cognitive processes that learners use to generate meaning and understanding from instruction. Wittrock's model of generative learning (Wittrock, 1974a, 1990) consists of four major processes: (a) attention, (b) motivation, (c) knowledge and preconceptions, and (d) generation. Each of these processes involves generative brain functions studied in neural research and generative cognitive functions studied in knowledge-acquisition research. In this model of generative learning, the brain is a model builder. It does not transform input into output. Instead, it actively controls the processes of generating meaning and plans of action that make sense of experience and that respond to perceived realities. Within this framework, teaching becomes the process of leading learners to use their generative processes to construct meanings and plans of action.     

Wittrock's Influence on Mathematics Education: Some Personal Comments

Merlin C. Wittrock was a friend and colleague who influenced me and many other contemporary mathematics educators on how students learn. In this article I summarize my interactions with Merl beginning in 1965, and how over the following half-century he influenced my thinking on student learning for understanding and, in turn, on how to design instruction based on generative principles. I situate our initial discussions in terms of behaviorism, mathematical abilities, and mathematical problem solving. Based on Merl's ideas since first expressed in “A Generative Model of Mathematics Learning” in 1974, today it is clear that instruction should involve the stimulation of a student's store of relevant background experiences in relation to information to be learned, so they can construct meaning from it. Only by doing so can the use of such organized structures of previously acquired knowledge and experiences facilitate the understanding of new information.     

Obvious and Subtle Contributions of Merlin C. Wittrock to Programmatic R&D

We describe some of Merl's more subtle contributions that extended beyond his own prodigious scholarly record, his high-quality teaching, and his mentoring of students. The context of our remarks on Programmatic R&D focuses on his contribution to the University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Education. Merl was the first director of the Center for the Study of Evaluation. When leadership passed to his then associate director, Marvin C. Alkin, Merl focused on his greater interest in the area of learning. His work on generative theory, referenced throughout this issue, was adapted with our own interests in complex learning and measurement. His work influenced the research agenda of the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing. A great debt is owed to Merl Wittrock for helping to articulate and model the kinds of research that took theory into usable practice.     

How teaching influences learning: Implications for educational researchers,teachers, teacher educators and policy makers

This article is a tribute to Graham Nuthall's contribution to classroom research from his early experimental studies through to his recent work on theory integration. It also explains the potential of the methodology, findings and theory building in our collaborative work to make a substantial positive difference for diverse students. The article explains the significance of, and need for, research linking learning to teaching processes (a scientific realist approach to putting ‘process’, socio-cultural context and theory building into a new process–product paradigm). Findings of student outcomes contrary to educational goals (for example, teaching designed to enhance appreciation of cultural differences triggering racist abuse) signal the importance of research that explains the impact of teaching on learner outcomes. The article also foreshadows the implications of the work that Graham and I did for teaching, teacher education, research and educational policy. The article concludes with Graham's view that the most important contribution his work would make, would be to initial teacher education.     

Action research with principals: gain,strain and dilemmas

The scientific status of action research is characterised by confusion and disagreement. This article discriminates between action research identified with professional work in schools and action research as a research strategy. Action research as professional work, does not have the same claim on documentation and publication, and can better be described as critical inquiries or action learning to separate this from a research strategy. This article discusses strengths and weaknesses of action research as a research strategy, and its potential of generating theory about educational leadership. First, the article focuses on how practitioners in collaboration with external researchers played a generative role in developing an analytical framework which gave a better understanding of educational leadership within a specific context. A dilemma language for educational leadership was constructed in order to capture important aspects of principals' work, and the analysis of experienced dilemmas highlighted a perspective of leadership as relational and dialectic. Secondly, the article gives an analysis of the researcher's dilemmas which emerged as significant through action research methodology. The dilemmas were related to goals of action research, to the role as an external facilitator and to publications of findings. It was impossible to escape from situations where different interests emerged and there always seemed to be a trade-off. The article underlines that an analysis of the role of self in social inquiry serves as a critical context in order to understand the research findings.     

Jean‐Jacques Rousseau,the Mechanised Clock and Children's Time

This article explores a perplexing line from Rousseau's Emile: his suggestion that the ‘most important rule’ for the educator is ‘not to gain time but to lose it’. An analysis of what Rousseau meant by this line, the article argues, shows that Rousseau provides the philosophical groundwork for a radical critique of the contemporary cultural framework that supports homework, standardised testing, and the competitive extracurricular activities that consume children's time. He offers important insights to contemporary parents and educators wishing to reimagine an educational system that is currently fuelled more by familial and international amour propre than by children's interests and needs. Not the least of these is his recognition that to reimagine children's education would require a new configuration of the very terms of modern life. Problematically, however, Rousseau's alternative to mechanised clock‐time depends on the labour of Sophie, whose time is also reconfigured. For the next generation of children to be educated according to natural time, Sophie's labour needs to be off the clock too, which is just as much a linchpin of her removal from the public sphere of citizenship and the paid workforce as it is of Emile's education for public life, or so the final section of this paper argues.     

Hermeneutic Haunting: E. D. Hirsch,Jr. and the Ghost of Interpretive Validity

This article applies criteria for validity in interpretation to Eric Donald Hirsch, Jr.'s interpretations of John Dewey. Specifically, three criteria that Hirsch, himself, established in his earlier work are used to evaluate Hirsch's interpretation of John Dewey as a member of a class (romantics) who embraced a naive naturalism (trait) more often than not (instances within a class) to the great detriment of other salient aspects of education. Hirsch calls his K–8 Core Knowledge sequence revolutionary. His revolution's justification rests, in part, on his rejection of an educational tradition that he attributes to John Dewey and his disciples. Hirsch uses his interpretation of Dewey to portray those who continue to take Dewey's ideas seriously as naive, dogmatic obstructionists who are blocking positive educational reform. Because Hirsch falls short of his own standards for validity in his interpretation of John Dewey, this article suggests that professors of education who continue to rework Dewey's ideas may be sources of potential insight in addressing educational challenges rather than intransigent obstructionists.     

A learning model for enhancing the student's control in educational process using Web 2.0 personal learning environments

In recent educational literature, it has been observed that improving student's control has the potential of increasing his or her feeling of ownership, personal agency and activeness as means to maximize his or her educational achievement. While the main conceived goal for personal learning environments (PLEs) is to increase student's control by taking advantage of Web 2.0 tools and technologies, there is not a robust learning model available to achieve it. This contribution focuses on proposing a learning model built upon self‐regulated learning and student's control theories and concepts, and supported by the learning affordances of Web 2.0 tools and technologies for enhancing student's control by developing and applying Web 2.0 PLEs.     

Establishing an epistemological base for science teaching in the light of contemporary notions of the nature of science and of how children learn science

The quality of science education is a pervasive concern in educational improvement efforts. This article examines two aspects of science education that have been identified as being of concern: Is the material presented in science classrooms representative of science “as it really is” and, secondly, what is the bearing of notions of “children's science” on curriculum reform? A review of the literature in both areas shows that educational theory has, so far, had little effect on classroom practice. An attempt is made to synthesize contemporary views on the tentative nature of science with a generative model of learning in science in order to establish a common epistemological base which could be used as a template for curriculum reform efforts.     

‘To Be Is To Respond’: Realising a Dialogic Ontology For Deweyan Pragmatism

Dewey's pragmatism rejected ‘truth’ as indicative of an underlying reality, instead ascribing it to valuable connections between aims and ends. Surprisingly, his argument mirrors Bishop Berkeley's Idealism, summarised as ‘esse est percepi’ (to be is to be perceived), whose thinking is shown to be highly pragmatist—but who retained a foundationalist ontology by naming God as the guarantor of all things. I argue that while this position is unsustainable, pragmatism could nonetheless be strengthened through an ontological foundation. Koopman's charges of foundationalist ‘givenism’ in Dewey's work, and in his promotion of the scientific method, are not proven. However, Koopman's ‘genealogical pragmatism’ may develop Deweyan educational theory by addressing dilemmas around curricular study. Koopman's arguments also point towards a missing ontological piece in Dewey's theory of knowledge. In the final section of the article I offer a dialogic ontology as compatible with pragmatism. This dialogical ontology provides both an ethical foundation through interrelatedness, and a generative theory of meaning and experience, as emergent from the encounter with difference. In this framework, to be is to respond—or be responded to. I offer the metaphor of ‘realisation’ to capture the human experience implied by this ontological stance.     

Ten Principles of Learning Revised in Accordance With Cognitive Psychology: With Implications for Teaching

The principles of learning that have been taught to teachers at all levels are revised in terms of modern cognitive psychology. Ten basic learning principles are identified arising from the educational psychology literature used in teacher-preparation programs. Revisions are suggested according to current theory and research in cognitive psychology. In particular, the earlier contributions of E. L. Thorndike, Guthrie, Lewin, Tolman, and Skinner are reinterpreted through the work of Anderson, Ausubel, Bandura, Farley, Gagne, McKeachie, Nuttin, Marton, Pavio, Rychlak, Weiner, Wittrock, and others. A set of 10 revised principles of learning is derived and presented together with interpretations of this analysis for the work of teachers.     

The upward Brain drain and a myth

Abstract

A recent article on education in China succeeded in giving a fresh tweak to the arguments concerning whether aptitude or achievement testing is more likely to promote equality of educational opportunity. In ‘The Diploma Disease’ Ronald Dore expounded the view that aptitude testing is to be preferred for selection purposes on the grounds that it gives more weight to ‘innate potential’ (his term) than does achievement testing which produces results more affected by quality of schooling, an influence which is all too variable, especially in emerging countries. Although shot through with considerable ambivalence, Dore's view could still be instrumental in persuading educational and political authorities in those countries that aptitude testing will do what he says it will do ‐ ‘make for greater equality of educational opportunity and be more effective in mobilizing all available talent’. And even if these authorities have never set eyes on Dore's book, there is sufficient evidence that some of them are acting as if they had taken Dore's view on board for it to be worth re‐opening the question. It is argued here that Dore's position cannot be supported.     

Students' learning in science lessons: towards understanding the learning process

Constructivist views of learning have been applied to science education largely as a response to attempts to understand the origins of students' misconceptions in science, and therefore the learning process. As part of this effort to understand learning in science lessons, Appleton (1989) proposed a learning model drawn mainly from Piagetian (1978) ideas and generative learning theory (Osborne & Wittrock, 1983). This paper explores the development and evolution of the learning model as other constructivist view were applied, and as the model was tested against students' responses in science lessons. The revised model finally arrived at is then examined. It was found to be a useful means of describing student's learning processes during a science lesson. Specializations: primary teacher education, teaching strategies in science, cognitive change and learning theories. Specializations: secondary science teacher education, chemical education.     

On the Historical and Ideal Nature of Human Rights: reading Human Rights and Human Diversity by A.J.M.Milne

Taking as its exegetic point of departure Peirce's outline of a semiotic theory of cognition from the mid 1890s, this paper explores the relevance of this outline to a theory of learning and also to a broader, normative vision of education. Firstly, besides providing for fallibilism in philosophical inquiry Peirce's outline accords with critical strategies of his fellow pragmatists, such as William James's detection of the ‘psychologist's fallacy’ and John Dewey's rejection of the ‘philosophical fallacy’. It is pointed out that this merit of Peirce's outline is due to his abstract and often neglected notion of a prespecialised scientific intelligence. Secondly, the paper shows that Peirce's semiotic approach to prescientific learning processes conditioning all kinds of theoretical activity may indeed complement James's and Dewey's contributions: giving careful attention to the work of linguistic and paralinguistic signs in such learning processes Peirce's analysis captures indexical and iconic aspects, as well as symbolic aspects of linguistic interaction and experientially constrained dialogue. Following Peirce's analysis the paper considers how the iconicity of linguistic structure, ostensive acts and the practical situatedness of language use are pre‐conditions of experiential learning in every day life as well as in scientific learning. It is also shown how this semiotic analysis is connected with Peirce's important notion of abduction. Finally, it is pointed out that a broader vision of education may issue from Peirce's semiotic analysis and that such a vision would emphasise that the life experience of individuals entering educational institutions should be made to bear on the objectives as well as the teaching practices of educational institutions.     

Some Questions (and a Few Answers) About Y&ooline;dai Mnemonics: A Reply to Kilpatrick,Pressley and Levin

Lev Vygotsky's contribution to defectology became a significant part of his overall theoretical legacy. Within his general theory of child development, he created a comprehensive and practically oriented paradigm of educating children with special needs. This article discusses the following topics' relevance to contemporary special education and school/educational psychology: Vygotsky's views on the nature of handicapping conditions in children, the principles of psychoeducational evaluation of the disabled, and the issue of the compensation and education of children with sensory and cognitive impairments.     

Science education in the primary school: The problem of the initial training of teachers in Italy

A new strategy exploring the material aspects of photosynthesis (carbohydrate production) based on the generative learning model of Osborne and Wittrock (1985) has been developed. A teaching package entitled ‘Where Does The Wood Come From?’ has been trialled by an experienced and sympathetic teacher with a middle ability class of 26 fourth formers (14‐year‐olds). Seventy‐one per cent of the students acquired a view of photosynthesis as a carbohydrate‐producing process. This contrasts with the usual guided discovery strategy, where a food‐making view is the major outcome. Some novel techniques for implementing constructivist theory in the classroom (investigations, surveys, a self‐teach booklet, checkpoints) are described. Modifications to the generative learning model itself, especially its apparently sequential nature, are suggested.     

Socrates,Augustine, and Paul Gauguin on the Reciprocity between Speech and Silence in Education

While most educational practices today place an excessive amount of attention on discourse, this article attaches great importance to the reciprocity between speech and silence by drawing from the writings of Plato's Socrates, Augustine, and Paul Gauguin for whom this reciprocity is of the essence in learning. These three figures teach that we learn to speak, listen, and act in relation with the silence of our thoughts. This article claims that Socrates' dialectic is nothing but inward or silent dialogue, which reappears in or is advanced by Augustine, and which is also shared by Paul Gauguin. Yet its manifestation differs one from the other: in Socrates, it manifests itself as silence of thought; in Augustine, as inner vision or contemplation; and in Gauguin, as creative thought or activity. By neglecting or separating speech from silence, today's educational methods do not prepare students to respond to life's questions; neither do they enable students to infuse their conversation with an appreciation of life's beauty.     

Pedagogical Thinking in a Student's Mind: A conceptual clarification on the basis of self‐determination and volition theories

This article suggests that educational psychology should pay more attention to the role of the curriculum when the optimal motivation to learn in school is considered. The curriculum frames the teaching‐studying‐learning process in school. This fact has several implications on the motivation to learn in school. After the child starts school, his or her motivation to learn seems to change from an intrinsic motivation to an extrinsic motivation. To develop pedagogical thinking in a student's mind means that the student must become acquainted with the aims and goals of the curriculum, assimilate them into his or her integrated sense of self and, thus, fully accept them as their own. If this succeeds, it will have positive effects on the student's motivation at school and especially on the motivation to study and learn. The concept of pedagogical thinking in a student's mind is analogous to the concept of teacher's pedagogical thinking. Based on previous studies, this article provides an example of how joint‐planning can offer a learning environment that promotes students' pedagogical thinking and the internalisation of the aims and goals of the curriculum in school. This article calls for new theoretical syntheses and research programmes that better take into account the normative nature of learning and teaching in school.