From declarative and procedural knowledge to the management of declarative and procedural knowledge

Research on domain-specific knowledge and general knowledge such as strategies has shown that information can indeed be available to a subject and still not be used. Several hypothesis have been set forth to explain this phenomenon; they as briefly exposed. An alternative, complementary hypothesis is then presented. It is assumed that most activities have several components organized in the form of a complex hierarchy. These interdependent components require monitoring because, at certain times, they are competing with one another for resources. Competition for resources and problems in component coordination may lead to a drop in performance. Several studies dealing with diverse knowledge domains are reviewed, which provide evidence for such resource problems. The same theoretical framework is then applied to explain several facts concerning teaching and learning: the impact of advance organizers; the instability of performance across repeated executions; some effects of social variables; the efficiency of tutoring and of taking into account the ‘proximal zone of development’. The limited cognitive capacity construct proves extremely useful in interpreting a large number of phenomena in a wide variety of domains.     

Hypothesis testing in science: group consensus and the acquisition of conceptual and procedural knowledge

Hypothesis testing has been seen by science educators as a context which supports the integrated acquisition of conceptual and procedural knowledge. However, research suggests potential conflicts between the conditions conducive to conceptual growth and those conducive to procedural. The study reported here with 9- to 12-year old pupils endorses this, but suggests that the problems can be overcome given tasks where pupils: (a) debate their conceptual knowledge and reach consensus; (b) subject their consensual positions to guided experimental appraisal and draw conclusions from what transpires. It is argued that the demonstrated role of consensus has consequences not just for educational practice but also for psychological theories of development and learning.     

Understanding and procedural knowledge in mathematics instruction 1

Using ideas developed recently in the theory of understanding language, an analysis is given of the process of understanding mathematical concepts. An analysis also is given of procedural knowledge in mathematics, based on recently developed theories of problem solving including production systems and automaton models. A suggestion is made as to how these theories might be synthesized to provide an analysis of performance of mathematical skills with understanding. Two examples of such performance are described, in the form of theories that are realized as computer programs, and there is discussion of ways in which these theories succeed and fail in representing procedural knowledge with understanding.     

看产出性词汇习得中的“高原现象”

在二语习得的较高阶段,产出性词汇易于出现"高原现象",即中介语的石化现象。本文主要讨论了这一现象与成因分析以及怎样克服"高原现象",冀在为产出性词汇能力的教学和学习提供参考意见。     

Preferred representations and knowledge acquisition

European Journal of Psychology of Education - There are two kinds of preferential representations. They are connected on the one hand to the degree of typicality of the instance in relation to the...     

论职业教育中程序性知识教学的特点与规律

职业教育以教学程序性知识为主。职业教育中程序性知识教学的特点表现为:教学的目的是为了学生"会做",学习的途径主要是通过实际性的活动,教学内容具有职业性与实用性。职业教育中程序性知识的教学规律表现为:程序性知识获得的前提是掌握程序性知识的陈述性形式,程序性知识的学习是学中做和做中学的辩证统一以及"技术的知识"与"实践的知识"的辩证统一。     

Examining the effects of writing on conceptual and procedural knowledge in calculus

It has been claimed that writing to learn mathematics (WTLM) may benefit students' conceptual understanding as well as their procedural ability. To investigate this claim, we collected data from students in two sections of an introductory calculus course. In one of the sections, students used WTLM activities and discussed the activities after completing the writing; in the other section, students used similar activities that did not involve writing but engaged them in thinking about the mathematical ideas and in discussing the activities. The errors from the in-class and final exams of both groups of students were categorized and analyzed for information about the students' conceptual and procedural understanding. We found no significant differences between the WTLM group and the non-writing group, which suggests that the real benefit from writing activities may not be in the actual activity of writing, but rather in the fact that such activities require students to struggle to understand mathematical ideas well enough to communicate their understanding to others. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Social interaction in the acquisition of knowledge

A review of features and results of a research program concerning social interaction in knowledge construction that covers more than 10 years of research is given. Starting from a Vygotskian theoretical background, interactive dimensions are considered as an instrument for curriculum change in different domains and, subsequently, as an experimental treatment in young children's education. In particular, arguing within school settings appears to be a crucial tool for learning to reason and to explain: Knowledge domains become characterized by epistemic procedures, which are implemented in arguing, and by shared reasoning within adequate educational settings.     

Unpacking the hidden efficacies of learning in productive failure

This paper describes a framework for learning where learners undergo experimentations with the phenomena at hand according to progressive and staged goals. Bowling is used as a case study in this paper. The premise for experimentations is that learners can experience hidden efficacies, including the formation of “bad habits.” A distinction is made between productivity in learning and performance in terms of learning outcomes. In other words, productivity in learning may not necessarily manifest in successful performance, hence the term productive failure. To emphasize the need for self-regulation during problem-solving process, we discuss the movements within the productive–unproductive and success–failure dimensions through three-staged self-regulatory processes and draw implications to learning and instruction.     

Dewey and mathematical practice: revisiting the distinction between procedural and conceptual knowledge

We identify a recent trend in school mathematics as well as in some of the research literature in mathematics education: an emphasis on the practical uses of mathematics and an increased emphasis on verbalizations as opposed to numerical and computational skills. With tools provided by John Dewey, an early advocate of contextual and practical knowledge, we analyse the common research framework for discussing mathematical knowledge in terms of the procedural and the conceptual. We argue that procedural and conceptual knowledge should not be seen as opposites, and that the tendency to treat them as such might be avoided by emphasising the notion of operational skill. We argue that this is important in order for the students to gain both the contextual knowledge and the computational skill entailed in mathematical knowledge.     

Domain expertise and the effectiveness of dynamic simulator interfaces in the acquisition of procedural motor skills

Previous research into the effectiveness of dynamic versus static instructional design paradigms has reported divergent findings. Dynamic instructions have been shown to be more effective in teaching novel procedural skills. In contrast, the apparent benefit of dynamic over static instructions has been attributed in other studies to the cognitive capabilities and previous knowledge of the learner. Can the benefit of dynamic instruction persist in learners with domain expertise on learning novel tasks? In this paper, we report the result of an experiment that shows that irrespective of the learner's previous knowledge, dynamic instructions retain a significant effectiveness over statics for teaching intra‐domain novel task performance. Twenty‐four participants with domain expertise were divided into three independent groups to perform a procedural motor task following treatment with different training interfaces. After controlling for spatial abilities and excluding previous specific‐to‐task knowledge, we observe that participants that trained with interfaces containing dynamic content recorded better task performance measures than others using non‐dynamic interfaces. This suggest that within the context of motor skill acquisition, dynamic instructional interfaces can yield significant increases to post‐learning task performance measures, which is independent of the learner's cognitive capabilities or previous knowledge.     

Contextual and strategic knowledge in the acquisition of design expertise

This study examines the acquisition of expertise in designing and developing information systems. The aim was to investigate how practical experience is related to contextual and strategic knowledge in problem-solving. Using a combination of expert–novice comparisons and longitudinal methods, professional systems analysts were compared with novices at the beginning and end of a seven month project-based course. The results show that during the course, the novices acquired a good deal of strategic competence in using domain-specific methods. Compared to the novices, the experts showed a more comprehensive and higher level of awareness of clients' contextual constraints. The study demonstrated qualitative variation in the subjects' solutions to design problems. Five distinct solution patterns were found; these appeared to originate mainly from the settings of the subjects' practical work.     

Developing game-like simulations to formalize tacit procedural knowledge: the ONT experience

The exceptional success achieved by the Spanish National Transplant Organization (ONT) in recent years has made other countries highly interested in following this organization’s methodologies. A good training program is one of the key elements of the ONT. Until 2012, the ONT training program was a paper-based case teaching method, and the small number of ONT experts limited the audience. In an attempt to improve and increase the attendees in this program, a game-like simulation was developed to represent transplant management procedural knowledge. To maximize the educational value, this game-like simulation was based on representative teaching cases to help students practice with different real situations and different levels of complexity in a risk-free environment. This study presents how an iterative game development methodology has been applied to evolve from a paper-based case teaching method to a game-like simulation, with a special focus on the efforts made to include the ONT experts’ tacit procedural knowledge in the simulation. Apart from increasing the number of students who can access the ONT training, this game-like simulation also helped to achieve a more detailed formalization of transplant management as well as a more comprehensive systematization of a set of relevant teaching cases.     

产出性和接受性词汇知识对阅读理解影响的相关研究

词汇是语言的基本组成要素之一,对语言学习十分重要。鉴于词汇知识对语言学习的重要性,国内外存在较多关于词汇知识和听说读写等语言技能学习之间关系的研究,但研究结果呈现多样化。本研究针对低能力水平英语学习者,从接受性和产出性的词汇知识角度,探讨词汇知识与阅读理解之间的关系。     

Individualized acquisition of knowledge with the computer: Questioning and learning guided by the structure of knowledge

In the first part of this article, we define our view of knowledge acquisition by distinguishing it from text comprehension and memorization, and by presenting the principal characteristics of the concept of knowledge as the formalization used to shape the knowledge domains (Baudet & Denhière, 1988). In the second part, the computerized individual’s knowledge acquisition system we present permits a representation of memory knowledge in accordance with the formalization adopted. This also allows a diagnosis of the learner’s initial knowledge and, according to the diagnosis reached, presents texts and illustrations adapted with the learner’s initial knowledge and with the goal of reaching a particular state of knowledge (Poitrenaud, Denhière & Tapiero, 1987). Finally, in the last part, we relate the first experimental results of learning a particular knowledge domain: sea mammals. This experiment tested the system with children of 7 to 11 years of age (Tapiero, 1987).     

The relation between individual interest and knowledge acquisition

The objective of this study was to examine how individual interest and knowledge acquisition are causally related. Three hypotheses were tested using a cross‐lagged panel analysis (N = 186) and two quasi‐experimental studies (N = 68 and N = 108) involving students from schools in Singapore. The first hypothesis is the broadly shared standard assumption on the relation between individual interest and knowledge: the more an individual is interested in a topic, the more (s)he is willing to engage in learning. An alternative hypothesis assumes that individual interest is not the cause but the consequence of the process of learning: individual interest as an affective by‐product of learning. Finally, a third possibility is that interest and knowledge influence each other reciprocally. The results supported the affective‐by‐product hypothesis. Our findings seem at variance with commonly held conceptions that being interested guides knowledge attainment. The implications of these findings for interest research are discussed.     

Sometimes more is better: Agent gestures,procedural knowledge and the foreign language learner

Pedagogical agents in multimedia learning environments have frequently been designed to produce pointing gestures (deictic) to direct spatial awareness. Although this might be beneficial for native English-speaking students who possess high levels of comprehension, only using pointing gestures with foreign language students learning English is problematic because these students need more assistance with language comprehension than just directing spatial awareness. The purpose of this study was to explore how gesture type and gesture frequency help foreign language students perceive the agent’s persona and the ability to recall procedural information. The results found one significant interaction between average gestures and no gesture in terms of facilitation, but all other conditions and persona subscales were not significant. For learning outcomes, the enhanced gesture condition significantly recalled more information than the no gesture condition (p = 0.017), and was approaching significance with the conversational gesture condition (p = 0.059). The findings suggest that when the learning population consists of foreign language students, pedagogical agents should use representational and beat gestures to help students comprehend more of the language, and the gesture frequency needs to be increased to account for the lack of verbal listening skills with this population.