Technology, Instructional Design, and...

Technology, Instructional Design, and Empowerment Jonan Phillip Donaldson

Drexel University School of Education

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

What is Learning?

How often do we think about the nature of learning?

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What is learning? How did you come to form your own answer to this question? Would your students have a similar answer? Your colleagues? I will argue that the answer to the question “What is learning?” has a powerful impact on our practices as educators. More specifically, I will argue that we must question our assumptions regarding our use of technology and instructional design models. When I say “we,” I include myself as a member of the international community of educators, instructional technologists, instructional designers, and educational researchers. Educators spend a lot of time thinking about what students learn and how they learn, but how often do we think about the nature of learning?

The Nature of Conceptualizations

Possibilities

Conceptualization

science mind

education learning

…

Ethics

Perspective

Action

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Conceptualizations are complex mental constructs regarding the nature of abstract concepts. We have conceptualizations of science. We have conceptualizations of mind. We have conceptualizations of education. We have conceptualizations of learning. Our conceptualizations tell us what is possible, and what is not. Our conceptualizations help us decide what is good, and what is bad. They determine what we can see, and what we cannot see. They frame not only how we see the world, but also what we do in the world.


Thoughts Actions

Conceptualizations of Learning

Practices in Teaching and Learning

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Thoughts lead to actions. Conceptualizations of learning lead to practices in teaching and learning. Some conceptualizations of learning lead to practices which are oppressive, and other conceptualizations of learning lead to practices which facilitate transformational learning, empowerment, and development of the tools by which learners can engage in social change. But we’ll come back to that. First, we need to investigate how conceptualizations are formed.

The Nature of Conceptualizations Analogies

Conceptualization (of…)

Analogies

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The basic building blocks of concepts are categories. Human beings are awesome at categorizing things. When we encounter something new, we think “This thing reminds me of that other thing. This is kind of like that thing.” This is the function of analogy. As the philosopher Douglas Hofstadter puts it, “without concepts there can be no thought, and without analogies there can be no concepts.” And now we have the first ingredient in the formation of conceptualizations: analogy.

The Nature of Conceptualizations Metaphor

Metaphor


Analogies

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The next ingredient is metaphor. While analogies are simple (“this is like that”), metaphors are more complex. They are more like stories.

Time is Money

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For instance, somebody—we don’t know who—a long time ago had the thought “My time is valuable,” which led to the metaphor “time is money.” This metaphor, according to the linguists George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, was so catchy that it spread quickly all over the world and shaped many economies. So powerful was the “time is money” metaphor that today most people forget that it is a metaphor and believe that time is actually money. No it’s not. Time is time. Money is money. This is the power of metaphor.

The Nature of Conceptualizations Analogy + Metaphor

Metaphor


Analogies

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Now we have our next step in our formula: Analogies lead to categories which inform concepts. Analogies also lead to metaphors, and these metaphors become the basis for many—if not most—concepts. But our formulation is not yet complete.

The Nature of Conceptualizations Worldview and Paradigm

Metaphor

Paradigm Worldview


Analogies

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Constellations of metaphors and analogies combine with our life experiences, habits, and the common practices in our communities of professional practice. These are what Thomas Kuhn called paradigms and what Michael Kearney called worldviews. These are related, but distinct concepts. They are related in that they both deal with epistemology—the nature of knowledge—and ontology—the nature of reality. Worldviews are the sets of beliefs and assumptions held by societies and members of those societies about the physical and social world. Paradigms are shared beliefs and assumptions within communities of practice.


Paradigm

Positivist

Post-Positivist

Worldview

Rationalist Scientist

Objectivist Empiricist

Paradigm

Constructivist Interpretivist

Critical Theory

Worldview

Constructed-

Realities Negotiated-

Meanings Socio-Historical

Contextualization Participatory

Positivism Constructivism

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Paradigms and worldviews can be best understood by looking at the clash between the two major positions. On one side is the positivist position characterized by the belief that there is on reality, and knowledge is objective truths discovered through experiment and empirical observation. On the other side is the constructivist position characterized by the belief that there are multiple constructed realities, and knowledge is the meanings constructed through interpretation and making sense of experience.


Metaphor

Paradigm Worldview


Analogies

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Our worldviews and paradigms filter and transform our analogies and metaphors.


Practices Communication Values

Metaphor

Cognitive Filtering

Paradigm Worldview


Analogies

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And now we have a working formulation: Conceptualizations are formed through the use of analogies and metaphors as informed by worldviews and paradigms. Conceptualizations then inform our perspectives, values, words, and actions.


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Now that we have a framework for understanding conceptualizations, we can discuss conceptualizations of learning. Although there are a large number of conceptualizations of learning, two are particularly important.

Conceptualizations of Learning Transfer/acquisition

Paradigm Positivist

Post-Positivist

Worldview Rationalist Scientist

Objectivist Empiricist

Conceptualization of Learning Logic, Teachers, Textbooks, Lectures, Memorization, Drills, Exams, Learning

Objectives, Assessment, Correct Answers

Analogies Transfer, Acquisition, Banking, Computer, Storage,

Retrieval, Tabula Rasa, Data, Input/Output, etc.

Transfer/Acquisition Metaphor Learning is a process in which information is transferred from an external source into the

mind of a learner. The learner acquires knowledge.

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First, Dewey, Vygotsky, Bruner, Freire, Kincheloe, and others have argued that the dominant common-sense view of learning is grounded in transfer, acquisition, and banking metaphors. This conceptualization is based on the ancient tabula rasa (empty slate) view of the mind, and sees learning as the transfer of information from external sources such as teachers and textbooks into the minds of learners. Freire, Kincheloe, and Giroux argue that these metaphors of learning lead to practices in teaching and learning which are oppressive, and that such practices are incompatible with deep, powerful, emancipatory, agentic, and transformative learning.

Conceptualizations of Learning Construction

Paradigm Constructivist Interpretivist

Critical Theory

Worldview Constructed-

Realities Negotiated-

Meanings Participatory

Conceptualization of Learning Questions, Projects, Collaboration, Perspective-

Taking, Agentic Engagement, Connection-making, Identity Exploration, Critical Thinking,

Experiment, Exploration, Ownership

Analogies Design, Build, Construct, Make, Interpret, Critique,

Question, Contextualize, Embody, Connect, Project, Author, Engage, Explore, Experiment, Tinker, etc.

Construction Metaphor Learning is a process in which meaning is

individually, collaboratively, and collectively constructed. The learner creates knowledge.

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Second, in contrast to the “common sense” transfer/acquisition conceptualization of learning, many educational researchers and theorists have conceptualizations of learning grounded in the construction metaphor. This conceptualization—based on the work of Piaget, Vygotsky, and Bruner—sees learning as the individual, collaborative, and collective construction of meaning.


Paradigm Positivist

Worldview Rationalist

Conceptualization of Learning

Transfer/Acquisition Metaphor

Paradigm Constructivist

Worldview Constructed-

Realities

Conceptualization of Learning

Practices Projects, Collaboration, Perspective-Taking, Identity

Exploration, Critical Thinking, Experiment, Exploration…

Practices Textbooks, Lectures, Memorization, Drills, Exams, Learning

Objectives, Assessment, Correct Answers…

Construction Metaphor

Analogies Analogies

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These dramatically different conceptualizations of learning lead to completely different practices in teaching and learning. The transfer/acquisition conceptualization leads to learning designed around learning objectives, lectures, textbooks, and exams. The construction conceptualization leads to learning characterized by project-based learning, collaborative learning, situated learning, and activities through which learners have meaningful impact in their communities.

Conceptualizations of Learning Agency in the transfer/acquisition conceptualization

learning objectives, standardized curricula,

textbooks, lectures, drills, memorization, exams,

etc.

Transfer/Acquisition Conceptualization of

Learning

Agency?

X

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At the core of these conceptualizations of learning is a fundamental difference in beliefs regarding who should have agency—who should have the power—in decisions about learning. The transfer/acquisition conceptualization embodies the assumption that teachers, schools, districts, curriculum designers, and instructional designers have the authority to make decisions regarding what students will learn, how they will learn it, and how they will be assessed. Learner agency is usually limited to selection of topics for papers, but generally learners have no agency. The goal of education is the production of people who know what we decide they should know and do what we decide they should do.

Conceptualizations of Learning Agency in the construction conceptualization

learning objectives, standardized curricula,

textbooks, lectures, drills, memorization, exams,

etc.

projects, learner-directed inquiry, collaboration, connection-making,

relevance exploration, etc.

Transfer/Acquisition Conceptualization of

Learning

Construction Conceptualization of

Learning

Agency?

X

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The construction conceptualization assumes that learners have agency. Not only do learners have the authority to make decisions regarding what they will learn and how they will go about learning, learners are placed in a position of human dignity which respects their intelligence and abilities. It says to them: “You are the author of your own mind. You are the author of your world.” The goal of education is to empower people to shape themselves and transform society.

The Role of Technology and Instructional Design

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But what does this have to do with technology or instructional design? Let’s start by exploring how technology is used in each conceptualization of learning. Then we’ll examine instructional design models.


Textbook eBook

Lecture Presentation

Worksheet Interactive Multimedia

Tests Adaptive Technologies

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In the transfer/acquisition conceptualization of learning, the primary role of technology is to optimize the effectiveness and efficiency of the transfer process. In many cases, this means replication of face-to-face modalities in digital format. Textbooks become eBooks. Lectures become narrated online presentations. Worksheets become interactive multimedia. There is a recent movement toward using big data, learning analytics, and responsive technologies to assess learners’ progression towards mastery of prescribed learning objectives and to adapt delivery of materials in response to assessment of their strengths and weaknesses.

The Role of Technology and Instructional Design Build

Websites Keep Blogs

Produce Movies

Design Research

Engage Audiences

Social Activism

Create Apps

Write Books

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In the construction conceptualization of learning, the role of technology is primarily productive. Learners use technologies to create things for real-world impact. They design websites and blogs. They produce, direct, and edit movies. They engage local and international audiences through podcasts. They design, conduct, and publish research studies. They plan and facilitate social activism through social media.


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Put simply, in the transfer/acquisition conceptualization technology is used by teachers and instructional designers for action upon students, but in the construction conceptualization it is used by students for action in and upon the world.


Instructional Design Models

ADDIE

Backward Design

Understanding by Design

SAM

Merrill’s First Principles of Instruction

Gagné's 9 Events of Instruction

Dick and Carey Model

Kemp’s Instructional Design Model

etc…

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Use of technology based on the transfer/acquisition conceptualization has been further entrenched through the use of instructional design models. The most common instructional design models—including ADDIE, Backward Design, Understanding by Design, SAM, Merrill’s First Principles of Instruction, Gagné's 9 Events of Instruction, the Dick and Carey Model, and Kemp’s Instructional Design Model—follow similar stages of instructional design.


Learning Objectives Assessment

Materials and

Activities Implement Iterate

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In the first stages, the instructional designer determines measurable learning objectives. In the next stage, the instructional designer determines what forms of evidence will be used to assess learners’ mastery of the learning objectives. Then learning materials and activities are gathered and/or developed. Finally, the design is implemented, tested, and revised towards optimal efficiency and effectiveness. This approach encourages the design of learning around only things which can be “objectively” assessed. Popular rubrics and standards for assessing the quality of online course designs demand that there be clear alignment between learning objectives, assessments, learning activities and content.


transfer/acquisition

Ownership of Learning

Active Learning

Scaffolding

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Instructional design models often adopt language developed by constructivist educational researchers, for example by using terms such as “scaffolding,” “active learning” or “ownership of learning.” However, the assumption that the instructional designer has the authority to determine the learning objectives, content, and assessments reveals the degree to which they are grounded in the transfer/acquisition conceptualization of learning. Are there any instructional design models grounded in the construction conceptualization of learning? Unfortunately, there are not. But this also means we have a moment of tremendous opportunity.

The Nature of Empowerment

“present education fails because . . . it conceives the school as a place where certain information is to be given, where certain lessons are to be learned”

-John Dewey, 1897 “education must be conceived as a continuing reconstruction of experience . . . education is the fundamental method of social progress and reform”

-John Dewey, 1938

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I want to go back to the bigger picture for a moment. My initial question was “What is learning?” Intrinsically related to this question is another: “What is the purpose of education?” This question was central to John Dewey’s work over a century ago. In 1897 Dewey—the great-grandfather of educational research—said “I believe that much of present education fails because . . . it conceives the school as a place where certain information is to be given, where certain lessons are to be learned, or where certain habits are to be formed. The value of these is conceived as lying largely in the remote future; the child must do these things for the sake of something else he is to do; they are mere preparations.” He went on to describe an early formulation of the construction conceptualization of learning: “education must be conceived as a continuing reconstruction of experience; that the process and the goal of education are one and the same thing.” Finally, in describing the purpose of education, he said “education is the fundamental method of social progress and reform.”


“The traditional scheme is, in essence, one of imposition from above and from outside. It imposes adult standards, subject-matter, and methods . . . even though good teachers will use devices of art to cover up the imposition so as to relieve it of obviously brutal features.”

-John Dewey, 1897

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Dewey argued that education structured around the transfer/acquisition conceptualization is oppressive: “The traditional scheme is, in essence, one of imposition from above and from outside. It imposes adult standards, subject-matter, and methods . . . even though good teachers will use devices of art to cover up the imposition so as to relieve it of obviously brutal features.”


“The more students work at storing the deposits entrusted to them, the less they develop the critical consciousness which would result from their intervention in the world as transformers of that world. The more completely they accept the passive role imposed on them, the more they tend simply to adapt to the world as it is and to the fragmented view of reality deposited in them.”

-Paulo Freire, 1970

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More than half a century later, the Brazilian educational philosopher Paulo Freire built upon this theme. In 1970 he argued that the transfer/acquisition model of education turns students “into ‘containers,’ into ‘receptacles’ to be ‘filled’ by the teacher. The more completely she fills the receptacles, the better a teacher she is. The more meekly the receptacles permit themselves to be filled, the better students they are.” It is through such education that students are oppressed and stripped of agency: “The more students work at storing the deposits entrusted to them, the less they develop the critical consciousness which would result from their intervention in the world as transformers of that world. The more completely they accept the passive role imposed on them, the more they tend simply to adapt to the world as it is and to the fragmented view of reality deposited in them.”


Education is “symbolic violence insofar as it is the imposition of a cultural arbitrary by an arbitrary power.”

-Pierre Bourdieu, 1970

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Meanwhile on the other side of the world, the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu was arguing that this form of oppression through education is “symbolic violence insofar as it is the imposition of a cultural arbitrary by an arbitrary power.” It is through this transfer/acquisition form of education that social inequalities and injustices are reproduced and perpetuated.


The purpose of education: “aiding young humans in learning to use the tools of meaning making and reality construction, to better adapt to the world in which they find themselves and to help in the process of changing it as required.”

-Jerome Bruner, 1996

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Freire offered an alternative view of the purpose of education characterized by praxis: “reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it.” The educational theorist Jerome Bruner explained that the purpose of education is “aiding young humans in learning to use the tools of meaning making and reality construction, to better adapt to the world in which they find themselves and to help in the process of changing it as required.”


“whose constructions of reality prevail and whose ought to prevail.”

-Joe Kincheloe, 1999

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This critical pedagogy is grounded in the construction conceptualization of learning, and—like Dewey—is predicated upon an explicit rejection of the transfer/acquisition conceptualization. Because true learner agency is impossible in the transfer/acquisition conceptualization, practices based on this conceptualization are incompatible with empowerment, human rights, and social justice. Joe Kincheloe describes the core of critical pedagogy by saying, “A central theme of these rethought and redefined critical constructivist educational questions centers on whose constructions of reality prevail and whose ought to prevail.”


“This is education as the practice of freedom.”

-bell hooks, 1994

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Education designed around the construction conceptualization of learning shifts agency to learners, and in doing so becomes emancipatory, empowering, and transformative. As bell hooks reminds us, “This is education as the practice of freedom.”

Technology and Instructional Design for Empowerment

Need: instructional design models which empower learners

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There is an urgent need to develop instructional design models which empower learners. My goal today is not to offer a new instructional design model. That’s up to you to develop. However, I will offer a few ideas for consideration in developing them.


design of learning environments

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First, we could focus on the design of learning environments rather than on the design of materials and activities.


reflective practices + productive practices

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Second, we could explore ways of facilitating reflective practices embedded in productive practices. In other words, how could we operationalize Freire’s concept of praxis to engage learners—and ourselves—in simultaneous reflection on the world and action upon the world?


habits of questioning “information”

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Third, we could experiment with various means of engaging learners in continual critical thinking to help them develop the skills and habits of questioning “information”—who created it, why it was created, who it benefits, and who it marginalizes.


immediate real-world impact

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Finally, as the father of instructional technology Seymour Papert suggested, we could structure our designs around learners creating things which have immediate real-world impact.


What is learning?

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So now I leave you with some questions to ponder. What is learning?


How can we use technology for empowerment of learners?

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How can we use technology for empowerment of learners?


How can we transform our teaching away from practices which reproduce systems of oppression?

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How can we transform our teaching away from practices which reproduce systems of oppression?


How can we counteract the “common sense” transfer/acquisition conceptualization of learning?

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How can we counteract the “common sense” transfer/acquisition conceptualization of learning?


How can we restructure our beliefs and practices towards absolute respect for the human dignity, agency, and authority of every learner and every community of learners?

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And finally, how can we restructure our beliefs and practices towards absolute respect for the human dignity, agency, and authority of every learner and every community of learners?

References Bourdieu, P., & Passeron, J. C. (1990). Reproduction in education, society, and culture (Second edition. ed.). London: Sage

Publications in association with Theory, Culture & Society. Bruner, J. S. (1986). Actual minds, possible worlds. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. Bruner, J. S. (1996). The culture of education. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. Dewey, J. (1897). My pedagogic creed. New York: E. L. Kellogg & Co. Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. New York: The Macmillan Company. Donaldson, J. P., & Bucy, M. (2016). Motivation and engagement in authorship learning. College Teaching, 64(3), 130-138.

doi:10.1080/87567555.2015.1125842 Freire, P. (2005). Pedagogy of the oppressed: 30th anniversary edition. New York: Continuum. Giroux, H. A. (2013). On critical pedagogy. New York: Bloomsbury Academic & Professional. Hager, P. (2008). Learning and metaphors. Medical Teacher, 30(7), 679-686. doi:10.1080/01421590802148899 Hofstadter, D., & Sander, E. (2013). Surfaces and essences: Analogy as the fuel and fire of thinking. New York: Basic Books. hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. New York: New York : Routledge. Kearney, M. (1984). World view. Novato, CA: Chalder & Sharp Publishers. Kincheloe, J. L., Steinberg, S. R., & Tippins, D. J. (1999). The stigma of genius: Einstein, consciousness, and education. New

York: Peter Lang Publishing. Kincheloe, J. L., Steinberg, S. R., & Villaverde, L. E. (1999). Rethinking intelligence: Confronting psychological assumptions

about teaching and learning. New York: Taylor & Francis [CAM]. Kuhn, T. S. (1996). The structure of scientific revolutions (3rd ed.). Chicago, Ill: University of Chicago Press. Papert, S. (1993). The children's machine: Rethinking school in the age of the computer. New York: Basic Books. Piaget, J. (1954). The construction of reality in the child. New York: Basic Books. Sharples, M., Scanlon, E., Ainsworth, S., Anastopoulou, S., Collins, T., Crook, C., . . . O’Malley, C. (2015). Personal inquiry:

Orchestrating science investigations within and beyond the classroom. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 24(2), 308-341. doi:10.1080/10508406.2014.944642

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher mental process. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Technology, Instructional Design, and Empowerment Jonan Phillip Donaldson

Technology, Instructional Design, and...

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