Theoretical Relevance: 1 Theoretical Relevance Lecture 2 for the IV track of the 2012 PSLC Summer School Philip I Pavlik Jr. University of Memphis

Theoretical Relevance: 2 William E. Herp Chief Executive of Linear Air “The first lesson in sales is: Look for the pain.”

Theoretical Relevance: 3 Look for the pain in the… u Literature u Classroom u Science of learning Your customers

Theoretical Relevance: 4 Literature: It is painful not to know the answer to a known question u Known questions appear at the end of papers, reviews, etc. –At least one informed person cares about the answer. u Common (bad) ways to pose research questions –Cool software –Pop psychology –I learn this way, so… No customers, or poor customer commitment

Theoretical Relevance: 5 Select a question to add information and clarity to the literature u Information value (in Shannon’s sense) –High if prior probability of the answer is very different from the answer obtained in the experiment. –Low if experiment just confirms the expected answer. u Clarification value (real pains here) –Low if the literature is a mess, and the experiment just adds one more fact to the mess. –High if the experiment somehow clarifies the mess. –Moderate if there is little prior literature.

Theoretical Relevance: 6 Look for (and relieve) the pain in the… u Literature –Known question –Answer would add information and/or clarity u Classroom u Sciences of Learning Next

Theoretical Relevance: 7 What pains the classroom? u Ask the instructor (you?) what’s most frustrating –Teaching a certain concept? –Transfer to real world? –Depth of understanding? u Ask the students… –but students biased by immediate needs

Theoretical Relevance: 8 Examples: Andes Physics tutor is not “selling” (can’t give it away!) u Andes teaches quantitative problem solving. u Most instructors think this is not a bottleneck. u Instead, qualitative problem solving is their concern. u Suggests that Andes is poorly targeted to classroom pain…

Theoretical Relevance: 9 Look for (and relieve) the pain in the… u Literature –Known question –Answer would add information and/or clarity u Classroom –Instructors consider the question important u Sciences of Learning Next

Theoretical Relevance: 10 Where is the pain in the Learning Sciences? u Too many results u No organization of the results u No theory u No clear implications u No classic results that everyone knows u No accretion u Progress is more like politics than medicine

Theoretical Relevance: 11 To cure the pain, Learning Science needs a theoretical framework u Not like physics –A few basic principles from which all else follows. u More like Medicine –Many basics (anatomy, physiology, genetics) –Many specializations e.g., lymphatic cancers u Few principles; many diseases, syndromes, therapies –A standardized, rigorous terminology –Digital libraries becoming essential

Theoretical Relevance: 12 Types of theories Computational models “How People Learn” principles Shared theoretical vocabulary Boxology

Theoretical Relevance: 13 PSLC theoretical framework Computational models “How People Learn” principles Shared theoretical vocabulary Boxology

Theoretical Relevance: 14 PSLC theoretical framework u Shared terminology –Research clusters –Research thrusts u Analytic framework Next

Theoretical Relevance: 15 Shared terminology u Micro-level –Knowledge component: A principle, concept, fact, schema, strategy, meta-strategy… –Learning event: An application of a knowledge component u Macro-level: A taxonomy of robust learning processes –Sense-making –Fluency-building –Refinement

Theoretical Relevance: 16 Micro level is just (good, old fashioned) cognitive psychology Instructional activities Prior knowledge Cognitive processes Knowledge components Observable outcomes Knowledge can be decomposed Learning processes can be decomposed and taxonomized

Theoretical Relevance: 17 Macro level is a taxonomy of learning process u Sense making –Coordination of multiple types/sources of learning u Fluency –Strengthening u Refinement –Feature pruning –All 3 process are coincident

Theoretical Relevance: 18 PSLC research clusters u Coordinative learning –How do students coordinate multiple sources of information, media, representations, strategies? u Interactive communication –How does interaction between a student and a peer, tutor or teacher affect learning? u Fluency and refinement –How does a skill become fluent?

Theoretical Relevance: 19 PSLC Research Thrusts u Motivation and Metacognition u Computational Modeling and Data Mining u Social Communicative Factors u Cognitive Factors

Theoretical Relevance: 20 PSLC Theoretical framework u Glossary of theoretical terms –Micro-level –Macro-level u Analytic framework Next

Theoretical Relevance: 21 Learning events over time Duration FourthThirdSecondFirstFifth While studying an example, tries to self- explain; fails; looks in text; succeeds While solving a problem, looks up example; recalls explanation; maps it to problem Recalls explanation; slips; corrects Solves without slips 5 sec. 10 sec. 15 sec. 25 sec. 20 sec. Opportunity

Theoretical Relevance: 22 A new analytic framework, based on an analogy u A problem is to a problem space as a learning event is to a ____________.

Theoretical Relevance: 23 A new analytic framework, based on an analogy u A problem is to a problem space as a learning event is to a learning event space.

Theoretical Relevance: 24 Key ideas u A learning event space is a set of paths determined by the instruction and the student’s prior knowledge, u but it is the student who chooses which path to follow u different paths have different outcomes: –Deep learning –Shallow learning –Mis-learning –Etc.

Theoretical Relevance: 25 You get to choose the granularity in your IV research u Coarse grain-size: Only observable actions –Correct vs. incorrect steps –Feedback from tutor u Finer: Reportable mental actions –Recall vs. construct u Even finer?

Theoretical Relevance: 26 How to use learning event spaces Construct a learning event space such that… it is consistent with observable actions, and… the top level question, “Why did they learn?” becomes two easier questions: –Path choice: Why did students tend to choose as they did? –Path effects: Given that a student went down a path, why did that cause the observed learning/outcomes?

Theoretical Relevance: 27 A simple illustration u Maxine Eskenazi & Alan Juffs hypothesize that using authentic texts will increase vocabulary acquisition in ESL. –Students read text with a few target unfamiliar words. –Texts come either from web or from existing primer. –Clicking on an target word displays its definition. u Why would authenticity increase learning? How?

Theoretical Relevance: 28 Learning event space (one per target word) u Start u Ignore the word –Exit, with little learning u Infer meaning from context –Exit, with “implicit” learning u Click on the word; definition is displayed –Read & understand the definition u Exit, with “explicit” learning –Go to Start

Theoretical Relevance: 29 Why should authentic text help? Hypotheses based on path choices u Start u Ignore the word –Exit, with little learning u Infer meaning from context –Exit, with implicit learning u Click on the word; definition is displayed –Read & understand the definition u Exit, with explicit learning –Go to Start Authentic text should decrease this Authentic text should increase this

Theoretical Relevance: 30 To summarize the theoretical framework… u Glossary –Macro-level u Sense-making u Fluency u Refinement –Micro level: Knowledge components, learning events… u Learning events space –Decomposes “why did they learn?” into u Path choices: Which paths were chosen? u Path effects: For each path, what was learned?

Theoretical Relevance: 31 Find the pain (and relieve it) in the… u Literature –Known question –Answer would add information and/or clarity u Classroom –Instructors consider the question important u Science of learning –Glossary of theoretical terms –Learning event spaces