THIS IS MY BRAIN
THIS IS MY BRAIN ON COGNITIVE FLEXIBILITY THEORY
When I first read about CFT, and
the connection to constructivism, I was really excited. I liked how
Cognitive Flexibility seemed to be about teaching a student the ability to
switch their behavioral response according to the context of the situation. But once more when I looked at the examples
like EASE, the application
seems to have little relation to the theory.
According to the
website Museum of Learning, one must, “to design a learning environment so that
it is consistent with Cognitive Flexibility Theory:
·
Use
multiple case studies to insure that a variety of possible situations are
presented.
·
Focus
on cross-case differences in how concepts and principles are applied.
·
Allow
users to ‘criss-cross’ the materials in flexible ways, to see the same content
in different contexts
·
Modularize
content to exist in multiple contexts (or provide enough background information
for each concept to be understood in each context)
·
Consider
multiple perspectives (individual points of view) as an aid to understanding
the connected nature of the domain concepts and promoting flexible knowledge
building.”
The above points make
sense to me but when I looked at how they are applied in the EASE model, there
seems to be too many disparate pieces to be able to make connections or assemble
the information in any meaningful way. The
learning guides help to a certain extent but the problem with learning guides
is that if they are not done carefully, then you are disallowing the benefits
of constructivism that allows for the learner to create the meaning – not the instructor.
I can see the amount of
work that must go into creating a CFT based model is huge and daunting. This could be one reason why I look at this
model and shy away from it. I do not see
this as a one person show. To really do
this model justice, it would seem that it would take a team approach to really
make sure you are capitalizing on the multiple perspectives. But I think I would really take time and think about how to use this model in a way that really mirrors the situations that employees face in a job context - similar to the ER context.
9 comments:
Barb,
I like your EASE example. Very cool!
Interesting comment, Barb, and I loved the special effects at the beginning: this approach does interesting things to my brain, as well!
Transversing an intellectual "landscape", if you will, is an interesting concept, and I agree with you wholeheartedly that it would take a team of knowledgeable people to put together a marketable cogflex project. I'm not altogether certain that the effort would be worth it, however: one can always research case studies without the use of html tags to assist with viewing the cases from several perspectives. I'm shying away from this, too. Unless the students get to tell the stories to a puppet! XD
Love the "brain" examples. I really had a hard time understanding this theory. The more I read everyones blogs, the better understanding I have of CFT. I also agree with you about needing a team of very knowledgable people to create this time of module. As Al said, would it be worth it. There are so many other modules that can be used that would not require as much effort!
Karen - I wish I could take credit for it but this is just the link to the example that Kevin posted on the course site. I did a search to find other examples but couldn't find much. I really wanted to find the community college example in Kevin's slide show but no luck!
Kerry and Al -
Are we all just tired from the long semester? But I think Al makes a good point that there might be other models where you can get more bang for your buck.
The one aspect that I really like is the idea of being able to get people used to changing their reactions in response to changing circumstances. I do not think this model really gets there but I do think it has some of the thought process behind it.
Despite this being a course on multimedia use in instruction, I think the CF model can be applied using basic (printed) text - in fact, as you stated, I think too much hypertext, flash and media can create unnecessary confusion and overhead for an instructional session/experience. I wonder if these articles were written at a time when hypertext and multimedia were still in the early phase of the hype-cycle, where many people were overly optimistic about the new technology. I myself prefer to read and analyze cases using printed text and paper - though it may be a very curmudgeonly of me, but perhaps because that is how I first learned to analyze texts and formed a habit.
Hyun-Duck -
I would not think of you as being "curmudgeonly" at all!!!!! But I have to agree that I too like to have a hard copy to make notes on and mark up. I think we each have our own learning preferences that need to be considered when looking at all of this. I work with someone who thinks that providing video tutorials is enough and we do not need to provide print tutorials but this is because this is how he prefers to learn. I personally think we need to provide both.
But I do agree that it seems like CFT was developed before some of today's technology.
Barb, I always love your pictures! I love the comparison to the drug campaign from the 80s! haha!
I agree that this model is complicated and that a design team might be a smart approach to its creation.
I do love that it presents real world scenarios. You mention an ER example. It seems that it would work well in the medical field. I would love for doctors and nurses to have a few rounds of CFT in their back pocket before doing any procedures on me. It provides opportunities to take risks in a risk-free setting.
(Julie Jones)
Julie -
I agree 100% about your comment that it allows you to take risks in a risk free environment. There was interesting story on NPR about Japan's emergancy broadcasters who prepare on a regular basis to be able to broadcast during emergancies. They were talking about how no matter how much they had prepared, it still didn't prepare them about how difficult it would be to broadcast when their emotions were running so high. That is the piece that I think we cannot incorporate into these types of learning so easily.
Post a Comment