Microgenetic Studies Of Learning

From Jsarmi

"Microgerzetic Analyses of Learning"By ROBERT S. SIEGLER CHAPTER 11 In HANDBOOK OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY, SIXTH EDITION, Volumc Two: Cognition Perception, and Language Volume Editors: OEANNA RUHN and ROBERI SIEGLER; Editors in Chief: WlLLlAM DAMON and RICHARD M. LERNER

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The following list summarizes a number of the most consistent and important phenomena that have emerged within microgenetic studies of children's learning:

1. Substantial within-child variability is present during all phases of learning and at every level of analysis: associations, concepts, rules, strategies and so on
2. Within-child variability tends to be greatest during of periods of rapid learning, though substantial variability is present in relatively stable periods ;is well
3. Within-child variability tends to be cyclical, with periods of lesser and greater variability alternating over the course of learning
4. Within-child variability is substantial at all ages from infancy to older adulthood
5. Initial within-child variability tends to be positively related lo subsequent learning
6. Learning reflects addition of new strategies, greater re1iance on relatively advanced strategies that are already being used, improved choices among strategies, and improved execution of strategies
7. Learning tends to progress through a regular sequence of knowledge states that parallel those that characterize untutored development
8. The path of learning is usually similar for learners of different ages and different intellectual levels
9. Learning often includes short-lived transitional approaches that play important roles in the acquisition of more enduring approaches
10. New approaches are generated following success as well as failure of existing approaches
11. For most types of learning, older and more knowledgeable children learn more quickly, and show greater appropriate generalization than younger children
12. Tile rate of change is of human scale: faster than connectionist models imply, but slower than most symbolic models imply
13. New approaches usually are used inconsistently, discovery of new approaches tends to be the beginning of learning rather than the end
14. Once new approaches have been generated, their rate of uptake is positively related lo the degree to which their accuracy is superior to that of existing approaches
15. The breadth of change also is of human scale, including everything from instantaneous lo extremely gradual generalization
16. The likelihood of choosing any given approach can be increased either by increasing the strength of that approach or by weakening the strength of competing approach
17. Causal understanding plays a crucial role in learning
18. Requests to explain observations often promote learning above and beyond the effects of feedback and practice
19. The mechanisms underlying the effects of explanatory activity include increased likelihood of learners generating any explanation, increased persistence of explanatory efforts, and diagnosis and repair of flaws in mental models
20. Learning often proceeds with little or no trial and error; conceptual understanding often allowing children to reject inappropriate strategies without ever trying them

Microgenetic studies document HOW people learn. They stand in contrast with Piagetian theory of HOW children think at different ages and work by researchers who adopt an information-processing perspective who advance intriguing hypotheses about transition processes in cognitive development (eg , Klahr & Wallace, 1976) but stir attention away from HOW children learn.