|
Application of Constructivism
This course module will focus on the use of cognitive
tele-apprenticeship through the use of Internet technology.
It will be recommended that this module be incorporated into an online
course that GMU Immersion students have developed for the U.S. Forest
Service. This type of constructivist learning environment is extremely
appropriate for the target audience described below because of a long-held,
but fast fading tradition, of learning through informal apprenticeships.
The Forest Services' seasoned cadre of senior managers are near retirement
age. Within the next five years 40 percent will retire. The agency has
an urgent need for alternative training methods and risks the loss of
millions of dollars in future court cases small and large if its managers
are not properly trained with decision making skills. A cognitive tele-apprenticeship
offered via the Internet in the form of a web-based course module could
fill a widening training gap.
Description: The learners
are management track employees of the United States Forest Service.
They have been employed with the Forest Service for anywhere between
one and ten years. In the future, they will be expected to make clear,
sound, and lawful decisions regarding the preservation of national lands.
These decisions should be in the best interest of both the United States
Government, the Forest Service and the American people.
Learning Characteristics:
Learners are highly motivated, and committed to a long-term career in
federal land management. They have at least a bachelor's degree in science.
General Knowledge Domain/Content
Area
Learners have a specialized backgrounds in the sciences
(agriculture, botany, land surveying, etc.), but little formal training
in management and decision making.
Learning Outcomes
of CLE
This online course will empower learners with skills
in decision making that can be applied across the land management domain.
Learners will begin to think like experts. The thought processes of
learners (apprentices) will begin to match that of virtual seasoned
land managers (experts). More specifically learners will:
-
use
cognitive strategies necessary in making clear, sound, and lawful
decisions regarding the preservation of national lands. These decisions
should be in the best interest of both the United States Government,
the Forest Service and the American people.
-
become familiar with
and use resources available in print and online to inform decision
making.
-
become familiar with
history including Native American Indian land rights, colonialism,
federal laws and statutes and understand their bearing on modern day
decision making.
-
appreciate the significance
of the responsibility of federal land managers and the consequences
of uninformed decision making.
The Learning Problem/Cognitive
Puzzlement from Learner Viewpoint
Land management decisions are very ill-structured and complex. Currently,
unseasoned managers turn to seasoned managers when faced with land management
problems both large and small. They ask the experts not how best to
approach a problem, but rather how to solve it quickly. They want the
answers. They see their mentors as all-knowing and fear making decisions
on their own. Land management and real estate decisions affect many
people, and must be in accordance with the laws of the United States,
but must also consider the land rights of American Indians in many cases.
Relationships and great amounts of money are at stake. Risks of being
taken to court, and lengthy and costly court trials are always a factor.
New managers have little time to internalize a strategic process but
mentors will no longer be available to assist in making important decisions
as they continue to retire. New managers need to start thinking like
experts now.
The Learning Activities
The learning activities for this course are a combination
of the the features of cognitive apprenticeship that Allan Collins describes
in his 1991 article Cognitive Apprenticeship and Instructional Design
and similar characteristics described by Brent Wilson and Peggy Cole
in their 1991 article A Review of Cognitive Teaching Models.
Features of Cognitive Apprenticeship
and Associated Learning Activities:
1. Content: Learners will learn
domain knowledge, concepts and facts, as well as heuristics through repeated
problem solving activities.
2. Situated Learning: Problem-solving
activities will be placed in authentic contexts of federal land management.
The relevance of tasks will inspire creativity and meaning for learners.
Encoding into memory and future retrieval when needed will be enhanced.
3: Modeling and Explaining: Learners
will observe experts on video who model and explain how they go about
making decisions. Experts internalized decision making processes will
be presented. Learners will observe true performance including false starts,
dead ends and successes.
4. Coaching and Scaffolding: Virtual
experts through video will share their cognitive approaches to solving
particular cases. Instructors, who are skilled in online learning facilitation
and are familiar with the subject matter, will also provide scaffolding
and support as needed, reacting to student's postings. Cooperative learning
in virtual teams will also serve to provide learners with social support
and feedback.
5. Refection on Performance: Students
will engage in activities where they are reminded of their previous responses
and are asked to reflect on them by comparing them to those of experts.
6. Articulation: Learners will
post responses to a discussion board asking them how they would solve
a particular problem (the steps) and to also providing justification.
7. Exploration: Learners will post
responses to their classmates' postings and react to their hypothesis
for solving problems.
8. Sequence: Instruction will be
sequenced from simple to complex. Problems will increase in complexity
and diversity as the course progresses.
Evaluation/Assessment
Throughout the course, an instructor will assess
learner progress by evaluating postings, and providing coaching and
scaffolding as needed. In order to succeed in this module of the course,
learners will be expected to use strategies that begin to resemble those
of experts in the field. Their efforts in this course become part of
the employee's permanent personnel record and can be used when making
promotion decisions. Students take the course for college credit, so
their success in this module has an impacet on their final grade for
the course.
|