The Design of Instruction and Evaluation: Affordances of Using Media and Technology

232 Pages·2004·12.75 MB·English

by  Mitchell Rabinowitz

THE DESIGN OF INSTRUCTION
AND EVALUATION
Affordances of Using
Media and Technology
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THE DESIGN OF INSTRUCTION
AND EVALUATION
Affordances of Using
Media and Technology
Edited by
Mitchell Rabinowitz
Fran C. Blumberg
Fordham University
Howard T. Everson
The College Board
LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES, PUBLISHERS
Mahwah, New Jersey London
Copyright © 2004 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in
any form, by photostat, microform, retrieval system, or any other
means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers
10 Industrial Avenue
Mahwah, New Jersey 07430
Cover design by Kathryn Houghtaling Lacey
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The design of instruction and evaluation : affordances of using media and technology / edited by
Mitchell Rabinowitz, Fran C. Blumberg, and Howard T. Everson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8058-3762-0 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-8058-3763-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Instructional systems—Design. 2. Learning, Psychology of. 3. Educational technology.
I. Rabinowitz, Mitchell. II. Blumberg, Fran. III. Everson, Howard T.
LB1028.38D47 2004
2004043288
CIP
Books published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates are printed on acid-free paper,
and their bindings are chosen for strength and durability.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21
Contents
Introduction: The Design of Instruction and Evaluation:
Psychological Foundations vii
Mitchell Rabinowitz
Part I Affordances of Media
1 Characteristics of Effective Materials for Informal
Education: A Cross-Media Comparison of Television,
Magazines, and Interactive Media 3
Shalom M. Fisch
2 Media Forms for Children's Learning 19
Sandra L. Calvert
3 Designing Multimedia Technology That Supports
Human Learning 33
Richard E. Mayer
Part II Affordances of Technology
4 Opportunities for Learning and Development in an
After-School Computer Club 53
Mary Gauvain and Sharon Borthwick-Duffy
v
vi CONTENTS
5 Learning Affordances of Collaborative Software Design 77
Yasmin B. Kafai, Cynthia Carter Ching, and Sue Marshall
6 How the Internet Will Help Large-Scale Assessment
Reinvent Itself 101
Randy Elliot Bennett
7 Technology, the Columbus Effect, and the Third
Revolution in Learning 121
J. D. Fletcher
Part III Affordances of Software
8 Asynchronous Learning in Graduate School Classes 143
Fran C. Blumberg, Meira Torenberg, and Lori M. Sokol
9 Hints in Human and Computer Tutoring 155
Rachel E. DiPaolo, Arthur C. Graesser, Douglas J. Hacker,
Holly A. White, and the Tutoring Research Group
10 Intelligent Tutors Need Intelligent Measurement, or the
Other Way 'Round 183
Howard T. Everson
Author Index 205
Subject Index 213
INTRODUCTION:
The Design of Instruction
and Evaluation:
Psychological Foundations
Mitchell Rabinowitz
This book is about the design of instructional and evaluation systems and the use
and promise of media and technology within such systems. Successful design is a
consequence of an interaction between art and science. Artistically, there are
ways to present information that are pleasing and engaging. However, the artist
might design a system that looks good, but does not work. In his book, The Design
of Everyday Things, Norman (1988) presented a number of really interesting man-
ufacturing designs that do not work (the contexts illustrated in that book are not
instructional ones). Scientifically, I argue, there is a body of knowledge and prin-
ciples that have been empirically tested that informs the design of instructional
systems. However, the scientist might design instruction that should work, but is
boring to interact with. Each is enhanced by the other. The chapters in this book
are related more to the science than the art side, and they discuss and provide ex-
amples of some of these knowledge bases and principles that are relevant to the
design issue.
In 1993, I edited a book entitled Cognitive Science Foundations of Instruction
(Rabinowitz, 1993), which was also related to the topic of the design of instruc-
tional and evaluation systems. The premise of that book was that the study of
psychology provides the scientific underpinnings of successful design that im-
proves learning. In this book, we continue with that premise. However, the
psychological perspective presented within this volume significantly differs from
that presented in the earlier volume given the developments and advancements
within the field of psychology.
vii
Viii INTRODUCTION
In this Introduction, I briefly overview three different perspectives on how
psychology should inform the design of instructional and evaluation systems: the
behavioral, cognitive, and affordances perspectives. I do not present these per-
spectives as alternatives. Rather, I suggest they represent a development process
in the advancement of knowledge and understanding. The cognitive perspective
represents an advancement from the behavioral, and the affordances perspective
represents an advancement over the cognitive perspective. Although not necessar-
ily accepting the premises of the preceding, each still builds on the foundation al-
ready developed.
PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS
The Behavioral Perspective
The behavioral perspective emphasized the role of the environment in determining
behavior. The basic assumption was that people (and other animals) learned to re-
spond to environmental input in certain ways on the basis of contiguity and rein-
forcement (Hulse, Deese, & Egeth, 1975). This perspective posits a causal connec-
tion involving events in the environment, activity in the mind, and ultimately
behavior (Flanagan, 1991). The behavioral assertion is that an event in the environ-
ment causes something to happen in the mind, which then causes some behavior to
occur—If A, then B, and then C. If the contiguity of these events occur regularly or
lead to positive consequences, an association among A, B, and C is formed. The im-
plication of this assertion is that if you knew or controlled A and an individual's
learning history, you could predict or create C. To manipulate behavior (learning, in
this context), there was no reason to investigate B or the mind. The behavioral per-
spective never suggested that the mind was not part of the equation—just that you
did not need to study it to predict or manipulate behavior. Thus, the mind became a
black box in which information went in and behavior came out; what occurred in
the black box was irrelevant. The primary emphasis was the relation between the
environment and behavior. Thus, designers of instructional systems who adopted
this perspective paid attention to setting up the environment and manipulating the
consequences of different behavioral responses. The designs of teaching machines,
programmed instruction, and behavior modification were a direct result of this ori-
entation (Glaser, 1976; Skinner, 1968).
The Cognitive Perspective
Historically, the emphasis on cognitive processing arose as a reaction to the be-
haviorist dogma, which emphasized the prominent role of the environment in de-
termining behavior. Although there was extensive empirical evidence showing
that people learned to respond to the environment, research also showed that the
INTRODUCTION ix
assumptions underlying the behavioral model were incorrect and that the model
could only predict and account for a limited amount of behavior (Gardner, 1985).
These studies showed that people did not respond in a direct causal way to that en-
vironment—they responded to their representation or perception of the environ-
ment. Hence, it was necessary to study how the mind processed information and
the processing constraints the mind impose. Consequently, we had the cognitive
revolution and the development of information-processing models of learning.
The consequence of adopting this cognitive perspective was the development
of instructional programs on the use of cognitive strategies. As Perkins and
Grotzer (1997) stated, "... we often do not use our minds as well as it appears we
could" (p. 1125). These programs were very successful (e.g., Pressley & Wolo-
shyn, 1995). The chapters in the Rabinowitz (1993) edition were also written with
this perspective in mind and illustrate a number of successful implementations of
this perspective.
The contrast between the behavioral and cognitive perspectives can be seen as
a contrast between external and internal influences, in relation to the learner, on
learning and performance. Whereas the behavioral approach emphasized the role
of the environment (external to the individual) in determining behavior, the cogni-
tive approach represented an advancement over the behavioral approach—it was
not just an alternative that was deemed to be more appropriate. Specifically, the
latter incorporated many ideas and empirical data from the behavioral research
and added the mind into the equations. The cognitive approach clearly empha-
sized the role of information processing (internal to the individual) in determining
behavior.
Bringing Back the Environment—
The Affordance Approach
I guess I have learned—during the intervening 10 years from the publication of
my first book to this current book—that the definition of cognition offered earlier
(the study of the mind) is too limiting. Cognitive psychology is not just the study
of the mind—it is the study of the mind in interaction with the environment. One
of the basic premises of the cognitive approach is that behavior is explained and
manipulated by understanding how information is processed. Information can be
defined in reference to knowledge and/or representation (internal to the person) or
it can be defined in terms of the affordances within the environment (external to
the person). Both sources of information—in combination and interaction—con-
tribute to understanding learning and behavior.
The term affordances was first introduced by J. J. Gibson (1977). Gibson de-
fined affordances to mean features offered to the individual by the environment.
Affordances exist relative to the capabilities of an individual—independent of the
person's ability to perceive it and independent of the person's goals. The con-