Statistics Learning:

A Constructivist Approach

Tarn Ha-ting

A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Master of Philosophy

in

Statistics

© The Chinese University of Hong Kong

May 2004

The Chinese University of Hong Kong holds the copyright of this thesis. Any

person(s) intending to use a part or whole of the materials in the thesis in a proposed

publication must seek copyright release from the Dean of the Graduate School.
Lf统系、r書i^ A

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 THE CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

GRADUATE SCHOOL

The undersigned certify that we have read a thesis, entitled "Statistics

Learning: A Constructivist Approach" submitted to the Graduate School by Tarn Ha

Ting ( ) in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Philosophy in Statistics. We recommend that it be accepted.

Prof. W. Y. Poon
Supervisor

Prof. S. H. Cheung
Supervisor

Prof. T. S. Lau

Prof. K. H. Wu

Prof. W. S. Chan
External Examiner

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 DECLARATION

No portion of the work referred to in this thesis has been submitted in support

of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or

other institution of learning.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. Poon Wai

Yin and Prof. Cheung Siu Hung for their encouragement and guidance during the

course of this research. In addition, I would like to thank the entire staff of the

Department of Statistics for their kind assistance.

Tarn Ha Ting

Department of Statistics

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

June, 2004.

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 ABSTRACT

The evolution of learning theories has brought about dramatic changes in the

practical process of teaching and learning. Traditional behaviorists focus on direct

instruction containing a high volume of imitation and repetition. Teachers deeply

influenced by this concept have their students passively absorb facts, words and

formulas. Meanwhile, the proponents of constructivism generally share quite a

different angle of view that emphasizes the active role of the learners who are much

more dynamically involved to reach certain goals during the learning process. In this

thesis, a review of the constructivist paradigm is given. Then the application of the

constructivist approach to statistics learning is explored. In addition, an activity-based

workshop is conducted to study the benefits of the adoption of the constructivist

approach to statistics learning.

KEY WORDS: Examination-oriented, Behavioral approach, Constructivist approach,

Statistics learning

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 本文摘要

近年來學習理論的改革爲實際的課堂教學帶來了重大的改變°傳統的行爲

主義者在教學上多注重模仿行爲和重覆練習，而教師亦因此深受這套教學原則

所影響’使學生們只可被動地接收一些凌碎的事實、文字和公式°另一方面’

支持建構主義的學者則普遍地從另一角度去闡釋何謂學習，他們主要強調學習

者的角色是主動地參與整個學習過程從而達致某一學習目標°在這篇論文中’

我們首先會陳述建構主義的基本理念和教學原則，接著把這套理論應用到統計

學教學之上°與此同時，我們亦本著建構主義的教學理論’進行了一次以活動

爲主的教學工作坊’藉此來探討其應用在統計教學上的好處°

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 CONTENTS
Page

Declaration 2

Acknowledgement ^

Abstract 4

本文摘要 5

Chapter 1 Introduction 8
§1.1 The role of examination in the Hong Kong education system
§ 1.2 Examination-oriented approach and teaching
§ 1.3 Examination-oriented approach and learning
§ 1.4 Cross-cultural comparisons
§ 1.5 Evolution and impact of learning theories
§ 1.6 The layout of this thesis

Chapter 2 Behavioral and cognitive approaches to learning 15

§2.1 Introduction
§2.2 Behavioral approach
§2.3 Ivan. Pavlov: Classical conditioning
§2.4 B. F. Skinner: Operant conditioning
§2.5 Components of behavioral learning
2.5.1 The role of consequences
2.5.2 Schedule of reinforcements
2.5.3 Shaping
2.5.4 Stimulus control
§2.6 The impact of behavioral approach to teaching and learning
§2.7 Evaluation of behavior approach
§2.8 Rise of cognitive psychology

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Chapter 3 Constructivism 35
§3.1 Nature of knowledge
§3.2 The acquisition of knowledge
§3.3 Constructivist view of learning
§3.4 Piaget and constructivism
§3.5 The impact of constructivism on teaching and learning
§3.6 Evaluation of constructivism

Chapter 4 Constructivist approach to statistics learning 62

§4.1 Constructivist approach to science learning
4.1.1 Physics instruction
4.1.2 Mathematics instruction
§4.2 Constructivism and ill-structured discipline
4.2.1 Nature of ill-structured domain: Conceptual complexity and
across-case irregularity
4.2.2 Statistics as an ill-structured discipline
4.2.3 Example: Statistics in sociology, 1950 - 2000
4.2.4 Constructivism based teaching strategies in ill-structured
domain
§4.3 Development of on-line teaching
4.3.1 Multiple representation of information
4.3.2 Interactive between users and the information

Chapter 5 Case study 83

§5.1 Description of workshop
§5.2 Features of workshop
§5.3 Evaluation

Chapter 6 Conclusions 91

Bibliography 93

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 The role of examination in the Hong Kong education system

The aim of effective education is to equip students with knowledge, thinking,

understanding and skills, which enable them to participate as active, responsible

citizens in the society and responsible members of their communities, and to develop

effective interpersonal skills (Cheung, 1999). However, the review of the Hong Kong

educational system disclosed the fact that it has placed too much emphasis on

academic performance and examination-oriented approaches of the learning subjects.

The Hong Kong education system is well-known for being highly selective, and

much of the selection is conducted within an examination system that employs a

series of formal, external and norm-referenced assessments based on a uniform

curriculum for all (Pong & Chow，2002). Moreover, Morris (1995) also states that:

The main purpose of assessment in Hong Kong has been to grade pupils and select

them for further education and employment (Morris, 1995: 44-45; Sengupta & Falvey，

1998). Actually, Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (HKCEE) in

Secondary 5 and Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination (HKALE) in Secondary 7

are critically important to students, because examination results determine the chance

of the student to advance to tertiary education (Biggs, 1993; Cheng, 1997) and

consequently affect their future careers (Hong Kong Curriculum Development

Committee, 1983; Cheng, 1997). Besides, the academic performance of primary

students always served as a basis for banding in the Secondary School Places

Allocation exercise (Biggs, 1993).

With the examination-oriented approach, examination is the most crucial element

determining the future of a student. As a consequence, examination plays an

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important role in school culture, teaching strategies, learning styles and school

curriculum at all levels (Clarke, 1996; Harris, 2001).

1.2 Examination-oriented approach and teaching

In teaching, it is not surprising to see what goes on in the classroom is largely

dictated by what happens in the public examination halls (Fullilove, 1992; Cheng,

1997). The purpose of teaching is to provide skills to achieve satisfactory examination

scores without much consideration of the capability of students to face practical

problems in life. Traditionally, a typical local classroom represents an area with

adoption of a weak form of communicative approach, in which a Presentation-

Practice-Production approach is used predominantly and learning tasks

characteristically occur in the production stage of this sequence (Carless, 1999).

During a lesson, students familiarize with the subject content by repetitive drills.

Often, teachers choose to disseminate plenty of tests that are relevant to the lesson in

order to provide more opportunities for practice. In 1998, a local survey (Hong Kong

Federation of Youth Groups, 1998) pointed out that on average, secondary school

students have three tests per week. Nevertheless, most teachers and parents believe

that homework plays an important part in helping "to grind the iron bar into a needle"

(Pong & Chow，2002).

1.3 Examination-oriented approach and learning

On the other hand, the views of learning of the Hong Kong students remain static

(Pong & Chow，2002) and knowledge is only obtained through transmission rather

than construction. It is a common phenomenon that students sit quietly in the

classroom and accept passively everything from the teachers without critically

thinking and comprehending. They seldom ask questions and affective individual

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 needs are therefore overlooked (Ho, 2002). In school, teachers devote very little effort

to group discussion in their teaching lessons. As the syllabus imposes guidelines on

the time allocation and teaching activities corresponding to different subjects each

term, teachers cannot afford the time for student exploration during the lessons (Ho,

2002). This would further fade the motivation of students to explore knowledge by

themselves.

The examination-driven nature in our education system not only impacts on

teaching style but also impairs student's motivation to leam. Since students are driven

by an extrinsic motive, to succeed in public examination. They see the task as a

demand to be met. In practice, the existing examination system tends to assess

students' ability to memorize information. So in order to get high marks during

examinations, students simply try to memorize everything that they leam, and then

reproduce them in the examinations. They do not find the teaching materials that are

not relevant to examination interesting. For example, students occasionally request

their teacher not to teach certain topics or materials which are not part of the

[examination] syllabus (Choi, 1999，P.412; Pong & Chow，2002). Therefore, what

they have leamt becomes short-life due to the rote-leaming approach which prevents

understanding and creativity thinking. A local survey (Hong Kong Federation of

Youth Groups, 1997) conducted on secondary school students' views on examinations

showed that Hong Kong students were examination smart. For instance, to prepare for

examinations, 42% of the students said they formed study groups for the examination

with classmates, 35% said they revised past examination papers, 16% tried to guess

examination questions, and about 10% admitted that they had tried to cheat in

examinations. Furthermore, many students (40%) reported that they studied for more

than 6 hours per day during examination periods.

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1.4 Cross-cultural comparisons

Meanwhile, research in England indicates that teaching to meet achievement

targets has negatively affected student's enjoyment of learning (Clarke, 1996;

Ruddock and Harris, 1993; Harris, 2001). If students find the teaching materials non-

sense and boring during lessons, their interest in attending lessons and learning will

drop. Without initiative, how can learners study well? As a result, students in Hong

Kong generally possess knowledge and skills that are best suited to passing formal

examinations, while they lack qualities and dispositions as well as related skills and

understanding which will help them cope with the complicated society (Cheung,

1999).

In a wider perspective, examination-oriented approach in a selection education

system not only affects teaching and learning in the classroom but it may affect our

society as well. As we know that, the labor markets among countries or cities are very

competitive. In order to cope with various structural changes, Singapore, Taiwan and

Shanghai Governments continuously undergo their reformation of curriculum (現代

教 育 通 訊 2001 年 3 月號第 57 期’ P.33-35)，so as to maintain their competitive

ability and foster their citizens to meet the demands of innovative, technologically

driven economy. For instance, in 1996, the Shanghai Municipal Education

Commission started promoting small-class teaching at primary level. By 2002, three

hundred out of all eight hundred publicly-funded primary schools had already

implemented small-class teaching ( 香 港 敎 育 學 院 校 刊 2003 年 第 一 期 No.l，p.2-9).

Every year, the Hong Kong Government spends more than 50 billion dollars on

education (http://www.emb.gov.hk/emb/chi/archive/stat/geninfo5.html). However,

many employers are still quite disappointed with their employees who apparently

come from good academic backgrounds (Zemsky, 1994; Cheung, 1999). Employers

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frequently complain that local students possess poor problem-solving skills with

limited initiative. Nowadays, the culture in our workplace is very different from that

of past. Research done in the West has shown that employers are looking for the

following types of employable skills — creative thinking and problem solving,

interpersonal skills, organizational effectiveness and leadership, good attitude,

responsible and co-operative attitude (Lankard, 1987; Gainer, 1988; South Carolina

Council, 1990). Findings in local researches are also similar (Renwick, 1992; Cheung

and Lewis, 1998; Cheung, 1999).

1.5 Evolution and impact of learning theories

Traditionally, the prevailing teaching method found in Hong Kong classroom is

similar to Presentation-Practice-Production instruction that adopted some of the

fundamental ideas of the behavioral learning approach that catered for examination-

oriented education system. This teacher-oriented approach places too much emphasis

on a high volume of imitation of the teacher, and plenty of technical practice.

Behaviorism dominated the educational thinking in the late 1800s and early 1900s

(Robert E. Slavin, 2003). By the time Ivan Pavlov and his colleagues started to do

experiment with animals, they studied learning by concentrating on overt behaviors

that could be observed and measured (Thomas L. Good and Jere Brophy, 1995).

According to their findings, the best way to learn was through repetitive practice of

skills. For many years, teachers have been strongly influenced by this principle.

However, contemporary Behaviorists view behaviors as determined by events

external to the learner - by stimuli that elicit or cue responses and by reinforcement

that maintains these stimulus-response relationships (Thomas L. Good and Jere

Brophy, 1995). They focus on the ways in which pleasurable or unpleasant

consequences of behavior change individuals' behavior over time and ways in which

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individuals model their behavior on that of others (Robert E. Slavin, 2003).

Consequently, the implications of learning and teaching concentrate on modeling,

repetition, and reinforcement (for instance, rewarding strategies).

In recent decades, the evolution of learning theories has brought about dramatic

changes in the practical process of teaching and learning. Rather than teacher-

oriented approach, the proponents of constructivism generally share quite a different

angle of view that emphasizes the active role of the learners who are much more

dynamically involved to reach certain goals during the learning process. Knowledge

can be acquired actively by discovery and collaborative learning. The major concept

of constructivism is that in the process of making sense of information, active learners

build internal connections among the ideas and facts they are learning, and also build

external connections between the new information and what they already know (Gary

D. Borich, Martin L. Tombari, 1997).

Actually, there is some signs of a change of climate in local education system

(Sengiipta & Falvey, 1998). Hong Kong Government has gradually realized the

problems in the education system. The introduction of the target-oriented curriculum

(TOC) signals an attempt to improve the learning quality in Hong Kong schools based

on the constructivism view of learning (Careless, 1999). It has been gradually

implemented in primary level since 1995. By 1998 — 99 school year, 88% of all

primary schools implemented TOC (Careless, 1999). Some of the objectives are

(earless, 1998; Clark et al., 1999):

1. shifting away from the traditional teacher role of 'knowledge giver' towards

a role of facilitator of pupil learning.

2. promoting pupils motivation, produce more enjoyment and greater

involvement from pupils.

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 Similarly, it should be noted that time has come for a reflection of the

curriculum at all levels and this thesis will argue for the introduction of

constructivism approach which promotes student motivation, enjoyment and

involvement in classroom, especially in statistical education in Hong Kong.

1.6 The layout of this thesis

Since the evolution of learning theories including Behaviorism and Cognitive

learning theories have a very strong impact on the practice of teaching and learning,

in the remaining of this thesis, we will explore the subject in details. In chapter 2’ we

will first briefly describe the basic ideas of teaching and learning in behavioral

approach. Some simple examples will be adopted to illustrate the impact of the

behavioral approach on traditional instruction. Towards the end of chapter 2，we will

try to evaluate the behavioral approach with reference to contemporary cognitive

approaches. In chapters 3 and 4, a review of the constructivist paradigm is given.

Particularly, applications of the constructivist approach to science and statistical

learning will be explored. Finally, the findings of an activity-based workshop was

provided to evaluate the benefits of the adoption of the constructivist approach to

statistics learning.

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CHAPTER 2: BEHAVIORAL AND COGNITIVE APPROACHES TO
LEARNING

2.1 Introduction

Learning is usually defined as a change in an individual caused by experience

(see Mazur, 1990; Rocklin, 1987)，however, changes account for development (e.g.

growing) cannot say to be learning. Learning occurs in different ways. When the

students attend lessons and acquire knowledge presented in the classroom or they

perform individual researches in the library or through internet, there are instances of

intentional learning. Intentional learning is consciously goal directed — person intends

to leam certain things and sets out to do so (Good & Brophy，1995, 126). In other

words, a person actively seeks to leam for specific goals. Sometimes, learning is

incidental such as the reflective reaction, which occurs unintentionally. The learner

passively or naturally gives the response to the external stimulus but not satisfies his

or her goals.

Since learning strategies are informed by specific epistemological assumptions

(Ring & McMahon, 1997)，the provision of learning and teaching discussed in the

following will be grounded in theories including behavioral approach and cognitive

approach.

2.2 Behavioral approach

Pavlov's experiment of classical conditioning concluded that human beings

acquired knowledge through the practice of skills repeatly and this principle has

strongly influenced educational practice for many years. The operant conditioning of

Skinner (1974) focuses on unpleasant and pleasant consequences (reinforcement) as a

means of shaping behavior and has led to the development of tangible guidelines for

learning strategies such as programmed instruction and computer-based instruction

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 and the need for consequences to be intermittent and timely (McMahon, 1997). In this

section, a brief account will be provided to describe the other contributions of the

behavioral learning theory in educational psychology.

In early twentieth century, there were some researchers who were interested in

explaining how an individual learnt by investigating the overt behaviors that can be

observed and measured. This direction, deviated from earlier mentalistic models of

the learning process and concurrent cognitive models of learning presented by Piaget

and Vygotsky (Mclnemey & Mclnemey，2002, 126) was known as behaviorism.

Behaviorism is a paradigm of learning theories that focuses on observable forms of

behavior which included not only bodily movement as seen by an observer watching a

subject but also the internal physical processes related to overt bodily movement, and

how these could be modified (Mclnemey & Mclnemey, 2002, 126).

Behavioral scientists view behaviors as determined by events external to the

learner - by stimulus that elicit or cue responses and by reinforcement that maintains

these stimulus-response relationships (Good & Brophy, 1995, 148). Also the

pleasurable or unpleasant consequences of behavior change and model individuals'

behavior over time (Slavin, 2003, P. 138).

Some radical behaviorists believe that behavior is the subject matter of

psychology and that all psychological explanations should be made at the level of

behavior without reference to hypothetical mediators within the organism (Good &

Brophy, 1995, 148). This creates a huge difference between the behavioral learning

approach and other learning approaches that emphasize human's cognitive structure

and unobservable mental processes.

Ivan Pavlov, and B. F. Skinner were the most renowned figures of behavioral

science approach to learning.

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 2.3 Ivan Pavlov: Classical conditioning

Nearly a century ago, Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov explained how human

beings leamt by the means of classical conditioning. Classical conditioning is the

transformation of a neutral stimulus into a conditioned stimulus, and an unconditioned

response into a conditioned response (Borich & Tombari, 1997，131). In other words,

classical conditioning refers only to situations in which reflex actions become

responsive to conditioned stimuli in addition to the unconditioned stimuli that

normally elicit them (Good & Borphy, 1995, 149). He and his colleagues conducted

experiments with dogs to study the phenomenon of its salivation response. The aim of

this experiment was to demonstrate the simple relationship between stimulus and

response in conditioning an organism to modify its behavior (Mclnemey &

Mclnemey, 2002，126). He achieved this by demonstrating that dogs could leam to

salivate at the sound of a bell that was rung before they were fed, even before they

could see or smell the food (Borich & Tombari, 1997, 104)

Before conducting the experiment, Pavlov observed that when the meat

powder was placed near the mouth of a hungry dog, the dog would naturally produce

saliva. He also noticed that his dogs sometimes even salivated by the time the

laboratory assistant who fed the dogs arrived. That is the arrival of laboratory assistant

could elicit the dogs to salivate before any food was presented. Those behaviors

observed from the dogs induced the experiment regarding classical conditioning.

Pavlov's experiment with dogs was divided into three phases, namely the pre-

conditioning phase, conditioning phase and the post-conditioning phase. During the

research in the first phase, the bell is a neutral stimulus (NS). In other words, the bell

has no effect on response. It cannot elicit a salivation process from the dog. On the

other hand, the meat powder is the unconditioned stimulus (US), meaning that it can

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provoke the salivation process naturally with no prior training or conditioning. In

addition, before undergoing conditioning, salivation is an unconditioned response

(UCR), a reaction that automatically follows an unconditioned stimulus (Borich &

Tombari, 1997, 104).

In the conditioning phase, the dogs was routinely presenting to the meat

powder (US) in the addition of sounding the bell together (NS). The observation is

that the meat powder causes the dogs to salivate again.

After repeated occasions of pairing the neutral stimulus with unconditioned

stimulus, the dog will eventually produce saliva in the presence of bell sound alone,

without tasting, seeing or smelling the meat powder. At the time of the post-

conditioning phase, the bell sound becomes the conditioning stimulus corresponding

to the response of salivation rather than the neutral stimulus. This conditioned

stimulus is a stimulus that does not initially elicit a response but through its pairing

with an unconditioned stimulus acquires the capability of eliciting a conditioned

response (Good & Brophy，1997 149). Furthermore, salivation occurs following the

bell sound, is called conditioned response. A conditioned response originates as an

unconditioned response to an unconditioned stimulus but is the organism treats a

similar response elicit by a conditioned stimulus through learning (Good & Brophy,

1997 149). Pavlov's classical conditioning experiment is summarized in Table 2.1

Table 2.1: Classical conditioning

Stimulus Response
Before c o n d i t i o n i n g 1 . Unconditioned {meat) 1. Unconditioned {salivation)
2. Neutral {belt) 2. No response
During conditioning Conditioned {bell) + unconditioned Unconditioned
^ t e r conditioning Conditioned Conditioned {salivation)

This breakthrough research demonstrated that any stimulus, which readily leads

to a response can be paired with a neutral stimulus (one that does not lead to a

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 response) in order to bring about the type of learning described. (Mclnemey &

Mclnemey, 2002, 126). In Pavlov's experiment, the dogs were conditioned to the

connection between salivation (CR) and the sound of a bell (CS). In the classroom

context, this research showed us how learning could affect what were once thought to

be involuntary, reflexive behaviors (Borich & Tombari, 1997，107). For example, the

teacher can direct his or her students towards a positive attitude with the learning

subject. Teachers' role is to be aware of the classical conditioning paradigm and use it

to build positive associations between teaching activities and learning (Borich &

Tombari, 1997，107).

2.4 B. F. Skinner: Operant conditioning

Besides Pavlov, B. F. Skinner is another influential behaviorist. His concept of

operant conditioning provides a solid foundation for important learning principles in

the twentieth century. Skinner, a Harvard psychologist, was familiar with Pavlov's

learning theory and agreed with the basic principles of classical conditioning.

However, rather than focused on respondent behaviors (involuntary reflex actions)

which account for only a small proportion of all actions, he was interested in studying

another class of behavior called operant behavior. Operant behaviors are voluntary

responses, not elicited automatically by any known stimulus, that are used to operate

on the environment (Good & Brophy, 1997，153). They are operations that the

individual carries out to help him or her to deal with the environment. They are

actions or operations that the person purposely performs on the environment (Borich

& Tombari，1997，107).

During the investigation of animals' behaviors, the Skinner box, an

experimental chamber, was used for operant conditioning. The Skinner box enables

the animal's behavior to be observed and controlled so that particular behaviors are

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 more likely to occur (Mclnemey & Mclnemey 2002，128). The aim of this experiment

was that by the use of pleasant and unpleasant consequences, operant behaviors were

conditioned or shaped in the desired direction. Skinner concerned about the

association between the rate of responses (operant behaviors) and its consequences.

For instance, if an individual's behavior immediately followed by pleasurable

consequences, the individual will engage in that behavior more frequently (Borich &

Tombari, 1997，142). Very successful applications were found when extrapolating

techniques of Skinner to various situations. In general, he believed that these same

techniques should be highly effective when applied to children learning (Mclnemey &

Mclnemey, 2002，128).

The experiment is started by placing a hungry rat in the Skinner box. Inside the

box, there is a lever. When the lever is pressed, a food pellet is released into a tray.

There are also a red light, a green light, and an electric grid on the floor. The rat inside

the box has no idea of what happens outside of the box, so the experimenter would be

able to manipulate all the stimuli. The rat is reinforced immediately at each time when

it successfully performs the operant behavior. This is called continuous reinforcement.

By progressively reinforcing operant behaviors that come closer to the goal behavior

(a process called shaping), the animal is gradually taught to perform more complex

behavior (Mclnemey & Mclnemey 2002, 128).

Suppose that our goal is to teach the rat to press the lever. Therefore, if the rat

happened to press the lever, it would be given a food pellet immediately. After

placing the rat in the box, initially it moves randomly and aimlessly. After a while, the

rat may sometimes accidentally press the lever and a food pellet was released into the

tray. After a few accidental lever-pressing actions, the rat would leam the relation

between lever-pressing and food releasing and start pressing the lever frequently,

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receiving a pellet each time (Borich 8c Tombari，1997 108-109; Slavin, 2003, 142). At

this point, operant conditioning starts to occur. If the rat is removed from the box after

30 minutes of lever-pressing and is placed back in the box the next day, it will press

the lever to get food in a shorter period than it took the first time (Borich & Tombari，

1997，109).

According to the result of this experiment, we can simply conclude that the

food pellet had conditioned the rat's behavior, strengthening the action of lever-

pressing and weakening all other behaviors (such as wandering the box) (Slavin, 2003,

1 4 2 - 143).

2.5 Components of behavioral learning

Before examining the teaching strategies developed from the behavior approach,

let us discuss the main components of behavioral learning based on the operant

conditioning first.

2.5.1 The role of consequences:

Skinner and his colleagues work with animals such as rats and pigeons set up a

series of principles concerning about behavior, learning and teaching. Perhaps the

most important principle is that behavior changes according to its immediate

consequences (Slavin, 2003’ 156). Let us revisit the experiment that the food the rat

obtains reinforces the lever-pressing behavior. Reinforcing the rat with food pellet is

an instance of pleasurable consequences that would strengthen behavior. In the

classroom, if students work hard and receive high marks during examination, they are

to be praised or rewarded with a gift. This pleasurable consequence would increase

the frequency of an individual engaging in a behavior (they would work hard again in

the next examination). In contrast, unpleasant consequences would reduce the

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frequency for them to repeat the same behavior. Usually, reinforcers refer to the

pleasurable consequences (Slavin, 2003, 144)，whereas punishers refer to the

unpleasant consequences (Slavin, 2003, 144)

Very often, reinforcer is defined as any consequence that strengthens (increase

the frequency of) a behavior (Slavin, 2003, 144). In other words, the term reinforcer

refers to the consequence following a behavior that makes it more likely that the

behavior will be repeated (Borich & Tombari, 1997，109). There are two kinds of

reinforcers. One is called positive reinforcers. For example, when students perform

desirable behavior, the behavior is repeated in the expectation of rewarding or

praising (positive reinforcement). In the experiment, the food pellet is a positive

reinforcer with which the behavior becomes more likely to occur again. Positive

reinforcers can intrinsically or extrinsically motivate learners to engaging in a given

activity. For example, children like to do experiments owing to the dream of being a

scientist. Also some people have a hobby that they are willing to help the other

without rewarding. This type of reinforcer causes intrinsically motivation of the

learners is called intrinsic reinforcer. On the other hands, extrinsic reinforcer is

contrast with intrinsic reinforcer, praise or reward (such as toys or food) are given to

motivate people to engage in a behavior that they might not engage in without it

(Slavin, 2003，158).

Meanwhile, another way to strengthen a behavior by removing an unpleasant

stimulus (escaping from an unpleasant situation or a way of preventing something

unpleasant from occurring) is called negative reinforcer. One of the experiments

using the Skinner box illustrated the meaning of negative reinforcer. Suppose that the

rat is taught to jump over the fence that divided the box in half. This can be done by

sending an electric current to the side of the floor that the rat was standing. The rat

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would be astounded and begin jumping up, howling and hitting against the wall.

Eventually it discovered that jumping over the barrier could avoid the electric shock

and the other side of the box is a safe place to stay. The next time when the rat is

placed back to the side of the box with electric current on the floor, it would jump

over the fence much sooner than the first time. After several trials, the rat would jump

the barrier even before the shock was administered. The electric shock is the negative

reinforcers such that the rat learned to jump over the barrier in order to escape from a

shock. In general, we tend to repeat behaviors that help us avoid, postpone, delay, or

alter situations we find aversive or unpleasant (Borich & Tombari，1997, 110).

Punisher is distinguished from negative reinforcer that we described above.

Skinner defined punishment as any action, following a response that makes that

response less likely to occur again (Borich & Tombari，1997, 110). That means

punisher can be used to weaken behavior. Punishers are often presented by unpleasant

consequences such as scolding or corporal punishment and removal of pleasant

consequences. However, if an unpleasant consequence does not reduce the frequency

of the behavior it follows, it is not classified as a punisher (Slavin, 2003, 148). The

concept of punisher can be illustrated as follows: Skinner found that the rat would

quickly stop pressing the lever, if a mild electric shock was delivered by means of the

electric grid at the bottom of the box after the rat pressed the lever. (Borich &

Tombari, 1997，109)

2.5.2 Schedule of reinforcements

Schedules of reinforcement is the specifications concerning relationships between

performances of the target behavior and deliveries of reinforcement, phrased in terms

of the intervals of time that must elapse or the repetitions of the target behavior that

must occur before the next delivery of reinforcement (Good & Brophy，1995, 155).

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By controlling the schedules of reinforcement, Skinner studied the techniques to

strengthen and maintain the target behaviors.

During the experiment, Skinner noticed that if the rat was reinforced after each

time it pressed the lever, the rat became more likely to repeat the pressing action over

and over again. The rat is said to be reinforced in a continuous reinforcement

schedule. That means reinforcing the target response every time after it occurs. This

would maximize the rate and persistence of the response (Good & Brophy, 1995, 155).

However, Skinner also discovered that in case the reinforcement was removed, the rat

would stop pressing the lever very soon. This process is called extinction. Extinction

is the gradual disappearance of a previously learned behavior when it is no longer

being reinforced (Borich & Tombari, 1997, 109). The withdrawal of reinforcers often

increase individual's rate of behavior for a while, this phenomenon is known as

extinction burst. The behavior then rapidly weakens and finally disappears. In

practice, extinction can be hastened when some stimulus or cue informs the individual

that behaviors that were once reinforced will no longer be reinforced. (Slavin, 2003,

153)

In order to prevent from the extinction of response, partial reinforcement

schedules are introduced. Partial reinforcement schedules refer to intermittent

reinforcement that include interval and ratio schedule, each of these can be either

fixed or variable. For example, intermittent reinforce may be presented in a fixed ratio

(FR)，that is, reinforcer is given after a fixed number of behaviors, regardless of the

time taken. You can accomplish this by reinforcing the rat pressing the lever for every

five times. Or you may decide to reinforce at a variable interval (VI), that is, at any

time subsequent to a correct response (Mclnemey & Mclnemey 2002, 128). Table 2.2

summarizes various reinforcement schedules.

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 Table 2.2: Comparison of different types of reinforcement schedules (Slavin, 2003)
Schedule Meaning — Example
Continuous Reinforcement of every occurrence Reinforce the rat every time it
of a behavior press the lever
Fixed interval Reinforcement is available only at Reinforce the rat every 10
certain periodic times minutes for pressing the lever
Variable interval Reinforcement is available at some Reinforce the rat after various
times and we have no idea when a lengths of time for pressing
behavior will be reinforced the lever
Fixed ratio Reinforcer is given after a fixed Reinforce the rat for every
number of behaviors five times it press the lever
Variable ratio The number of behaviors required Reinforce the rat after a
for reinforcement is unpredictable varying times of pressing the
lever

2.5.3 Shaping

The term shaping refers to the use of reinforcement principles to shape

successively more refined versions of a behavior, continuing until the target criterion

was met (Good & Brophy, 1995, 153-154). That is using small steps combined with

appropriate reinforcement to help learners achieve specific goals. In application,

teaching animals to do things that would never leam through natural experience can

be accomplished by applying the process of behavior shaping. For classroom

instruction, shaping is also a very useful tool. Many students are only willing to work

alongside with reinforcement. Teachers can guide students toward goals by

reinforcing the many steps that lead to shape the children's behavior.

2.5.4 Stimulus control

The experiment of Skinner box will be used to demonstrate the meaning of

stimulus control. For instance, the rat is taught to press the lever for food only when a

green light is turn on. Therefore, the green light elicits or controls the lever-pressing

behavior. This could be done by reinforcing the rat with food pellets at the same time

the green light was on after the action of lever-pressing. Eventually, the rat would

leam to press the lever for a reward (food pellet) only in the presence of a green light

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(Borich & Tombari, 1997，111). In this experiment, the green light is the conditioned

stimulus which control the lever-pressing response of the rat.

This type of training is also called discrimination training. It is because by

reinforcing the rat only in the presence of a particular stimulus, the rat leams to

discriminate the occasions when it will be rewarded from those when it will not

(Borich & Tombari, 1997, 111 - 112).

2.6 The impact of behavioral approach to teaching and learning

Many instructional principles and applications designed to induce learning have

been developed according to behavioral approach. The essential elements of

behavioral approach required for learning are:

1. A focus on observable behavior or performance.

2. Development of positive attitude towards learning.

3. Prerequisite skills required for new learning.

4. Elicitation of correct and rapid performance.

5. Opportunities for immediate feedback and appropriate reinforcement

following performance.

6. Persistent in efforts to leam.

2.6.1 Focus on learner performance

From the point of view of behavioral approach, behavioral scientists traditionally

defined learning as a stable change in behavior brought about by the environment

(Borich & Tombari，1997, 112). They denied the cognitive activity that cannot be

observed and measured directly. They also believed that observable behavior provides

a foundation for learning (Borich & Tombari, 1997, 113).

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 Since behavioral scientists advocated that instruction should focus on learner

performance rather than mentalistic and cognitive process, teachers should plan

lessons to elicit the target behavior that one can easily and clearly evaluate. However，

the behavior approach of instruction has been strongly criticized since it encourages

teachers to follow only those objectives with measurable outcomes and thus ignoring

educational outcomes involving complex intellectual skills (Pasch, Sparks-Langer,

Gardner, Starks, & Moody, 1991; Borich & Tombari, 1997, 114).

2.6.2 Ensure the learning of prerequisite skills

Pre-requisite skills refer to those existing knowledge possessed by us through

learning or some real-life experience that help us to understand and comprehend the

new coming and unknown information. For instance, suppose you intent to teach your

students the classification rules of the animal kingdom. Students must have some idea

about the properties of animals' appearance, and then it will be easier for them to

grasp the general techniques of classification.

From the about example, we understand the importance of ensuring the mastery

of prerequisite skills. Not only it is crucial for the effective transfer of new

information, but also it is essential for the motivation of learning, since non-sense

information would lead to frustration and boredom of learners. In addition, some

behavioral scientists believe that the source of almost all learning failures can be

identified when teachers analyze both the internal conditions (prerequisite skills) and

the external conditions (instructional events) of learning (Borich & Tombari，1997,

115).

As a consequence, behavioral approach suggested the following teaching

strategies including task analysis and sequencing. Firstly, task analysis is the process

of analyzing the internal conditions necessary for learning (Borich & Tombari, 1997，

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 115). The outcome of a task analysis is an arrangement of prerequisite skills into a

learning hierarchy (Borich & Tombari, 1997, 115). The idea of task analysis is similar

to that of shaping, which suggests breaking complex task into smaller components.

You may start by analyzing and probing deeply "what are the goals of the lesson".

Then ask yourself "what are the prerequisite skills that should have already been

mastered?" and try to imagine the difficulty the learners would encounter during the

learning process. After the task analysis, construct a learning hierarchy, which is

based on the prerequisite skills in the correct order (Borich & Tombari, 1997，115). It

is because correctly sequenced instruction results in correct responses, rapid

responding and efficiency while incorrect sequence results in errors, frustration and

inefficiency (Borich & Tombari，1997, 115). Hence, it is beneficial for teachers to

revise previous learned materials at the beginning of each class so as to make sure the

students have a solid understanding before teaching new materials in class.

For instance, suppose you want to solve a problem about conditional probability

for example, "evaluate the conditional probability of getting four aces given that one

of the aces has already been drawn". A brief review about "intersection" in set theory,

simple probability with one variable and joint probability with two variables will be

helpful. Next, define and explain the term conditional probability, that is,

P(AnB)
P{B)

Then introduce the problem,

P({A aces in 4 cards} n {1 ace in 1 card})

P(A aces in 4 cards 1 ace in 1 card) = — r—； —
P(1 ace in 1 card)

which involves the knowledge of "intersection" and simple probability. Finally, the

repaired probability can be derived by calculating the joint probability in the

numerator and the marginal probability in the denominator.

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2.6.3 Elicit rapidly paced, correct performance

According to the behavioral approach, rapid pace and correct performance are

also very important components in learning. Since mistakes slow down the learning

process, as a result this often leads to frustration, loss of interest and reduction of

motivation to leam new information. In order to elicit rapidly paced and correct

performance of student, Skinner use the principles of reinforcement and stimulus

control. The basic ideas are:

1. Identify a target response or behavior.

2. Carefully design the instruction that guides the learners towards the correct

response through a stimulus.

3. Delivery of an effective reinforcer immediately after performance of the

desired response in order to maintain it.

After the teacher constructs an environment where students experience

appropriate behavior or desirable response, students ought to be prasised or rewarded

such that their acquired learning skills can be transferred to permanent learning

(Mclnemey & Mclnemey, 2002, 136). The consequences following performances will

be discussed next.

2.6.4 Use immediate and appropriate consequences following performance

Behavioral approach stresses on consequences that follow behaviors closely in

time rather than delayed consequences. Skinner noticed that after the rat in the

Skinner box pressed the lever, if we delay a few minutes to give it a food pellet, the

time for the rat learning the lever-pressing action would be longer. It is because time

period between the arrival of food and pressing the lever is long enough for the rat to

do something other than pressing the lever. This result shown that immediate

feedback serves at least two purposes: (Slavin, 2003，151)

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 1. It makes clear the connection between behavior and consequences.

2. It increases the informational value of the feedback.

In teaching a subject, teacher should give the feedback to the students or

reinforce correct responses immediately after they complete their work. On the other

hand, in dealing with misbehavior, teacher respond immediately and positively when

students are not misbehaving (Slavin, 2003, 151)

Nevertheless, only immediate consequences are not enough. Appropriate

consequences following performance are also necessary. But how can we define an

appropriate consequence? It should depend on the correctness of the responses and the

amount of errors taken by the learners.

Behavioral scientists remind us that better learning results when you tell learners

not only what they got right, but also why they got it right (Cooper et al. 1987)

(Borich & Tombari, 1997，121 - 122). This type of informational feedback is given to

those learners performed correct responses such that their performances were

reinforced by teacher's praising or by their own satisfaction.

Another type of informational feedback is used for incorrect responses. If the

problem involves only knowledge of factual information, simply give the correct

response (Borich & Tombari, 1997, 122). However, if the problem involves more

complex intellectual skills, point out the rules, procedures, or steps to follow (Borich

& Tombari，1997，122). Then ask the learner to correct the answer and to practice

some extra problems (Borich & Tombari, 1997, 122). Actually, scolding and focusing

on the error would only remove the interest of students on learning and also

discourage them from learning activities. Instead, learning will occur more quickly if

you simply tell your students what to do, have them try again, and provide practice

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with additional problems when an incorrect response is given (Rodgers & Iwata,

1991) (Borich & Tombari, 1997，122).

For those who make a lot of mistakes, the above mentioned informational

feedback may not be suitable for handling the case. Some researches have found that

for those learners with high error rates, little is learned from informational feedback

(Kulik & Kulik, 1988; McKeachie, 1990; Borich & Tombari，1997, 122). The better

way is to plan the instruction carefully to elicit as many correct responses as possible

and produce as few errors as possible. Research done by Hasazi and Hasazi (1972)

and Stromer (1975) pointed out that only focusing on the mistakes instead of the

correct answers may reinforce the incorrect responses. In contrast, if teachers circled

only correct responses and ignore those incorrect answers, they found dramatic

improvements of the students.

Reinforcing with extrinsic reinforcers following desirable behavior is useful

particularly at the beginning of learning, by the time we want to shape their behaviors.

But it is not always true. Some learners stop studying when reinforcers are removed

(Emmer, Evertson, Clements, & Worsham, 1994). Extrinsic reinforcers may not be

effective when they are not consistently delivered by another person (Borich &

Tombari, 1997，126). Therefore, it is better to use the intrinsic reinforcer that is the

least elaborate or tangible. For example, you can strengthen the behavior by inducing

learners' interest or their curiosity.

Punishment is frequently criticized because it makes children hate school or

teachers, creates emotional problems, only temporarily suppresses behavior, or deals

only with the symptom of the problem and not the cause (Borich & Tombari, 1997,

129). Behavioral scientists do not advocate the use of punishment because the

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 ineffective use of punishment raises serious ethical and legal issues (Borich &

Tombari, 1997, 131).

2.6.5 Maintenance

After shaping the desirable behaviors through the skills of stimulus control and

reinforcement principles, maintenance of those behaviors are necessary, otherwise

they will gradually extinct when the reinforcement is stopped. As mentioned above

that extrinsic reinforcers are not always suitable. Intrinsic reinforcement is the better

way to maintain correct responses. Intrinsically reinforcing behaviors means engaging

in these behaviors is pleasurable in itself, especially when the completion of the task

is not reinforced or rewarded (Slavin, 2003, 155). There are a lot of intrinsic

reinforcers inside the complex world. For example, the interesting content of a book

may reinforce you to read it until finished.

When new behaviors are being introduced, reinforcement for correct responses

should be frequent and predictable (Slavin, 2003). Once the behavior are established,

reinforcement should become less frequent and less predictable, because variable ratio

or variable interval schedules of reinforcement tend to produce higher rate of

behaviors and more highly resistant to extinction than are fixed schedules or easy

ones (Slavin, 2003, 156). If the students' assignment is randomly checked by teacher,

this can keep the students to work hard and carefully. There is an interesting

phenomenon shown by the research that people may keep working for a long time

even without reinforcement. Because they have learned that it may take a lot of work

to be rewarded, they keep on working in the mistaken belief that the next effort might

just pay off (Slavin, 2003’ 154).

In summary, the behavioral approach to instruction involves building stimulus-

response associations by cuing learners as to the nature of the response desired and

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then providing immediate feedback about the correctness of the response elicited, so

that correct responses are reinforced and incorrect responses are extinguished. (Good

& Brophy，1995, 158)

2.7 Evaluation of behavioral approach

The purpose of behavioral approach emphasizes that changes in observable

behavior should be the focus of instruction and the criteria by which you judge its

success (Borich & Tombari, 1997，130). Behavioral scientists argue that the most

direct path to learning requires that your students have the prerequisite skills to

achieve objectives; that you design instruction to bring rapid, correct responses under

stimulus control; and that you accelerate learning through the skilled use of positive

reinforcement (Borich & Tombari, 1997，130).

In practice, behaviorism is very useful for the explanation and modification of

human behaviors. For example, classical conditioning helps to explain why children

behave naughtily in the classroom context whereas the operant conditioning suggests

how to improve their behaviors properly through stimulus control and reinforcement

principles. Besides, the application of classical conditioning can also be effectively

used to direct learning attitudes of children toward a more positive direction. For

instance, the refusal of doing mathematics will be less likely if students are learning

mathematics under a pleasurable environment. Furthermore, classical conditioning

can similarly be used to counter-condition anxieties, fear responses and phobias

(Mclnemey & Mclnemey, 2002，128). The repeated association of non-threatening or

pleasant experiences with the fearful object or experience serves to reduce the anxiety

over time (Mclnemey & Mclnemey, 2002，128).

Nevertheless, the behavior approach appears to have a limitation. Learning does

not simply transfer the knowledge from teacher to students. It is not only a process of

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knowledge transmission, but it is adversely a process of knowledge construction in

which mentalistic processes such as internal conceptual change within the learner and

the information processing are involved.

Obviously, only exclusively focus on behaviors that can be easily observed and

measured is not enough to account for the complicated learning process. Some less

visible learning processes, such as concept formation, learning from text, problem

solving, and thinking, are difficult to observe directly and have therefore been studied

less often by behavioral learning theorists (Slavin, 2003, 163 - 164). Therefore, the

origin of the decline in adherence to behaviorism was not that classical conditioning

and operant conditioning but that behaviorists made the mistake of thinking that these

three learning processes could explain all learning (Langford, 1989; McMahon,

1997).

2.8 Rise of the cognitive psychology

The development of cognitive psychology arises from the shortcomings of the

behavioral approach. Cognitive approach has gradually replaced the behavioral

approach in modem learning theories. It is impossible to ignore mental events in the

understanding of human behavior. In contrast to behavioral approach, cognitive

approach of learning theory adopts a very different approach. Cognitivists emphasize

unobservable mental processes that people use to leam and remember new

information or skills (Slavin, 2003，138). In the next section, we will shift from

behavioral approach to the constructivist approach which is a cognitive approach to

see how it works on teaching and learning.

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 CHAPTER 3: CONSTRUCTIVISM

Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky are the most important figures in

constructivism. Their works are heavily drawn on the theories found in

constructivism. Piaget mainly studies on the children's cognitive development and he

emphasized that cognitive change takes place only when previous conceptions go

through a process of disequilibration in light of new information. (Slavin, 2003, 258).

On the other hand, the social nature of learning occupies the central theme of the

study of Vygotsky.

3.1 Nature of knowledge:

According to Steffe and Gale (1995), constructivists generally believe that reality

is made up of the network of things and relationships that we rely on our living, and

on which others rely on, too. Due to the properties of reality, they also believe that

knowledge represents what we can do in our experiential world, the successful ways

of dealing with the objects, and successful ways of thinking with abstract concepts.

(Steffe & Gale, 1995, 7)

Constructivists also contend that we can have no direct knowledge of any

external or objective reality (Davis, Maher & Noddings，1990). Some radical

constructivists state that we have direct access only through our "world of experience".

Therefore, it is impossible to have knowledge which can be separated from our own

existing experience. So that it can never be concluded that our own knowledge is

exactly the same as the knowledge in real world. Likewise, each person's world of

experience is context-dependent (unique to that individual) (Davis, Maher &

Noddings, 1990), since people give meanings to things depend on their existing

knowledge. We can further say that one's own knowledge is never the same as that of

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 others. No individual can directly access knowledge from anyone; we can only

construct personal models of the knowledge and experience of others. The meanings

or interpretations that people give to things depend on their knowledge.

Due to the complexity and the inaccessibility of knowledge in real world,

conceptual knowledge cannot be transmitted exactly from one person to another

person. Similarly in the classroom context, knowledge can never simply be

transferred from teacher to students. Rather, all knowledge is necessary to be

constructed, not merely for surface level, but also for the deeper level constraints and

possibilities (Davis, Maher & Noddings，1990). As a result, constructivists conclude

that all learning involves constructive processes. Piaget (1970), a famous and also

contributive psychologist cited that

“I think that human knowledge is essentially active. To know is to assimilate

reality into systems of transformations. I find myself opposed to the view of

knowledge as a copy, a passive copy, of reality."

Obviously, Piaget prefers the active building of knowledge through understanding and

comprehension rather than the passive absorption of transmitted information. Von

Glasersfeld (1987) further says "perceiving, form a constructivist point of view, is

always an active making rather than a passive receiving...."

The theory of knowledge not only leads to knowledge construction, but also

introduces the concept of "viability" instead of "truth". Constructivists contend

concept, models and theories are "viable" if they prove adequate "in the context" in

which they are created (Steffe & Gale, 1995, 7-8). It implies that there is always

more than one solution for a problem or more than one way for achieving a goal, the

method usually depends on one's own existing experience or knowledge.

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 3.2 The acquisition of knowledge

From the constructivists' point of view, there are, in general, three ways to

acquire knowledge from the real world. The first way for knowledge acquirement is

through one's own sense including feelings and sensations. They are the world of

sensory experience or "sense-data" which can be directly accessible to person (Davis,

Maher & Noddings，1990 33). For example, you can directly leam the feeling of pain

when you stab yourselves with a needle.

Another way is through constructing knowledge based on personal prior

experience, which can be achieved by personal exploration, discovery, research and

reflection on daily life experience. Instead of mere transmission, all knowledge are

necessarily constructed by an individual who requires to connect the variety of

relationships posited between concepts. In addition, constructivism assumes that

human beings know subjects on purpose and also inside their mind. There exist

cognitive structures for organizing knowledge and activating in the processes of

construction (Davis, Maher & Noddings, 1990, 7). Actually, cognitive structures are

the products of continuous construction that is either innate (Chomsky, 1968; 1971) or

developmental construction (Piaget, 1953; 1970). The construction mechanism takes

place in two processes, namely assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation is the

process of understanding a new object or event in terms of existing knowledge, while

accommodation is the process for modifying existing knowledge to fit new situation

(Slavin, 1997, 33).

Finally, constructivists emphasize on social interaction which also being viewed

as a way for knowledge construction. They believe that the process of knowledge

construction is more efficient when individuals engage in continuously sharing the

constructed knowledge with each other. Communication between people in a

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 community mainly functions in two ways. Firstly, construction is encouraged when

the community undergoes negotiation, poses the challenges, and offers the support.

For example, people may expose to new ideas, opinions or contradiction during

discussion, this would lead to the process of assimilation and accommodation to

modify and reorganize the cognitive structures and thus learning occurs. Secondly,

people in community try to assess the strength of the others. As a result, this can

sharpen their own construction and often leads to new connections between

information.

3.3 Constructivist view of learning

Constructivism is based on the premise that human beings construct mental

models of their environment, and new experiences are interpreted and understood in

relation to existing mental models or schemata (Steffe and Gale, 1995).

Constructivists view learning as the result of mental construction. Students learn

by fitting new information together with what they already know. People leam best

when they actively construct their own understanding (Burge, 2000). Although we

believe that constructivism is not a prescriptive theory of instruction, it should be

possible to provide more explicit guidelines on how to design learning environments

that foster constructivist learning (Jonassen, 1991).

Generally, constructivism focuses on the concept of student-oriented learning. In

the classroom, learners are viewed as active participants who construct their own

understandings of the world around them. Besides, constructivism strongly

emphasizes the connectivity between prior knowledge and novel knowledge. When

confront with new situations, we make sense of those situations based on prior

knowledge (including past experience and knowledge) (Brown & Adams, 2001). The

constructivist teaching approach also includes the social component. In constructivist

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 theory, learning is facilitated through social interaction, shared thought, and decision-

making (Brown & Adams, 2001). Furthermore, constructivism argues that learning

should be situated in realistic settings (Merrill, 1991; Smorgansbord, 1997). It is

because the goal of learning is concerning about problem solving skills, that we can

successfully deal with novel problems in new situations.

3.4 Piaget and Constructivism:

Jean Piaget was bom in Switzerland in 1896 (Slavin, 2003). Trained in biology,

he became mainly interested in children's intellectual development, and spent most of

his life (the last 60 years of his life) on conducting researches related to mental

development. Piaget's work was mainly on the elaboration of the theory of

knowledge, of how a child comes to know his or her own world (Gruber & Voneche,

1977). He is the most influential developmental psychologist (Slavin, 2003) because

his work profoundly affected our understandings of child development.

Unlike empiricists arguing that knowledge results from an accumulation of

experience, Piaget claims that knowledge does not and cannot have the purpose of

producing representations of an independent reality, but instead has an adaptive

function (Fosnot, 1996). Therefore, knowledge is actively constructed by the

organism, rather than passively transmitted from the environment.

With biological concepts, Piaget used the term of adaptation referring to a

particular relationship between living organisms or species and their environment. To

say that living organisms are adapted means that their physical characteristics and

their ways of behaving have so far proven viable in their environment (Fosnot, 1996).

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 Later, the concept of adaptation' was extracted in the biological context and Piaget

applied it to his cognitive theory. The following clues disclose Piaget's definitions of

knowledge (Bringuier J.C, 1989):

• Knowledge is an interaction between subject and o b j e c t . . .

• Knowledge . . . is a perpetual construction made by exchanges between . . .

thought and its object. •.

• Knowledge . . . isn't a copy of reality . . . it's a reconstitution of reality by

the concepts of the subject, who, progressively and with all kinds of

experimental probes, approaches the object without ever attaining it in

itself.

In Piaget's view, knowledge is not a copy of reality. He has realized that knowledge

indeed comes from action (Wadsworth, 1996; Slavin, 2003) and the agent's

interaction with them. This implies that the construction of knowledge is a dynamic

process that requires the active involvement of the learner. In order to understand the

learning process provided by Piaget, four basic cognitive concepts schema,

assimilation, accommodation and equilibration are going to be introduced as follows.

3.4.1 Schema

Piaget believed that all children are bom with an innate tendency to interact

with and make sense of their environment (Slavin, 2003). To explain this

phenomenon regarding to organizing and processing information, he referred to the

word "schema". Schemata (the plural of schema) are the cognitive or mental

structures by which individuals intellectually adapt to and organize the environment

(Wadsworth, 1996). In other words, we use schemata to find out about and act in the

‘ T h e human animal call "adapted" if they have a sufficient actions and states to cope with the
difficulties presented by the environment in which they live, also cope with the difficulties that arise
on the conceptual level. (Leslie P. Steffe and Jerry Gale, 1995)

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 world. Each schema deals with all the objects and events substantially in the similar

way. For instance, babies usually explore and leam about their world by performing

banging and biting actions (schemata) on the objects. Both banging and biting actions

for interacting with objects are the schemata.

3.4.2 Assimilation and accommodation

Since schemata are cognitive structures that never stop changing, when the

babies encounter a new object, they will adjust their schemata in response to the

unknown things. The corresponding processes for the change (grow and develop) are

assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation is the cognitive process by which a

person integrates new perceptual, motor, or conceptual matter into existing schemata

or patterns of behavior (Wadsworth, 1996). The process occurs when someone

understands new objects or events in terms of existing schemas. For example, if a

infant is given a small object that he/she has never seen before, he/she will try to use

his/her existing schemata to leam about this unknown thing by grasping, biting and

banging it (Slavin, 2003). Theoretically, assimilation does not result in a change of

schemata but it allows for the growth of schemata and thus it is a part of cognitive

development (Wadsworth, 1996).

Sometimes, the same method is not feasible to deal with the complicated world.

So that we have to modify the existing schemata to account for a new experience.

According to Piaget's theory, the change of schemata is the result of another process

called accommodation. An inadequate attempt to assimilate some new event into

existing schemata or operations may bring to some adjustment of those schemata or

operations (Driscoll, 1994). For example, if you give an egg to a baby who has a

banging schema for small objects, it will immediately perform the banging action and

the egg eventually is broken. Because of the unexpected result of banging the egg, the

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 baby may change the schema as banging some objects hardly and others softly in the

future (Slavin, 2003).

3.4.3 Equalibration

Sometimes dealing with situations that could not be fully handled by existing

schemata, disequilibrium occurs. Disequilibrium is a state of imbalance between what

is understood and what is encountered (Slavin, 2003). For example, a high college

student may have a studying approach of rote-leaming (existing schema). He/she

leams for all the subjects by only memorizing the content of textbook. When he/she

tries to apply this approach to leam some difficult concepts in science or mathematics,

it may not be effective enough and result in the state of disequilibrium. Wadsworth

(1996) states that disequilibrium can also be thought as a state of cognitive conflict

when expectations or predictions are not confirmed by experience. Naturally, people

try to reduce the degree of disequilibrium by further undergoing assimilation and

accommodation until equilibrium is restored. Therefore, equilibrium can be viewed as

a state of cognitive balance when someone reached at the point of assimilation. The

process moving from disequilibrium to equilibrium is called equilibration

(Wadsworth, 1996).

Piaget's theory of development represents constructivism, a view of cognitive

development as a process in which children actively build systems of meaning and

understandings of reality through their experiences and interactions (DeVries, 1997;

Slavin, 2003 p.32). In this view, children actively construct knowledge by continually

assimilating and accommodating new information (Anderson, 1989; Robert E. Slavin,

2003 p.32). Besides, Piaget's theory of cognitive structure also addresses that learners

construct their own knowledge based upon their existing schema, so an individual's

knowledge is built upon one's prior experiences. Driscoll (1994) states that:

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 "Piaget also called his view constructivism, because he firmly believed that

knowledge acquisition is a process of continuous self-construction. That is,

knowledge is not out there, external to the child and waiting to be discovered

Instead, knowledge is invented and reinvented as the child develops and interacts

with the world surrounding her. ... Piaget believed that children actively

approach their environments and acquire knowledge through their actions.

Moreover, such actions are neither random nor aimless."

3.5 The impact of constructivism on teaching and learning:

The implication of Piaget's theory for education focuses on the development of

mathematical and logical concepts. The theory has been applied extensively to

teaching practice and curriculum design in elementary education (e.g., Bybee & Sund,

1982; Wadsworth, 1978). The main characteristic of Piaget's constructivist theory

associated with learning and teaching is: We are all responsible for our own learning;

the teacher is responsible for creating an effective learning environment (Holzer,

1994).

3.5.1 Student-oriented

Constructivists focus on student-oriented learning. Their perspective on student-

oriented instruction is the placement of the student as "the principal arbiter in making

judgements as to what, when, and how learning will occur" (Hannafin, 1992). Hence,

students are not passive recipients of instruction that has been designed for them.

Instead, they are actively involved in determining what they need and how those

needs can be satisfied. As Perkins (1991b, 20) indicates, "students are not likely to

become autonomous thinkers and learners if they lack of an opportunity to manage

their own learning".

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 Wadsworth (1996) argues for allowing more freedom or options to children

requires teachers to give up some of their control of what course of action children

pursue and what they actually do. He also points out that the consequence of

interfering and preventing children from developing cognitive autonomy is the

reduction of their interest in learning the subject and in learning how to leam. This

implies that increasing learners' control can promote learners motivation to leam

(Steinberg, 1989).

There has been a gradual change in the culture of education "from teacher-

centered to learner-centered education" (Wagener, 1991). Teacher in such

environment is seen as a "facilitator" who aids students to navigate lessons. These

might include organizing the relevant activities, providing appropriate guidance,

assistance, advice, hints, or consultation, rather than offering tell-show-do

instructions. Within such learning context, constructivist approach acknowledges the

importance of learner's motivation and active involvement in the learning process.

3.5.2 Motivation

Intuitively, everyone knows that motivation is vital to learning. The components

of the motivation to leam including curiosity, interest, self-efficacy, challenge and

external motivators are described as follows.

Curiosity. It can drive an individual to leam, regardless whether he/she is a child

or an adult. One type of curiosity, perceptual arousal, is initiated by novel, complex,

or incongruous patterns in the environment (Berlyne, 1965; Marcy, 1994). Not only

do learners pay greater attention to these unexpected events, but they are also moved

to try new ways of perceiving what they are looking at (Gagne & Driscoll, 1988). For

example, babies become curious when you give them new objects.

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 Since children are naturally curious, they seek for new experiences, enjoy

learning new things and find satisfaction in solving puzzles, perfecting skills and

developing competence (Frith, 1997). In the classroom, one of the major tasks of

teachers is to make good use of curiosity as a motivator for learning. For instances,

teacher can ask students questions or create a problem situation instead of presenting

statements of facts. These can increase student curiosity to leam more about the topic

and to gain their attention during the class.

Interest. Common sense indicates that students will be more motivated to leam

things that are relevant to their interests (Driscoll, 1994). Both Piaget and Dewey

(1913) strongly addressed the importance of using children's interests for the

improvement of learning. Piaget (1970) wrote

"The new school ... appeals to real activity to spontaneous work based on upon

personal need and interest. This does not mean ... that active education requires

that children should do anything they want, . . . i t requires above all that they

should will what they do; that should they act, not that they should be acted

upon. Need, the interest that is the resultant of need, ... that is the factor that will

make a reaction into an authentic act." (pp.151-152)

One of the ways to stimulate student interest is to assist the formulation of goals

(Bandrua, 1977). Another way is to design learning tasks to meet particular student

needs or align with student values (Driscoll, 1994). Once satisfying children's

interest, this can prolong their engagement and activity in learning tasks.

Self-efficacy. According to Bandura (1977, 1982), self-efficacy involves a belief

that one can produce some behavior, independent of one's capability. This concept

can be applied to education. Learners are asked to believe in their ability to succeed or

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overcome the problems in learning tasks. If students do not have condfidence in

themselves, it will be difficult for them to move forward.

Bandura (1982) suggested four possible sources by which people can gain

information to influence their self-efficacy. These are performance accomplishments,

vicarious experience, verbal persuasion and physiological states. Driscoll (1994)

describes that performance accomplishments refer to learner's own previous success

at a task. The second influence, vicarious experience, is the learner's observation of a

role model attaining success at a task. Verbal persuasion refers to others persuading a

learner that he or she is capable of succeeding at a particular task. The final influence

of self-efficacy is the physiological states. It is the learner's "gut feeling" that

convinces him/her of probable success or failure.

Challenge. It has extraordinary ability to bring out the best in people (Spitzer,

1996). Keller (1987) suggests that "a deeper level of curiosity may be activated by

creating a problem situation which can be resolved only by knowledge-seeking

behavior." Complex and realistic problems are posed for students, and then numerous

clues and essential information will be given to them for solving the problems

themselves. The result of Keller's study is that this increases student motivation to

experience the complexity of problems that is characteristic of real life (Driscoll,

1994).

External Motivators. In Hong Kong education system, grades assignment is

commonly used as an external motivator in learning. However, students under such

learning environment often feel tense and stressful. Reinforcement is another form of

an external motivator (Frith, 1997). Even though many scholars suggest that students

must have intrinsic motivation in order to complete a task, the power of external

reinforcer should not be underestimated. External reinforcer such as other's praise and

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encouragement can provide a certain level of recognition. As a result, this helps to

build up one's self-confident (Frith, 1997). McCombs (1996) state that

"External conditions that support these internal conditions include; provisions for

relevancy, choice, control, challenge, responsibility, competence, personal

connection, fun, and support from others in the form of caring, respect and

guidance in skill development."

Spitzer's Supermotivaton approach (1996) addresses that motivation involves the

release of human energy. He (1996) wrote that

“ The same people who may be lethargic in classrooms and workplaces are often

dynamos of energy when they are doing the things they really want to do.

Motivating experiences cause stored energy to be released."

Spitzer is not focused on the people, but on the highly motivating activities. In his

view, the more motivators that are built into the context of an activity, the more

motivating it will be. He makes use of the following elements to motivate students in

learning tasks.

Action involves getting learners out of their seats and actively involved in the learning

process both mentally and physically.

Fun can energize people and make them more enthusiastic learners. Incorporating

humor and surprises or playing games are good examples of how to make fun in

learning activities.

Choice may be provided as many as possible such as choice of learning material and

method.

Social Interaction which is a source of cognitive conflict and disequilibration can

motivate students to leam according to Piaget. Opportunities for social interaction can

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include small group discussions, peer tutoring, collaborative problem-solving and

decision-making.

Error tolerance is to create a "safe" environment. If learners can feel comfortable to

make mistakes, they will be more likely to strive energetically for success.

Measurement is used positively to track progress. In a learning environment, teacher

may adopt improvement-oriented evaluation or encourage self-measurement.

Feedback should be continuous, encouraging and focusing on how performance can

be improved in the future.

Challenges can motivate the learner in the form of setting their own learning goals.

Since self-set goals tend to be more ambitious then those set by others

Recognition can highly motivate students during the learning process. This can be

either peer or instructor recognition.

3.5.3 Active learning:

Constructivism viewed learning as a self-regulatory process of struggling with

the conflict between existing personal models of the world and discrepant new

insights (Fosnot, 1996). Constructivists generally agree that all knowledge is

constructed based upon the existing cognitive structures or schemata which are

activated in the process of construction. The cognitive structures are continually

developing during assimilating and accommodating. Accordingly, constructivists

believe that purposive activity can induce transformation of existing structures (Davis,

Maher, Noddings, 1990). That is the appropriate activity can lead to conceptual

change in cognitive structure, and thus learning occurs. Moreover, they see learners

as active participants who construct their own knowledge of the world in their own

minds. Von Glasersfeld (1987b), says, "perceiving, from a constructivist point of

view, is always an active making rather than a passive receiving..." (p.217).

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Similarly, Piaget also believed that without activity, there would be no possible

pedagogy that would significantly transform the learner (Davis, Maher, Noddings,

1990).

The research done by Chickering and Gamson in 1987 suggests that students

must be actively involved other than just listen: They must read, write, discuss, or be

engaged in solving problems. Within this context, it is proposed that strategies

promoting active learning be defined as instructional activities involving students in

doing things and thinking about what they are doing (Moore, 2000). In active

learning, "knowledge [is] directly experienced, constructed, acted upon, tested, or

revised by the learner." (Tompson & Jorgensen, 1989)

Traditional teaching method based upon the passive transmission approach and

students are treated as a passive receiver of information. In contrast, Fosnot (1996)

states that a constructivist view of learning suggests an approach to teaching that

gives learners the opportunity for concrete, contextually meaningful experience

through which they can search for patterns, raise their own questions, and construct

their own models, concepts, and strategies. The classroom in this model is seen as a

community of learners engaged in activity, discourse and reflection. Students are

difficult to undergo construction just through sitting in classes and listening to

teachers, as well as rotely memorizing information. They must leam it by talking,

writing and doing about what they are learning, link it to past experiences, and then

apply it to their daily lives. Therefore, Children become actively and meaningfully

engaged and involved in learning process. For example, to incorporate active-learning

strategies into statistical teaching, so we can permit students to supplement what they

have heard and read about statistics by actually doing statistics ~ designing studies,

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collecting data, analyzing their results, preparing written reports, and giving oral

presentations (Smith, 1998).

Unlike the traditional approach with passive transmission, constructivists view

the students as active participants who actively construct their own knowledge

through the process of assimilation and accommodation. In such manner, teachers

assume more of a facilitator's role and learners take on more ownership of the ideas

(Fosnot, 1996). Teacher's roles begin to shift from "telling and describing" to

"listening and questioning" and "probe for understanding what the students are

thinking, what they can do or want to do with the presented material and

misconceptions of the children" (Davis, Maher, Noddings, 1990). Besides, teachers

are also repaired to provide guidance to student, as well as to initiate and encourage

the student to think critically throughout the learning process. Learning in such

environment, children are able to possess more freedom in participation and

exploration of knowledge, thus bring out a variety of solution.

Activity-based learning is one of the implication of active learning in pedagogy.

Bradstreet (1996) writes that,

"Learning is situated in activity. Every student is actively engaged learning the

material through reading, thinking, discussing, computing, interpreting, writing

and reflecting."

In this manner, students construct their own knowledge as they work through the

activities (Moore, 2000). Usually, the activities are not done by an individual alone.

Instead, learners work together throughout the entire activity, helping each other until

the completion of the tasks. Hence, activities also foster collaborative learning.

Bradstreet (1996) recommends a laboratory-based course. Others endorse in-class

activities (Dietz 1993; Gnanadesikan, Scheaffer, Watkins, and Witmer 1997); a single

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three-week project (Hunter 1977); or a course-long project (Chance 1997; Fillebrown

1994; Ledolter 1995; Mackisack 1994). On the other hand, instructor's

responsibilities in this setting are to check students' progress, ask and answer

question, lead class discussion, and deliver "mini-lecture" where appropriate (Moore,

2000). Classroom activities provide a background for further reflection about

children's understandings, engage the children in explorations that could facilitate the

building of particular concepts and also activate children's interested in the activities

to fill the requirements of each problem (Davis, Maher, Noddings, 1990).

In arguing for first-hand experiences, Snee (1993) quotes the Chinese proverb, "I

hear, I forget. I see, I remember. I do, I understand." Only hearing and seeing is

insufficient for students to leam. Students must be given opportunities to process

incoming information through relevant activities.

Relying on examples done by others cannot provide first-hand experiences for

students and students remain passive participants (Smith, 1998). In statistics teaching,

Hogg (1991) wrote: "Instead of asking students to work on 'old' data, even though

real, is it not better to have them find or generate their own data? Projects give

students experience in asking questions, defining problems, formulating hypotheses

and operational definitions, designing experiments and surveys, collecting data and

dealing with measurement error, summarizing data, analyzing data, communicating

findings, and planning 'follow-up' experiments suggested by the findings."

According to Piaget's theory (1969), construction of knowledge (especially

logical-mathematical knowledge which is abstract) is based upon exploration actions

on the environment, and such actions can be physical (manipulating an object) or

mental (guessing or understanding about something). Wadsworth (1996) described

that the first phase involves exploration of an object or an idea. If the exploration of

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the object or idea provokes disequilibration, then exploration continues, but focuses

on making sense (assimilating) of which produced disequilibrium. Kelly (1970,

p.262) also recognized learning as a personal exploration and the teacher's role is to

help to design and implement each child's own undertaking and gain some sense of

what is being viewed from the child's perspective.

3.5.4 Acknowledge of prior knowledge

According to Kujawa and Huske (1995), "prior knowledge" acts as a lens

through which we view and absorb new information. It is a composite of what we

have learned from both our academic and everyday experiences. In other words, prior

knowledge defines as information that learners have leamt before a new topic, which

affects how they make sense of the new information. (Borich & Tombari，1995)

There is widespread agreement that prior knowledge influences learning, and

that learners construct concepts from prior knowledge (Resnick, 1983; Glaserfeld,

1984). Constructivism strongly emphasizes the relationship between prior knowledge

and new knowledge. Prior knowledge helps to make sense with new information.

Roschelle (1997) states that to neglect prior knowledge, the educator's intentions may

not be realized, no matter how well those intentions are executed in an exhibit, book,

or lecture. Shayer and Adey (1981) further point out:

"[BJecause of poor cognitive matching [between curriculum and students' prior

knowledge] the true potential of most pupils is not being fully stimulated and

realized. ... If you treat a mixed-ability class as if they were all able to

understand something which you think is important for them to understand, then

you will force those who cannot understand to define themselves as

incompetent... Our view is that by understanding the [prior knowledge] of

different learners, and taking that understanding into thinking about lesson

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 planning you not only show respect for them as persons, but also very much

increase the rate at which they are able to leam and the breadth of knowledge

and skills that they can achieve." (pp. 139-140)

Those Behaviorists view prior knowledge in terms of readiness for instruction

and see the teacher's role simply as one of giving requisite skills to the learners for

acquiring the new knowledge (Borich & Tombari，1995). Unlike Behaviorists,

Cognitive psychologists, on the other hand, view prior knowledge as a cognitive

structure or schema, which connotes depth of knowledge, interconnectedness with

other schemata, and access to incoming knowledge (Borich & Tombari, 1995).

Accordingly, the teacher's role is not simply to pass the information directly to

students, but rather, as Floden (1991) argues, to gain entry to that schema, understand

its conceptions and misconceptions, help learners to access appropriate schemata and

swap inappropriate cognitive structures for better ones.

Piaget's theory (Inhelder & Piaget, 1958; Ginsburg & Opper 1979; Gruber &

Voneche, 1977) also connects the development of schemata to new experience. Piaget

emphasizes conceptual changes in term of prior knowledge. Roschelle (1997)

describes that:

"In Piaget's account of conceptual change, knowledge grows by reformulation

[based on existing schemata]. ... Assimilation increases knowledge while

preserving of structure, by integrating information into existing schemata.

Accommodation increases knowledge by modifying structure to account for new

experience. ... Equilibration coordinates assimilation and accommodation,

allowing the learner to craft a new, more coherent balance between schemata and

sensory evidence. Reformulation does not replace prior knowledge, but rather

differentiates and integrates prior knowledge into a more coherent whole.

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Both children and adults filter and interpret new information in terms of their existing

knowledge (or schemata) (e.g., Piaget, 1964; Davis, Maher & Noddings, 1990). In

fact, people sometimes find it difficult to assimilate unfamiliar information. They

quickly lose interest in the incomprehensible information and they stop paying effort

to understand it (Davis, Maher & Noddings, 1990).

The role of prior knowledge in learning is very important. Therefore, teachers

need to find out what prior knowledge of students have during the design of the

teaching scheme. The knowledge of children's thinking is able to provide the basis for

the modifying and developing appropriate activities that encourage further learning

and thinking (Davis, Maher & Noddings, 1990). Some of the activities suggested by

Christen & Murphy (1991) are used to collect the data of student's prior knowledge

about a topic and are cited as follows:

1. Brainstorm the topic. Write all the information solicited from the students on

the chalkboard, a piece of paper, or transparency.

2. Ask specific and/or general questions about the topic. See what responses are

given.

3. Post a problem or a scenario. Based on this description, find out what the

students know about the idea presented.

In addition, Piaget also developed the method of "clinical interview" (Posner &

Gertzog, 1982; White, 1985;) for investigating children's sense-making. The process

usually requires the learner to handle the task involving physical materials. Then, the

interviewer attempts to understand the learner by asking questions about knowledge

of the learner that has previously acquired. As the interview progresses, it is often

helpful to ask the learner to consider alternatives to see how stable a particular

concept is. At the end, the content of interview provides a solid background about

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prior knowledge of the learner. Teacher can utilize those collected information to

create an appropriate instruction plan.

3.5.5 Highly interaction

Daily observations and experiences as well as recent scholarly traditions suggest

that learning appears to involve social aspects (Gavriel Salomon & David N. Perkins,

1998). Bruner (1986) described "...learning in most settings is a communal activity, a

sharing of the culture". According to Vygotsky's theory and Piaget's work on social

interaction, the study of individuals' learning has come to be embedded in social and

cultural contexts and interactions (Gavriel Salomon & David N. Perkins, 1998). Pea

(1993) further indicates that:

"Knowledge, rather than being transmitted or internalized, becomes jointly

constructed in the sense that it is neither handed down ready-made nor

constructed by individuals on their own. Rather, knowledge, understandings and

meanings gradually emerge through interaction and become distributed among

those interacting rather than individually constructed or possessed."

In Piaget's point of view, social interaction is the source of learning cooperation

as well as a source of cognitive conflict and disequilibration (Barry J. Wadsworth,

1996). There are many forms of social interaction applied in learning environment.

One of them is "children tutoring", that is a person or a team helps an individual to

leam. For instances, tutor in a group may provide demonstration or feedback to the

tutee. Gallagher and Reid (1981) point out that benefits accrue to both the tutor and

the tutee when students attempt to share and exchange their points of view. Tutors

leam to clarify and make available for checking their own notions. In addition, a

skilled individual tutor can fine tune the learning system much better than a classroom

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teacher with a room full of individuals (Lepper, Aspinwall, Mumme, & Chabay，

1990; Lepper, Drake, & 0 ’ Donnell-Johnson, 1997).

Another fundamental form of social learning is "group discussion or group

collaboration". In such cases, interaction serves to transfer the ideas from one-to-one

to the whole team. Accordingly, the jointly constructed learning products of this

system are distributed over the entire social system rather than possessed by a

participating individual (Gavriel Salomon & David N. Perkins, 1998). Cunningham

(1992) argued that dialogue in a social setting is required for students to come to

understand another's view. Listening or reading privately, is not sufficient to

challenge the individual's egocentric thinking. It is because hearing a variety of other

perspectives helps learners to judge the quality of their own solutions (Marcy P.

Driscoll, 1994) and also a team studying together can elaborate on a member's

attempts to solve something the individual could not do on his or her own (Damon,

1984; Slavin 1994). As a result, they may leam more effective strategies for problem-

solving. Further, Wadsworth (1994) reviewed Piaget's study and found that:

“When children or adult collaborate and interact over content and problems,

different points of view arise. This is fertile ground for disequilibration of

individual's reasoning ... when a child becomes able to assimilate the viewpoints

of others that are contrary to his or her own. ... [Under such environment,]

children leam to evaluate their egocentric thoughts by comparing them with the

thoughts of others and consider the views of others. ... Thus, peer interactions

can be a fruitful means of stimulating cognitive conflicts that can provoke an

evaluation of one's own concepts as part of accommodation to the views of

others."

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 Besides peer discussion, teacher/student interaction also helps to construct

knowledge. In traditional classroom, teacher decides what and why is correct. Van Zee

(1997) defines reflective discourse as group discussion in which students express their

own thoughts in comments and questions rather than recite textbook answers; the

teacher and individual students engage in extended series of questioning exchanges

that help students articulate their beliefs and conceptions; and student/student

exchanges involve one student trying to understand the thinking of another. For

example, teacher can be viewed as an authoritative source (Steffe & Gale, 1995, p.397)

and directs the student toward the correct answer through asking some reflective

questions, such as requesting a clarification (what?); a rationale for a particular view

(why?); a commitment; or a verification, throughout the teaching process. Asking

reflective question can 'throws' the responsibility to students for thinking about the

topic. This help students engage in negotiations, making meanings clear, exploring a

variety of views in a neutral manner, and monitoring the discussion and one's own

thinking (Van Zee, 1997).

Not only facilitating the construction of knowledge, social aspect can also foster

learning to leam. Contemporary cognitive science recognizes that learning to leam is a

fundamental aspect of learning (e.g., Chipman, Segal, & Glaser, 1985; 0 ' Neil &

Spielberger, 1979; Perkins, 1995; Pressley & Brainerd, 1985; Segal, Chipman, &

Glaser, 1985). One simple aspect is learning when and how to ask questions or to ask

for help (Gavriel Salomon & David N. Perkins, 1998). Furthermore, social content

includes how to get along with others, and how to collaborate in reaching decisions

and taking collective actions (Salomon & Perkins, 1998) can also be leamt during the

process of social interaction.

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3.5.6 Knowledge transfer to real life situation

The learning goal of the constructivist approach is to expect the learners

independently transferring their acquired knowledge to novel situations for dealing

with the new objects faced in real life. In other words, having problem-solving skills is

one of the results of learning.

Harlen (1998) compared the rote-leaming and the constructivist learning

approach. The main distinction is that the latter approach enables the learner to connect

their acquired concepts in cognitive structures and thus achieve the goals of

understanding and comprehension. As a result, not only they can adjust and then apply

their own knowledge flexibly in other situations (or in real life situation), but also they

can infer the result and interpret the solution. In contrast, if students acquire knowledge

through the formal approach of passive learning, they will conceptualize the subject

matter with isolated context.

Problem-solving requires well-developed reasoning and relevant knowledge

(Wadsworth, 1996) that can be achieved by focusing on linking concepts and their

relationships in a specific context. In order to achieve the goal, constructivists place

great importance on the process of assimilating and accommodating new concepts into

existing cognitive structures (or schemata). This leads to the implication of concept

connectivity in a constructivist classroom. Being a teacher, one needs to develop

different knowledge bases for having a much broader view of the subject-matter

(Hand, 1996). It is also essential for teachers to have greater understanding and

awareness of the conceptual knowledge associated with the topic being taught

(Bennett, 1988), and a clear conception of what ideas or concepts are central to the

discipline and how they are related to one another (Prawat, 1989).

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 Students cannot be expected to leam to deal with complexity unless they have the

opportunity to do so (CTGV, 1991a, p.36). Constructivists believe that oversimplifying

tasks for learners will prevent them from learning how to solve complex problems

(Driscoll, 1994). In addition, they argue that learners must cope with very complex

situation in which student must decide what information is relevant and how various

pieces fit together (Driscoll, 1994).

According to Lovett and Greenhouse (2000), knowledge will be more easily

accessed in contexts that are similar to the student's learning context. However, there is

a "failure of knowledge transfer" in traditional pedagogy. Students cannot flexibly

apply what they have learned to real cases. For example, some students are able to

solve the homework or examination problems correctly, but they fail to generalize the

same skills to solve the closely related problems in real life situation. This may be due

to insufficient practices in solving real cases.

Our approach is to provide more different types of problems for students to

solve. The more they have to think to solve the problems, the greater the chance that,

when faced with real-life problems, students will be able to transfer their skills or

knowledge to the new situation (Slavin, 2003, P.278). Similarly, Lovett and

Greenhouse (2000) encourage students to leam new knowledge and skills in a general

way such that they can apply the knowledge appropriately in a variety of situations.

For example, instructors may give students multiple problems that vary in appearance

but have related solution structures, so their practice will involve applying knowledge

and skills in a variety of ways. Of course, it is better to have students work on

complicated realistic problems that cover a variety of contexts.

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3.6 Evaluation of constructivism:

Education works better when learning places importance in thinking and

comprehending, rather than on rote memorization. Constructivism emphasizes on

learning how to think and understand, in other words, emphasizes on knowledge

construction.

Unlike the behavioral approach that restricts learner to be a passive recipient of

knowledge, children in classroom with constructivist approach are more actively

involved in learning. Besides, constructivism respects and welcomes student's

suggestions or opinions, regardless whether those ideas are correct or not. Therefore,

students have more opportunities to reflect on their knowledge and understanding.

Within this environment, learners gradually build up self-confidence and self-esteem,

which, eventually produce intrinsically motivated students who find the interest to

educate themselves continually.

Constructivist approach in pedagogy is useful to help learners transfer skills to

the real world (Schuman, 1996): "[BJecause the learner is able to interpret multiple

realities, the learner is better able to deal with real life situations. If learners can

problem solve, they may better apply their existing knowledge to a novel situation."

Learners engage in purposeful activity using knowledge in the real world. As a result,

they can attempt to overcome obstacles and contradictions that arise (Von Glaserfeld,

1983) in real cases and also they leam to apply their knowledge under appropriate

conditions (Collins, 1991) through the problem-solving process. Moreover, learning

activities based upon real-world context can stimulate students and increase their

potential to search for viable solutions when confronted with novel problems.

Another strength of the constructivist learning approach is that it promotes social

and communication skills by creating a classroom environment that emphasizes

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collaboration and exchange of ideas. Students therefore leam to exchange and share

ideas with others in social discussion. For such social skills, indeed, are very

important for being success in this complex and advanced society.

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CHAPTER 4: CONSTRUCTIVIST APPROACH TO STATISTICS LEARNING

4.1 Constructivist approach to science learning

In the previous section, we have thoroughly discussed and evaluated the benefits

of constructivist approach over behavior approach in classroom instruction. Now, we

consider how the constructivist approach particularly applied to science learning.

Over the last few years, there has been a growing emphasis on the process of

interaction in learning (Driver, 1995), especially in science subjects learning.

Vygotsky's researches have been influential in this respect. Dynamic relationship

between children's personal knowledge schemata and the schemata available through

the culture have been commented on and explored by science educators (Sutton,

1980), psychologists, and anthropologists (Rogoff & Lave, 1984). According to the

studies of Schiitz and Luckmann, Solomon (1987) argued that objects of common

sense only exist through social communication whereby ideas are exchanged,

explored, and reinforced. He (Solomon, 1987) wrote:

"["life world knowing"] should be recognized and shared with others. We take it

for granted that those who are close to us see the world as we do, but, through

social exchanges, we seek always to have this reconfirmed. This continual

reaffirmation of social notions makes them very durable and resistant to change."

In classroom exchanges, an individual's ideas are affirmed and shared by others.

Therefore, social interaction acts as a part to shape the knowledge construction

process.

4.1.1 Physics instruction

The following example (Driver, 1995) demonstrates how a group of 13-year-olds

develop a model to explain the properties of ice, water, and steam following activities

relating to change of state through peer discussions. After an initial discussion, the

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idea of molecules was introduced and the group started paying attention to the

question of bonding. A part of their conversation has been quoted as follows (SI, S2,

S3 and S4 are students; Al is a teacher).

S1: Water turned to ice? I think it probably strengthens the bonding.

S2: Yeah, that one's not too clear really.

S3: 'Cos we didn't really do an experiment similar to that today. We were just

on about melting.

S2: We weren't sure, I mean we are more or less clear how things go from

solids to liquids to gases, but not from gases to liquids to solids.

S1: The point is, in the gas the bonding has totally gone.

S2: So how does it happen that bonding comes back?

SI: I suppose it works vice versa, when it's heated, it destroys the bonding,

when it's cold it, you know remakes it.

S3: But how does it remake it? What does it remake it with, though?

[The question of where the remade bonds come from continues to exercise

the group.]

S2: If atoms are bonded an atom can't change into a bond to hold the other

atoms together, can it?

[At this point an observer in the classroom intervenes:]

A l : How do you imagine bonding?

S4: Sort of like a string between the atoms.

SI: No, it isn't. He [referring to the teacher] explained to us about magnetic,

magnetism. Some sort of force.

S4: Static electricity or something like that.

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S2: Yeah. That kept them together. And I suppose if it was hot, then it wasn't

magnetized as much or something and when it was cold it magnetized more.

[The group seems to have adopted the idea of bonds being due to a kind of

magnetic force, and they return to considering how this can account for

bonding apparently changing when a substance is heated.]

S4: When they are hot they vibrate more, so that the static isn't as strong.

S2: Yeah, I know, but they vibrate more, and break the bonding and then they

finally get a gas ad that's as far as they go... but how does it get the

bonding back!? [emphatically]

S2: When it starts to cool down, they don't vibrate as much.

SI: Ah, yeah. When they cool down, the bonding will be increased so they

won't be able to move around so much, that fits in, doesn't it?

[Note the obvious checking for consistency here. The idea being checked

appears to be that due to the greater strength of the bonding at lower

temperatures the molecules will not be able to vibrate so much due to being

constrained. This idea, however, still begs the issue of how the bonding

becomes stronger at lower temperatures as the next student's comment

indicates.]

S2: Yeah, but the point is, how do we get the bonding back?

S4: Slow down the vibrating ...

S2: Slow down the vibrations.

[One of the students at this point has a different insight. He suggests that the

force is present all the time.]

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 S4: I suppose it's ever present there but ... yeah, it hasn't got a chance to like

grip, grip them, you know and keep them together. Well, where it slows

down, you know, it might get to grips with the ...

S3: A bit easier to keep slower things together. (Wightman, 1986, 292)

This example clearly illustrates that students, if motivated and given opportunities,

can bring ideas and prior experiences together to take their thinking forward (Driver,

1995). During the group discussion, students have applied their prior knowledge of

constant motion of particles and the concept of motion increases with temperature, as

well as the idea of the force between particles being present all the time to explain the

question of the bonding. Moreover, some conventional aspects of knowledge that the

students could not discover from experience should be introduced through an

authoritative source, such as their teacher (Driver, 1995).

4.1.2 Mathematics instruction

In a traditional mathematical instruction, a 7出-grade teacher Mr. Wadsworth

(1996) attempted to teach students division of fractions. He directly transferred the

fact through the inversion of fractions and the change of division sign to

multiplication s i g n = . One of the brighter students in the class asked

"Why? That doesn't make any sense at all!" Yet, Mr. Wadsworth could not answer

his question.

The above example disclosed the problems in traditional mathematical

instruction. The teachers always focus on computational procedures and encourage

learners to memorize the standard algorithms, rather than the methods which activate

the construction of logical and mathematical concepts. It has the most adverse effects

on learning by avoiding students' own thinking and reasoning. Because the reasoning

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behind algorithms is often "over the heads" of children and is not a product of their

own thinking, they can make no sense of them (Kamii, 1994). The consequences of

isolated instruction in computation induce most students to believe that "real"

mathematics is computation, and it is necessarily learned through rote memorization

(Wadsworth, 1996). Those who cannot make sense or comprehend may lose interest

and eventually give up their learning.

According to Wadsworth (1996)，learning mathematical concepts is about

thinking, reasoning, and construction. Computation is an important skill to be learned,

but is best learned as a product of construction. Students generally construct the

standard algorithms in due time and they understand their constructions, and when

and how to use them. Learning by this way, they are able to retain the materials for a

longer period of time.

DeVries and Kohlberg (1987) presented the basic principles in arithmetic and

mathematics programs.

1. Psychological structures must be developed before formal symbolism and

numerical questions are introduced. It is because before the construction of

logical-mathematical structures, those questions and symbols have no

meaning for students.

2. Automatized knowledge (rote-memorization of knowledge) should not he

stressed before implicit logic is understood. Since memorization before

concept acquisition encourages memorization, but not construction and

understanding.

3. Children must have the opportunity to invent mathematical relations rather

than simply confront ready-made adult thought. Constructivism place

emphasis on learner's active involvement and construction their own

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 knowledge.

4. Teachers must understand the nature of children's mistakes. Teachers

should view errors as a source of information about children's reasoning

and for understanding the nature of children's schemata.

5. An atmosphere for thinking must be established. For example, activity-

based instruction provides chances for each student in the class to make

discussion with each other or with their teacher.

It is more likely for the students to construct science knowledge if the instruction

offers an environment with opportunities for them to try out their strategies. Peer

interaction can facilitate students to interact, share ideas, criticize each other's

solutions, intellectually debate how to do what, as well as motivate the reconstruction

of prior knowledge.

Now let us consider an example (Steffe, 1990) showing how a concept of "the

sum of arithmetic series" can be modified through solving problems. Variety of

solutions are illustrated to explain this concept.

Traditionally, most mathematics teachers propose to calculate the sum of the

first n integers by using the formula (1 + 二) ^ “ . when teaching the formula,

mathematics teachers sometimes employ the following approach to demonstrate the

process for finding the sum:

Sum = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +••.+ n
Sum = n + (" - 1 ) + (" - 2) + 0 - 3) + …+ 1
2 X Sum = {?i + \) + (n + \) + {n + \) + {n + \) + • • • + {n + \)

{n + \)xn
..Sum 二

Even though this proving procedure is an understandable and insightful one

for the teacher, it is usually not a product of construction of his or her students. The

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authority of the teacher or textbook directs the students to accept the formula without

comprehension. Consequently, students learn the concept of arithmetic series through

rote-memorization rather than by construction. If the students encounter the similar

problem of finding the sum of the first n even or odd integers, they usually view it as

a problem not related to the previously problem although it in fact contains analogous

procedures. In other words, failure of knowledge transfer occurs.

As an alternative, a graphical representation is a possible way for students to

apply the method flexibly to the problem of finding the sum of the first n even or odd

integers (Wertheimer, 1959, 108). In Figure 4.1, a sensible solution of our problem is

presented.
r--- r - - - -I
t II II II «I II
_t I •• I
II It It II
%

II I I
t II II
I I
.....___IL_

Figure 4.1: Finding the sum of the first six integers

by doubling the sum

Nevertheless, only one sensible solution is usually not enough for teachers to

generalize the concept of arithmetic series to general mathematical form. The

utilization of other examples is necessary. After restructuring figure 1, the graphical

representation for finding the sum of the first six integers is presented in figure 4.2.

[^―—�
I •
I •
；

Figure 4.2: Finding the sum of the first six integers

by equalizing the sum

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 Another example for finding the sum of the series is shown in figure 4.3. The

first three columns are built by adding the last three columns to the first three; the last

to the first, etc. Since we have ( 6 + 1 ) blocks in each row and 6/2 rows, there are

(6 + l)x 6 / 2 blocks. If the number of original columns was odd, we could first find

an average number of blocks per column (6 + 1) / 2 and then take that to multiply the

number of columns (6).

I I I
I I
• •••-• ！ • ； II

；j|_

Figure 4.3: Finding the sum of the first six integers

by adding ordered pairs by summands

In addition, it is better for the teachers to interpret their restructured graphs, as well as

to resolve the differences and relationships among all interpretations. Eventually, the

general case (find the sum of the first n integers) should be presented and then

teachers allow to generalize whatever method seems most natural to them to generate

the sum of the series. The several solutions presented by the teachers can serve as a

basis for continuing the work of developing the concept of arithmetic series.

It is easy to observe that each of these methods (graphical approach) is quite

distinct from the demonstration using symbols (traditional approach) in expression as

well as in spirit (more insightful). In fact, if mathematics teachers spend more time on

reflecting their experiences of doing mathematics and links between their experience

and the possible experience of their students, they are able to undergo teaching

strategies that foster the mathematical learning of their students.

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4.2 Constructivism and ill-structured disciplines

Traditional methods of instruction highly rely on linear media (the word "linear"

means putting content in sequence) such as textbooks and lectures (Spiro & Jehng,

1990). Many of the teaching strategies with linear media are most successful in

introductory learning and advanced learning with well-structured domain. However,

as the complexity and irregularity increase in content, linear media is no longer

adequate for mastering sufficient conceptual understandings. Spiro and his colleagues

(1987，1988) argued that learning and instruction for mastery of complexity and

application in a complex and ill-structured domain cannot be compartmentalized,

linear, uniperspectival, neatly hierarchical, simply analogical, or rigidly prepackaged.

Their research indicates that methods that are appropriate for introductory knowledge

often are ill suited and too simplistic for ill-structured learning. Therefore,

instructional methodology used to present simple and well-structured information is

unsuitable for more advanced learning in ill-structured domains and actually hinders

the assimilation and transfer of complex knowledge (Spiro & Jehng, 1990).

4.2.1 Nature of ill-structured domain: Conceptual complexity and Across-case

irregularity

Before the discussion of pedagogy in ill-structured domain, a thorough

understanding of ill-structured domains is necessary. According to Spiro, Feltovich,

Jacobson & Coulson, (1991) "An ill-structured knowledge domain is one in

which...each case or example of knowledge application typically involves the

simultaneous interactive involvement of multiple, wide-application conceptual

structures, each of which is individually complex...and the pattern of conceptual

incidence and interaction varies substantially across cases nominally of the same

type". Hence, content becomes more complex and the relationships across the cases

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that knowledge has to be applied to become more irregular. Any single case of the use

of knowledge in such a domain will require a selective assembly and integration of

appropriated subsets of perspectives to fit the needs of the particular situation at hand

(Spiro, Feltovich, Jacobson & Coulson，1991). Examples of ill-structured domains are

abundant in disciplines such as medicine, engineering, history, and literary

interpretation.

4.2.2 Statistics as an ill-structured discipline

Statistics can be classified as a member of the ill-structured domain. Many

statistical methods involve a mixture of knowledge from different fields such as

physical sciences, engineering, medical sciences and business.

In 1900s, much of the progress in statistics was solving real problems, many of

which have roots in the physical sciences and engineering. For instance, George Box

developed response surface designs working with chemical engineers, John Tukey

developed exploratory data analysis working with telecommunications engineers, and

Abraham Wald developed sequential testing working with military engineers

(Lambert, 2000). Another crucial contribution of statistics is the statistical process

control (SPC) which is used extensively to monitor and improve the quality and

productivity of manufacturing processes and service operations. According to

Stoumbos, Reynolds, JR, Ryan, and Woodall (2000), SPC primarily involves the

implementation of control charts, which are used to detect any change in a process

that may affect the quality of the output. Control charts are among the most important

widely used tools in statistics. Their applications have now moved far beyond

manufacturing into engineering, environmental science, biology genetics,

epidemiology, medicine, finance, and even law enforcement and athletics (Lai, 1995;

Montgomery, 1997; Ryan, 2000).

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 In the medical sciences, the impact of survival analysis has been immense.

Kaplan and Meier's product limit estimate, Mantel and Peto's log-rank test and Cox's

proportional hazards regression model are the indispensable tools applied in clinical

trials (Breslow, 2000). Weinberg and Dunson discuss survival methods for population

monitoring of fertility, Oakes mentions the importance of multivariate survival

methods for genetic epidemiology, Pollock cites applications to wildlife studies, and

Gianola notes increased use of survival models even in animal breeding (Breslow,

2000).

In business, statistics and financial markets have also been inextricably linked.

There are enormous researches done at the intersection of finance and statistics such

as the ideas of efficient markets, the random walk hypothesis and derivative pricing

models (Lo, 2000).

In the following section, we will try to illustrate the conceptual complexity of

statistics by briefly introducing the evolution of statistical methods in sociology from

1950 to 2000.

4.2.3 Example: Statistic in sociology, 1950 - 2000

Sociology is the scientific study of modem industrial society (Raftery, 2000).

Sociologists would like to ask some questions including: What determine how well

people succeed in life, occupationally and otherwise? What factors affect variations in

crime rates between different countries, cities and neighborhoods? Why is the U.S.

divorce rate increasing?

According to Raftery (2000)，sociology has begun to utilize quantitative methods

and data in the mid-nineteenth century, but before World War II the data tended to be

fragmentary and the statistical methods were simple and descriptive. Since then, the

available data have grown in complexity, and statistical methods have been developed

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to deal with them. The trend has been toward increasingly rigorous formulation of

hypothesis, larger and more detailed datasets, more complex statistical models to

match the data, and a higher level of statistical analysis.

Sociology has made use of a wide variety of statistical methods and models for

greatly improving standard of scientific rigor in the discipline. Raftery (2000)

introduced three postwar generations of statistical methods in sociology, each defined

by the kind of data it addresses.

The first generation of methods, starting after World War II，deals with cross-

tabulations of counts from surveys and censuses by a small number of discrete

variables such as gender, age group, and occupational category. A canonical example

has been the analysis of social mobility table, two-way tables of father's against

respondent's occupational category.

The second generation, starting in the early 1960s, deals with unit-level data

from surveys that include many variables. Structural Equation model is one of the

methods which is useful for giving a causal interpretation in a social science context.

Very often, variables of interest (latent variables) in a structural equation model are

not observed directly. Other observed variables are used to measure those latent

variables, such as self-esteem, discrimination, motivation, or ability.

In 1973, Joreskog adopted the maximum likelihood estimation of a structural

equation model with latent variables. Figure 4.4 shows a typical path diagram for the

structural equation model. The analysis aims at testing and estimating the strength of

the relationship between the unobserved latent variables (such as definitions and

delinquency), which are at the centre of the path diagram. The framework had been

extended to deal with categorical variables (Muthen, 1983), and later (Muthen 1997)

it was used to represent longitudinal data, growth curve models, and multilevel data.

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 "Delinquency doesn't 4 Battery
really hurt anyone" ^ /

\ ” A Car Theft -
"Suckers deserve to be ^ Definitions Delinquency f；
taken advantage o f
/ Theft

"Police give kids ^ V

an even break" ] Vandalism

Figure 4.4. Part of a Structural Equation Model to assess the hypothesis that
learned definitions of delinquency cause delinquent behavior (Matsueda and
Heimer 1987). The key goal is testing and estimating the relationship represented
by the thick arrow. The constructs of interest, "Definitions" and "Delinquency",
are not measured directly. The variables inside the rectangles are measured.

The third generation of methods, starting in the late 1980s, deals with data that

are not usually thought of as cross-tabulations or data matrices, either because the data

take different forms, such as texts or narratives, or because dependence is a crucial

aspect (Raftery, 2000).

Social networks consist of sets of pairwise connections, such as friendships

between adolescents, sexual relationships between adults, and patterns of marriage

between social groups. Methods for the analysis of social networks have focused

mostly on small datasets with complete data. In practical application, however, such

as the effect of sexual network patterns on the spread of sexually transmitted diseases

(Morris 1997), the datasets tend to be large and very incomplete, and the use of

likelihood and MCMC methods have led to major progress since then (Thompson

1998).

Textual data such as interview and answers to open-ended questions in surveys

are the rawest form of sociological data. Efforts at formal analysis have focused on

standard content analysis, consisting mainly of counting words in the text in different

ways. A similar challenge is faced on a massive scale by information retrieval for the

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Web (Jones and Willett, 1997), the contextual methods being developed in sociology

might be useful for applying in search engines. In 1988, Singer, Ryff, Carr, and

Magee have made use of textual data analysis, blending quantitative and qualitative

approaches. They took a standard unit-level dataset with more than 250 variables per

person and converted them into written "biographies." They then examined the

biographies for common features and thinned them to more generic descriptions.

Statistical methodology has led to provide models for cross-classifications and

developing well-adapted methods for unit-level datasets. This has contributed to the

greatly improved level of scientific rigor in sociology today (Raftery, 2000).

4.2.4 Constructivism based teaching strategies in ill-structured domain:

Since the abstract conceptual world of the ill-structured domain is complex and

not easily simplified, learning goals in ill-structured domain shift from introductory

level familiarity with key concepts and reproduction of what was taught to the

mastery of important aspects of complexity and the development of the ability to

flexibly apply or transfer knowledge to a wide range of new, real-world cases (Spiro,

Feltovich, Jacobson & Coulson, 1991). In other words, the goal in advanced learning

is preparing people to select, adapt, and combine knowledge and experience in new

ways to deal with situations that are different from the ones they have encountered

before.

In an ill-structured domain, the use of knowledge varies too much across

situations. To be ready to use knowledge flexibly, to be able to find the most useful of

the valid representations to fit the needs of a particular case, one must have available a

diverse repertoire of ways of constructing situation-sensitive understandings (Spiro,

Feltovich, Jacobson & Coulson，1991). Criss-crossing conceptual landscapes, highly

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interconnected, web-like knowledge structures permit greater flexibility in the ways

that knowledge can potentially be assembled for use in comprehension or problem

solving (Spiro & Jehng，1990).

Multiple conceptual representations of knowledge

Initially, students leam the basic concepts, theories, etc. in a linear context. In ill-

structured domain, however, no single schema will provide sufficiently complete

coverage, which will account for sufficient variability in the way things happen in the

domain (Spiro & Jehng, 1990). The use of a monolithic or unidimension depiction of

complex and ill-structured knowledge frequently misrepresents important conceptual

facets the domain (Spiro, Coulson, Feltovich, & Anderson, 1988; Spiro, Vispoel,

Schmitz, Samarapungavan & Boerger, 1987). In addition, any oversimplified version

of what we called it the "truth" will miss too much complexity and interrelationships

in advanced knowledge. Indeed, there is considerable variability in the application of

abstract concepts to actual case situations (Jacobson & Spiro, 1995). Therefore, single

perspectives are inadequate for mastering sufficient conceptual understandings across

various situations. This is why multiple knowledge representations to demonstrate the

context-dependent knowledge (Spiro, Feltovich, Jacobson & Coulson, 1991) is so

important feature in advanced knowledge acquisition. Multiple ways are used to

represent knowledge in instructional activities, such as multiple explanation, multiple

dimensions of analysis, (Spiro et al.，1987) to reflect more accurately the multifaceted

nature of complex knowledge. (Jacobson & Spiro, 1995)

"Knowledge transfer" is facilitated by having a large number of wide-scope

interpretive schemas available and by enabling learners to use each of those schemas

in a flexible manner (Spiro & Jehng, 1990). So that multiple representations of

content should be case-based with real-world context and emphasize knowledge

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construction (instead of transmission of information), and knowledge sources should

be highly interconnected. Emphasizing case-based instruction or multiple case

examples (a series of examples illustrate abstract and interrelated concepts from many

diverse points of view) to demonstrate to the learner the nuances of abstract

conceptual variability associated with ill-structured domains (Spiro & Jehng, 1990;

Spiro, CoLilson, Feltovich, & Anderson, 1988), rather than presenting

decontextualized conceptual knowledge. To illustrate the complexity of case

information, the same content is presented in different contexts and different points of

views for comparing and contrasting the similarities and differences of cases in ill-

stmctured learning domains. Moreover, cross-references to other cases are designed to

build interconnections among case (Spiro & Jehng, 1990).

The repeated presentations aim to point out for students how the same case

information can take on importantly different shades of meaning at different times and

how each case has many facets, some of which will tend not to be noticed in any

single context of occurrence (Spiro & Jehng, 1990). With a sufficient number of

perspectives, a fuller, more "three-dimensional" view of the domain is achieved

(Spiro & Jehng, 1990). As a consequence, multiple knowledge representation is

adequate for the coverage and preparation for transfer. Spiro and Jehng (1990) said

that "play" with content, examining it in a variety of new and interesting ways, the

content to be played with must be well learned (Spiro & Jehng, 1990).

There are various teaching strategies which one may find useful:

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Introduce domain complexity early

A common instructional approach is to break a complex topic into small

conceptual units, have students leam these units in isolation, and then have the

students combine the units (Jacobson & Spiro，1995). Initial simplifications of

complex subject areas can impede the later acquisition of more complex

understandings (Feltovich, Spiro, and Coulson, 1989; Spiro et al. 1989). As an

alternative, Spiro believes that cognitive flexibility must be nurtured early in the

learning process. This early introduction of some complexity also provides a

foundation that can be built upon as still more advanced treatments of the material are

presented (Spiro, Feltovich, Jacobson & Coulson, 1991).

Nevertheless, large amount of time is required for covering numerous cases. The

process of acquisition of complex of case experience is accelerated by the use of

elaborated mini-cases and by making use of the same, increasingly familiar mini-case

in different contexts (Spiro & Jehng，1990). Thus, the elaboration of mini-case not

only eliminates the need to spend time learning as many new cases, but also serves as

a background information for further conceptual understanding.

Stress the interrelated and Web-like nature of knowledge

Teaching isolated and abstracted knowledge elements may produce more rigid or

"inert" knowledge representations that limit the ability of the learner to apply the

knowledge in new situations (Bransford, Franks & Sherwood, 1989; Spiro, Vispoel,

Schmitz, Samarapungavan & Boerger, 1987; Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1985).

Therefore, the conceptual interrelationships between knowledge sources must be

learned simultaneously. For instance, several concepts or themes are simultaneously

considered in each case. Each case emphasizes not only on specific concepts used in

that context, but also on their interrelationships with other concepts under that same

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environment. The demonstration of conceptual interrelationships in multiple contexts

helps cultivate a rich and flexible understanding of a complex content area (Jacobson

&Spiro，1995).

Encourage knowledge assembly

In a complex and ill-structured domain, frequently there is germane knowledge

from a variety of previously learned conceptual and case sources that is relevant to a

novel knowledge application situation (Jacobson & Spiro, 1995). Therefore, learners

are encouraged to develop their own knowledge representations by assembling

relevant abstract conceptual and case-specific knowledge components for future use

in different types of situations and problem-solving task, instead of acquire

knowledge by rote memorization.

In overview, knowledge transfer is fostered in several ways (Spiro & Jehng,

1990):

1• Students leam how to fully interpret cases, facilitating the full interpretation

of new cases encountered later.

2. The multiple coding of cases provides a larger number of access routes for

their later retrieval from memory as background knowledge precedents for

understanding new cases.

3. The interaction of conceptual perspectives is taught by their simultaneous

consideration within a single context.

4. Gives you more flexibility in tailoring for schema assembly.

4.3 Development of online teaching

The World Wide Web (WWW) is the second major wave of the digital

revolution that began with the advent of the personal computer in the 1980s (Wilson,

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& Lowry, 2000). Some progress in education systems development has been made

concerning with using the WWW as a tool for basic education. There are a great

number of Web locations existing on the internet that present a variety of educational

materials and information in electronic form. For instance, educators can utilize the

latest Internet technology to create interactive demonstrations (ability of responding to

user input) or other course materials in the form of Java applets (West, & Ogden,

1998). These interactive components are produced not only to aid the understanding

of a concept but also to stimulate a student's interest and learning motivation by

providing a "hand-on" learning experience.

Under the constructivist paradigm, online learning environment is effective only

when it provides an active role to facilitate the human learning processes. According

to Liao (1998), the learning environment should contain the following ingredients:

• Users are actively involved

• Users have more controllable opportunities

• Users have a great deal of control of the interaction between users and

machines

• Users usually aim at accomplishing more creative tasks, such as problem

solving and critical thinking skills.

4.3.1 Multiple representation of information

Cognitive Flexibility Theory (Jacobson & Spiro，1995) argues for multiple

representations of content where knowledge is highly interconnected and complex

(i.e. unsimplified) (Archee & Duin, 1995). The potential of the Web to present a

variety of information sources may help to stimulate the cognitive conflict required

within a Piagetian approach (McMahon, 1997). It is because the network offers a

multimedia information environment which supports non-linear access to information.

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In addition, the information can be simultaneously represented in any combination of

media format, such as text, image, graphic, sound, and animation (Liaw, 2001).

Therefore, it is suitable for the online resources to offer multiple linkages and

contextual learning environments which allow users to take the random access

capabilities and to overcome the strictly linear, sequential medium of contexts

(Gilbert, & Moore, 1998; Muhihauser, 1992) (Liaw, 2001). In other words, it allows

for multiple dimension of navigation.

From the constructivist point of view, knowledge is constructed personally based

upon individual's existing knowledge or experiences. Therefore, in the learning

activities, knowledge is based on individual constructions that are not tied to any

external reality, but rather to the learner's interactions with the external world (Lacy

& Wood, 1993). In fact, those online resources based on a non-linear media form can

allow the learners to explore abundant and diverse bits of information in their own

ways. From the constructivist approach, these lead learners to reflect more on their

own knowledge construction (Liaw, 2001).

Besides, multiple representation provides learners across the various resources

and content domains to facilitate their integration of knowledge. Meanwhile, it allows

learners to crisscross the intellectual landscape in multiple dimensions, to traverse

among these multiple routes for their understanding, and to induce information into

their existing knowledge structures (Liaw, 2001). Furthermore, the learning materials

should be connected to real life according to the constructivist aspects. As a

consequence, learners can readily to transfer what they have leamt to a more complex

situation in practice.

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4.3.2 Interactive between users and the information

The development of advanced internet and Web technologies such as mobile

code has enabled interactive elements — students can respond to the presentation of

material and proactively approach a system (Pahl, 2003). Due to this feature, learners

can interact with online resources in order to leam or train a specific topic or skill. For

example, an online resource poses a problem and then based on the user input directs

them through a set of activities that address the problem (Wilson, & Lowry，2000).

Constructivist approach emphasizes the learner's role in constructing meaning —

as opposed to simple transmission from teacher to student (Duffy and Cunningham,

1996). Learners do more than process information — they build an understanding

through interaction with their environment (Wilson, & Lowry，2000). In fact,

interactive features provided by the Web can enable active learning in a constructivist

style if they create a representation of reality in which learning is relevant (Pahl,

2003). So that student is engaged in solving meaningful problems and facilitate in

what we have called "active learning".

Beside, interactivity support a "high learner control" environment, which enables

learners to make decisions about which paths to follow through instructional

materials, the scope and extent of inquiry into different domains and contents that will

be followed. The learner actively adapts to the information presented by technology,

which in turn adapts to the learner, a process more commonly referred to as feedback

(Weller, 1988). Moreover, the technology of interactive instruction translates in

learning to involve real-time, dynamic, and mutual give-and-take between the

instructional system and the learners, including exchanges of relevant information

(Milheim & Jones, 1990). In fact, increasing learner control can aid learning by

individualizing the instruction and making it more motivating (Steinberg, 1989).

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CHAPTER 5: CASE STUDY

In chapter 1, we have highlighted the problems in Hong Kong's education

system that is examination-oriented. Then we discussed the traditional classroom

instruction based on the behaviorist approach. The problem of the behaviorist

approach is that it has violated the goal of active learning. Learners passively

internalize knowledge by imitation and repetition rather than actively construct their

own knowledge. Additionally, they are usually motivated by extrinsic reinforcers,

such as food, toys or adult's praise. In recent decades, constructivists criticized the

behaviorist approach and argued that knowledge is primarily obtained through the

process of construction. They highly encouraged leamer-oriented instruction, in

which students are viewed as active learners engaged in constructing meaning,

bringing his or her prior knowledge to bear on new situations. Meanwhile learning

requires self-regulation and the building of conceptual structures through reflection

and abstraction. Further, learners are motivated by a variety of meaningful activities,

social interaction and real case study (please refer to Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 for the

detail of constructivist learning theory and the application of constructivist approach

in science and ill-structured domains respectively).

In this section, the application of constructivist approach in statistical

education will be discussed. It is illustrated by the launch of a workshop which

centered around the theme of binomial distribution. On 2 ” ' of November in 2003, 14

Form-7 students were invited from Immaculate Heart of Mary College to participate

our study. Teaching strategy based on the constructivist approach was applied in our

workshop. Our aims are: to motivate students on the learning subject, to increase the

interest of learners, as well as to provide a student-oriented learning environment

related to the theme of the workshop.

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 5.1 Description of workshop:

The workshop started with the basic definitions of the binomial distribution.

History of related famous as well as important figures in this area were introduced,

such as Bernoulli and Pascal. Most of the students seemed to be highly motivated and

were paying a great deal of attention to the historical aspect of the binomial

distribution. Since the idea of the binomial distribution is developed based upon

Bernoulli trials and binomial expressions, the next phase of the workshop was

explaining the meaning of binomial distribution and deriving the binomial probability

with the help of graphics and activities. During the activities, some of the students

assisted in the demonstration. Afterwards, some daily life examples (and also

counterexamples) of binomial experiments and a wide-scope of applications (in

quality control, medicine, marketing and public opinion surveys) of binomial

distribution were introduced and demonstrated. Some questions were posed by the

instructor and students were given opportunities to discuss among themselves. During

the discussion, students actively involved to express their own ideas and on the other

hand they paid attention to other's opinions. It is a clear example that social

interaction fostered the learning process. A practical example (Find the values of

probability of success such that a 4-engine plane preferable to a 2-engine plane.) was

then given to illustrate the calculation of the binomial probability. Many students

found that this example was very interesting. In addition, several different ways to

find out the values of binomial probability were suggested. The methods included the

application of the binomial table, on-line calculator, and the Excel software. Learning

the concepts of mean and variance are inevitable in the instruction of learning

丨 statistical distribution. They were taught through an activity which derived the general

forms of mean and variance with the help of the relationship between binomial and

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Bernoulli distributions. Finally, online sources involving demonstration, calculator,

revision notes and exercise about binomial distribution were provided, therefore,

students could further familiarize the topic through the use of Internet resources after

the workshop.

5.2 Features of workshop

Our workshop was successfully conducted. The aims of conducing the

workshop were achieved and we account for the special features as follows:

• Encouragement of Social interaction: Social interaction including peer

discussion and discussion between teacher and students were highly encouraged.

For instance, the explanation of abstract concepts, such as the feature of the

binomial experiment, were learned through the activities in which students could

express their own opinions or ideas related to the posed examples. As a

consequence, the learning atmosphere was fostered through the process of

exchanging ideas.

• Promotion of activity-based instruction-. Several meaningful activities were

carried out for motivating students and provide a better understanding about

binomial distribution. In order to let students have a better comprehension of the

probability function of the binomial random variable, an activity was carried out

following the introduction of the general formula. The activity is as follows: A

box with some cards was prepared to help to explain the concept of the binomial

probability. Each of the cards was either marked with the word "success" or

"failure". The probability of success "p" appeared at the back of those "success"

cards, while the probability of failure "1 - p" appeared at the back of those

"failure" cards. Four students were invited to assist the demonstration. Each

student was asked to draw a card from the box. This is a binomial experiment

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 since each draw was independent and there was only two possible outcomes:

success or failure. The number of students drew the success card represented the

number of success in four trials. Meanwhile, the different combination of the

cards drawn by the students was taken into account, the general expression of

binomial probability function was eventually derived as: Pr(X = x) =

/ \
p _ p Y ' - ' _ Through the activity, students were able to understand better
UJ
the meaning of the general expression of binomial function.

• Multiple representation of knowledge: A wide-scope of applications of binomial

distribution in quality control, medicine, public opinion surveys and marketing

were illustrated, so as to provide the multi-dimensional element of statistical

applications of the binomial distribution.

• Acknowledge the importance of prior knowledge: we know that students have

some prior basic understanding of probability. Before a formal treatment of

binomial distribution, we ensured that students had the chance to refresh their

knowledge on Bernoulli and binomial expression. Then we utilized their prior

knowledge to explain the basic idea of the binomial distribution. Hence, students

could construct their knowledge of Binomial distribution based on the prior

knowledge of simple mathematical expressions and elementary probability.

• Use of Graphics: The learning materials were prepared with the help of graphics,

such as computer animation and art clips. The insertion of these graphics

deviates from classical classroom teaching and students in general found it very

interesting.

• Keep motivation high: One of our aims was to arouse the motivation of the

students. At the beginning of workshop, students are motivated by the

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 mathematical history. Besides, many students found the example of “2- and 4-

engines" and the example of binomial experiments interesting. It demonstrates

that the usage of some familiar, interesting and applicable examples can help

learners concentrate. The colorful teaching materials produced by the

PowerPoint software also attract students' attention. In addition, abstract

concepts (such as binomial distribution) can be physically illustrated by using

graphical representation of cartoons.

5.3 Evaluation

At the end of the workshop, we ask the students to evaluate the workshop. The

evaluation questionnaires were collected by their school teacher and returned to us

after a few days. There were two kinds of questions: five closed-ended questions and

three open-ended questions. For the closed-ended questions, originally, five choices

("strongly agree", "agree", "disagree", "strongly disagree" and "no opinion") are

provided. For convenient, the numbers of counts of "strongly agree" and "agree" are

collapsed into a new category ("agree"). Likewise, the numbers of students choosing

"strongly disagree" and "disagree" are also merged into another new category

("disagree"). All the closed-ended questions and students responses (count and

percentage) are summarized in the Table 5.1.

The result of this survey shows that the learning goals of the workshop were

achieved. Out of the 14 students participating our workshop, all of them said that they

enjoyed the workshop, more than 80% thought that the workshop overall contributed

to their interest of the subject, around 90% agreed that the format of the workshop

was easier to stay motivated and focused and agreed to recommend their friends to

take workshops designed in a similar format. Almost all of the students have a better

understanding of the applications of Binomial Distribution after the workshop.

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Table 5.1: Summary of students responses for all the ciosed-ended question.

Questions: Agree Disagree

14 0
Q1 I enjoy the workshop (lOOo/o) (0%)

Q2 Overall, the workshop contributes to my interest 11 2

of the subject (85%) (15%)
Q3 The format of this workshop is easier for me to 11 1
stay motivated and focused (92%) (8%)
Q4 I would recommend my friends to take workshops 11 1
designed in a similar format (92%) (8%)
Q5 After the workshop, I have a better understanding 13 1
of the applications of Binomial Distribution (93%) (7%)

The rest of the questions are open-ended: "What do you like most about this

workshop (if any)? Why?" "Compare this workshop with traditional classroom

instruction, which one do you prefer? Why?" and "Additional comments". The

overall comments of the 14 students were positive and gratifying. Our evaluation pays

much attention to the first and second open-ended questions. Almost half of the

respondents of the first question are attracted by the teaching materials presented by

using PowerPoint software. Besides, they said that the graphic representation of

teaching materials seemed to be easily understood and followed, as well as the

provided information were suitable. About a quarter of students preferred the

instruction involving peer discussion and discussion between lecturers and students.

Highly interactive learning environment provided an arena for active learning. The

rest of them found the history, examples and application of Binomial Distribution the

most useful and they enjoyed the learning atmosphere. Here are some of their

comments:

Q l : What do you like most about this workshop (if any)? Why?

• The powerpoint is quite interesting and let us achieve a better understanding of

the topic. Plus, the lesson was relaxing and quite interactive.

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• It gave me a better understanding on the meaning of the formula and the

application of binomial distribution.

• I like most about the powerpoint which is easy for us to follow. Furthermore, we

can discuss ourselves and find out the solution together.

When they were asked to compare our workshop with traditional classroom

instruction, most of them (11 students out of 14) preferred the workshop rather than

the traditional classroom. Many of them would like the instruction with relaxing

atmosphere, large amount of interaction among students. Consequently, they were

highly motivated during the class. Here are some of their responses associated with

the second open-ended question:

Q2： Compare this workshop with traditional classroom instruction, which one

do you prefer? Why?

• Workshop. Group discussion is more attractive than normal classroom

instruction. It makes students feel like joining in the activities but not just

listening and doing math.

• I prefer the instruction in this workshop. This workshop can provide

opportunities to students to think about the knowledge which they have

leamt, not just teaching. Also lecturers can interact with students in the

workshop.

• With comparison, I prefer the workshop to the traditional classroom

instruction. It is much relaxed and much interesting.

• I would prefer workshop. More active, can leam the knowledge beyond

textbooks

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 As an alternative, a few of them still thought that the traditional classroom

instruction is better. Generally, their reason was closely linked to the coming public

examination (HKALE).

• Frankly, the traditional classroom instruction is more efficient and effective

for us as we need to face the AL syllabus. Yet we were not so stressful

during the workshop time and it's a good time.

• I would like the traditional classroom instruction. Because I can follow the

instructions provided by the school teachers easily. Also, we do more

practical exercise in the classrooms together.

Other additional comments and improvements are shown as follows:

• The lecturer is nice and he taught me many things about binomial

distribution. Also it is a great experience for me to sit in the university. It is

meaningful and unforgettable

• Adding the discussion part and the introduction of the mathematics can let

students be more interested and familiar with the topic they are studying.

This may improve the efficiency of learning

• The powerpoint is very good and interesting. I like it very much. But think

that the questions were not difficult and I want to leam more calculation skill

of binomial of difficult question.

• The workshop could try to teach more difficult things or things which is

outside from the math and stat syllabus. Some exercise was include in the

MS textbook so it is quite bored.

• It was a joyful day but more activities are needed.

• The background of the binomial is attractive. It lets us know more about the

history. So as to clear the concept in our mind.

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CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSIONS

The examination-oriented approach in Hong Kong education system places

too much emphasis on rote-leaming. The existing examination system tends to assess

students' ability to memorize information rather than problem-solving skills. Since

students are driven by the success in public examination, they simply try to memorize

everything that they have leamt. Meanwhile, teaching in the classroom has been

strongly influenced by the behavioral approach for many years. It mainly emphasized

on a high volume of imitation and repetition. In addition, learners are viewed as

passive participants who just quietly sit and listen in the classroom and then directly

receive everything from their teachers. As a result, those learners who cannot

understand will gradually lose their interest in learning.

In order to provide an effective instruction, we highly recommend the

constructivist approach, which promotes student's motivation, enjoyment and

involvement in the classroom. In contrast to behavioral approach, constructivists view

learners as active participants, who construct (understand or comprehend) their own

knowledge during the learning processes. Teaching based upon constructivist

approach addresses active learning, social interaction and knowledge transfer. In fact,

what the teachers and instructors need to do is to develop lessons that engage meaning

construction, promote problem-solving, and require critical and creative thinking.

The functions of learning Science, Mathematics and Statistics are mainly to

polish our mind to think logically and equip ourselves with problem-solving skills.

Statistics can be viewed as an ill-structured domain in which the application of

statistical knowledge varies too much across situations. According to constructivist

approach, this kind of knowledge can be leamt effectively through multiple

representations of knowledge with the emphasis on knowledge connectivity.

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 In chapter five, the major findings of an activity-based workshop for teaching the

statistical knowledge is reported. Teaching strategy of the constructivist approach was

applied and the comments of the students showed that instruction based on the

constructivist approach is highly beneficial to the acquisition of statistical knowledge.

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