TY  - GEN
T3  - ELSE Working Papers
ID  - discovery14369
N2  - The role of action has been strongly emphasized, not only in cognitive
research on learning and problem solving, but also in education and instructional
psychology. The Constructivism tradition has long asserted that action plays a crucial
role for learners in constructing their own knowledge. In an educational context,
active engagement entails students examining their own ideas, considering alternative
explanations for newly taught concepts, and evaluating competing perspectives. Some
theorists (e.g., Anzai & Simon, 1979) propose that these processes are found when
learning is by doing. However, a constructivist perspective implies that instructional
formats enable self-monitoring (e.g., Covington, 2000; Pintrich & De Groot, 1990),
which includes reflective activities such as describing, explaining, and evaluative
thinking (e.g., Covington, 2000; Zimmerman, 1990), which are not exclusive to
action. The present article discusses findings that concern two related and thus far,
unexplored two questions: How affective is observation-based learning in a complex
skill learning task that usually requires processes that involve active engagement with
it? How does monitoring affect the transfer of problem solving ability in complex
skill learning task?
The first aim of the article is to introduce ways of using common educational
tools like the self-observation technique, which involves re-exposing individuals to
their own self-generated behaviors, in novel ways that can provides insight into how
people use self-regulatory mechanisms like monitoring on internally represented
behaviors. The second aim is provide support for the view that in the absence of
active learning, learning indirectly (i.e. Observation-based learning) is a practical and
in some cases necessary method of knowledge and skill acquisition, and does not in
turn lead to decrements in acquired knowledge and skill. Finally, the article presents
the argument that the degree of self-monitoring that takes place may be a mediating
factor in preserving the view that action has a special status in knowledge acquisition
TI  - Should action be awarded a special status in learning?
A1  - Osman, M.
AV  - public
Y1  - 2007/10//
UR  - http://else.econ.ucl.ac.uk/newweb/papers.php#2007
PB  - ESRC Centre for Economic Learning and Social Evolution
CY  - London, UK
ER  -