The Institute for Learning Technologies: Pedagogy for the 21st Century

ILTdoc: Pedagogy for the 21st Century 1994

   PDF version of the document (Get help printing this file)

   Print version

Institute for Learning Technologies Teachers College · Columbia University November 1999

This document was written by Joshua H. Reibel, a Research Associate at the Institute for Learning Technologies and a Ben D. Wood Fellow at Teachers College, Columbia University. The HTML version was prepared by Jennifer Hogan, an Assistant Editor at the Institute. September 1994.

The Institute for Learning Technologies is guided by an understanding that, by and large, the defining characteristics of the modern school precipitate from the implementation constraints of the information technology that enabled and supports them -- printing. As we enter a time when networked digital technologies are fast becoming the prevailing technologies for communication and for information retrieval, processing and creation, the Institute seeks to identify new ways to realize various pedagogical principles -- ways that are enabled by this shift in dominant technologies. The educational principles and practices the Institute advocates have historically found expression in diverse philosophical contexts, and they have implications for the whole of the educational enterprise -- for schools' size, schools' physical structures, schools' temporal structures, teachers' roles, curriculum, methods of curriculum design and development, teacher training, and so on.

The research literature in a number of related areas informs the Institute's vision of schools in the 21st century. The ideas advanced in the literature converge, however, on a central notion -- that small, nurturing, personal schools [1] in which educational activity can be tailored carefully to individual students' needs and interests are most effective and most compelling. And this notion is supported by a related belief that students' work in school should be guided by projects that they share in defining and that, to the greatest degree possible, involve them in authentic intellectual activity rather than canned recitation exercises. While these guiding principles are not exactly novel ones -- the so-called progressives of the 1920's urged a similar conception, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau articulated a similar vision in the mid-18th century -- schools now find themselves newly able to bring them to life. The digitization of our cultures is providing schools with access to a breadth of intellectual and cultural resources far greater than ever before; it is providing new, sophisticated and customizable tools for inquiry and investigation; it is enabling modes of interaction, communication, and collaboration not formerly possible. [2]

To the extent that the Institute follows and advances any one educational philosophy, it is a constructivist one. Constructivism [3] [4] is actually a collection of theories and ideas about different issues in pedagogy that are informed by a range of philosophical/epistemological outlooks. Some of these conceptions are incommensurate with each other; others complement each other. The Institute conceives of the constructivist agenda [5] as primarily motivated by a recognition that most, if not all, knowledge domains are complex and ill-structured in a number of ways that require for their mastery experience with a broad range of cases that reflect the complexity and diversity of the field. Aligned with this idea are the related notions that learning requires a significant degree of practical experience with the application of principles, and that learning is a kind of enculturation akin to the acquiring of natural language knowledge and skill. By and large, knowledge and skill are seen as intimately bound up with each other, such that the folk categories of knowing what and knowing how [6] are seen as significantly interdependent. Flowing from these general principles are more specific practices such as so-called 'anchored instruction' , 'cognitive apprenticeship' [7], and 'collaborative learning' that find articulation throughout the literature and that the Institute brings to life in its projects.

Much of the Institute's work can be seen as an on-going effort to identify important, and newly realizable, features of the contexts for good, constructivist practices. Here, the Institute finds itself aligned closely with the "essential schools" movement of the Coalition for Essential Schools [8] and the New Visions Schools Initiative of the Fund for New York City Public Education. Both these initiatives are guided by the constructivist idea that the dominant metaphor in school should be the student-as-worker, and by the supporting idea that the student's work should engage complex information resources capable of sustaining authentic inquiry that is carefully conceived to help her integrate new acquirements into her corpus of knowledge/skills. The schools affiliated with these organizations serve diverse communities with diverse needs, and it is an important part of the vision that they be free to implement structures and practices that reflect their idiosyncratic circumstances. But they are united in their belief that smaller schools are more able to remain essential -- more able to attend to individual needs and more able to ensure that the activity is carefully conceived.

The roles of teachers in these essential schools are reconfigured just as much as the curricular structures are. Whereas, in the comprehensive school, staff members have highly expertise-specific duties, in the essential school each and all have a collaborative responsibility for the whole. What's more, as the raw materials of the curriculum increasingly become electronic ones accessed via digital networks, the range of skills required of teachers is broadening rapidly. All this change points to a need to rethink the processes of professional development for educators. The work that constitutes their profession is changing and so must their training. The Institute is currently conducting work in this area as well, investigating ways to align the findings and the prescriptions of various standards organizations with new needs that flow from what is enabled by the implementation of networked digital technologies in the context of the essential school.

Much of the theoretical background for both contructivism and the essential school converges nicely with some current ideas in systems design methodology. The Institute has identified in so-called 'participatory design' [9] a number of ideas about design strategy and tool use that have significant applications in the area of developing curriculum computer supported curriculum, in particular -- in the essential school. Participatory design is a collection of principles and practices originating in Scandinavia as part of a labor-empowering movement to democratize the workplace. The theoretical underpinning of PD is a reconsideration of a traditional view of design as a formalizable means of rational decision making about the relative worth of different states of affairs. PD urges that we understand designing as a combination of purposeful, but not reasoned, moves and more detached, actively rational decisions. The theoretical literature discusses ways that tools are used by communities that have adapted them to certain occasions for use such that they are employed without reflection, much the way conceptual or linguistic tools frequently are in discourse. These notions are related to other ideas about ways that information systems fail when these features of tool use are not adequately attended to in the design of systems. Ultimately, PD makes a strong case that the users of systems should be enfranchised in the design process. A good deal of the reasoning supporting this conclusion is markedly similar to that supporting the tenets of certain constructivist conceptions. In particular, many thinkers in both movements are driven by an interest in the significance of context for understanding cognition and action in learning situations. An interdisciplinary movement is emerging from cognitive psychology, anthropology, philosophy of language, and philosophy of mind that urges that cognition be regarded as inherently situated. These thinkers are reconsidering the traditional starting point of cognitive psychology -- that all cognition is fundamentally a process of symbolic representation of the world. The Institute is attempting to mobilize this convergence of PD and constructivism to large effect by exhibiting the practical efficacy of integrating the design, evaluation and dissemination processes of curriculum development along PD lines. Such an integrated approach fits well with the concept of the essential school where individualization and collaboration already play important roles.

Effecting a strategic vision in education requires the sustained application of diverse resources in a deliberate manner, according to a clear and rational plan. It is to help lay the groundwork for such an effort that the Institute has designed its program of practice. The Institute believes that there are four distinct requirements to effecting systemic educational change. These are:

The Institute has developed its program to meet these requirements and to provide a framework for the mobilization of disparate elements in a common endeavor.

Those interested in a more in-depth discussion of the ideas guiding the development of the Institute's program should see McClintock, Power and Pedagogy [10]. Those interested in an in-depth description of the Institute's program as it aligns with these ideas should see McClintock and Taipale, "Educating America for the 21st Century": A Strategic Plan for Educational Leadership 1994-2001. [11]

What follow are sets of selected bibliographical references germane to each of the topics discussed above.

On School Reform and the Essential School

Cetron, Marvin J. Schools of the Future: How American Business and Education Can Cooperate to Save Our Schools. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1985.

Kohl, Herbert. "I Won't Learn From You" and Other Thoughts on Creative Maladjustment. New York: The New Press, 1994.

Hypernote 8. McQuillan, Patrick J. and Donna E, Muncey. Changes Take Time: A Look At the Growth and Development of the Coalition of Essential Schools," Journal of Curriculum Studies, 1994, Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 265-79. Go back up to point of citation.

Muncey, Donna E. and Patrick J. McQuillan "Education Reform as Revitalization Movement," American Journal of Education, August 1993, pp. 393-431.

Hypernote 1. Ponder, Gerald A. and Kathleen M. Holmes, "Purpose, Products, and Visions: The Creation of New Schools," The Educational Forum, Summer 1992 Vol. 56, No. 4, pp. 405-418. Go back up to point of citation.

Sizer, Theodore R. Horace's Compromise: The Dilemma of the American High School. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1984.

Sizer, Theodore R. Horace's School: Redesigning the American High School. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1992.

Walsey, Patricia A. "Stirring the Chalkdust," Teachers College Record, Fall 1991, Vol. 93, No. 1, pp. 28-58.

On School Size

Fowler, William J. & Walberg, Herbert J. "School Size, Characteristics and Outcomes." Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Summer 1991, Vol. 13, pp. 189-202.

Guthrie, J. W. "Organizational Scale and School Success." Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Vol. 1, 1979, pp. 17-27.

Lindsay, P. "The Effect of High School Size on Student Participation, Satisfaction and Attendance." Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Vol. 4, 1982, pp. 57-65

Ornstein, Allan C. "School District and School Size: Overview and Outlook." The High School Journal, April/May 1993, Vol. 76, pp. 240-44.

Ornstein, Allan C. "Does School Size Influence School Effectiveness?" American Secondary Education, Vol. 20, No. 1, 1991, pp. 8-12.

Pittman, R. B. & Haughwout, P. "Influence of High School Size on Dropout Rate." Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Vol. 9, 1987, pp. 337-43.

Richardson, Lynda. "Being Anonymous and Going Truant." The New York Times, Metro Section, Sunday, June 19, 1994, pp. 1 & 27.

Walberg, H. J. "Improving the Productivity of America's Schools." Educational Leadership, Vol. 41, 1984, pp. 19-27.

Walberg, Herbert J. and Herbert J. Walberg III. "Losing Local Control." Educational Researcher. 23:5, June-July 1994, pp. 19-26.

On Constructivism

Hypernote 6. Brown, John Seely, A. Collins, and P. Duguid." Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning," Educational Researcher, 1989, 18, pp. 32-42. Go back up to point of citation.

Collins, A., J.S. Brown, S. E. Newman. "Cognitive Apprenticeship: Teaching the Crafts of Reading, Writing, and Mathematics."

Harel, Idit and Seymour Papert. "Software Design as a Learning Environment." Interactive Learning Environments, I1(1), pp. 1-32.

Harel, Idit and Seymour Papert (Eds.). Constructionism, Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1991.

Hypernote 3. McClintock, Robert. "Toward a Place for Study in a World of Instruction." Teachers College Record, Vol. 73: 2, December 1971, pp. 161-205. Go back up to point of citation.

Hypernote 5. Spiro, Rand J., Paul J. Feltovich, Michael J. Jacobson and Richard L. Coulson, "Cognitive Flexibility, Constructivism, and Hypertext: Random Access Instruction for Advanced Knowledge Acquisition in Ill-Structured Domains,"Educational Technology, May 1991, pp. 24-33. Go back up to point of citation.

Hypernote 4. Strommen, Erik F. and Bruce Lincoln. "Constructivism, Technology, and the Future of Classroom Learning." Go back up to point of citation.

On Standards and Professional Development

The Institute for Learning Technologies. The Information Infrastructure and New Visions for Teacher Professional Development, Proposal to the U.S. Dept. of Education. New York: Institute for Learning Technologies, 1994.

Little, J. W. "Norms of Collegiality and Experimentation: Workplace Conditions and School Success." American Educational Research Journal, Fall 1982, Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 325-40.

Lortie, D. C. School Teacher: A Sociological Study. Chicago: University of Chicago Pressk, 1975.

Moore, Kenneth D., Scott Hopkins and Richard Tullis. "NCATE Accreditation: Visions of Excellence." Journal of Research and Development in Education, Fall 1993, Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 28-34.

The National Staff Development Council. Continuing to Learn: A Guidebook for Teacher Development, Oxford, Ohio: NSDC 1987.

On Participatory Design and Related Issues Concerning Human-Computer Interaction

Brown, John Seely, "Research That Reinvents the Corporation," Harvard Business Review, January-February, 1991, pp. 102-111.

Bodker, Susanne. Through the Interface: A Human Activity Approach to User Interface Design. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates, 1991.

Dreyfus, Hubert L. What Computers Can't Do: A Critique of Artificial Reason, New York: Harper and Row, 1972

Dreyfus, Hubert L. and Stuart E. Dreyfus. Mind Over Machine, New York: Macmillan/The Free Press, 1985.

Ehn, Pelle. Work-Oriented Design of Computer Artefacts. Stockholm: Arbetslivscentrum, 1988.

Hypernote 9. Ehn, Pelle."Scandinavian Design: On Participation and Skill" in Schuler, Douglas and Aki, Namioka (Eds.) Participatory Design: Principles and Practices, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1993, pp. 41-77. Go back up to point of citation.

Markus, M. Lynne and Keil, Mark. "If We Build It, They Will Come: Designing Information Systems That People Want to Use." Sloan Management Review, Summer 1994

Schuler, D. and Namioka, A., eds. Participatory Design: Principles and Practices. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates, 1993.

Various authors. Communications of the ACM. June 1993.

Winograd, Terry and Flores, Fernando. Understanding Computers and Cognition: A New Foundation for Design. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex Publishing Corp, 1986.

On Situated Cognition and Situated Action

Barwise, Jon and Perry, John. Situations and Attitudes. Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press, 1983.

Hypernote 7. Berryman, Sue E., "Designing Efective Learning Environments: Cognitive Apprenticeship Models" Go back up to point of citation.

Gibson, J. J. "The Theory of Affordances." In R. E. Shaw and J. Bransford (Eds.), Perceiving, Acting, and Knowing. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates, 1977.

Gibson, J.J. The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates, 1986.

Greeno, James and Joyce Moore. "Situativity and Symbols: Response to Vera and Simon," Cognitive Science January-March, 1993, Vol. 17, No. 1., pp. 49-60.

Greeno, James G., Moore, Joyce L., and Smith, David R. "Transfer of Situated Learning." In Douglas K. Detterman and Robert J. Sternberg (Eds.) Transfer on Trial: Intelligence, Cognition and Instruction. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1993, pp. 99-167.

Lave, J. Cognition in Practice: Mind, Mathematics and Culture in Everyday Life. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988

Lave, J. and Wenger, E. Situated Learning and : Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Suchman, Lucy. Plans and Situated Actions. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1987.

Institute for Learning Technologies Publications

Connect to ILT Documents and Papers page.

Apple TV, producer. "The Dalton Technology Plan: Building the Schools of Tomorrow." New York: The New Laboratory for Teaching and Learning, 1993. VHS. 28 minutes.

Black, John, Clifford Hill and Janet Schiff. Evaluation of the Dalton Technology Project from a Thinking Skills Perspective. New York: Department of Communication, Computing, and Technology in Education, 1993. 77 pp.

de Zengotita, Tom, Luyen Chou, Frank Moretti and Robbie McClintock. Second Annual Report -- 1992-1993. 2 vols. New York: New Laboratory for Teaching and Learning, 1993.

Hypernote 2. McClintock, Robbie, Luyen Chou, Frank Moretti, Don H. Nix. "Technology and Education: New Wine in New Bottles -- Choosing Pasts and Imagining Educational Futures" Abstract. New York: New Laboratory for Teaching and Learning, 1993. Go back up to point of citation.

McClintock, Robbie and Frank Moretti. The Cumulative Curriculum: Multi-media and the Making of a New Educational System: A Project Description. New York: Institute for Learning Technologies, 1991. 154 pp.

Hypernote 11. McClintock, Robert and K. A. Taipale. "Educating America for the 21st Century": A Strategic Plan for Educational Leadership 1994-2001. Version 2.0. New York: Institute for Learning Technologies, 1994. URL http:/ilt/docs/ILTplan.html. Go back up to point of citation.

McClintock, Robbie, Tom de Zengotita, Luyen Chou and Frank Moretti. Risk and Renewal: First Annual Report, 1991-1992. New York: New Laboratory for Teaching and Learning, 1992. 373 pp.

Hypernote 10. McClintock, Robbie. Power and Pedagogy: Transforming Education Through Information Technology. New York: Institute for Learning Technologies, 1992. URL http:/academic/texts/ mcclintock/pp/title.html. Go back up to point of citation.

Taipale, K. A. (Ed.), ILTweb Versions 1-5. New York: Institute for Learning Technologies. 1993-95. URL .