A Learners’ View (ALV) Is Of Choices On The Shortest And Fastest Path To Learning, The Oxygen Of Social Life.

Last Edited: September 14, 2018

Main Article: Glossary

Theme: Clarifying from a learners’ view (ALV) the social processes people use while choosing elements of social life in order to adopt, adapt, and benefit from social actions.

Definition: 1. a Social processes. b The observable processes of choosing one or more change(s) in social patterns that resolve(s) a problem in a way that benefits the learner; choices people make to adopt, adapt, and manage a specific social pattern to meet a specific criterion, i.e., surviving a challenge, passing a mathematics test; discovering a particle in physics. c Expanding a performance repertoire, whether as vocabulary, logic, or so-called skill set.

2. An observable and manageable process to arrive at a social pattern that meets a standard accepted by other people.

3. Occurs in one observable step with two choices in three parts during four stages with five generic results, with a total of 15 options, as described in a Learning Efficiency Analysis Paradigm (aLEAP), also known as A Learners’ View (ALV).

4. Sequential random trial-and-error behavior until adopting, adapting, and maintaining one or more of five generic behavior patterns appropriate for the condition; until adapting and using one of five generic behavior patterns to solve a problem.

5. Social transactions (exchanges) that result in one or more changed patterns for managing a problem (solving a puzzle).

6. Breaking and using social codes more reliably, such as how to read a trail of clues in the wilderness, a book, or a mathematical formula.

7. A survival mechanism.

8. No way other than to observe a change in a social pattern exists to identify learning.

9. Operational Definitions: a. Changes in one or more observed social patterns of individuals that other people accept or that meet another standard, as in passing an academic test; no way other than to observe a change in a social pattern exists to identify learning. b. Exchanges of time, effort, and other personal resources to adopt, adapt, and manage social patterns that resolve a problem, as in learning a lesson.

Synonyms: ACTIVE INGREDIENTS OF LEARNING (AIL) refers to those elements (parts) of a lesson that learners choose to use in order to solve a problem. COGNITIVE LEARNING refers to inferences drawn from observed behavior patterns, including of neurological electrical-chemical activity, about unseen activity assumed to occur in the brain. DIRECT LEARNING refers to a software program that automatically compares a learner’s resolution of a problem with a correct (standard) resolution and allows the learner repeated attempts to match the correct resolution; it gives priority to meeting one or more of the five generic resolutions to problems. DIRECTED LEARNING refers to instruction intended to show learners how to resolve a problem; it relies on an instructional plan based on an analysis of which part of the lesson’s content to present first, second, etc. ROTE LEARNING refers to matching learners’ social patterns with a standard in isolation from its use, as in choral responses; gives priority to matching a performance criterion over trial-and-errors to reach that standard; a point of criticism against direct and similar instruction used by believers in discovery and inquiry-based learning.

Imprecise: ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE refers to a vague process with a vague result. DISCOVERY LEARNING refers to an imprecise collection of activities of learners, sometimes with no specific result required; gives priority to trials-and-errors over failure to learn, lost opportunities to learn, and learning efficiency; it relies on trial-and-error behavior, not necessarily in patterns, to identify relevant variables and generic results to solve a problem. EDUCATION directs attention to either the social institution by that name or to constellations of processes that result, at least logically, to changes in what people do and say. EFFICIENT LEARNING refers to minimizing trials-and-errors and length of clock time to resolve a problem; it relies on planning lessons that closely match behavior patterns learners use to learn and that use content analyzed to match these patterns. EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING gives priority to doing something physical that results in meeting a standard of an observer; it relies on trial-and-error, sometimes more random than linear. HIGHER ORDER THINKING refers to inferences of events occurring that cannot be observed directly. INDIVIDUALIZED LEARNING occurs as fact, each individual learns separately from whatever others do; also refers to a general category of instructional theory and programs; gives priority to instructing individuals over groups, as in using individualized learning plans matched with an individualized lesson plan, a different set for each learner. INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING refers (a) to a non-catalogued aggregate of philosophies, theories, and practices related to John Dewey‘s philosophy of education; and gives priority (b) to using trial-and-errors over following direct or directed instruction for resolving problems, to lost opportunities to learn, and potentially to inefficient learning. LEARN BY DOING refers to a general category of social activity that sometimes results in social patterns that yield a product; relies on trial-and-errors that may include guidance from others.

Euphemism: Using ways to connect two dots to solves a problem.

Note: At the beginning of the twenty first century, learning remains one of the most used and least agreed upon words in and about education. A universally accepted definition of learning does not exist. As Allardyce (1979) said about another word, “We have agreed to use the word without agreeing how to define it” (p. 1). People use the word learning to indicate many things, ranging from inferences about mind, cognition and thinking to breaking social codes that manage social patterns in ways other people accept. Given this ambiguity, people appear compelled to reduce it to parts rather then to describe how people use learning to solve problems. More

References

Allardyce, G. (1979). What Fascism is not: thoughts on the deflation of a concept. The American Historical Review, Vol. 84, No. 2 (Apr., 1979), pp. 367-388. (Captured 7-31-14 at 5:45 AM MST at http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1855138?uid=3739552&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21104443415517 )

Related Resources

To Learn

Learning

References

Related Reading

Related Resources