Learning sciences ( LS ) is the critical theoretical understanding of learning , engagement in the design and implementation of learning innovations, and the improvement of instructional methodologies. LS research traditionally focuses on cognitive-psychological, social-psychological, cultural-psychological and critical theoretical foundations of human learning, as well as practical design of learning environments. Major contributing fields include cognitive science , computer science , educational psychology , anthropology , and applied linguistics . Over the past decade, LS researchers have expanded their focus to include informal learning environments, instructional methods, policy innovations, and the design of curricula.
53-665: Yasmin B. Kafai is a German American academic who is Professor of Learning Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education , with a secondary appointment in Computer and Information Sciences at University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science . She is a past president of the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS), and an executive editor of
106-615: A Context for Children's Learning helped to establish the field of gaming and learning. Kafai has also written Under the Microscope: A Decade of Gender Equity Interventions in the Sciences (2004), contributed to Tech-Savvy: Educating Girls in the New Computer Age , and written several journal and book articles. Learning Sciences As an emerging discipline, LS is still in the process of defining itself. Accordingly,
159-494: A means for study is often viewed as a significant distinction of LS from the many fields that contribute to it. By including design-based research within its methodological toolkit, learning sciences qualifies as a "design science", sharing common characteristics with other design sciences that employ design science methodology such as engineering and computer science . Learning sciences is also considered by some as having some degree of overlap with instructional design , although
212-403: A positive result of the emergence of "cognitive science" was the departure from "simplistic behaviorism". However, he adds, a negative result was the growing popularity of a total misconception of the nature of thought: the computational theory of mind or cognitivism, which asserts that the brain is a computer that processes symbols whose meanings are entities of the objective world. In this view,
265-424: A revolutionary change is currently taking place: the move from cognitive science (autonomous from neuroscience) to cognitive neuro science. The authors point out that many researchers who previously carried out psychological and behavioral studies now give properly cognitive neuroscientific explanations. They mention the example of Stephen Kosslyn , who postulated his theory of the pictorial format of mental images in
318-503: A set of inherent rules and principles that all humans have to govern language, and says that the components of universal grammar are biological. To support this, he points out that children seem to know that language has a hierarchical structure, and they never make mistakes that one would expect from a hypothesis that language is linear. Steven Pinker has also written on this subject from the perspective of modern-day cognitive science. He says that modern cognitive scientists, like figures in
371-438: A significant role in behaviorist research, and prominent behaviorist J. B. Watson , interested in describing the responses of humans and animals as one group, stated that there was no need to distinguish between the two. Watson hoped to learn to predict and control behavior through his research. The popular Hull - Spence stimulus-response approach was, according to George Mandler , impossible to use to research topics that held
424-489: Is an editor of Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat: New Perspectives on Gender and Gaming (2008), a collection of essays that builds on the groundbreaking book From Barbie to Mortal Kombat (Cassell and Jenkins, 2000). Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat presents new developments in gaming, gender, and learning, and why gender-based stereotypes persist in gaming. Kafai's 1995 book Minds in Play: Computer Design as
477-430: Is not the case. He also says that even within humans, using the same learning theory for multiple types of learning could be possible, but there is no solid evidence to suggest it. He proposes a hypothesis that claims that there is a biologically based language faculty that organizes the linguistic information in the input and constrains human language to a set of particular types of grammars. He introduces universal grammar,
530-399: Is the fact that humans can produce infinite sentences, most of which are brand new to the speaker themselves, even though the words and phrases they have heard are not infinite. Pinker, who agrees with Chomsky's idea of innate universal grammar, claims that although humans speak around six thousand mutually unintelligible languages, the grammatical programs in their minds differ far less than
583-793: The Journal of the Learning Sciences . Kafai was born in Germany and has worked and studied in Germany, France, and the United States. In the U.S., Kafai worked with Seymour Papert at the MIT Media Laboratory and was a faculty member of the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies . Kafai is a pioneer in research on computing, gaming, and learning. Utilizing constructionist theory , Kafai examines technology designs and culture, and helped to set
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#1732794394237636-461: The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in the 1970s advanced interdisciplinary understanding in the relevant fields and supported the research that led to the field of cognitive neuroscience . George Miller states that six fields participated in the development of cognitive science: psychology , linguistics , computer science , anthropology , neuroscience , and philosophy , with the first three playing
689-416: The ecological validity of dominant theory, as well as to develop new theories and frameworks for conceptualizing learning, instruction, design processes, and educational reform. LS research strives to generate principles of practice beyond the particular features of an educational innovation to solve real educational problems, giving LS its interventionist character. Several significant events contributed to
742-430: The hermeneutic description of how people go about this. He believes that the cognitive revolution steered psychology away from behaviorism and this was good, but then another form of anti-mentalism took its place: computationalism. Bruner states that the cognitive revolution should replace behaviorism rather than only modify it. Neuroscientist Gerald Edelman argues in his book Bright Air, Brilliant Fire (1991) that
795-426: The "real world" through intermediary systems that process information like sensory input. As understood by a cognitive scientist, the study of cognition is the study of these systems and the ways they process information from the input. The processing includes not just the initial structuring and interpretation of the input but also the storage and later use. Steven Pinker claims that the cognitive revolution bridged
848-403: The 1950s and 1970s as an interdisciplinary field composed primarily of aspects of psychology, linguistics, and computer science. However, both classical symbolic computational theories and connectionist models developed largely independently of biological considerations. The authors argue that connectionist models were closer to symbolic models than to neurobiology. Piccinini and Boone state that
901-466: The 1958 article "Elements of a Theory of Human Problem Solving". Ulric Neisser 's 1967 book Cognitive Psychology was also a landmark contribution. Prior to the cognitive revolution, behaviorism was the dominant trend in psychology in the United States . Behaviorists were interested in "learning", which was seen as "the novel association of stimuli with responses." Animal experiments played
954-567: The 1960s, the Harvard Center for Cognitive Studies and the Center for Human Information Processing at the University of California, San Diego were influential in developing the academic study of cognitive science. By the early 1970s, the cognitive movement had surpassed behaviorism as a psychological paradigm. Furthermore, by the early 1980s the cognitive approach had become the dominant line of research inquiry across most branches in
1007-763: The 1980s based on behavioral studies. Later, with the advent of magnetic resonance imaging technology, Kosslyn was able to show that when people imagine, the visual cortex is activated. This lent strong neuroscientific evidence to his theory of the pictorial format, refuting speculations about a supposed non-pictorial format of mental images. According to Canales Johnson et al. (2021): Many studies using imaging and neurophysiological techniques have shown several similarities in brain activity between visual imagery and visual perception, and have identified frontoparietal, occipital and temporal neural components of visual imagery. Neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux in his book The Emotional Brain argues that cognitive science emerged around
1060-678: The Learning Sciences (ICLS) at Northwestern University (edited by Lawrence Birnbaum and published by the AACE, but no longer available). In 1994, ICLS hosted the first biennial meeting, which also took place at Northwestern. The International Society of the Learning Sciences was later established in 2002 by Janet Kolodner, Tim Koschmann, and Chris Hoadley. By integrating multiple fields, learning sciences extends beyond other closely related fields. For example, learning sciences extends beyond psychology , in that it accounts for and contributes to computational , sociological and anthropological approaches to
1113-450: The actual speech. Many different languages can be used to convey the same concepts or ideas, which suggests there may be a common ground for all the languages. Pinker claims another important idea from the cognitive revolution was that the mind is modular, with many parts cooperating to generate a train of thought or an organized action. It has different distinct systems for different specific missions. Behaviors can vary across cultures, but
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#17327943942371166-519: The biennial Computer Supported Collaborative Learning conference and International Conference of the Learning Sciences on alternate years. Since 2020, these two conferences have been combined as a unified ISLS Annual Meeting with one track for each conference. Although controlled experimental studies and rigorous qualitative research have long been employed in learning sciences, LS researchers often use design-based research methods. Interventions are conceptualized and implemented in natural settings to test
1219-508: The change from behaviorism to cognitivism was gradual, slowly evolving by building on behaviorism. Lachman and Butterfield were among the first to imply that cognitive psychology has a revolutionary origin. Thomas H. Leahey has criticized the idea that the introduction of behaviorism and the cognitive revolution were actually revolutions and proposed an alternative history of American psychology as "a narrative of research traditions." Other authors criticize behaviorism, but they also criticize
1272-469: The cognitive revolution for having adopted new forms of anti-mentalism. Cognitive psychologist Jerome Bruner criticized the adoption of the computational theory of mind and the exclusion of meaning from cognitive science, and he characterized one of the primary objects of the cognitive revolution as changing the study of psychology so that meaning was its core. His understanding of the cognitive revolution revolves entirely around " meaning-making " and
1325-500: The cognitive revolution include psychologist George Miller 's 1956 article " The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two " (one of the most frequently cited papers in psychology), linguist Noam Chomsky 's Syntactic Structures (1957) and "Review of B. F. Skinner's Verbal Behavior " (1959), and foundational works in the field of artificial intelligence by John McCarthy , Marvin Minsky , Allen Newell , and Herbert Simon , such as
1378-402: The cognitive revolution occurred. Empiricists believe that humans acquire knowledge only through sensory input, while rationalists believe that there is something beyond sensory experience that contributes to human knowledge. However, whether Chomsky's position on language fits into the traditional rationalist approach has been questioned by philosopher John Cottingham . George Miller , one of
1431-413: The critical and dissenting approaches of these authors that are exceptions to the majority view of cognitivism. In their paper "The cognitive neuroscience revolution", Gualtiero Piccinini and Worth Boone argue that cognitive neuroscience emerged as a discipline in the late 1980s. Prior to that time, cognitive science and neuroscience had largely developed in isolation. Cognitive science developed between
1484-512: The exact role (if any) that consciousness and cognition played in behavior. Although behaviorism was popular in the United States, Europe was not particularly influenced by it, and research on cognition could easily be found in Europe during this time. Noam Chomsky has framed the cognitive and behaviorist positions as rationalist and empiricist , respectively, which are philosophical positions that arose long before behaviorism became popular and
1537-442: The field of psychology. A key goal of early cognitive psychology was to apply the scientific method to the study of human cognition. Some of the main ideas and developments from the cognitive revolution were the use of the scientific method in cognitive science research, the necessity of mental systems to process sensory input, the innateness of these systems, and the modularity of the mind. Important publications in triggering
1590-401: The field's identity is multifaceted and varies between institutions. However, the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS) summarizes the field as follows: "Researchers in the interdisciplinary field of learning sciences, born during the 1990s, study learning as it happens in real-world situations and how to better facilitate learning in designed environments – in school, online, in
1643-433: The foundation for programmatic initiatives on games and learning . Kafai was an early developer and researcher of Scratch , an educational programming language that allows young people to creatively participate as programmers in the development of virtual projects. She is also an active voice on the involvement of girls in gaming and programming and on the impact of virtual gaming on real-life social behavior in youth. Kafai
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1696-599: The gap between the physical world and the world of ideas, concepts, meanings and intentions. It unified the two worlds with a theory that mental life can be explained in terms of information, computation and feedback. In his 1975 book Reflections on Language , Noam Chomsky questions how humans can know so much, despite relatively limited input. He argues that they must have some kind of innate, domain-specific learning mechanism that processes input. Chomsky observes that physical organs do not develop based on their experience, but based on some inherent genetic coding, and wrote that
1749-460: The interest of cognitive scientists, like memory and thought, because both the stimulus and the response were thought of as completely physical events. Behaviorists typically did not research these subjects. B. F. Skinner , a functionalist behaviorist, criticized certain mental concepts like instinct as "explanatory fiction(s)", ideas that assume more than humans actually know about a mental concept. Various types of behaviorists had different views on
1802-404: The international development of learning sciences. Perhaps the earliest history can be traced back to the cognitive revolution . In 1983 in the United States, Jan Hawkins and Roy Pea proposed a collaboration between Bank Street College and The New School for Social Research to create a graduate program in learning sciences. The program, known as "Psychology, Education, and Technology" (PET),
1855-424: The main roles. A key goal of early cognitive psychology was to apply the scientific method to the study of human cognition. This was done by designing experiments that used computational models of artificial intelligence to systematically test theories about human mental processes in a controlled laboratory setting. When defining the "Cognitive Approach," Ulric Neisser says that humans can only interact with
1908-425: The mental programs that generate the behaviors don't need to be varied. There have been criticisms of the typical characterization of the shift from behaviorism to cognitivism. Henry L. Roediger III argues that the common narrative most people believe about the cognitive revolution is inaccurate. The narrative he describes states that psychology started out well but lost its way and fell into behaviorism, but this
1961-407: The middle of the 20th century, and is often described as 'the new science of the mind.' However, in fact, cognitive science is actually a science of only one part of the mind, the part that has to do with thinking, reasoning, and intellect. It leaves emotions out. "And minds without emotions are not really minds at all…" Psychologist Lawrence Barsalou argues that human cognitive processing involves
2014-441: The mind should be treated the same way. He says that there is no question that there is some kind of innate structure in the mind, but it is less agreed upon whether the same structure is used by all organisms for different types of learning. He compares humans to rats in the task of maze running to show that the same learning theory cannot be used for different species because they would be equally good at what they are learning, which
2067-675: The mind), since the latter conceptualizes the mind as a computer and meaning as objective correspondence. Furthermore, Edelman criticizes "functionalism", the idea that formal and abstract functional properties of the mind can be analyzed without making direct reference to the brain and its processes. Edelman asserts that most of those who work in the field of cognitive psychology and cognitive science seem to adhere to this computational view, but he mentions some important exceptions. Exceptions include John Searle , Jerome Bruner , George Lakoff , Ronald Langacker, Alan Gauld, Benny Shanon, Claes von Hofsten, and others. Edelman argues that he agrees with
2120-457: The past such as Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716), don't believe in the idea of the mind starting as a " blank slate ." Though they have disputes on the nature-nurture diffusion, they all believe that learning is based on something innate to humans. Without this innateness, there will be no learning process. He points out that humans' acts are non-exhaustive, even though basic biological functions are finite. An example of this from linguistics
2173-571: The role of program directorship. Since then, many LS graduate programs have appeared globally, and the field continues to gain recognition as an innovative and influential field for education research and design. The Journal of the Learning Sciences was first published in 1991, with Janet Kolodner as founding editor. Yasmin Kafai and Cindy Hmelo-Silver took over as editors in 2009, followed by Iris Tabak and Joshua Radinsky in 2013. The International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning
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2226-719: The scientists involved in the cognitive revolution, sets the date of its beginning as September 11, 1956, when several researchers from fields like experimental psychology, computer science, and theoretical linguistics presented their work on cognitive science-related topics at a meeting of the 'Special Interest Group in Information Theory' at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . This interdisciplinary cooperation went by several names like cognitive studies and information-processing psychology but eventually came to be known as cognitive science. Grants from
2279-503: The sensory properties of perceptual experiences. According to Barsalou (2020), the "grounded cognition" perspective in which his theory is framed asserts that cognition emerges from the interaction between amodal symbols, modal symbols, the body and the world. Therefore, this perspective does not rule out 'classical' symbols –amodal ones, such as those typical of verbal language or numerical reasoning– but rather considers that these interact with imagination, perception and action situated in
2332-520: The simulation of perceptual, motor, and emotional states. The classical and 'intellectualist' view of cognition, considers that it is essentially processing propositional information of a verbal or numerical type. However, Barsalou's theory explains human conceptual processing by the activation of regions of the sensory cortices of different modalities, as well as of the motor cortex, and by the simulation of embodied experiences –visual, auditory, emotional, motor–, that ground meaning in experience situated in
2385-508: The study of learning. Similarly, LS draws inspiration from cognitive science , and is regarded as a branch of cognitive science; however, it gives particular attention to improving education through the study, modification, and creation of new technologies and learning environments, and various interacting and emergent factors that potentially influence human learning. Many LS researchers employ design-based research methodology. The growing acceptance of design-based research methodology as
2438-603: The symbols of the mind correspond exactly to entities or categories in the world defined by criteria of necessary and sufficient conditions, that is, classical categories. The representations would be manipulated according to certain rules that constitute a syntax. Edelman rejects the idea that objects of the world come in classical categories, and also rejects the idea that the brain/mind is a computer. The author rejects behaviorism (a points he also makes in his 2006 book Second Nature. Brain science and human knowledge ), but also cognitivism (the computational-representational theory of
2491-536: The two communities developed in different ways, at times emphasizing different programs of research. These differences are described in greater detail in a 2004 special issue of Educational Technology . Design-based research is by no means the only research methodology used in the field. Additional methodologies include computational modeling, experimental and quasi-experimental research, and non-interventionist ethnographic -style qualitative research methodologies. Cognitive revolution The cognitive revolution
2544-421: The workplace, at home, and in informal environments. Learning sciences research may be guided by constructivist, social-constructivist, socio-cognitive, and socio-cultural theories of learning." ISLS has a large worldwide membership, is affiliated with two international journals: Journal of the Learning Sciences and International Journal of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning , and has previously sponsored
2597-442: The world. Modal symbols are those analogical mental representations linked to a specific sensory channel: for example, the representation of 'dog' through a visual image similar to a dog or through an auditory image of the barking of dogs, based on the memory of the experiences of seeing a dog or hearing its barking. Lawrence Barsalou's 'perceptual symbols' theory asserts that mental processes operate with modal symbols that maintain
2650-451: Was an intellectual movement that began in the 1950s as an interdisciplinary study of the mind and its processes, from which emerged a new field known as cognitive science . The preexisting relevant fields were psychology , linguistics , computer science , anthropology , neuroscience , and philosophy . The approaches used were developed within the then-nascent fields of artificial intelligence , computer science , and neuroscience . In
2703-668: Was corrected by the Cognitive Revolution, which essentially put an end to behaviorism. He claims that behavior analysis is actually still an active area of research that produces successful results in psychology and points to the Association for Behavior Analysis International as evidence. He claims that behaviorist research is responsible for successful treatments of autism, stuttering, and aphasia, and that most psychologists actually study observable behavior, even if they interpret their results cognitively. He believes that
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#17327943942372756-624: Was established as a separate journal in 2006, edited by Gerry Stahl and Friederich Hesse. Although these journals were relatively new within education research, they rapidly escalated into the upper ranks of the Educational Research section of the Social Sciences Citation Index impact factor rankings. In August 1991, the Institute for the Learning Sciences hosted its first International Conference for
2809-534: Was supported through a planning grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation . However, the program was never established due to the requirement of hiring new faculty. In 1988, Roger Schank 's arrival at Northwestern University contributed to the development of the Institute for Learning Sciences. In 1991, Northwestern initiated the first LS doctoral program, designed and launched by Pea as its first director. The program accepted their first student cohort in 1992. Following Pea's new position as dean, Brian Reiser assumed
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