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Article: ** Conversation and Activity Theory   ** ** Conversation Theory ** describes interaction between two or more cognitive systems such as a teacher and a student and how they engage in dialog over a given concept. It came out of the work of Gordon Pask on instructional design, models of individual learning styles. He identified conditions required for concept sharing, described the learning styles //holist//, //serialist//, and their optimal mixture //versatile//. He proposed a vigorous model of analogy relations. Conversation can be conducted at a number of levels: Natural language (general discussion)- Object languages (for discussing the subject matter)- Meta-languages (for talking about learning/language)The fundamental idea of the conversation theory is that learning occurs through conversations about a subject matter which serves to make knowledge explicit. Through conversation differences may be reduced until agreement to appoint can be made and “agreement to an understanding” may be reached. A residue of the interaction may be captured as an “entailment mesh”, an organized and publicly available collection of resultant knowledge, itself a major product of the theory as devotees argue they afford many advantages over semantic networks and other, less formalized and non-experimentally based “representations of knowledge” Gordon Pask developed what he called a “Cognitive Reflector” This is a virtual machine for selecting and executing concepts or topics from an entailment mesh shared by at least a pair of participants. It features an external modeling facility on which an agreement between a teacher and his student may be shown by reproducing public descriptions of behaivour. In order to facilitate learning Pask argued that subject matter should be represented in the form of structures which show what is to be learned. These structures exist in a variety of different levels depending upon the extent of the relationships displayed. The critical method of learning according to Conversation Theory is “teach-back” in which one person teaches another what they have learned. ** Activity Theory ** was initiated by a group of revolutionary Russian psychologists in the1920 & 1930’s. The approach was developed by Lev Yygotsy along with his colleagues A.N. Leont’ev and A.R. Luria. Together they formulated a completely new theoretic concept to transcend the prevailing understanding of psychology which was then dominated by psychoanalysis along with behaviourism. This new orientation was a model of artifact-mediated and object-oriented action. The relationship between human agent and objects of environment is mediated by cultural means, tools, and signs. Leont’ev introduced an emphasis on the division of labor as a fundamental historical process behind the evolution of mental functions. Mediated by tools, work is also “performed in conditions of joint, collective activity.” The distinction between activity, action and operation became the basis for Leont’ev’s model of activity. Large impart this theory was based on Marxist philosophy. Activity theory is not a “theory” of strict interpretation. Basically it differentiates between internal and external activities. The basic principal of Activity Theory include object-oriented, the dual concepts of internalization/externalization, tool meditation, hierarchical structure of activity, and continuous development. The theory was established with the philosophy and principle which meant that the human mind comes to exist, develop and can only be understood within the context of meaningful, goal-oriented, and socially determined interaction between human beings and their material environment. In human activity theory, the basic unit of analysis is human (work) activity. Human activities are driven by certain needs where people wish to achieve purpose This activity is usually mediated by one or more instruments or tools (concept of mediation is central to the whole theory). The carpenter uses the saw and hammer to produce a house out of wood, the teacher uses language, books, pictures, maps etc. to teach her students geography. However the carpenter building a house is not alone in the world. He works together with others. Although the two theories appear in some ways very different, firstly Conversation Theory is primarily done by conversation, but a conversation is something that takes effort, along with thought and preparation is indeed work and cannot be done alone. Yes it is effective in the classroom. Activity Theory is accomplished by the example of another’s work. Hearing is important. But seeing is believing.