In this chapter we describe a novel pedagogy for conceptual thinking and peer cooperation with Meaning Equivalence Reusable Learning Objects (MERLO) that enhances higher-order thinking; deepen comprehension of conceptual content; and improves learning outcomes. The evolution of this instructional methodology follows insights from four recent developments: analysis of patterns of content and structure of labeled patterns in human experience, that led to the emergence of concept science; development of digital cyber-infrastructure of networked information; research in neuroscience and brain imaging, showing that exposure of learners to multi-semiotic inductive problems enhance cognitive control of inter-hemispheric attentional processing in the lateral brain, and increase higher-order thinking; research in evolutionary dynamics on peer cooperation and indirect reciprocity, that document the motivational effect of knowledge of being observed, a psychological imperative that motivate individuals to cooperate and to contribute to the common good.
TopIntroduction
The chapter describe pedagogy for conceptual thinking and peer cooperation that enhances higher-order thinking, deepen comprehension of conceptual content, and improves learning outcomes, through three interactive learning processes:
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Interactive Concept Discovery (InCoD) with conceptual curation and CONCEPEDIA (Shafrir & Etkind, 2011).
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Meaning Equivalence Reusable Learning Objects (MERLO) Cooperative/Interactive/Formative/Diagnostic (CIFD) assessments (Etkind, Kenett, & Shafrir, 2010; Etkind & Shafrir, 2011; Shafrir & Etkind, 2006).
Development of learners’ meta-cognitive skills: peer cooperation; knowledge of being observed; self-evaluation; reflection (Nowak & Highfield, 2011; Donovan & Bransford, 2005, p. 407-415).
TopBackground
Traditional learning assessments often include structured items that focus on information and on application of procedures, such as true/false and multiple-choice questions. Results of such assessments demonstrate memory of facts, and correct execution of multi-step problem-solving procedures: ‘what is taught in schools emphasizes veridical, rather that adaptive, decision making. Most course work – and the resulting tests – ask students to search for the unique answers to concrete and unambiguous questions’ (Sousa, 2009, p. 30). Such learning assessments are situations where the student’s mind is being used as a storage-and-retrieval system, a task for which it is not particularly well adapted (Box, 1997, p. 49). In contrast, assessment of conceptual thinking includes unstructured items - inductive questions that focus on the meaning of conceptual situations: ‘this sets the mind free to do what it does best - be inductively creative’ (ibid).
The importance of conceptual thinking skills is now recognized as a cornerstone of effective learning, understanding facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework (Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 2004), as ways of thinking that explore patterns of equivalence-of-meaning in ideas, relations, and underlying issues. Conversations among content experts often reveal a common trend to clarify statements by re-formulating the issue under discussion from alternative points-of-view that share equivalence-of-meaning. These spontaneously formulated statements of complex issues are often encoded in alternative representations in different sign systems (e.g., text; images; diagrams; equations) that illustrate different aspects of the conceptual situation under discussion.
Meaning equivalence is a construct that denotes commonality of meaning across representations: a polymorphous - one-to-many - transformation of meaning. The related construct of representational competence is the ability to trans-code equivalence-of-meaning in multiple representations within and across sign systems (Shafrir, 1999; Sigel, 1954; 1993; 1999). Learning assessments based on meaning equivalence with unstructured items capture this important aspect of conceptual thinking.