THE EFFECT OF DIFFERENT LEVELS OF MINDFUL ABSTRACTION ACTIVITIES ON TWO TYPES OF TRANSFER AND THE RELATION WITH KNOWLEDGE ABOUT ANALOGUES IN ONLINE SITUATED LEARNING

Open Access
- Author:
- Ryu, Jiyeon
- Graduate Program:
- Instructional Systems
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- May 23, 2007
- Committee Members:
- Barbara L Grabowski, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Francis M Dwyer Jr., Committee Member
Kyle Leonard Peck, Committee Member
Rayne Audrey Sperling, Committee Member - Keywords:
- situated learning
low-road transfer
high-road transfer
mindful abstraction
analogue knowledge - Abstract:
- The goal of situated learning is to promote the use of knowledge in real-life. Because knowledge is inseparable from context, situated learning emphasizes the use of authentic situations as learning environments. To promote the use of knowledge in different situations, transfer should be the main consideration because the same knowledge appears differently in different situations according to situative perspective. Many studies, however, indicate that transfer is a weakness of situated learning. Salomon and Perkins (1989) introduced a framework consisting of two different types of transfer employing different transfer mechanisms. Low-road transfer occurs through automatization built from repeated practice, while high-road transfer occurs through deliberate recognition of similarities between a new situation and prior experience. Recognition is accomplished by explicit elicitation of abstraction, that is, abstracting principles from prior situations that can be used in new situations. Based on the framework, situated learning induces low-road transfer at best, but not high-road transfer because the learning model does not provide explicit abstraction practice. The abstraction process involves decontextualization of situations and representation of what is decontextualized into more general symbolic forms. Analogy is one of the well known strategies to abstract general principles, and many studies using analogy to elicit abstraction show transfer in learners¡¯ performance. Two factors are known influence effective abstraction practice. The first factor is knowledge about analogues used for eliciting abstraction. Because analogy needs an analogue for comparison with a given situation to elicit abstraction effectively and for use of an analogue, the analogue must be understood first. The second factor that is influential for effective abstraction practice is the degree of mindfulness for the abstraction process. Mindfulness refers to a state of conscious awareness for exertion of active cognitive activities. The more the abstraction is mindful, the more the activities are generative. However, high-level mindfulness may cause mental exhaustion which may hinder effective and efficient learning achievement. In this study, the effect of different levels of mindful abstraction activities on two types of transfer and the relation with knowledge about analogues were investigated to promote transfer in situated learning.