Theoretical Relevance
Lecture 2 for the IV track of the 2012 PSLC
Summer School
Philip I Pavlik Jr.
University of Memphis
Theoretical Relevance: 1
William E. Herp
Chief Executive of Linear Air
“The first lesson in sales is:
Look for the pain.”
Theoretical Relevance: 2
Look for the pain in the…
 Literature
 Classroom
 Science
Theoretical Relevance: 3
of learning
Your customers
Literature: It is painful not to know the
answer to a known question
 Known
questions appear at the end of
papers, reviews, etc.
– At least one informed person cares about the
answer.
 Common
(bad) ways to pose research
questions
– Cool software
– Pop psychology
– I learn this way, so…
Theoretical Relevance: 4
No customers, or
poor customer
commitment
Select a question to add information
and clarity to the literature
 Information
value (in Shannon’s sense)
– High if prior probability of the answer is very
different from the answer obtained in the
experiment.
– Low if experiment just confirms the expected
answer.
 Clarification
value (real pains here)
– Low if the literature is a mess, and the experiment
just adds one more fact to the mess.
– High if the experiment somehow clarifies the
mess.
– Moderate if there is little prior literature.
Theoretical Relevance: 5
Look for (and relieve) the pain in the…
 Literature
 Classroom
 Sciences
Theoretical Relevance: 6
of Learning
Next
– Known question
– Answer would add information and/or
clarity
What pains the classroom?
 Ask
the instructor (you?) what’s most
frustrating
– Teaching a certain concept?
– Transfer to real world?
– Depth of understanding?
 Ask
the students…
– but students biased by immediate needs
Theoretical Relevance: 7
Examples: Andes Physics tutor is not
“selling” (can’t give it away!)
 Andes
teaches quantitative problem
solving.
 Most instructors think this is not a
bottleneck.
 Instead, qualitative problem solving is
their concern.
 Suggests
that Andes is poorly targeted
to classroom pain…
Theoretical Relevance: 8
Look for (and relieve) the pain in
the…
 Literature
– Known question
– Answer would add information and/or
clarity
 Classroom
 Sciences
Theoretical Relevance: 9
of Learning
Next
– Instructors consider the question important
Where is the pain in the Learning
Sciences?
 Too
many results
 No organization of the results
 No theory
 No clear implications
 No classic results that everyone knows
 No accretion
 Progress is more like politics than
medicine
Theoretical Relevance: 10
To cure the pain, Learning Science
needs a theoretical framework
 Not
like physics
– A few basic principles from which all else follows.
 More
like Medicine
– Many basics (anatomy, physiology, genetics)
– Many specializations e.g., lymphatic cancers

Few principles; many diseases, syndromes, therapies
– A standardized, rigorous terminology
– Digital libraries becoming essential
Theoretical Relevance: 11
Types of theories
Shared
theoretical
vocabulary
Boxology
“How People
Learn”
principles
Theoretical Relevance: 12
Computational
models
PSLC theoretical framework
Shared
theoretical
vocabulary
Boxology
“How People
Learn”
principles
Theoretical Relevance: 13
Computational
models
 Shared
terminology
– Research clusters
– Research thrusts
 Analytic
Theoretical Relevance: 14
framework
Next
PSLC theoretical framework
Shared terminology
 Micro-level
– Knowledge component: A principle, concept,
fact, schema, strategy, meta-strategy…
– Learning event: An application of a knowledge
component
 Macro-level:
A taxonomy of robust learning
processes
– Sense-making
– Fluency-building
– Refinement
Theoretical Relevance: 15
Micro level is just (good, old
fashioned) cognitive psychology
Instructional activities
Prior knowledge
Cognitive processes
Knowledge components
Knowledge
can be
decomposed
Theoretical Relevance: 16
Observable outcomes
Learning
processes
can be
decomposed
and
taxonomized
Macro level is a taxonomy of
learning process
 Sense
making
– Coordination of multiple types/sources of learning
 Fluency
– Strengthening
 Refinement
– Feature pruning
– All 3 process are coincident
Theoretical Relevance: 17
PSLC research clusters
 Coordinative
learning
– How do students coordinate multiple
sources of information, media,
representations, strategies?
 Interactive
communication
– How does interaction between a student
and a peer, tutor or teacher affect
learning?
 Fluency
and refinement
– How does a skill become fluent?
Theoretical Relevance: 18
PSLC Research Thrusts
 Motivation
and Metacognition
 Computational Modeling and Data
Mining
 Social Communicative Factors
 Cognitive Factors
Theoretical Relevance: 19
PSLC Theoretical framework
 Glossary
of theoretical terms
 Analytic
Theoretical Relevance: 20
framework
Next
– Micro-level
– Macro-level
Learning events over time
While studying an example, tries to selfexplain; fails; looks in text; succeeds
Duration
25 sec.
While solving a problem, looks up example; recalls
explanation; maps it to problem
20 sec.
Recalls explanation; slips; corrects
15 sec.
Solves without slips
10 sec.
5 sec.
First
Theoretical Relevance: 21
Second
Third
Opportunity
Fourth
Fifth
A new analytic framework,
based on an analogy
A
problem is to a problem space as
a learning event is to a ____________ .
Theoretical Relevance: 22
A new analytic framework,
based on an analogy
A
problem is to a problem space as
a learning event is to a learning event
space.
Theoretical Relevance: 23
Key ideas
A
learning event space is a set of paths
determined by the instruction and the
student’s prior knowledge,
 but it is the student who chooses which path
to follow
 different paths have different outcomes:
–
–
–
–
Deep learning
Shallow learning
Mis-learning
Etc.
Theoretical Relevance: 24
You get to choose the
granularity in your IV research
 Coarse
grain-size: Only observable
actions
– Correct vs. incorrect steps
– Feedback from tutor
 Finer:
Reportable mental actions
– Recall vs. construct
 Even
finer?
Theoretical Relevance: 25
How to use learning event
spaces
Construct a learning event space such that…
it is consistent with observable actions, and…
the top level question, “Why did they learn?”
becomes two easier questions:
– Path choice: Why did students tend to choose as
they did?
– Path effects: Given that a student went down a
path, why did that cause the observed
learning/outcomes?
Theoretical Relevance: 26
A simple illustration
 Maxine
Eskenazi & Alan Juffs hypothesize
that using authentic texts will increase
vocabulary acquisition in ESL.
– Students read text with a few target unfamiliar
words.
– Texts come either from web or from existing
primer.
– Clicking on an target word displays its definition.
 Why
would authenticity increase learning?
How?
Theoretical Relevance: 27
Learning event space
(one per target word)
 Start
 Ignore
the word
– Exit, with little learning
 Infer
meaning from context
– Exit, with “implicit” learning
 Click
on the word; definition is displayed
– Read & understand the definition
 Exit,
with “explicit” learning
– Go to Start
Theoretical Relevance: 28
Why should authentic text help?
Hypotheses based on path choices
 Start
 Ignore
the word
– Exit, with little learning
 Infer
Authentic text should
decrease this
meaning from context
– Exit, with implicit learning
 Click
on the word; definition is displayed
– Read & understand the definition
 Exit,
with explicit learning
– Go to Start
Theoretical Relevance: 29
Authentic text should
increase this
To summarize the theoretical
framework…
 Glossary
– Macro-level
Sense-making
 Fluency
 Refinement

– Micro level: Knowledge components, learning
events…
 Learning
events space
– Decomposes “why did they learn?” into
Path choices: Which paths were chosen?
 Path effects: For each path, what was learned?

Theoretical Relevance: 30
Find the pain (and relieve it) in
the…
 Literature
– Known question
– Answer would add information and/or
clarity
 Classroom
– Instructors consider the question important
 Science
of learning
– Glossary of theoretical terms
– Learning event spaces
Theoretical Relevance: 31