Sasha Barab
December 2, 2004
Learning Sciences Schematic
Base Questions of the Field:
1. How do people learn?
2. What role does context play in
students and teachers’ cognitive
development and learning?
3. How do formal and informal
learning environments affect the
learning process?
4. How can we create effective learning
environments utilizing technology
and innovative classroom activity?
5. How can we construct “scientific”
models to explain the process of
learning and teaching?
6. How can we utilize technology to
enhance students and teachers’
learning?
Definition of the Field:
Learning Sciences is a multidisciplinary
study of the cognitive, technological, social
and contextual processes that support
learning. Learning Sciences draws from the
fields of cognitive science, cognitive
psychology, anthropology, computer
science, and education. The main goal of
the Learning Sciences is to advance theories
and practice of teaching and learning.
Fundamental Assumptions of the
Field:
1. Social context matters when studying
learning.
2. Cognition is not entirely a
disembodied process.
3. Designing innovative classroom
interventions will help learners.
4. The field needs both basic and
applied learning research.
5. Understanding how people learn has
theoretical, practical and pedagogical
implications.
6. Social interaction (collaborative
learning) derives an important
learning situation.
Core People of the Field:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Allan Collins
Ann Brown
John Bransford
Roger Schank
James Greeno
Jerome Bruner
John Sealy Brown
Roy Pea
Alfred North Whitehead
Seminal Works of the Field:
1. Collins, A., Brown, J. S., & Newman, S. E. (1989). Cognitive apprenticeship: Teaching the crafts of
reading, writing, and mathematics. In L. B. Resnick (Ed.), Knowing, learning, and instruction: Essays in
honor of Robert Glaser (pp. 453-494). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
2. J. Lave and E. Wenger, Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation, Cambridge University
Press, New York, 1991.
3. Duffy, T.M. & Jonassen, D. (Eds.), (1992).Constructivism and the technology of instruction: A
conversation. Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
4. Brown, A. L. (1992). Design experiments: Theoretical and methodological challenges in creating
complex interventions in classroom settings. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 2 (2), 141-178.
5. Gardner, D. (1985). The Mind’s New Science: A History of the Cognitive Revolution. Basic Books, New
York.
6. Greeno, J. (1998). The situativity of knowing, learning and research. American Psychologist, 53, 5-26.
7. Whitehead, A. N. (1929) The aims of education and other essays. New York: MacMillan.
Sasha Barab
December 2, 2004
8. Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt (1990). Anchored instruction and its relationship to
situated cognition. Educational Researcher, 19, 2-10.