Using Eugene Meehan’s
criteria for judging social science theory and models[1] –
its mental constructs – this blog, over its last seven postings, has provided
the bulk of its viability statement regarding the model, liberated federalism. While such a review is helpful to civics
teachers, it does not directly address pedagogic concerns that civics educators
have in their day-to-day responsibilities.
This posting rectifies this
– to a degree – by adding to Meehan’s list of criteria two more areas of
concern, abstract level, and motivation.
This blogger believes these two concerns, while separate, are highly related
and that relationship is highlighted below.
To begin with, both reflect mental qualities that affect how people
learn.
Their meanings are fairly
straightforward. Abstract level refers
to how much the construct's information or images contain elements of reality
which constitute the phenomena it describes or explains. Any representation, by necessity, has to
strip elements of reality from it and, therefore, be abstract to some degree.
For example, if someone
asks how a person’s day was, that person would only be able to convey very
little of that day. If the person had
gone to a movie, the person would very likely not relate the color of the
person’s seat or whether it was cushy or not.
The more one leaves out, the more abstract the information is. As for scientific research, it is known for
its abstraction as a scientist tries to distill the causal factors that account
for some occurrence or condition.[2]
As for the motivational
quality, it simply refers to the potential a body of information has in
soliciting interest on the part of an observer, consumer, or, in this case,
learner. Of course, the motivational
quality of any material varies among the people who are exposed to it. What's interesting to this blogger might be
downright boring to a reader of this blog.
But there are certain
general aspects about motivation that one can abstract that helps one explain
why some presentations tend to be more motivating than others. Such characteristics as relevance,
understandability, entertainment, curiosity, challenge, etc. are some of those
aspects. These are generally seen as
qualities that enhance the motivational quality of information or other
symbolic presentations.
The connection between
abstraction and motivation, how they relate, zeroes in on the quality of
understandability. It is hard to see any
presentation or activity being motivational unless it is at least
understandable to the learner or consumer of the content to some minimal
degree. Whether the presentation or
activity meets this minimal degree reflects on the sophistication of the person
consuming the information.
Sophistication in each area, in turn, reflects the level of abstraction
the consumer can handle in dealing with the content in question.
There have been two
theorists whose ideas help us see this relation between sophistication and
abstraction and are highlighted here and in the next posting. They both understood that the abstract level
of information is dependent on the media in which the information is
presented. Some modes of presentation,
by their very nature, contain more or less the reality contained in the
situations or conditions described or explained.
Before identifying these
pioneers, let this blogger make the central point of this posting. For presentation media or instructional
activity to be motivating, the presentation of the content must employ an
instructional effort that suitably matches the sophistication level of the
student vis-a-vis the content being taught. This is done by employing appropriate levels
of abstraction or lack of abstraction in the media employed.
Some media, simply due to
the nature of the media, will contain, to various degrees, elements of the
reality being addressed. The general
trend is that the less sophistication the student has, the less abstract the
media needs to be. Conversely, the more
sophisticated the student is, in relation to specific content, the more
abstract the media can be and probably should be to sustain the student’s
interest.
That is, while for the
lesser sophisticated students, to be successful, lower abstraction media can be
considered necessary, for higher sophisticated students, higher abstraction
media can be considered preferable. This
is because such instruction takes less time to implement and is likely to
maintain the interest of such students.
Low abstraction material can easily turn out to be boring for the more
knowledgeable students.
The other factors
affecting media choices are availability of material options, time
availability, and technological options.
Material options are affected by the financial resources of the
purchasers of the materials and access to material markets. Time availability refers to the amount of
time the instructor can dedicate to any lesson or set of lessons.
As indicated, in general,
instruction that is less abstract takes more time to use – if for no other
reason due to the amount of reality it contains – and the more abstract
material takes less time, assuming students are sophisticated enough to
understand and appreciate its educational value. In addition, technological availability is a
concern. Technological options refer to
the media hardware and software the instructor or instructional institution can
secure, and the instructional staff can proficiently use.
The two theorists
referred to above are Jerome S. Bruner[3]
and Edgar Dale.[4] Both of these educational academics provided
relevant insights to this topic in the 1960s.
This posting will stop here and promise that the next one will delve
into the work of Bruner and Dale which this blogger believes is still powerful
today.
[1] For readers wishing to read the previous postings
relating to these viability claims that the blog is making, they can read the
last seven postings found in the online site http://gravitascivics.blogspot.com/. As for Meehan’s
criteria, see Eugene J. Meehan, Contemporary
Political Thought: A Critical Study
(Homewood, IL: Dorsey Press, 1967). To date, the blog has reviewed
comprehensiveness, power, precision, consistency/reliability, isomorphism,
compatibility, predictability, and control.
[2]This could be, for example, information
relating to what causes water to freeze.
A scientist observes water in a variety of environmental conditions and
might eventually abstract the varying temperatures in which water is found and
detect a pattern between lower temperatures and the freezing of water. The abstracted bits of information would be
the falling temperature of the water's environment, the changing temperature of
the water, and the degree to which the water hardens into ice.
[3]See Saul McIeod, “Jerome Bruner’s Theory of Learning
and Cognitive Development” (June 14, 2023), accessed August 31, 2023, Jerome Bruner's Theory of
Learning And Cognitive Development - Simply Psychology. The issue was how the material was
presented. And one of the factors
determining success was the nature of the media used to present the information. To
this blogger’s understanding, Bruner was not arguing that young students had to
mature to learn complicated material. He
was of the mind that any content could be taught to any student regardless of
his/her sophistication. The issue is how
the material is presented.
[4] “Edgar Dale,” Wikipedia (n.d.), accessed September 1,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Dale.
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