PASK-+Alise+Clouser

Learning Theorist Andrew Gordon “Speedie” Pask

June 28, 1928 - March 28, 1996

Pask saw the learner as the active agent in the learning process and viewed learning as conversation

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Gordon Pask was an English cybernetician (cybernetics: the study of communication and control in natural and artificial systems), psychologist and learning theorist who made significant contributions to cybernetics, instructional psychology, experimental epistemology and educational technology.

As an educational theorist Pask offered a model for the construction of knowledge. His learning theory or model was named “Conversation Theory”. It involves the interaction between two cognitive systems (like a teacher and a student). They engage in a conversation regarding a specific subject while recognizing their different views on the subject. After multiple cycles of this process, the differences lessen until a agreement is reached by both sides. What is agreed upon then becomes a shared concept known as "public knowledge".

An example of the model today would be our online Sakai forum. The professor and our fellow cadre students engage in conversations over specific concepts. Concepts are debated in an informal fashion, and in Pask’s conversation model the interpretations that gain general acceptance become fact or public knowledge.  The 3 main principles of his theory include 1. To learn the subject matter, students must learn/understand the relationships among the concepts. 2. Explicit explanation or manipulation of the subject matter facilitates understanding (ex: use of the teach back technique). 3. People’s learning styles are different relationships

Learning is a process (and we all know it’s about the process) of “coming to know” in which learners, peers and teachers construct interpretations of their world. When we view Pask’s concept of communication, we see it is not the exchange of knowledge, but the process of becoming informed about each other’s. In his theory in order to learn, a person or system must be able to converse with it and others about what it knows.

How this theory relates to others

Pask’s learning theory challenges the foundation of current education as a construction of knowledge with limits set by a curriculum, and replaces it with the process of learning through constant negotiation and exploration. His theory can be viewed as an opportunity for technology to bridge the divide between formal and experiential learning.

This is important because as Dewey argued: As societies become more complex in structure and resources, the need of formal or intentional teaching and learning increases. As formal teaching and training grow in extent, there is the danger of creating an undesirable split between the experience gained in more direct associations and what is acquired in school. (Dewey, 1916)

New mobile technology can enable young people to learn by exploring their world, in continual communication with and through technology. For example instant messaging allows conversation between learners in real and virtual worlds, such as between visitors to a museum and visitors to its virtual counterpart through mobile technology. If we can design technology to enable conversations between these two learners-in-context, then they gain an educational experience that, in Dewey’s phrase, is “vitally shared”.

This relates to my action research as I am attempting to conduct conversations with students and their peers regarding best practices or “Public Knowledge” about the college admission process. I do not want to teach at the participants rather I want to provide my knowledge and experience and allow them to debate/ provide their own, come to a general concensus and move forward from there.