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David Perkins Shares Perspectives on K-20 education, "Knowledge to Go:
What's Worth Learning in K-12 and University Classrooms"
On March 13 the Department of Education celebrated the inauguration of
its new UC Irvine Ph.D. in Education with a campus distinguished
lecture. Featured speaker was Professor David Perkins, Ph.D., of
Harvard University, an eminent educational psychologist. Dr.Perkins is
known for his research in the areas of creativity, intelligence, and the
teaching of thinking. UC Irvine faculty, staff, administrators, and
students joined guests from Orange County communities in the Cal IT2
Auditorium to congratulate members of the first class of Ph.D.
students and listen to Dr. Perkins' thoughts on the kinds of knowledge
that should be developed in K-12 and university classrooms.
Dr. Perkins introduced his topic, "Thinking to Go", by posing the
question: "What do we want people to learn and how can they learn it
so it really matters?" Dr. Perkins posited that a fair amount of what
youngsters learn in conventional schools really doesn't matter very
much. "It's sort of there for the quiz or whatever and then evaporates
a little later. Yet, that's certainly not our vision of what we would
like for education. The whole point of education, after all, is
knowledge to go. It's not knowledge that just stays in the classroom,
stays long enough for the quiz at the end of the week or the end of the
month. It's knowledge that informs people's lives and energizes them,
that provides some vision; it provides ways of making sense of the world
to function well in the world."
Describing "knowledge to go", Dr. Perkins identified four
characteristics: the knowledge is alert, expansive, adventurous, and
proactive. He suggested that educators should consider three themes
when developing curricula: scope of knowledge, conception of knowing,
and manner of learning.
Regarding scope of knowledge, Dr. Perkins observed: "An
understanding of wide scope is central to its home discipline, but it is
illuminating beyond the discipline, and it is proactively mapped into
the world." This contrasts with narrow-scope knowledge expressed as "a
curriculum that is about itself, that is to say, about propagating
itself forward, generation by generation, essentially an empty curriculum."
In explaining the second theme, conception of knowing, Dr. Perkins
contrasted three different conceptions of knowing: (1) retention and
application, which he characterized as possessive: "I know what I
know in my mind and can retrieve and re-present"; (2) understanding:
"being able to reason well and solve problems"; and (3) active,
adventurous conception of knowledge, which Dr. Perkins described as
"proactive". He views proactive knowledge as dispositional: "It's
not just a matter of ability, it's a matter of attitude."
On the third theme, manner of learning, Dr. Perkins acknowledged
that there is ongoing debate about terminology used to discuss
transfer of learning but that the important questions are when, why,
and by what means transfer occurs. To illustrate, he presented two
models. The High Road/Low Road model (Soloman & Perkins, 1994)
incorporates reflected abstraction and practiced automaticity. "If
you actually look at the pattern of failures and successes in
transfer, most of the occasions where not much transfer was found are
occasions where there was neither reflective abstraction nor much
varied practice." A second model, Inventing to Prepare for Learning,
from Schwartz and Martin (2004), begins not with the content but with
a problem situation where individuals invent their own solutions. "The
net effect of all that tends to be knowledge to go, knowledge that is
understood and obtained, and that can be applied flexibly in other
situations....This can be viewed as a neat complex packaging of, on
the one hand, reflective abstraction and, on the other hand, a
practice generated by the sequence of events." Dr. Perkins cautioned
audience members to be aware of contrasts in the literature on
transfer with real world situations. For example, in transfer studies,
learners perform other people's tasks vs. managing one's
own agenda; many of the transfer tasks used for laboratory studies
involve analogical applications whereas many of the important
applications in the world are quite literal; most laboratory tasks
involve a clear demand to perform; and there are no well-studied data on
response competition, i.e., how developing new knowledge is affected
by old habits or commitments.
Dr. Perkins closed his lecture with a discussion of "learning for
later" versus "learning from now". He reminded the audience that much
of the instruction offered in schools is portrayed as important for use
later in life -- in effect, students receive "promissory notes"
regarding the importance and applicability of the subject they are
studying. He offered four options for learning from now: problem-based
learning, project-based learning, community participation, and inquiry
learning. Dr. Perkins identified four advantages associated with
"learning from now". 1. The endeavor is experienced as immediately
meaningful and worthwhile in itself as well as representative of
something larger. 2. Knowledge is woven in here and there as it is
needed as well as revealed by the unfolding experience. 3. Conflicting
knowledge from past experiences converges, and resolutions
are negotiated through thought and experiment. 4. Considerable
learning occurs automatically and is extended by knowledge teased out
through underscoring reflection and targeted rehearsal.
Following the lecture, Dr. Perkins responded to questions and engaged in
discussions with individual audience members during the reception in the
atrium.
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