LEARNING ORIENTATION NEWSLETTER April 2001 |
Purpose: Keep readers informed about learning orientation research and the application of learning theories, models, design, and technology to mass-customize and personalize learning. This whole-person approach highlights the importance of emotions (affective) and intentions (conative) on learning, in addition to social and cognitive aspects. This newsletter (online version) appears at: http://training.trainingplace.com/newsletter/apr2001.htm. The newsletter index appears at:http://training.trainingplace.com/newsletter/index.htm.
1. INTRODUCTION
2. RELATED LEARNING ORIENTATION RESEARCH
3. LEARNING ORIENTATION ARTICLES
4. CURRENT TOPIC: AN EVOLVING UNDERSTANDING OF CONATION AND HOW IT INFLUENCES LEARNING
5. UPCOMING LEARNING ORIENTATION PRESENTATIONS
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The special topic for this newsletter is CONATION. The purpose is to provide a historical review of previous research that explores the intricate relationships among various conative constructs hypothesized to affect learning and performance.
"The word "CONATION" refers to the act of striving, of focusing our attention and acting with a purpose. This term has a 200-year history in the literature of psychology. German and Scottish scholars in the late 1700s described the mind as having three capabilities or "faculties": cognition, which is knowing; affection, which is the ability to value things or people or ideas; and conation, which means striving in a way that results in our energy's being managed and focused on a goal. More recently, psychologists have paid a great deal of attention to cognition and affection, but the study of the "conative domain" of our capabilities, in many ways, has fallen through the cracks. In psychology during the nineteenth and much of the twentieth century, conation got lost because many social scientists weren't interested in things you couldn't see or count. And who can see something so abstract as the human will?" -- KATHRYN ATMAN http://www.discover.pitt.edu/pittmag/mar95/m95classes.html
2. RELATED LEARNING ORIENTATION RESEARCH
This section describes a few of the ongoing research studies using the Learning Orientation Questionnaire (LOQ). The LOQ is free to researchers doing university-based research projects. These researchers have differentiated the audience (identified learning orientations) before beginning the instruction. In these studies, the goal has been to use this understanding of the audience to modify research design and analysis, support and evaluate learning and performance progress, or guide the design and development of the environment and learning solutions.
3. LEARNING ORIENTATION ARTICLES
1. Jones, E. R.
and Martinez, M. (2001). Learning Orientations in University
Web-Based Courses - a paper submitted for publication in the
Proceedings of WebNet 2001, Oct 23-27, Orlando, Florida. [online
-- http://normal.tamucc.edu/jones/webnet01.pdf
2. Martinez, M.
(2001). Key Design Considerations for Personalized Learning on
the Web. International Forum of Educational Technology &
Society. [online -- http://ifets.ieee.org/periodical/vol_1_2001/v_1_2001.html]
3. Martinez, M. and Bunderson, C. V. (2001). Foundations for
Personalized Web Learning Environments. Journal of Asychronous
Learning Networks, 4(2). [online -- http://www.aln.org/alnweb/magazine/Vol4_issue2/burdenson.htm]
4. Past Learning Orientation Articles can be found at: http://www.trainingplace.com/source/research/papers.htm/
The purpose
of this section is to review some of the diverse writings about
conative constructs and measures that seem useful in
understanding individual learning differences, especially the
impact of conation on learning. This section (made up mostly of
items that are accessible via the web) is presented in hopes of
promoting more conative-related research in combination with
affective, social, and cognitive perspectives. "In recent
years, a plethora of psychological constructs and their
associated measures have been proposed for attention in
instructional research and evaluation. These constructs are
attempts to capture, in one way or another, aspects of human
learning and performance relevant to instruction that go beyond
conventional constructs of cognitive ability. The distinction
between cognition, conation, and affection is convenient and
historically well-founded in psychology, though it should be
regarded as a matter of emphasis rather than a true partition;
all human behavior, especially including instructional learning
and achievement, involves some mixture of all three aspects
(Hilgard, 1980). -- SNOW and JACKSON.
[online -- http://www.cse.ucla.edu/CRESST/Reports/TECH447.pdf]
a. "Psychology has traditionally
identified and studied three components of mind: cognition,
affect, and conation (Huitt, 1996; Tallon, 1997). Conation refers
to the connection of knowledge and affect to behavior and is
associated with the issue of "why." It is the personal,
intentional, planful, deliberate, goal-oriented, or striving
component of motivation, the proactive (as opposed to reactive or
habitual) aspect of behavior (Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Muraven
& Tice, 1998; Emmons, 1986). It is closely associated with
the concept of volition, defined as the use of will, or the
freedom to make choices about what to do (Kane, 1985; Mischel,
1996). It is absolutely critical if an individual is successfully
engage in self-direction and self-regulation."
[online -- http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/regsys/conation.html]
b. "This article explains conation
and its particular importance in distance education. Perceptions
of conation are elucidated in the introduction. One
classification of mental activities divides the mind in three
faculties: cognition (knowing), affection (valuing), and conation
(striving). Here, conation is defined as vectored energy:
"i.e., personal energy that has both direction and
magnitude." "The taxonomy of the conative domain is
described in the five stages: perception, focus, engagement,
involvement, and transcendence. Later, the twelve-step conation
cycle of goal accomplishment is used to show some practical
applications of the conative domain. The last section of the
article considers implications of the conative domain for
distance education curriculum design, delivery system and student
support service."
Atman, Kathryn S. (1987). The Role of Conation (Striving) in the
Distance Learning Enterprise. American Journal of Distance
Education, Vol. 1(1). (29 references).
c. "The model organises into four
outcome domains: cognitive, conative, affective and behavioural.
These domains have a long history, going back to the ancient
Greeks, who identified three of them in the human psyche:
cognitive, conative and affective. The cognitive domain consists
of learning, thinking, remembering and the like. The conative
domain consists of planning, willpower, and intentionality. And
the affective domain consists of feelings: sensations, emotions,
and impressions. The Greek metaphor of the psyche was of a
chariot being pulled by two horses: the cognitive domain is the
charioteer, controlling and directing the horses, while the
conative and affective domains provide the motive power for the
human psyche, and generate the energy for its movement."
[online -- http://www.big.uk.com/research/psych_interactives.htm]
d. "The
conative domain of aptitude constructs spans the domains of
individual differences in motivation and volition. Conative
constructs are implicated whenever students select from
alternative courses of action and maintain effort and persistence
until their goals are achieved or abandoned for new goals."
Jackson, Douglas N. (1998). An Exploration of Selected Conative
Constructs and Their Relation to Science Learning. (CSE Technical
Report 467). [online -- http://www.cse.ucla.edu/CRESST/Summary/467jackson.htm]
e. "In
recent years, an overabundance of psychological constructs and
their associated measures have been presented by educational
researchers and program evaluators. Among the most interesting
and potentially useful of these constructs are those reflecting
motivational and volitional aspects of human behavior, called
"conative constructs." "Among the constructs in
this category are: need for achievement and fear of failure,
beliefs about one's own abilities and their development, feelings
of self-esteem and self-efficacy, attitudes about particular
subject-matter learning, and many others."
Snow, Richard & Jackson, Douglas N. (1992). Assessment of
Conative Constructs for Educational Research and Evaluation. (CSE
Technical Report 354). [online -- http://www.cse.ucla.edu/CRESST/Reports/TECH354.PDF]
f.
"This research sampled a broad range of conative constructs,
including achievement motivation, anxiety, goal orientations,
interest, and expectancies. The purpose was threefold: (a) to
explore and clarify relationships among conative constructs
hypothesized to affect student commitment to learning and
subsequent performance; (b) to determine whether or not
individual differences in conative constructs were associated
with the learning activities and time-on-task of students engaged
in a computerized science learning task; and (c) to ascertain
whether or not the conative constructs and the time and activity
variables from a learning task were associated with performance
differences in a paper-and-pencil science recall measure."
Snow, Richard & Jackson, Douglas N. ( 1997). An Exploration
of Selected Conative Constructs and Their Relation to Science
Learning by Douglas N. Jackson III (CSE Technical Report 468).
[online -- http://www.cse.ucla.edu/CRESST/Summary/468jackson.htm]
g. "According to Richard Snow and Douglas Jackson, conative constructs include need for achievement, fear of failure, feelings of self-esteem and self-efficacy, attitudes and interests concerning particular subject matter learning, will to learn, work ethic, mindfulness in learning, and more. In this report, the researchers present a framework of conative constructs." This article also has great references. Snow, Richard & Jackson, Douglas N. ( 1997). Individual Differences in Conation: Selected Constructs and Measures. (CSE Technical Report 447). [online -- http://www.cse.ucla.edu/CRESST/Reports/TECH447.pdf]
h.
"This study investigated the interrelationship of conation,
goal accomplishment style, and psychological type in distance
learners. The research questions for this study focused on the
interrelationship of conation, goal accomplishment style, and
psychological type in distance learners by measuring the conative
capacity and psychological types of distance learners enrolled in
satellite delivered courses. The study also investigated what
influence, if any, do distance teachers have on the conative
capacity of distance learners. Distance teachers need to be aware
of the individual differences of distance learners in order to
provide facilitation through distance education resources. A
portion of this study investigated the conative capacity and
psychological types of distance learners in a higher education
environment to determine the appropriate 'fit' between the
individual's goal accomplishment style and the psychological
type."
Davis, Michaeleen Ann (1996). The Interrelationship of Conation,
Goal Accomplishment Style, and Psychological Type in Distance
Learners. [online -- http://www3.ncsu.edu/dox/NBE/UMI_DL_Abstracts/AAC_9543837.html]
i. "In corporate America we
now have a work force that, for the most part, hates its job and
demonstrates that dislike with one of the lowest productivity
rates in the industrialized world, coupled with the highest rate
of transience. Company loyalty, for the most part, is
nonexistent. "Why are we so inept at producing employee
satisfaction? I believe it's because we are asking the wrong
questions and looking at the wrong indicators. Yes, personality
profiles and other personnel-screening techniques may offer some
clues, but don't measure the most innate indicator of success,
and that is conation." McCormack, McCormack, John &
Legge, David. (1990). Conation in Self-Made in America:
Plain Talk for Plain People about Extraordinary Success. New
York: AW. [online -- http://www.goto.com/d/sr;$sessionid$FH2VOOIABSP5PQFIEOQAPUQ?xargs=00u3hs9yoahSumGpxqaqgGlCBEkyOrMvKyi0sS8opzykGigTmJiUmVeUZASXFRfmpmkDFoZWlpog5BDIgEnFWYm5OTDGQWNijhUydzSzMjYwM3F0sTYycnJ6uI1EwTkvLzCvOTbfPzSxLzMiDzhM4A84QKgjI%3D]
j. "Conation, or will, is traditionally the source of motivation, it is what lends direction to thought. It is through the power of will that human behaviour is organised. Fortuitously, it is also traditionally considered to be a lack of will, or aboulia, that is expressed in fatigue (see Rabinbach, 1992). This draws upon a far older tradition of considering conation not as an intra-psychic essence, but as a force that stands prior to the activities of a given person. In Nietzche’s writings, humans themselves are but expressions of the play of these wider wills-to-power (1967). Will is in this sense an elemental force, that which animates and provides the conditions for all historical movement (see Foucault, 1980b). Conation also figures as a similar motive force in Spinoza’s Ethics, where it is described simply as ‘endeavour to persist in being’. These older descriptions of conation may provide a lever for thinking through the linkage of discourse and set-up in emotionality." Classics in the History of Psychology -- Baldwin (1901). [online -- http://devpsy.lboro.ac.uk/psygroup/sb/chapter7.htm]
5. UPCOMING LEARNING ORIENTATION PRESENTATIONS
a. Martinez, M. (18-20 April 2001). Adaptive Learning 101 (Session 104). Presentation at WBT Producer Conference 2001 (Influent), Anaheim. [online -- http://www.influent.com/wbt2001/index.html]
b. Martinez, M. (18-20 April 2001). Learning Object Designs for Personalized Learning (Workshop P8). Workshop presentation at WBT Producer Conference 2001 (Influent), Anaheim. [online -- http://www.influent.com/wbt2001/index.html]
c. Martinez, M. (August 28 - 31, 2001). Back to the Drawing Board! Designing for Online Learners. Workshop presentation at the Thirteenth Annual Instructional Technology Institute at Utah State University. [online -- http://id2.usu.edu/ITInstitute/oldindex.htm]
d. March 12-18 is Brain Awareness Week, an international effort to raise awareness about applied brain research. To find out more about Brain Week, including student activities and lesson plans, visit the Dana Alliance Web site at www.dana.org. Educators can also join neuroscientists and other educators from around the world at the Learning Brain Expo in San Antonio, TX, on July 25-28. Log on to www.brainexpo.com for details.
The next quarterly newsletter will highlight Learning & Content Management Systems and discuss what can this mean for personalized learning (using the learning orientation perspective).
HAPPY SPRING EVERYONE!
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Copyright (c) 2009 Margaret Martinez ( all rights reserved)
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