Development of a Method and Application to Enhance Seminar-based Learning by Helping Learners Appropriate their Instructor's Words and to Use them as Cognitive Artifacts
Abstract: This paper discusses the theoretical foundation and the procedure of “aphorism accumulation” method that supports seminar-based learning by helping learners appropriate, and to use as cognitive artifacts, the instructive utterances an instructor makes during a seminar. In this method, learners record the instructor’s salient utterances during a seminar discussion. After the discussion, the learners organize the utterances into an inventory of aphorisms, which are then shared and used among the members of the seminar. Under this method learners consciously identify the instructor’s aphorisms, refer to these aphorisms in subsequent discussions, and use them to control a discussion, investigation, or other research operation. This process helps the learners to adopt the instructor’s values and perspectives regarding the task at hand and to master the instructor’s ways for resolving a problem. This paper also discusses development of a tablet-based program for expediting the method.
Presider: Rebecca Callaway, Arkansas Tech University