A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n

Toward a New Science of Instruction: Programmatic Investigations in Cognitive Science and Education--August 1993

Thinking Through Language

Concerns of Research: Connections Among Knowledge, Reasoning, and Uses of Language

In most subject matters other than mathematics, learning and instruction proceed primarily through written or verbal communication, without additional support from a system of formal, symbolic expression. Such language-based exchanges provide opportunities for reasoning that are just as rich and challenging as mathematical discovery and problem solving; but in these matters, too, it is important to winnow out the valuable from the unproductive in both traditional and more experimental approaches. Levels of verbal literacy as measured by SAT scores, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and the need for remedial courses in universities have fallen in recent years, while the literacy demands in the culture and workplace have risen. It becomes useful, then, to look at the nature of verbal communication in education, to see whether and how it cultivates skills that students will need in the real world, to identify its strengths and weaknesses, and to understand in detail the ways that it supports or impedes the construction of accurate mental representations of concepts. Like the investigations into mathematics learning that have already been described, research on language-based forms of learning and reasoning focuses both on students existing knowledge and on the knowledge they need to gain from formal instruction.

When students enter a class in a given subject, they already understand something about learning, and they probably know something about the content of the discipline as well, either intuitively or from earlier instruction. Some of their content knowledge may be accurate, some not. Once they are in the classroom, students need to learn three things: subject-matter content, how to learn content, and how to apply both content knowledge and learning skills. Since most learning and instruction depend heavily upon written or oral communication, many of cognitive science's central questions arise in regard to every form of discourse--narrative, descriptive, expository, and argumentative.

For example, NRCSL research on texts and text comprehension investigates whether certain learning skills apply across disciplines or whether most learning must build upon background knowledge in the discipline. Which has greater influence upon learning--reasoning itself, or content knowledge? What goes wrong when readers misinterpret a text or fail to understand its content? Are there learning strategies that can make up for textual inadequacies? Other research projects at NRCSL--for example, on argumentation as a form of reasoning and on the use of argument in small groups--probe other fundamental questions about cognition. What are the mental representations and uses of argument? How are cognitive processes engaged and affected by argumentation? How might schools mount specific instruction on argumentation as a form of higher-order thinking? Does cognitive conflict within a group stimulate its members to learn more about an issue than they would if they all agreed?
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[St. Agnes School Project]

[What Does It Mean to Learn From Texts?]