Learning Strategies: A New Educational Technology

Abstract

The transition to cognitive theories and assumptions about learning which began in psychology a quarter of a century ago are slowly being implemented in the practice of educational technology. Educational technology and instructional design are also in transition. Although the descriptive bases of educational technologies are accepted to be in cognitive psychology, the practical, predictive implications of it that form the processes of educational technologies are not obvious. However, the trend is ineluctable. The failure to provide generalizable instructional techniques and media has forced us to shift our emphasis from what we do to what the learners do. Instructional procedures need to be concerned with how learners are processing the information they contain. Educational technologies need to become learner‐oriented. Our task is to improve learners’ integration and reorganization of knowledge ‐‐ not simply to convey material or control behaviour. The goal of new technologies, such as learning strategies, is to promote independent, self‐motivated learners who are capable of initiating, selecting, and using appropriate strategies for acquiring, retaining, and using knowledge. That, I contend, is a more productive and constructive instructional goal than the transmission of content or the control of behaviour.