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EDITORIAL
This Special Monograph of the Journal of Structural Learning (JSL) represents a major milestone in the field of complex learning and instruction -- a research monograph focused on important issues in Instructional Technology as we enter the 21st Century. It is at once the last and one of the very best in a long series dating from the late 1960s.
CONTENTS
This monograph contains articles
based on talks presented by international leaders in the field at two day-long
conferences sponsored by the AERA SIG: Structural Learning, Instructional
Systems and Intelligent Tutors held in San Diego in 1999 and in New Orleans in
2000. John Durnin, Mike Spector,
and Charles Bragg shared responsibility for editing the articles.
Thanks much for a job well done!
The monograph is divided into three parts: (1) Foundations and prospects for future work in cognitive and instructional theory, instructional design and computer based-learning and instruction; (2) Tools and Principles for designing instructional environments, and (3) an open discussion at the conclusion of an AERA symposium in New Orleans involving many of the authors.
Part 1: In Structural Learning Theory in the 21st Century, Scandura presents the current state and recent developments in the theory and implications for new instructional technologies. Spector looks at foundational issues from an epistemological perspective in A Philosophy of Instructional Design for the 21st Century. InTeleLearning Systems Engineering - Towards a new ISD model. Paquette anticipates the future role of multimedia and presents challenges posed by the latest technologies in instructional design. Gonzales presents a unique perspective on organizational learning (as opposed to individual learning) in Merging Organizational Learning with Learning Theory - A Task for the 21st Century? Schott, Grzondziel and Hillebrandt revisit instructional theory in the new century in What Kind of Instructional Theory Do We Need for Instructional Technology in the 21st Century? Achtenhagen presents the results of an extended study using a full multimedia "virtual corporation" and implications for business training in Interactive Video - Theory and Technology for the 21st Century. Dahn then discusses the beginning of a multiyear research study on creating university curriculum materials by Automatic Textbook Construction and Web Delivery in the 21st Century.
Part 2:
Klix first presents an anthropological view of the development of
learning processes in his Evolution of
Cognition. Scandura then
describes how content (structural) analysis relates to the design of software
and programming issues in Structural
(Cognitive Task) Analysis: An Integrated Approach to Software Design and
Programming. Continuing the
tone are papers on principles and tools that aid in the learning process.
Merrill identifies what he
considers to be First Principles
of Instruction. Principles
of Design for Multimedia-Based Training by Dijkstra discusses methods and
materials for problem solving instruction.
Then Spector discusses advantages of multi-person verses individual
instruction in Tools and Principles for
the Design of Collaborative Learning Environments for Complex Domains.
Finally, Gibbons emphasizes relationships between learning and
instructional environments and their implications in Model-Centered
Instruction.
Part 3: The final article is based on a video tape of the open discussion at an AERA session on Synthesizing Instructional Theories. John Durnin and Wally Wulfeck did an extraordinary job in transcribing and editing a very lively and informative discussion.
HISTORY
It seems appropriate in this final issue to include a brief the history of the Journal, the current status of the field and its future. The Journal of Structural Learning (JSL) was started in the late 1960's by Z.P. Dienes, a well-known mathematician and creative educator. Dienes felt (as do I) that most subject matter -- not just mathematics -- has an inherent structure that can be revealed and used to considerable advantage in education. (In the same time frame I edited a monograph on Research in Mathematics Education commissioned by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics to demonstrate the viability of a proposed Journal of Research in Mathematics Education. Although my involvement in that journal is long passed history, it is still the leading research publication in the area.)
My
involvement in JSL began in the 1970's after I published a 1971 paper in the
Journal (later a "citation classic") on "Deterministic Theorizing
in Structural Learning: Three Levels of Empiricism".
Dienes took a laissez-faire approach to editing, and asked me to co-edit
the journal with an English colleague, John Williams, and later Brian Greer from
North Ireland. (Greer had
co-authored an early book on Structural Learning with Malcolm Jeeves who had
also worked early on with Dienes.) Although communication today is quite
painless, the Atlantic "pond" at that time caused more than its share
of communication difficulties, and during a trip to London, Gordon & Breach
Science Publishers asked me to edit the journal.
Given other commitments (and personal preferences), I agreed to serve as
Editor in Chief if a Managing Editor handled the day-to-day responsibilities of
communicating with authors, soliciting reviewers, etc.
John Durnin served very capably in this capacity for many years.
Given an understandable
confusion over the years between the Structural Learning as a field of study
(and the Journal of Structural Learning as a publication in that field) and the
Structural Learning Theory (SLT), it also seems appropriate on this occasion to
clarify that issue. While I
developed the SLT, Dienes created the JSL and the field.
Because my own theoretical work combined dual interests in psychological
science and mathematical structures, the term SLT seemed a good fit (not to
mention that the first serious attempt to pull the SLT together as an integrated
whole was first published in JSL and my first two books on the subject were also
published by Gordon & Breach).
Ironically, given the total disconnect between psychological research and the study of mathematical structures, I published a paper in the same time-frame entitled "The Emerging Field of Psycho-Mathematics" -- largely as an analog to psycho-linguistics, which was well-established by the mid-1960s. Shortly thereafter, Dienes (who liked the name) moved to Sherbrooke, Canada, where he set up a "Centre De Recherches en Psycho-Mathematique". The bottom line: Through a series of historical accidents, Dienes introduced Structural Learning and I introduced Psycho-mathematics; yet each of us is primarily associated with the other.
THE FUTURE
Although JSL has
reached the end of the line as a separate publication, ideas it nurtured and
helped develop are in many ways more current today than ever.
Recent advances in software and the Internet make it possible today to
realize in practice ideas that as recently as the early 1990s could only be
imagined. Where do we go from here?
A new momentum has developed in cognition, instruction and technology during the last five years, deriving in part from a new series of conferences (reminiscent of the decade long series of highly successful international conferences on structural learning organized in the late 1960s and 1970s). Not wanting to see the field without a high quality journal I proposed a new international journal to promote and encourage cross-disciplinary work at the intersection of Technology, Cognition, Learning and Instruction (TICL). Contracts were offered by both OCP (a Gordon & Breach Sci. Pub. spin-off) and Erlbaum, publishers with a long history of success in cognition and related fields.
OCP, an innovative publisher
led by vibrant individuals with a scientific background and years of experience
in academic publishing, was finally selected. OCP has been very open to
suggestions from the editors not only on academic matters but also on such
things as keeping individual subscription rates as low as possible and making an
On-Line supplement available free of charge. I am delighted to announce
that we will very soon have a new high quality quarterly journal. Norbert
Seel in Europe and Joe Psotka in the U.S. will be sharing editorial
responsibilities, along with guest editors on special topics.
(I will serve as "Founder and Senior Advisor".).
The first issue is scheduled for mid-2002.
In addition to a strong
cross-disciplinary and international focus, this journal will have several very
unique features -- ranging from a demanding review process (with periodic
published dialog on especially provocative topics) to active on-line dialog --
in many ways simulating the lively and informed dialog at our recent conferences
(and reminiscent for the "old timers" among us of the international
interdisciplinary structural learning conferences held annually from 1968
through most of the 70s). The field
and the journal have a bright and extremely promising future!
Finally, a warm thanks to Gordon&Breach Science Publishers for their support for JSL for over 30 years, and to Taylor &Francis, for its support in publishing this special monograph of JSL. This is an outstanding monograph, a high highly respectable conclusion to JSL after so many years. Farewell to the past, and hello to a very promising future! Join us at future Structural Learning Conferences and support what promises to be an outstanding successor journal -- with emphasis on the intersection of 21st Century Technology and the study of complex structural learning!
Joseph M. Scandura Editor-in-Chief August 28, 2001