The Learning Cycle as an Instructional Model

Introduction

The learning cycle was originated by Robert Karplus and used in the Science Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIS). This approach has a widespread applicability and has been used as an instructional model in science, mathematics, language arts, social studies, and other content areas. While it is a fairly general teaching model it is more focused as described by each step of the learning cycle.

After the Soviet Union launch of the Sputnik satellite, scientists in the United States conclude the quality of science instruction in the United States needs to be improved, Robert Karplus, is among them. He believes to do so, we must better understand the process of how children and adolescents learn and use that knowledge to design and implement a science curriculum to raise the level of science achievement in the United States.

His research starts by investigating learning theories and selects a constructivist learning theory to create the learning cycle as an instructional model or syntax.

A constructivist learning theory claims each learner constructs information (concepts) by exploring their environment and comparing a present experience to their current understandings. If the present experience do not meet their expectations, they become disequilibrated and seek explanations to accommodate and return to equilibrium, and become equilibrated.

In the learning cycle he matches three instructional steps (exploration, invention, and discovery) to a constructivist learning theory as noted in the chart.

The Learning Cycle is an instructional model to guide instructional decisions to facilitate learning. Decisions on what concepts to explore and how to begin to access the learner's personal understandings, rather than someone else’s idea of what they think they know or don't know, so they will be open to explore their understanding in relationship to a new experience. An experience teachers organize to encourage students to explore their personal ideas, discover the limits of their understanding, and possibly become disequilibrated. As they do, they discover the quality of their ideas. Sometimes making minor adjustments and other times discarding their ideas and replacing them with better ways to understand the world and accommodate.

Teachers use many ideas to plan and implement learning. The learning cycle is a framework that is fairly easy to relate many considerations to meet the needs of diverse learners. The following examples are introduced below and discussed in detail elsewhere.

• Selection of a topic and skills to learn,
• Information related to the topic or big idea. Determined by unpacking the topic to identify generalizations, concepts, and facts required to understand the topic. This information focuses here in the conceptualization of concepts.
• Activities to explore, and
• Strategies to make information available for students to conceptualize - learn.
• Strategies to assess student learning and understanding.

While the above information provides examples of what is brought to planning and implementing of a learning cycle it is also a framework for teacher-educators to plan a sequence to facilitate learning in the three phase learning cycle: exploration, invention, and discovery. Each phase includes focused steps to move learners through a constructivist learning process with each complete cycle leading to another cycle for deeper and more expansive learning in a continuous process suggesting learning is infinite.

Over the years many people have used the learning cycle and adapted it by changing the names of the third phase, and adding additional phases. The diagram below shows the cycle with an exploration and invention phase and four of the more common names of the third phase: discovery, expansion, application, and extension.

See a comparison of Karplus learning cycle to three models (4E Learning Cycle, 5 E Learning Cycle & Common Knowledge Construction Model) along with the relationship of each phase to a constructivist learning theory and instructional purposes and variables that effect learning.

Exploration

The exploration stage is where students' attention is focused on what is to be learned. They begin to explore materials or ideas to begin to relate their memories to the present experiences.

Exploration presents conditions that encourage students to use their current accurate or inaccurate understandings (concepts or misconceptions) previously conceptualized. Students explore their past understanding and connect them to their current explorations (assimilation). As the student interprets the present experiences with their current understanding they may experience a discrepancy between their past experiences and the information they are currently exploring (disequilibration). This state of confusion, disequilibration, motivates them to manipulate the materials and/or ideas to create a new schema, (accommodation) for understanding and returning the student to a state of equilibration. What students learn , or the concept conceptualized can be different for each student. Differences which are personal and can be classified in a number of ways: as knowledge: subject matter knowledge, process knowledge, Skills, attitudes or dispositions about the subject; their self; another person; society; or culture, and concepts related to the perspective of the subject, or any combination of these. Exploration must be personalized to meet the diverse needs of all learners.

Invention

In the invention stage, the teacher begins by inviting the student to share their experiences during their explorations. These experiences may be a review of their previous understandings, confusion or questioning about their understandings, or newly constructed understandings sparked by the exploration.

In invention, the teacher invites students to share data collected in a manner that represents all the ideas of all the students. As students share their exploration experiences, they communicate their personal interpretations of their exploration. This communication is presented in a variety of ways (oral, written in words or visual representation, acted out, sung, or any combination) to communicate student's ideas for each concept and desired outcome. The use of the term, invention, is another way of stating the students are personally inventing concepts and ideas through the sharing of their collective explorations to refine their understandings by connecting their experiences and understandings with other persons’ experiences and understandings. The teacher asks probing questions to facilitate this exchange of information, introduces vocabulary as necessary, and guides thinking by reluctantly adding hints and additional information for students to achieve successful outcomes.

Students are encouraged by the teacher to organize the data and to invent methods for expressing concluding statements or a visualization in their personal ways of understanding. The author defines visualizations as a picture, diagram chart, or graph that enables the learner to explain their interpretation of their explorations and inventions. The process of communicating student’s personal cognitive ideas are crucial at this particular stage. Each student must personally be able to recognize an interpretation for the data examined, to organize a logical presentation of evidence that lends itself to be understood by others, and to communicate both positive social and affective information about their learnings and the processes in creating their understandings.

Discovery

In the discovery stage, the teacher and / or students implement an activity to extend or apply the understanding from the previous phases.

In the discovery, students use the ideas invented and extend or apply their personal understanding with other ideas or in different situations. The extension of understanding by combining or joining concepts with concepts makes more complex understandings (generalizations). The discovery phase is the last phase of the learning cycle; however, it is also the first phase of the next learning cycle. It is in this phase that the next exploration phase may be initiated and many times will be recognized as exploration.

Using the learning cycle as an instructional process requires the educator to be cognizant of the interplay between the instructional process, a learning theory, and each students’ personal conceptualization of concepts.

Assessment

Assessment is the collection of data. It is the measurement activities educators use to attempt to make valid inferences about students' knowledge, process skills, and dispositions; as well as using those measurements and inferences to make current and future curricular and instructional decisions that are developmentally and academically appropriate. It is helpful to think of assessment as diagnostic, formative, summative, and generative.

Assessment process in the learning cycle should be on-going by both the teacher and student to check what each know and how well they know it through the entire cycle and not in just one phase or isolated parts of a phase. However, while assessment is continuous it can be strengthened by thinking of it as diagnostic, formative, summative, and generative.

Exploration assessment mostly requires initial checks of what students know (diagnosis) and how well they know it. The teacher helps students focus and probe their personal information related to the task or topic. Assess what is known about the concepts in general and supporting information needed to construct acceptable outcomes. Challenging their understanding for the supporting information (facts, concepts, generalizations) necessary and sufficient and how information relates for conceptualization of concepts or generalizations.

Invention assessment mostly requires ongoing checks (formative) on how students are constructing their understanding of the topic and related concepts and generalizations. At the end of the invention, assessment requires probes to check students understanding as it relates to the outcomes and the expected level of achievement (summative). After learning is summarized successfully, assessment seeks to determine how students can wonder, extend, or generalize the newly conceptualized concepts (generalization).

Discovery continues with generalizations made at the end of invention only with more opportunities to generalize the concept deeper and in new ways to solve problems or answer questions with opportunities to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate the concept (generative).

Assessment includes:

• Information collected from student created records of events, procedures, or random thoughts. It is imperative that the classroom teacher examine these records on a regular basis. Young children can draw their observations. As they learn to write, they can label and then write the descriptions of what they have done. As their ability to read and write matures, they can be given written focus questions to focus their attention on information they will need to know. Answers to these written focus questions are used to assess student’s understandings.
• Information collected on what students know can be inferred from their written observations and notes on focus questions or other performance tasks or recorded on video as students work.
• Information should include how students use concepts recently learned to make generalizations to extend what they have learned beyond their recent experiences.
• Assessment should include developmentally appropriate tasks where students can learn and apply the content processes in a systematic manner in their everyday activities. As students work on everyday tasks information on how they inquire and solve problems must be collected to assess student growth in the use of these processes.
• Information must be collected on students use of process skills beyond simple understandings. Such as - How many centimeters in a meter?) Understanding beyond such as - You measured the room with your feet. The class agreed on a standard straw as a unit of measurement. Why did you choose to use feet? And - Would green bean seeds be a good choice for a standard unit? Why? or Why not? And How could you use a broken ruler to measure a shelf?
• Information collected should be comprehensive. Information should include categorizes - knowledge, process, disposition (habits of mind or affective), perspective, personal, and social.
• Information collected needs to be longitudinal to have a reference for student progress as individuals and groups.
• Information collected can be related to criteria and norm references.

Concepts

Concepts - Are the major ideas about a particular phenomenon people abstract from specific experiences. Information facts, concepts, and generalizations that are learned, which are often facilitated by teachers (taught).

Concepts, major ideas to be conceptualized, are facilitated by educators when: (1) concepts are presented in a developmentally appropriate manner, (2) communicated with a concise statement which accurately represents each concept explored, and (3) presented with all the necessary and sufficient information needed for the students to construct the concept.

Teachers should remember concepts are ideas about a particular phenomenon that students construct during a learning experience. A concept, then, is what the students will have in their heads when they walk away from a learning experience.

Concepts can be classified in a number of areas. Areas most notably identified in national and state standards written by subject specific learned societies (mathematics, science, social science, language arts, health, ...) and usually identified in curriculum plans.

Possible Concept Categories:

• Content Knowledge. Concepts, information, created in subject or discipline areas that are historically known as subject or discipline knowledge.
• Processes. Knowledge and skills needed to collect data, organize data, and create information in a different subjects and disciplines.
• Dispositions and attitudes people use to explore and create understanding. Often thought of as life long learners who use multiple disciplines and subjects for different purposes to live a life worth living.
• Perspective. Understanding of how a subject or discipline develops and how it has been, is, or could be used by society.
• Personal. Understanding ones abilities for self-improvement. Could be include all categories.
• Social. Understanding how to interact with people for the good of the person and different groups.
• Mental Emotional. Understanding how people maintain and improve their mental and emotional health and others mental and emotional health and quality of life.
• Physical. Understand how to improve physical fitness and acquire and maintain the ability to have a health active life.
• Other.

More on subject and discipline content

Planning ideas

Planning and teaching process includes:

• Teacher and or students select an idea to investigate or learn about.
• Unpack the necessary and sufficient information for the intended ideas.
• Imagine an experience where students will analyze and evaluate the supporting information needed to construct ideas.
• Formulate questions to use for clarification during the search for understanding (learning).
• Create a possible bridge using the information collected about the idea to understanding the ideas (concept or generalization).
• Summarize and integrate what is learned.
• Communicate it clearly to someone else.

More on planning ...

Positive, Neutral, & Negative teacher and student actions in a Learning Cycle Lesson

Positive, neutral, and negative teacher and student actions in a lesson are categorized as they relate to the construction of specific information intended in a lesson. Intended information can be from any category and described as concepts, processes, skills, and dispositions or attitudes. Therefore, actions not directly specified to be learned in a lesson would be noted as neutral.

Examples for a lesson in a subject area include:

• Behavioral interventions to reduce self limiting / maladaptive behaviors and choose mastery oriented behaviors. Modeling procedures.
• Interactions to teach and support how to learn content.
• Classroom management interventions to maintain learning.
• Implement actions to create and maintain a productive community of learners.
• Facilitate learning with observations, facts, reasoning, and explanations.
• Attend to student needs. Feeling of belonging, feeling of competence, positive interactions, construction of understanding, use of information, ability to communicate, assist as requested, teach how to ask for help, setting mastery goals, insuring success, encourage, motivate, relate to local culture, and, development of self-efficacy.
• Use interactions to teach and maintain social learning. Modeling social skills to communicate expectations and teach skills to participate in learning communities.
• Interactions to teach and support mental and emotional health.

Exploration

Invention

Discovery

Three Learning Cycles & Common Knowledge Construction Model
Related to learning theory, instructional purposes, and each other

Learning Cycle in a block of time

The learning cycle video was taped during a traditional 50 minute class time block. You can see it is a bit tight for all phases of the learning cycle (exploration, invention, expansion) and as an introductory lesson on current electricity with the main concept: closed circuit (physical science) and either a review or secondary process concept: using a theory or model to explain and predict observations. It is the traditional lesson which is often referenced in the science literature as an example of the learning cycle.

Planning lessons and experiences for this block of time is limiting. For example, when germinating seeds, growing plants, or working with other living organisms, the time it may take to cycle through the parts of a learning cycle doesn’t fit a 50 or 60 minute time period. It takes several days to explore and invent these and other concepts and even longer for generalizations.

When conceptualization of a concept requires more than a general 50 minute class period to collect observational information, such as with seed germination, plant growth, or animal development, a different time frame for thinking, planning, and doing needs to be implemented.

For example, while the organisms are developing over time, the class can involved in different science investigations during the same class periods. This can happen with students beginning class by observing and recording information (for their seeds, plants, or animals introduced days previously) in the first 5-10 minutes culminating in a brief class period of sharing and discussion. The remaining 40-50 minutes can have the students investigating another topic (relative position and motion with spheres on ramps).

This example expands the traditional idea of a learning cycle in two important ways.

• First, the time frame that a learning cycle includes can be any duration. Part of a class period or across several class periods.
• Secondly, to the idea that multiple learning cycles can be in progress simultaneously.

This is important, because not only do the scenarios extend for several class periods over several days, but some of the individual activities could and probably would also. This can make the use of the learning cycle more powerful when the duration of a learning cycle can be thought of lasting for a class period and for multiple class periods extended for days, weeks, or months or years. More realistic to everyday investigations and life long learning.

Summary

This is a Powerful idea - a years curriculum or a K-12 curriculum is a series of multiple learning cycles occurring simultaneously with different phases starting and stopping through a school year or a child's K-12 experience.

Sample Learning Cycle Lesson Plans to Modify

Three lesson overviews to review and discuss how to make them more hands on or constructivist and one sample for hints.

Lesson 1

Topic: Parts of a Plant Grade level 2

Objective: Students will learn the parts of a plant.

Materials: live plant, plant parts chart, worksheet, various arts and crafts materials (colored construction paper, pipe cleaners, glue…)

Process skills: observation, communication

Exploration: The teacher displays a live plant. The roots, stems and leaves are visible. The students use the plant chart to identify the three main parts of the plant. The teacher points to the top of the live plant and asks students what part it is. The teacher slowly moves his or her hand down the plant as the students discuss what part the teacher is pointing to at the time. The students use the chart to resolve any disagreements.

Invention: Students turn to the pages in their textbook that discuss the three main parts of a plant and read and discuss it. They are next given a worksheet with a picture of a plant and blanks pointing to each of the three main parts. They are asked to identify each part by filling in the blanks.

Discovery: The students are asked to create a plant that has roots, stems, and leaves. The students are asked to identify each of the parts of their plant for the teacher. The plants are displayed in the classroom.

Lesson 2

Topic: Electricity Grade level 5

Objective: Students will create a circuit that can be opened and closed with a switch from information provided by reading in their text and class discussion.

Materials: D-cell battery, battery holder, insulated wire, a flashlight bulb, and a switch

Exploration: Students read textbook entry on electric current, open and closed circuit, and electric switches.

Invention: Teacher discusses what students read, reviews open and closed circuits by looking at pictures of different circuits with different arrangements of bulbs, batteries and switches. After this discussion he lectures on how the electrical systems in most homes work and safety issues about circuits and lightening being the number one killer of all natural weather related events.

Discovery: The teacher gives the students a d-cell battery, battery holder, insulated wire, a flashlight bulb, and a switch and asks them to build a closed circuit.

Lesson 3

Topic: Electricity Grade level 5

Objective: Students will create a circuit that can be opened and closed with a switch from information provided by reading in their text and class discussion

Materials: circuit posters, textbook, d-cell battery, battery holder, insulated wire, a flashlight bulb, and a switch

Exploration: The teacher shows the students several posters with open and closed circuits and has them read the section in their text about electrical current. Then she discusses the reading with them and assigns them three investigation questions. 1. Make a circuit so that the bulb will light. 2. Make a circuit so that the bulb will can be turned on and off with the switch. And 3. Make a circuit that doesn’t work.

Invention: Students work in groups and seek answers for each of the three questions.

Discovery: Students share their drawings and explain how they worked. The teacher records each circuit by drawing it with a schematic diagram using a computer program. When all students have presented she shares her diagrams and has the class sort them into the three categories and explain how they work.

Dr. Robert Sweetland's notes
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