referenceArchiveUUID: "fb04dd92-50b2-4016-8894-47aed709129d"
fullTitle: "Applications and Misapplications of Cognitive Psychology to Mathematics Education"
authors: ["John R Anderson","Lynne M Reder","Herbert A Simon"]
Criticism by John Anderson, Reder, and Herb Simon of Constructivism and Situated learning.
The situated learning section was adapted into Anderson et al. - 1996 - Situated Learning and Education.
The core of their arguments against constructivism are similar to those in Kirschner et al. - 2006 - Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work, but given their interest in Intelligent tutoring system, these authors understandably underscore their insistence that knowledge can be decomposed and decontextualized. Most things don’t have irreducibly high Element interactivity.
Like Kirschner et al, these authors agree with the constructivist claim that learning must be active, but that doesn’t mean that guidance or structure should be minimal. Rather, we should focus on creating sequences of tasks which produce motivated, active learning. I think that a Situated learning advocate would reply that this is an impossible task in general, because most knowledge mostly has meaning for people w.r.t. communities of practice.
But, of course: Games effectively develop players’ skills, and they do it in a way which often does feel motivating, so long as instruction doesn’t become the main point (Skill development in games is subservient to other intrinsically meaningful purposes).