Case-Based Reasoning Meets Learning by Doing

Goal-Based Scenarios:
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types of knowledge mentioned earlier, there is a cognitive learning by doing that is going on as well. The
doing here has nothing to do with physical actions. Rather, it is centered on the mind's desire to build up a
functional knowledge base. The creation of this knowledge base is what drives curiosity and is what
makes us human. We shall dub this process learning by cognizing.
To better understand learning by cognizing, we must reconsider learning by doing. Learning by doing
has, as its core premise, the idea that goals drive learning. When someone wants to accomplish
something, they are forced to pay attention to the detailed actions that accomplish the goal. If they want
to go somewhere by car, they must learn many details of driving. We have termed these micro-scripts.
We know that not all micro-scripts are physical. There is a cognitive dimension to the micro-scripts that
we learn. Nevertheless, the goals are physical -- to go someplace, to operate a piece of equipment, to
behave properly in a situation so as to get someone to do something that you want.
Sometimes, however, goals are completely cognitive. Or to put this another way, the goal is to know
something. Whereas it seems obvious that higher order animals can learn micro-scripts because they too
have physical goals, it is less obvious that animals other than humans have knowledge goals. In any case,
humans do seem to have such goals. And they often do not seem to be in any way in service of a physical
goal. When a small child asks why the sky is blue, he is not hoping to use that knowledge to help him to
do something. When I want to know who the new manager is for the New York Mets, I will indeed use
that information, but my use is mostly cognitive. I will use that information to help me understand what
the Mets are doing, or to converse with other baseball fans about the Mets. The notion of use here is
purely cognitive and differs from that of the term use in learning by doing.
Nevertheless, the analogy is direct. Learning by doing works because the natural physical goals that
people strive to achieve cause a need to acquire micro-scripts in order to achieve them. These microscripts
are reinforced by practice and combine together to allow us to become adept at complex physical
activities. Similarly, learning by cognizing works because the natural cognitive goals that people
strive to achieve cause a need to acquire knowledge in order to achieve them. This knowledge is
reinforced by repeated use and combines together to allow us to become adept at complex cognitive
activities.
The activities to which I am referring here revolve around thinking and communicating one's thinking. I
cannot think about how Chicago is being run if I do not know anything about its government. I can only
understand how good a basketball player Michael Jordan was by watching him and comparing him to
others. In order to do this I have to care about basketball, or athletic prowess, or excellence or something
like that. Caring about such things is a mental activity grounded in the need to know more. Or, to put this
another way, learning by cognizing entails asking and answering questions about the observed world in
order to come to conclusions about it. Having a knowledge goal means having a question and seeking its
answer either by observation or by asking someone who might know.
There can be many reasons to want to know something. One reason might be to supply a cognitive piece
to a micro-script to enable you to be able to do something. Another might be to supply a piece of
knowledge that will enable you to be able to know something. EFK is of two basic types, therefore. If we
need to know something in order to do something, we are talking about physical EFK. If we need to
know something in order to know something else, we are talking about cognitive EFK.
The reason to make this distinction and to put it in this way is related to teaching. It has always been easy
for schools to identify knowledge that they wish students to have and then to begin a program to impart
that knowledge by telling it to them and asking them to tell it back on a test. Similarly, we can make
students learn to do certain micro-scripts properly, without giving them any understanding of why they
might need such a micro-script, causing them to forget the new knowledge as soon as a test is finished.
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1/22/2010