Complete thesis - Murdoch University

practice and direct future learning, is seen as a major factor in the mismatch (Macauley andMylopoulos, 1995a).In addition, within the software development environment Budgen (2003) suggests severalreasons to explain a reliance on prescriptive procedures in lieu of the less prescriptive learningmodel:• this means of transferring knowledge could not cope with the escalating need for designand development knowledge (and hence increased number of novices requiring thisknowledge)• peer-to-peer knowledge transfer is required if practitioners are to remain abreast of therapid development.The focus of an overly-prescribed syllabus may lead to both:• conceptual oversimplification, which in turn leads to failures that take common, predictableforms and to an inability to apply knowledge to new cases (failures of transfer),and• a lack of experience with granularity. Learning also involves traversing the granularityof various disciplines to varying extents, from detailed to abstract and from intrinsicallysimple to complex representations of knowledge (McCalla and Greer, 1991; Pateland Kinshuk, 1997). Students reason at many grain sizes, especially in reference toproblem solving abilities – as they refine their understanding, students articulate theirknowledge to finer grain size. They also move in the opposite direction – from finegrainedknowledge of particular situations to an understanding of inclusive, generic,coarse-grained knowledge (Patel and Kinshuk, 1997).Different theories of learning propose conflicting importance of ‘incorrect learning’. Tripp(1993) has referred to ‘fossilisation’, the learning of incorrect, but understandable, syntaxand pronounciation which suffices for communications. Since this interlanguage allows satisfactorysocial interaction, the learner does not progress to a higher degree of mastery, somistakes are fossilised and become part of the learner’s permanent repertoire.The work of Chi et al (1982) and Chi and Bassock (1989) also suggests there is increased difficultyin correcting incorrect learning. while a concept that is ‘badly’ categorised or modelledis no longer available for ‘use’ in the learning process. In a poor learning environment, thelearner is not directed to the important features of the environment. This is seen to impactgreatly on the efficacy and efficiency of further learning – a poorly structured network of149