Complete thesis - Murdoch University

• opportunity to develop cognitively flexible processing skills and the knowledge structureswhich can support this. In order to achieve this, the learning environment is alsorequired to be flexible, to permit the same items of knowledge to be presented andlearned in a variety of different ways and for a variety of different purposes, at differentlevels of granularity.An appropriate learning environment for RE should also provide a number of opportunities:• to identify, analyse and solve a number of issues, repetitively and at different levels ofcomplexity. This acts as preparation for professional employment• to practise the art as well as science/engineering of RE• to test the understanding of theory, its connection with application, and develop theoreticalinsight• to deal with incompleteness and ambiguity• to think independently and work co operatively, fostering insight into individual strengthsand weaknessesby means of a focus on:• knowledge construction based on experience with multiple perspectives and representations• metacognitive decision making competence, implying both wide content knowledge andreflection• experience, within an authentic context.Section 3.4.2 discussed the issue of inadequacy of formal education in training competent REpractitioners. This may be partly explained by an ‘incorrect’ learning environment resultingfrom the poor fit between the characteristics of the domain and those of the learning model– within a Computer Science domain, a scientific paradigm is seen as dominant, within anEngineering domain, a process/manufacturing metaphor exists.Yet Spiro et al (1991) suggest education theories and learning models that focus on theconstruction of knowledge are likely to be more suitable for learning in domains involvingill-structured problems. Savery and Duffy (1995) also suggest that appropriate learning inill-structured domains and/or dealing with ill-structured problems should itself be problembased,with principles that emerge from constructivism encapsulated in problem-based learning.174