Generative Learning
Generative learning is the active process of saying, "Oh. That's like ..." It's the process of constructing links between new and old knowledge, or a personal understanding how new ideas fit into an individual's web of known concepts. "The essence of the generative learning model is that the mind, or the brain, is not a passive consumer of information. Instead, it actively constructs its own interpretations of information and draws inferences from them" (Wittrock, p348). Learning involves mental
activity - thinking. For example, with respect to reading a textbook or paper, without active construction of relations between parts of a text, or between the text and personal knowledge, the student will pass over the words and wonder what has been read. How many times have we each finished reading a paper, page or paragraph and wondered what it was that we had read?
The mental activity of generative learning appears to be a function of memory. Wittrock suggests that generative learning takes place when links are generated between the contents of short-term memory and our knowledge base, or long-term memory. He quotes (p357) McFarland et al. (1980) who state that "an individual's memory will improve dramatically if he provides some of the to-be-remembered information himself." In effect saying that if the
individual provides an existing link upon which to construct new knowledge, the incorporation of that knowledge into the existing structure will be more effective. One might consider a "web model" for learning in which short-term memory is a place where new ideas are not only placed and erased, but also connected to existing knowledge. After the connections are generated, the ideas are no longer isolated in a person's short-term memory and may be used to construct rather than recall solutions (Wittrock,
p356).
How can teachers stimulate generative learning? Based upon the above argument, the teacher's role must be to help students generate those links, or help relate new ideas to each other and prior knowledge. "The teacher prompts or guides students' thinking to lead them into making connections or engaging in certain mental activity" (Seifert, 1995, 1-6). Hence, the primary focus of teaching shifts from "information supply" to facilitating "knowledge web construction." This approach places the student
at the centre - actively constructing his / her future. The teacher intervenes in student learning only to enhance student performance in activities they would have trouble relating to prior knowledge. Wittrock (p369) suggests that "To be effective, generative teaching activities induce learners to construct relevant representations that they would not compose spontaneously."
Teachers stimulate generation within students by guiding them into building the links themselves. Students who compose titles and headings, write questions, state objectives, write summaries, draw graphs, prepare tables, demonstrate methods, compose metaphors, propose analogues, give examples, draw pictures, solve problems, develop explanations or draw inferences, take new ideas and re-work the information for presentation. For example, one of
the fundamental criteria for science fair project evaluation is a judgement of student "understanding" of presented concepts. Given a pair of students explaining their research, it is usually easy for a teacher to discover which student constructed the data table; who wrote the concluding statements; and who originated the idea / hypothesis. This "judging of understanding" is really a judgement of whether or not students have generated links from their presented information to their prior knowledge.
Personally, and reflectively, the value of this paper lies in its writing, not reading. To write this paper, new ideas about generative learning, prior knowledge, the encoding process, learning strategies, self-instruction and metacognition were summarized with author-chosen italicized headings, sometimes in tables; explanations were developed using analogues, metaphors and examples; and, questions were raised about previous classroom experiences and
future practice. In essence, the writing of this paper is an exercise in generation and it can only be considered a success if personal learning is demonstrated.
With respect to reading, Wittrock (p366) suggests that effective generative activity is related to "the developmental level and ability of the learners, the type of reading material, and the teachers and curriculum writer's goals in the design of the instruction." These factors are easily related to other learning activities as well. For example, it is much easier for grade 12, as opposed to grade 8, mathematics students to generate the relationship between constructed geometrical representations an
d previously learned algebra equations. Within the same grade 8 mathematics class, some students appear to be better than others at generating links between the previous year's discussion of number lines and current explanations. And, some students who find this topic easy may have difficulty with a different topic, percentages, for example.
From personal experience, having taught grade 8 math in the same time slot as another teacher in an adjacent room, students learned differently based upon teacher style and focus.
Students who feel that they have to work to understand a concept and exert effort to solve a problem learn to appreciate effort in situations where the answer is not supplied. According to Wittrock (p353), "...answers given to learners must still be generated by them (i.e., related to context and to knowledge and experience) before they [students] can comprehend them." Answers which are simply accepted and stored in short-term memory quickly disappear and are a struggle to recall only a few days later.
Wittrock (p353) argues that "generation, not discovery, is the process of comprehension." As a proponent of discovery learning, one could argue that the process of discovery provides the opportunity for generation to occur. For example, consider physics students who discover by experimentation that simultaneously released rocks of different weight strike the ground simultaneously. If the result is a surprise to the student - discovery - there is an automatic process of rationalizing the result base
d upon prior knowledge - generation.