The Affordances of Second Life for Education - Teaching through Multi-User Virtual Environments - page 96

alternative theories, and in presenting findings to
others (US Department of Labor, 1990).
The conclusions of the SCANS report were
reinforced by additional commissions that is-
sued reports in the 1990s, especially the National
Goals 2000 panels devoted to preparing standards
in various subject areas (Thompson & Henley,
2000). Most of the subject-matter standards that
emerged—led by those issued by the National
Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM,
1989)—outlined high-level conceptual under-
standings that need to be learned in order for
students to be able to continue serious study of
the disciplines beyond high schools, and most
reports urged that these conceptual understand-
ings—rather than basic skills per se —receive
greater emphasis in elementary schools.
A number of attempts have been made to weave
these various standards documents and reports into
a unified conception of the kinds of learning that
are most valuable to contemporary society and
upon which schools should focus (Thompson &
Henley, 2000; Grabinger and Dunlap, 2002). One
particularly helpful approach has been the emer-
gence of the concept of “meaningful learning,”
particularly out of the work of David Jonassen and
his colleagues (Jonassen et al., 1999). Ashburn
(2006) summarizes this conception as learning
that results from “systematic and intentionally-
created opportunities to achieve (a) deep and
enduring understanding of complex ideas, and
(b) skill in working with complex problems and
content that are both central to the discipline and
relevant to students' lives” (p. 8). In meaningful
learning situations, students actively construct
their own knowledge as they frame, examine, and
attempt to answer questions that relate to their own
interests, resulting in “understanding that includes
the capacity and dispositions to develop and apply
knowledge creatively, flexibly, and appropriately
in a range of situations” (p. 27). Ashburn (2006)
provides more specific description of six essential
qualities of meaningful learning:

• Intentionality: Using clearly articulat-

ed learning goals to guide the design of
learning tasks and assessment of learning
progress.

• Content centrality: Aligning learning

goals and tasks with the big ideas, essential
questions, and methods of inquiry that are
central to the discipline.

• Authentic work: Constructing multifac-

eted learning tasks that represent the chal-
lenges, problems, and thinking skills re-
quired outside the classroom.

• Active inquiry: Using a disciplined inqui-

ry process for learning that builds on stu-
dents' own questions and develops habits
of mind that foster high levels of thinking.

• Construction of mental models:

Embedding the articulation of cognitive
models of content within the learning tasks.

• Collaborative work: Designing learn-

ing tasks so that students work together to
achieve learning outcomes. (p. 9)

Ashburn's list of qualities can be supplemented
by one created by Lebow (1993) that empha-
sizes learning that is democratic and humanistic.
Lebow's list includes “collaboration, personal
autonomy, generativity, reflectivity, active engage-
ment, personal relevance, and pluralism” (p. 5).
Generativity refers to activities and materials that
generate new activities and concepts rather than
closing off avenues of inquiry or thought. Reflec-
tivity is the disposition of learners to consider not
only their current ideas but ways in which those
ideas could be modified in the light of ongoing ex-
perience (Grabinger & Dunlap, 2002). Pluralism,
in this context, refers to activities and materials that
expose the learner to a wide variety of experiences
as well as perspectives, reinforcing the notion that
no one person or group has exclusive access to
the “truth”, but that truth is best approached by
incorporating multiple perspectives. The other
items on the list are fairly self-explanatory.