hypothesis+assignment

Below are our hypotheses.

Generative Theory of Learning (Merlin C. Wittrock) Use cognitive processes during learning to make sure the learner understands the content area.
 * Alli**

Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (Richard E. Mayer) Based on three principles: dual channels, limited capacity, and active learning. Students take images and words and process them together to form an understanding and use it in their long-term memories.

Hypotheses (1) A student given a photo with text to explain the image, rather than only having the photo, will understand the reasoning behind the photo and integrate the knowledge into his or her mind for future reference.

(2) A student given video guidance will direct the student's attention to understand how and why the tool of composition was used for that particular photo rather than only using static images and text.

Theory: A higher level of learning (deeper understanding of the subject) will occur if the learner can solve a problem, or set of problems, with the freedom to use their own unique abilities, interests, faculties, and/or resources in a real-world scenario.
 * Thad**

Strategy 1: Provide the learner with a set of strategies and guidelines (not requirements) to solve the problem. Ask the learner to solve the problem using any resource or technique they choose. Evaluate the result.

Strategy 2: Throughout the learner’s problem solving process, track the progression and add scaffolding to direct the learner through the discovery process.

Student Motivation to Learn:
 * Tressa**

Hypothesis: A learner will have more motivation to learn a topic when the outcome of their instruction results in a self-rewarding final project.

Treatment 1: The assessment of the instruction will result in a final project that the learners will be able to take home in the end (i.e., a photography portfolio).

Treatment 2: The assessment at the end of the instruction will be a test or activity where they will be required to regurgitate knowledge.

I hope I did this right. I selected experiential learning and a general view of behaviorist learning, because those seem to be two very different forms of learning, which would have the learner do different things to learn the material.
 * Whitney**

Learners engage in both active implementation of the concepts that are to be learned and reflection about their learning experience doing so. Learners take time to think about their needs and wants, and how they were met after instruction. A student given tools of composition, but also asked to apply those skills with their camera (either during or after the lesson), and reflect and analyze their learning experience and how/what they learned will be more successful at maintaining and using the information after instruction is over.
 * Theory 1:** Experiential Learning (From David A. Kolb with touches of John Dewey and Jean Piaget)
 * Hypotheses 1:**

After the learners are taught the material, they are given a set of stimuli to respond to. Learning is shown by responding correctly to the stimuli. Learners do not need to //do// the skill in order to master the skill. There is also positive and negative reinforcements to help the learner distinguish between correct and incorrect answers/stimuli. A student taught the tools of composition, and then asked to correctly identity photos that exemplify each of the composition tools, with both positive and negative reinforcement correlating to answers given will be able to learn the material and appropriate it into their body of knowledge. Even if they are never able to replicate a photo, they will be able to determine if a given photo has strong elements of composition or not.
 * Theory 2:** Behaviorist learning
 * Hypotheses 2:**


 * __Comments:__**

Thad: Oh I guess we don't need to color code our comments if we're going to just write our critique down here. For some reason I was thinking that we were going to comment in the actual text but this way would be better anyway.

I was originally thinking that we could totally find the best aspects of each theory to merge together into one detailed one (as Whitney suggests) but then I tried to do it and it looked and sounded terrible. Plus it was too long and complex to reasonably try to test a hypotheses that diverse and complex. I think maybe it would be better to narrow it down to one solid hypotheses. With that said, I have no idea what direction we should go because all of the points and hypotheses brought up are valid and legit. For example, motivation (as Tressa points out) and application (as Whitney suggests) are important theories we need to implement.

I think we will implement all of our hypotheses in our project but I think a hypotheses that goes well with the readings and that would be easily testable with our project would be Alli's hypotheses about how learners understand the content better if they are able to process different forms of content delivery together. Since we will be using a lot of visual demonstrations with photos and videos, I think this might be a good group hypotheses to test and prove.

Whitney: Here are my thoughts: I think that we each bring some terrific ideas to the table about how to make this instruction the most effective it can be. How much of an issue is it if we combine multiple hypotheses? Or could we have one main hypothesis and then a few sub-hypotheses? I think we also need to keep in mind the delivery format—PowerPoint.

Here are my thoughts: From Thad and Alli: The idea of scaffolding is terrific, and complements the idea of using multimedia within the template. From Tressa: If the outcome of the project is a mini-portfolio they can use and draw from in the future, that would be an excellent hook to draw them into the instruction. From me: I feel strongly that the student needs to be using their camera while learning this, in conjunction with looking at example photographs. Perhaps we could even provide a checklist of things for them to look at within their own photographs, so they can do an assessment of their own work.

Alli Cool color coding! That was an alliteration. Anyway, I am with Whitney on how we should combine hypotheses. Also, I think we did a pretty good job with our hypotheses! I think our general ideas can be related somehow and put them together as more detailed.

Alli: It's weird commenting about my own hypothesis. However, I think it is important to have images, text, or some type of multimedia example for the student. I know I do better if I can see images to go along with text. Thad: I like your scaffolding idea and giving the students guidelines to follow and then evaluating them. I think we could use our instruction from our last project to influence this one. Tressa: The idea of having a final portfolio or artifact of some type is a good idea, I just don't know how we would get the students to do that with this project. I also agree that motivation and/or desire are extremely important for any type of learning. Whitney: I think active learning is a great way to think about having students truly learn something. I guess I am still a bit confused about what we are going to be doing, so I don't know how we could make the students use a camera.

I think we all had pretty good ideas. Now we just need to figure out how to combine them...

Tressa I get to be purple! Yay!

First of all...I'm confused. From all the comments, I'm assuming we're going off of Alli and Thad's photo project? I used a photo portfolio as an example in my hypothesis because it was kind of the theme everyone was using. I'm feeling a little bit out of the loop though! But I'm totally excited about a photo instruction project.

Second, it would be fantastic to be able to combine our hypotheses into one big one because I think we all touch areas that are important in instruction. However, like Thad said, combining them into one and testing for every different hypothesis is quite a task. I think we need to include everything we've presented in our material anyway, but just not include it all in our hypothesis. Does that make sense? If we had to choose two theories to combine, I like Alli's idea using the multiple channels and their effect on long-term memory. I also believe that something like photography can't REALLY be learned without using a camera. I don't believe we'll be restricted to just paper-based so I'm hoping we can incorporate some hands-on learning. In Whitney's first hypothesis she discusses hands-on learning as well as reflection which I think is a great idea and could be presented in one of the learning channels (active learning) from Alli's hypothesis. The problem is, I would have a hard time not including Thad's in there somewhere as well! This is a bit difficult!

With my hypothesis, I wanted to go from a different angle and look more at the motivation of students and it's effect on the learning outcomes. We could include a motivational project in our instruction but not include it in our hypothesis because even as I think more about it, motivation's effect on learning could be a difficult thing to test for, especially when we'll already have so much that we're looking at in the process.