Cognitive Flexibility Theory Reflection

Cognitive Flexibility Reflection

What would happen if the internet, with its hypertext capabilities, and constructivist educational psychology got married and had a child? I think the child’s name would be “Cognitive Flexibility.”

According to Jacobson (1995), CFT addresses “empirically identified problems associated with the acquisition and transfer of complex knowledge.” Using the study of a geographical location as a metaphor, he states that a “rich and flexible understanding of a complex conceptual landscape will emerge only after the learner has made numerous transversals of the domain from different intellectual perspectives.”

Jonassen (1992) describes Cognitive Flexibility (CF) as a theory that provides “a meaningful, case-based approach to accessing information. Learners access information that they need to solve (a) particular case.” He also maintains that “(c)ognitive flexibility theory avoids oversimplifying instruction, provides multiple representations of content, emphasized case-based instruction which results in context-dependent knowledge, and supports knowledge construction and complexity which enables the learner to investigate the multiple perspectives represented in the knowledge domain in an exploratory way.”

CFT prescribes the following five principles as antidotes for the oversimplification of educational approaches:

1. Use multiple conceptual representations of knowledge
“CFT recommends employing multiple ways to represent knowledge in instructional activities…to reflect more accurately the multifaceted nature of complex knowledge.”

2. Link and tailor abstract concepts to different case examples
“CFT recommends illustrating abstract concepts using multiple case examples to demonstrate to the learner the nuances of abstract conceptual variability associated with ill-structured domains.”

3. Introduce domain complexity early
“CFT recommends the early introduction of complexity in a cognitively manageable manner that still reflects some of the multifaceted interactions of various conceptual elements.”

4. Stress the interrelated and web-like nature of knowledge
“CFT proposes that the demonstration of conceptual interrelationships in multiple contexts helps cultivate a rich and flexible understanding of a complex content area.”

5. Encourage knowledge assembly
“CFT proposes that the learner assemble relevant abstract conceptual and case-specific knowledge components for a given application or problem-solving task.”

So what we have here is a methodology which adapts to the flexible way in which we store and retrieve knowledge. Given the epistemic paradigm that learning is more than rote memorization, and that there is no "one size fits all" educational experience, the learner utilizing this approach may expect to synthesize cases and adapt them for his/her use as necessary. This is, of course, an approach suitable for problem-based and case-based education where situations are ill-defined. It appears to be extremely well-matched with the hypertext language of the internet, and affords the learner the flexibility to explore knowledge and transverse the intellectual universe from all desired angles. As the lady in the video says, "you are the learning management system!"

I think that this is an incredibly well-thought out approach, but it seems that one needs a programmer well-versed in HTML and Flash in order to pull off a really good educational product. The subject being taught is also of importance: it is recommended for ill-defined domains such as law and medicine, where no two cases are exactly alike and thus must draw from different perspectives and situations. I would have liked to have seen an example of this approach in a domain other than history: my opinion of this approach is not as concretized as I would like, not having seen such examples.

Drawbacks naturally are the time and expense involved in creation of curricula using this approach. Once again, companies specializing in multimedia educational products could easily produce lessons in this format while the average classroom teacher is left in the dust. Students with the belief that ill-defined problems are best approached in this manner will clearly benefit, otherwise it could be wasted effort.

Given the resources, certainly I would use this approach when creating instruction. It adapts well to internet usage and is supported by research to combat oversimplified educational methodologies. Anyone with a website could put together a lesson with this approach, but, once again, you might need a crackerjack html programmer to help put it together.