Interactivity, Values and the Microgenesis of Learning in a Tertiary Setting: A Distributed Cognition Perspective

Abstract

Student learning is a hot topic in tertiary education circles these days. However, it is not always clear what words like ‘learning’ and ‘learner’ mean. It is important for educationalists to understand learning as it actually occurs in real-time learning situations. We build on Hutchins’ theory of distributed cognition and Gibson’s ecological psychology to show how human learning is an interactive process. We propose Multimodal Event Analysis as a tool for analyzing a University tutorial in which students attempt to solve a problem of regression analysis. We investigate how participants’ multimodal interactivity with the changing affordance arrays of the learning situation is the driver and shaper of learning. Moreover, learning is an unfolding microgenetic construction process. Theories of microgenesis (e.g., Brown, Werner) are a fertile starting point for developing new understandings of human learning as an always embodied and culturally-saturated form of values-realizing interactivity.