Patricia Alexander

Last updated
Patricia A. Alexander
Alma materUniversity of Maryland
OccupationEducational Psychologist

Distinguished University Professor

Jean Mullen Professor of Literacy
Website https://www.drlrl.org/

Patricia A. Alexander is an educational psychologist who has conducted notable research on the role of individual difference, strategic processing, and interest in students' learning. [1] [2] She is currently a university distinguished professor, Jean Mullan Professor of Literacy, [3] and Distinguished Scholar/Teacher in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology [4] in the College of Education at the University of Maryland and a visiting professor at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. [5]

Contents

Alexander has been a featured speaker at major research conferences, including the annual meetings of the National Reading Conference, the American Psychological Association, and the American Educational Research Association. She has authored an educational psychology textbook, [6] and has served as editor of prominent research journals and books in educational psychology. [7] [8]

At the University of Maryland, Alexander supervises the Disciplined Reading and Learning Research Lab [9] (DRLRL), dedicated to the study of psychology in teaching and learning. The research of the DRLRL includes the study of academic development, reading and multiple source use, domain learning, relational reasoning, and the role of individual differences in academic performance. The lab is an evolving learning environment that allows students to exchange ideas and conduct original empirical research. Alexander has received national and university-level honors for her mentoring, teaching and research.

Academic career

Recently named one of the most influential and productive educational psychologists of the past decade, [10] Alexander has served as President of Division 15 (Educational Psychology) of the American Psychological Association, [11] Vice-President of Division C (Learning and Instruction) of the American Educational Research Association, and President of the Southwest Educational Research Association. Since receiving her Ph.D., Alexander has published over 280 articles, books, or chapters in the area of learning and instruction. She is renowned for her insightful and engaging presentations; she has presented over 400 invited addresses or papers at national and international conferences. Alexander currently serves as the senior editor of Contemporary Educational Psychology and is a former editor of Instructional Science and the American Educational Research Journal. She presently serves on over 10 editorial boards including Learning and Instruction, Educational Psychologist, and the Journal of Educational Psychology. She has received numerous awards, including the Thorndike and Scribner Awards (See Awards and Achievements). In addition to these scholarly contributions to the field, Dr. Alexander serves as an international educational consultant in Europe, New Zealand, and Israel.

Model of Domain Learning

Perhaps Alexander's most notable contribution to the educational psychology literature is her Model of Domain Learning. [12] [13] In contrast to traditional models of expertise, the MDL provides an alternative lens on development in academic domains. The MDL is a three-stage model, with each phase characterized by particular configurations of knowledge, interest, and strategic processing.

The first stage, acclimation, exemplifies learners with limited domain and topic knowledge, where domain knowledge refers to the breadth of knowledge within a field and topic knowledge to the depth of knowledge about particular topics within that field. Alexander's work has demonstrated that the lack knowledge and experience with the domain during this phase co occurs with limited individual interest—or, preexisting interest—in the domain; rather, situational interest, or, interest sparked by the environment, may be particularly influential. As a result of this dearth of knowledge and interest, acclimating learners lack the strategic processing skills needed to master the content.

Alexander characterizes the second stage, competence, as including an increase in both domain and topic knowledge. Because of this broader and deeper body of knowledge, learners are able to apply a mixture of surface-level and deep processing strategies. Such shifts in knowledge and strategic processing are further associated with increases in individual interest, as learners no longer need to rely on situational features of the environment to draw their attention. The third stage, proficiency, is marked by an even broader and deeper knowledge base, as well as high individual interest. More importantly, these learners use their deep processing strategies to push the field forward with probing questions and novel ideas. Alexander (1997b) maintains that few ever reach this stage.

The MDL draws its strength from several facets that place the model in contrast with traditional models of expertise. First, whereas other models examine expertise as it manifests in particular activities (e.g., dance, medical diagnosis), the MDL centers on development in academic domains. This focus helps guide practitioners' approaches to teaching and allows them to better understand their students. In addition, this model takes into account affective factors (i.e., interest, motivation) that are often ignored in traditional models of expertise. Alexander's early writing on the integration of knowledge and strategic process resulted in a highly cited article published in 1988 with Judith Judy in Review of Educational Research. [14]

Reading development

Alexander is a leader in students' reading and literacy development throughout the lifespan and in connection to prior knowledge and domain learning. She has characterized reading as multidimensional, developmental, goal directed, and intentional. [15] Alexander and colleagues have introduced a conceptual framework for prior knowledge including conceptual knowledge, metacognitive knowledge, and knowledge construction interacting with one another, within a broader context of sociocultural knowledge and tacit knowledge. See Figure 2 JSTOR   1170635.

Beyond prior knowledge, Alexander has considered the cognitive processes, including strategy selection and use and metacognition, and motivational experiences, specifically interest and goal-directedness, involved in reading. More recently, in a 2010 report commissioned by the National Academic of Sciences, Alexander defined competent reading in the 21st century. Alexander critiqued findings from the 1997 National Reading Panel [16] that focused on reading acquisition, including phonemic awareness and vocabulary development. Alexander has criticized the overemphasis on learning to read, found in much of the reading literature targeting younger grades, and has advocated for greater attention paid to reading to learn, regarded as for mature reading. She serves as a reading consultant for the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

More recently, Alexander's work has turned to examining reading in information-saturated, digital contexts. To understand students' text processing in these environments, Alexander has drawn the distinction between information management and knowledge building. While information management is characterized by surface-level processing, focusing on reducing information volume to identify an answer, knowledge building involves deeper processing and in an effort to identify patterns and build understanding. She has called for teachers to develop tasks and learning environments that support students' engagement in knowledge building rather than information management.

Teacher and student beliefs

In her approach to studying the beliefs of students and teachers, Alexander sought to broaden the perspective of epistemic beliefs typically examined within educational research. Research on epistemic beliefs, stemming from work by William G. Perry on Harvard undergraduates in the 1970s have focused on beliefs about the nature of knowledge. Initially, Alexander's research into the study of beliefs focused on the degree to which students and teachers identified with the Platonic view of knowledge as justified true beliefs. In doing so, she examined the degree to which students and experts regarded "knowledge" and "belief" to be overlapping concepts. Responding to the challenging task of self-reporting one's own beliefs, this work by Alexander and colleagues developed innovative measurement techniques that included graphical depictions of the constructs.

Alexander, through her years of teaching experience, noticed that students, particularly those in the [digital age] were more concerned with managing information needed for tests than building knowledge. Building on these observations Alexander and her colleagues studied students beliefs about knowledge, information, and truth in students from elementary to college. [17] [18] Her work on beliefs addresses changes in beliefs across academic development, and has spanned the United States, Israel, Singapore, the Netherlands, and Italy. [19] [20] [21]

Relational reasoning

One of Alexander's current lines of research delves into relational reasoning strategies, which include metacognitive strategies that help individuals transfer knowledge across texts, tasks, and domains. Relational reasoning strategies are defined as, "cognitive procedures purposefully applied to recognizing or deriving meaningful relations or patterns between and among pieces of information that would otherwise appear unrelated." [22] Even though there are many forms of relational reasoning, Alexander and colleagues have proposed that analogy (similarity), anomaly (discrepancy), antinomy (incompatibility), and antithesis (opposition) are four manifestations of relational reasoning of importance for academic learning and development. Of the four proposed manifestations of relational reasoning, analogy and anomaly have been widely studied, while antinomy and antithesis are not as well-established. [23]

Analogy involves recognizing relational similarities between two seemingly disparate ideas, objects, or events. Anomaly is defined as any occurrence or object that is unusual or unique, and deviates from an established rule of trend. Antinomy refers to identifying principles or statements that are contradictory, and antithesis occurs when two propositions, principles, or explanations are set in direct contrast or opposition.

In 2014, Alexander and the Disciplined Reading and Learning Research Laboratory published the Test of Relational Reasoning [24] (TORR), which includes the four identified manifestations of relations described. In an effort to be culturally unbiased, the assessment contains visual representations of relations, which alleviate the demands of language and content knowledge. As of 2014, Alexander and the DRLRL had developed a linguistic counterpart to the TORR, the verbal Test of Relational Reasoning (vTORR), and testing of a version of the original TORR for elementary students, called the TORR Junior is currently underway.

Awards and achievements

Alexander's was recently[ when? ] named a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her honors also include the Oscar S. Causey Award for outstanding contributions to literacy research from the National Reading Conference (2001), the E. L. Thorndike Award for Career Achievement in Educational Psychology from APA Division 15 (2006), and the Sylvia Scribner Career Award from AERA Division C (2007). She has also received university-level honors for her teaching, mentorship, and research, including the University of Maryland System Regents Faculty Award for Mentoring.

See also

Related Research Articles

Educational psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of human learning. The study of learning processes, from both cognitive and behavioral perspectives, allows researchers to understand individual differences in intelligence, cognitive development, affect, motivation, self-regulation, and self-concept, as well as their role in learning. The field of educational psychology relies heavily on quantitative methods, including testing and measurement, to enhance educational activities related to instructional design, classroom management, and assessment, which serve to facilitate learning processes in various educational settings across the lifespan.

A graphic organizer, also known as a knowledge map, concept map, story map, cognitive organizer, advance organizer, or concept diagram, is a pedagogical tool that uses visual symbols to express knowledge and concepts through relationships between them. The main purpose of a graphic organizer is to provide a visual aid to facilitate learning and instruction.

Situated cognition is a theory that posits that knowing is inseparable from doing by arguing that all knowledge is situated in activity bound to social, cultural and physical contexts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constructivism (philosophy of education)</span> Philosophical viewpoint about the nature of knowledge; theory of knowledge

Constructivism in education is a theory that suggests that learners do not passively acquire knowledge through direct instruction. Instead, they construct their understanding through experiences and social interaction, integrating new information with their existing knowledge. This theory originates from Swiss developmental psychologist Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metacognition</span> Self-awareness about thinking, higher-order thinking skills

Metacognition is an awareness of one's thought processes and an understanding of the patterns behind them. The term comes from the root word meta, meaning "beyond", or "on top of". Metacognition can take many forms, such as reflecting on one's ways of thinking, and knowing when and how oneself and others use particular strategies for problem-solving. There are generally two components of metacognition: (1) cognitive conceptions and (2) cognitive regulation system. Research has shown that both components of metacognition play key roles in metaconceptual knowledge and learning. Metamemory, defined as knowing about memory and mnemonic strategies, is an important aspect of metacognition.

This is an index of education articles.

Dedre Dariel Gentner is an American cognitive and developmental psychologist. She is the Alice Gabriel Twight Professor of Psychology at Northwestern University, and a leading researcher in the study of analogical reasoning.

Cognitive apprenticeship is a theory that emphasizes the importance of the process in which a master of a skill teaches that skill to an apprentice.

Self-regulated learning (SRL) is one of the domains of self-regulation, and is aligned most closely with educational aims. Broadly speaking, it refers to learning that is guided by metacognition, strategic action, and motivation to learn. A self-regulated learner "monitors, directs, and regulates actions toward goals of information acquisition, expanding expertise, and self-improvement”. In particular, self-regulated learners are cognizant of their academic strengths and weaknesses, and they have a repertoire of strategies they appropriately apply to tackle the day-to-day challenges of academic tasks. These learners hold incremental beliefs about intelligence and attribute their successes or failures to factors within their control.

An intelligent tutoring system (ITS) is a computer system that imitates human tutors and aims to provide immediate and customized instruction or feedback to learners, usually without requiring intervention from a human teacher. ITSs have the common goal of enabling learning in a meaningful and effective manner by using a variety of computing technologies. There are many examples of ITSs being used in both formal education and professional settings in which they have demonstrated their capabilities and limitations. There is a close relationship between intelligent tutoring, cognitive learning theories and design; and there is ongoing research to improve the effectiveness of ITS. An ITS typically aims to replicate the demonstrated benefits of one-to-one, personalized tutoring, in contexts where students would otherwise have access to one-to-many instruction from a single teacher, or no teacher at all. ITSs are often designed with the goal of providing access to high quality education to each and every student.

Dysrationalia is defined as the inability to think and behave rationally despite adequate intelligence. It is a concept in educational psychology and is not a clinical disorder such as a thought disorder. Dysrationalia can be a resource to help explain why smart people fall for Ponzi schemes and other fraudulent encounters.

Neurodevelopmental framework for learning, like all frameworks, is an organizing structure through which learners and learning can be understood. Intelligence theories and neuropsychology inform many of them. The framework described below is a neurodevelopmental framework for learning. The neurodevelopmental framework was developed by the All Kinds of Minds Institute in collaboration with Dr. Mel Levine and the University of North Carolina's Clinical Center for the Study of Development and Learning. It is similar to other neuropsychological frameworks, including Alexander Luria's cultural-historical psychology and psychological activity theory, but also draws from disciplines such as speech-language pathology, occupational therapy, and physical therapy. It also shares components with other frameworks, some of which are listed below. However, it does not include a general intelligence factor, since the framework is used to describe learners in terms of profiles of strengths and weaknesses, as opposed to using labels, diagnoses, or broad ability levels. This framework was also developed to link with academic skills, such as reading and writing. Implications for education are discussed below as well as the connections to and compatibilities with several major educational policy issues.

Donna Alvermann is an American educator and researcher in the field of Language and Literacy Education whose work focuses on adolescent literacy in and out of school, inclusive of new media and digital literacies. Her most recent research interest involves developing historical-autobiographical methods for uncovering silences in scholarly writing that mask more than they disclose. She is the Omer Clyde and Elizabeth Parr Aderhold Professor in Education in the Mary Frances Early College of Education at the University of Georgia (UGA). She is also a UGA-appointed Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education.

Allan M. Collins is an American cognitive scientist, Professor Emeritus of Learning Sciences at Northwestern University's School of Education and Social Policy. His research is recognized as having broad impact on the fields of cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, and education.

Conceptual change is the process whereby concepts and relationships between them change over the course of an individual person's lifetime or over the course of history. Research in four different fields – cognitive psychology, cognitive developmental psychology, science education, and history and philosophy of science - has sought to understand this process. Indeed, the convergence of these four fields, in their effort to understand how concepts change in content and organization, has led to the emergence of an interdisciplinary sub-field in its own right. This sub-field is referred to as "conceptual change" research.

Learning analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data about learners and their contexts, for purposes of understanding and optimizing learning and the environments in which it occurs. The growth of online learning since the 1990s, particularly in higher education, has contributed to the advancement of Learning Analytics as student data can be captured and made available for analysis. When learners use an LMS, social media, or similar online tools, their clicks, navigation patterns, time on task, social networks, information flow, and concept development through discussions can be tracked. The rapid development of massive open online courses (MOOCs) offers additional data for researchers to evaluate teaching and learning in online environments.

Help-seeking theory postulates that people follow a series of predictable steps to seek help for their inadequacies, it is a series of well-ordered and purposeful cognitive and behavioral steps, each leading to specific types of solutions.

The gradual release of responsibility (GRR) model is a structured method of pedagogy centred on devolving responsibility within the learning process from the teacher to the learner. This approach requires the teacher to initially take on all the responsibility for a task, transitioning in stages to the students assuming full independence in carrying it out. The goal is to cultivate confident learners and thinkers who are capable of handling tasks even in areas where they have not yet gained expertise.

Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI) was developed in 1993 by Dr. John T. Guthrie with a team of elementary teachers and graduate students. The project designed and implemented a framework of conceptually oriented reading instruction to improve students' amount and breadth of reading, intrinsic motivations for reading, and strategies of search and comprehension. The framework emphasized five phases of reading instruction in a content domain: observing and personalizing, searching and retrieving, comprehending and integrating, communicating to others, and interacting with peers to construct meaning. CORI instruction was contrasted to experience-based teaching and strategy instruction in terms of its support for motivational and cognitive development.

Epistemic cognition, sometimes known as epistemological beliefs, or personal epistemology, is "cognition about knowledge and knowing", an area of research in the learning sciences and educational psychology. Research into epistemic cognition investigates people's beliefs regarding the characteristics of knowledge and knowing—as distinct from thinking or believing in general—and the impact of this on learning.

References

  1. ↑ Alexander, Patricia A. (1998). Hynd (ed.). The nature of disciplinary and domain learning: The knowledge, interest, and strategic dimensions of learning from subject-matter text. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. pp. 263–287.
  2. ↑ Alexander, Patricia A. (2000). "Toward a model of academic development: Schooling and the acquisition of knowledge: The sequel". Educational Researcher. 29 (2): 28–33. doi:10.3102/0013189x029002028. S2CID   143947947.
  3. ↑ "Patricia Alexander". University of Maryland, College of Education. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  4. ↑ Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology(HDQM) Retrieved November 26, 2019.
  5. ↑ "Events and visitors - The University of Auckland". www.auckland.ac.nz. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
  6. ↑ Alexander, Patricia A. (2006). Psychology in Learning and Instruction. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
  7. ↑ Alexander, Patricia A.; Winne, Philip H. (2006). Handbook of Educational Psychology. American Psychological Associate.
  8. ↑ Mayer, Richard E.; Alexander, Patricia A. (2011). Handbook of research on learning and instruction. New York: Routledge.
  9. ↑ "Disciplined Reading and Learning Research Lab" . Retrieved November 26, 2019.
  10. ↑ Patterson-Hazley, Melissa; Kiewra, Kenneth A. (2013). "Conversations with Four Highly Productive Educational Psychologists: Patricia Alexander, Richard Mayer, Dale Schunk, and Barry Zimmerman". Educational Psychology Review. 25 (1): 19–45. doi:10.1007/s10648-012-9214-y. JSTOR   23363961. S2CID   144136902.
  11. ↑ apa.org
  12. ↑ Alexander, Patricia A. (1997). Maehr, M. L.; Pintrich, P. R. (eds.). Mapping the multidimensional nature of domain learning: The interplay of cognitive, motivational, and strategic forces.
  13. ↑ Alexander, Patricia A. (2003). "The development of expertise: The journey from acclimation to proficiency". Educational Researcher. 32 (8): 10–14. doi: 10.3102/0013189x032008010 . JSTOR   3700080. S2CID   16784874.
  14. ↑ Alexander, Patricia A.; Judy, Judith E (1988). "The Interaction of Domain-Specific and Strategic Knowledge in Academic Performance". Review of Educational Research. 58 (4): 375–404. doi:10.3102/00346543058004375. JSTOR   1170279. S2CID   145167287.
  15. ↑ Jetton, Tamara L.; Alexander, Patricia A. (1997). "Instructional importance: What teachers value and what students learn". Reading Research Quarterly. 32 (3): 290–308. doi:10.1598/RRQ.32.3.4. JSTOR   748135.
  16. ↑ "National Reading Panel".
  17. ↑ Alexander, Patricia A.; Winters, Fielding; Loughlin, Sandra M.; Grossnickle, Emily M. (2012). "Students' Conceptions of Knowledge, Information, and Truth". Learning and Instruction. 62: 1–15. doi:10.1016/j.learninstruc.2011.05.004.
  18. ↑ Grossnickle, Emily M.; List, Alexandra; Alexander, Patricia A. (2014). "Elementary and Middle School Students' Conceptions of Knowledge, Information, and Truth". Journal of Experimental Education.
  19. ↑ Alexander, P. A.; Dochy, F. J. R. C (1995). "Conceptions of Knowledge and Beliefs: A Comparison of Varying Cultural and Educational Communities". American Educational Research Journal. 32 (2): 413–442. doi:10.3102/00028312032002413. JSTOR   1163437. S2CID   145465688.
  20. ↑ Alexander, P. A.; Murphy, P. K.; Guan, J.; Murphy, P. A. (1998). "How Students and Teachers in Singapore and the United States Conceptualize Knowledge and Beliefs: Positioning Learning Within Epistemological Frameworks". Learning and Instruction. 8 (2): 97–116. doi:10.1016/s0959-4752(97)00004-2. ISSN   0959-4752.
  21. ↑ Maggioni, L.; Riconscente, M.; Alexander, P. A. (2006). "Perceptions of Knowledge and Beliefs Among Undergraduate Students in Italy and the United States". Learning and Instruction. 16 (5): 467–491. doi:10.1016/j.learninstruc.2006.09.006.
  22. ↑ Alexander, Patricia A.; Disciplined Reading and Learning Research Laboratory (2010). "Reading into the Future: Competence for the 21st Century". Educational Psychologist. 47 (4): 259–280. doi:10.1080/00461520.2012.722511. S2CID   145253298.
  23. ↑ Dumas, Denis; Alexander, Patricia A.; Grossnickle, Emily M. (2013). "Relational Reasoning and Its Manifestations in the Educational Context: A Systematic Review of the Literature". Educational Psychology Review. 25 (3): 391–427. doi:10.1007/s10648-013-9224-4. JSTOR   43546819. S2CID   13664855.
  24. ↑ Alexander, Patricia A.; Dumas, Denis; Grossnickle, Emily M.; List, Alexandra; Firetto, Carla (2014). "Measuring Relational Reasoning". Journal of Experimental Education. 84 (1): 119–151. doi:10.1080/00220973.2014.963216. S2CID   144547865.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.