学習科学と認知科学

抄録

“Learning sciences” refers to a growing new trend in education-oriented research. In the first half of this paper, we characterize learning sciences as a natural outgrowth of the cognitive sciences. Learning sciences, like cognitive sciences, study realities of learning in classroom, home and job situations. Learning sciences utilize many constructs and theories developed in cognitive sciences, and, in return, learning sciences provide a good test field for cognitive theories. Learning sciences also have a strong tie to technology, advancement of which has broadened the scope of both research and practice of learning.
In the latter half, we elaborate these points and introduce some of our learning science research. We also report our laboratory-based research to illustrate how collaboration could lead to abstract understanding. Our analyses indicate that the role division in collaboration could provide the participants with solutions differing in the degrees of abstraction, which helps them to gradually shift their levels of understanding from a task-oriented level to more abstract levels. We then introduce two curricula, developed on implications from the above research, to teach cognitive science to lower-division undergraduates. Overall, the paper discusses current moves and the future research potential of the learning sciences.