A new methodology of research on teaching through cognitive mediational research paradigm : focusing on analyzing teaching-learning processes between teaching behaviors and student cognitions

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to propose the new research paradigm on teaching to 1990's. The process-product research has been the main paradigm of research on teaching. But, neither student cognitive operations nor the immediate products of those operations are observed to test hypotheses about relations among student cognitive operations and teaching behaviors. So, what actually happens in a student's cognitive system always must be infered rather than operationally determined. The process-product paradigm makes assumptions about events in this black box that could be tested. It is the weakness which process-product research suffers in an attempts to explain why teacher behaviors account for student cognitive operations. It is the reason why the cognitive mediational paradigm is proposed as a remedy to this problem. So, this study was designed and examined the usability of this paradigm focusing on relation between teacher behaviors, student cognitive operations. First, in this study, I could measure the correlations between pretests, posttests, teacher behaviors, and student cognitions. The results show the positive correlations between teacher questioning and evaluating behaviors and student knowledge processing, but the negative correlation between teacher management behaviors and students' goal oriented cognition. Next, the mapping study of instructional tactics by high and low achievement groups was also conducted to describe the relations among teaching behaviors and student cognitions'. The main finding can be summarized as follows: In case of the high achievement group, we could find the main pattern of structuring-questioning-knowledge processing-questioning. On the contrary, in case of the low achievement group, we could find the main pattern of structuring-questioning-evaluating. Accordingly, there was poverty of knowledge processing in case of the latter group compared to the former.