Often associated with the domain of real estate is this remark:
There are three critical concerns in real estate: location, location, and location.In the real world of learning, one might also say that there are three critical concerns: context, context, and context.
We failed to make our context as clear as we should have in several instances. Specifically, toward the end of our discussion about the population model, we claim that we will have implemented an ID principle. Chet [Hedden, 17 Oct 95] takes exception to our claim, saying rather that we will have helped the student eliminate one hypothesis with corrective feedback. We wanted our point to more like this: We ask students to select animal populations about which they have some concern--asking them to provide some of the motivation. We then ask students to predict the behavior of a model after a cursory presentation. We hope that the model behaves somewhat different than they might have expected. The context of this example is NOT in the presentation of any substantive material--it is IN the context getting learners READY or PREPARED to learn--Gagne's set-up phase of instruction (see Gagne's chapter in Spector, Polson, & Muraida, 1993).
An analogous context can be found in many of Plato's early dialogues in which Socrates is operating on the assumption that learning IS remembering and teaching IS reminding--that before a person can remember, that person needs to recognize that there is some sort of need to remember--a deficiency--something needs to be explained--and Socrates believes that the need must be felt as a personal need if learning (significant and stable change in behavior) is to occur.
The ID principle, which we did not cite, is roughly this: When introducing learning about complex domains, begin with an epitomizing example which draws the learner into a personally meaningful situation in which the learner is likely to recognize a deficiency in his/her thinking. We meant our example to illustrate something like a combination of an advance organizer and an epitomizing example. Chet is right that we did use corrective feedback along the way, but the point (CONTEXT) was to get the learner well-positioned for more and deeper learning about complex systems (which we did not present).