Learning as Process, Knowing as Product
It is absurd to discuss the learning process without specifying the range of knowing it produces. Wherever the learning process occurs, it results in a range of knowing.
A range of knowing consists of a combination of some kind, level and form of knowing about some object of knowing.
- Kinds of knowing include knowing-that-one, knowing-that, knowing-how and knowing-to.
- Levels of knowing include preconventional, conventional (beginner, intermediate, expert) and postconventional knowing.
- Forms of knowing include linguistic, emotional, imaginal, homeostatic (physiological) and physical knowing.
- Objects of knowing include persons, performances, entities, relationships and states of affairs — anything about which someone can know.
Examples of ranges of knowing include being able to play the violin, fly an aircraft, swim with the butterfly stroke, write an essay about the causes and consequences of WWI, solve quadratic equations, repair an internal combustion engine, not throw a tantrum when refused a request, not lie, not steal, not perform acts of cruelty and not kill a fellow human being.
The Range of Knowing
A range of knowing is a psychical condition, not a process. It is the learned ability to achieve some desired outcome or goal with competence and warranted certainty. Because knowing is a condition or state of being, we cannot determine whether someone has a range of knowing about some object of knowing by merely looking at the person. Watching a boy sitting on a bench gives no indication whether he can write and read Russian or skip rope or ice skate. He must perform writing and reading Russian and skipping rope and ice skating to provide evidence of his range of knowing. But when he is not performing those things, he of course still has the range of knowing about those objects of knowing.
Learning as a process is a change over some period of time in cognitive state from that of not knowing to that of knowing. The cognitive state of knowing is the result of this process. Education (the set of activities of teaching and intentional guided studying) is one of the several geneses of the process of learning some range of knowing. Confusion arises in discourse about education, learning and knowing because the terms education and learning are both used to denote the same three categories of phenomena:
(1) learning₁ — a change in a cognitive state over some period of time from ignorance to having some range of knowing;
(2) learning₂ — the product of the change, which is the range of knowing — a cognitive state of mind consisting of some combination of kind, level and form of knowing about some object of knowing;
(3) learning₃ — the intentional guided studying activities that, when effective, result in the process of learning (learning₁) some range of knowing (learning₂).
This ambiguity can easily be dispelled by using (1) the term learning to denote the process, and only the process, of coming to have some range of knowing; (2) the term range of knowing to denote the product of the process; and (3) the term education to denote the activities of teaching and intentional guided studying — and if the activities result in the process of learning some prescribed range of knowing, the education is effective; if not, the education is ineffective.
The phrase effective learning is nonsensical, because the process of learning (learning₁) can be neither effective nor ineffective. Either the learning process occurs, or it does not. Education (the activities of teaching and intentional guided studying), on the other hand, can be effective or ineffective: students can perform a set of intentional guided studying activities and not learn the prescribed range of knowing to the extent specified by the statements of intended learning outcomes. They can try and not succeed.
Effective education is obviously not the only genesis (set of controlling conditions) for the resultant process of learning a range of knowing:
(1) Effective education results in intentional guided (conduced) learning of a prescribed range of knowing.
(2) Inquiry, when successful, results in intentional unguided (discovery) learning of a discovered range of knowing.
(3) Coercion in some form (from socialization, enculturation, indoctrination, conditioning, etc.) results in unintentional guided (coerced) learning of a compelled range of knowing.
(4) Happenstance (accidents, misadventures, serendipities) results in unintentional unguided (accidental) learning of an accidental range of knowing.
As individuals, each of us has an extant range of knowing that has resulted from all four geneses.
Prescribed Range of Knowing
Effective education (effective teaching and intentional guided studying) is the set of controlling conditions for the resultant of conduced (intentional guided) learning of a prescribed range of knowing as specified by an intended learning outcome. An intended learning outcome is a statement which specifies the range of knowing that students are intended to achieve as the result of having intentionally studied under guidance some content in a set of educational episodes. The purpose of an intended learning outcome is to specify the kind, level, form and object of knowing that students are intended to learn intentionally under guidance. The range of knowing that is specified by an intended learning outcome is a prescribed range of knowing.
Evidence of Knowing
Because knowing is a cognitive state of mind, it cannot be observed. But a cognitive state of mind can be inferred from what students say and do — from their linguistic performances and their physical performances, the behaviors that are expressions, or exemplifications, of their knowing. The two forms of expressing knowing that are observable are linguistic expressions (spoken, signed or written) and physical expressions of knowing. Linguistic expressions include the responses to questions on a written test, the oral responses in an oral examination, the composition of a haiku or short story, and a written solution to a mathematics problem. Physical expressions include the making of a mortise-and-tenon joint, a three-point turn in ice skating, the discernment and classification of a type of skin cancer, driving a truck competently and safely, not stealing, and not committing acts of cruelty.
Obtaining Evidence of Knowing
The purpose of an assessment procedure is to obtain the forensic evidence to establish whether, or to what degree, the students have learned intentionally under guidance the prescribed range of knowing as specified by an intended learning outcome. That forensic evidence is an observable performance (a cognitive behavior) and/or the product of an observable performance. These distinctions can be expressed as follows.
(1) An intended learning outcome is a statement which specifies the kind, level, form and object of knowing that students are intended to learn intentionally under guidance.
(2) A prescribed range of knowing is the range of knowing specified by an intended learning outcome.
(3) Assessment is a procedure for obtaining forensic evidence of knowing to establish whether, or to what degree, students have learned the prescribed range of knowing specified by an intended learning outcome.
(4) Forensic evidence of knowing is some observable performance and/or result of some performance which establishes whether, or to what degree, students have learned the prescribed range of knowing.
(5) Linguistic performative evidence is linguistic performance (spoken, written, signed) that establishes the degree to which students have learned the prescribed range of knowing.
(6) Physical performative evidence is physical performance that establishes the degree to which students have learned the prescribed range of knowing.
(7) Linguistic product evidence is the recorded linguistic result of a linguistic performance that establishes the degree to which students have learned the prescribed range of knowing.
(8) Physical product evidence is the physical result of a physical performance that establishes the degree to which students have learned the prescribed range of knowing.
Evaluating Evidence of Knowing
Evaluation of the evidence adduced from the assessment — the evidence that establishes whether, or to what degree, students have learned the prescribed range of knowing — is a rating and/or ranking in relation to a set of norms (rules and/or standards). The report of the evaluation is stated as a rating (A, B, C; Excellent, Good, Satisfactory; Pass, Fail) and/or a ranking (1st, 2nd, 3rd … Nth; 77th, 84th, 95th percentile). The reports are typically used preparatively, formatively or summatively — to prepare for future teaching and intentional guided studying, to assist students to progress in their intentional guided studying, or to report the degree of their achievement of prescribed ranges of knowing.
Intended Learning Outcome
The extended form of a statement of an intended learning outcome, which incorporates the kinds, levels and forms of knowing and the object of knowing, has the following characteristics. (1) It begins with the phrase, "Students are to learn intentionally under guidance …." (2) It specifies the kind of knowing the students are intended to learn. (3) It specifies the level of knowing. (4) It specifies the form of knowing. (5) It specifies the object of knowing. (6) It specifies the set of tasks (the cognitive behaviors) to be performed — linguistic and/or physical — and/or the product constructed or created by the students, under what specified conditions, which establishes necessary and sufficient forensic evidence as to whether, or to what degree, the students have learned the prescribed range of knowing.
An example of such a statement, for secondary school students, is: "Students are to learn intentionally under guidance a knowing-that-one at the expert conventional level of knowing in the linguistic form of knowing about the causes and consequences (in the following two decades of the post-war period) of the American Civil War (1861–1865), and the students will indicate achievement of this range of knowing by writing an essay which correctly characterizes the causes and consequences of the American Civil War, within a time period of one hour and without notes, book or other aids and resources."
Uses of Intended Learning Outcomes
This form of statement of an intended learning outcome can be used for any level of student (preprimary, primary, secondary, tertiary). Well-formulated statements of intended learning outcomes serve as sound starting points for planning lesson plans, unit plans, program plans, syllabi and curricula, and they provide a basis for making decisions about such matters as (1) the time frame required to achieve the intended learning outcomes; (2) the resources appropriate for teachers and students; (3) the teaching and intentional guided studying activities that are most probably going to prove effective; (4) the assessment procedures appropriate for adducing forensic evidence of the students' achievement of the prescribed ranges of knowing; and (5) the criteria (rules and/or standards) and the system of rating and/or ranking appropriate for use in evaluating the forensic evidence obtained from the assessment.