Drawing As a Space for Social-Cognitive Interaction

Drawing is recognized as a powerful tool to learn science. Although current research has enriched our understanding of the potential of learning through drawing, scarce attention has been given to the social-cognitive interactions that occur when students jointly create drawings to understand and explain phenomena in science. This article is based on the distributed and embodied cognition theories and it adopted the notion of we-space, defined as a complex social-cognitive space, dynamically established and managed during the ongoing interactions of the individuals, when they manipulate and exploit a shared space. The goal of the study was to explore the role that collaborative drawing plays in shaping the social-cognitive interaction among students. We examine this by a fine-grain multimodal analysis of a pair of middle school students, who jointly attempted to understand and explain a chemical phenomenon by creating drawings and thinking with them. Our findings suggest that collaborative drawing played a key role in (i) establishing a genuine shared-action space, a we-space, and that within this we-space it had two major functions: (ii) enabling collective thinking-in-action and (iii) simplifying communication. We argue that drawing, as a joint activity, has a potential for learning, not restricted to the cognitive process related to the activity of creating external visual representations on paper; instead, the benefits of drawing lie in action in space. Creating these representations is more than a process of externalization of thought: it is part of a process of collective thinking-in-action.

Modelagem Matemática e Aprendizagem Significativa: uma Relação Subjacente

ResumoO presente artigo propõe-se a apresentar algumas reflexões, embasadas em uma pesquisa bibliográfica, sobre a modelagem matemática como metodologia de ensino. Discutem-se os pressupostos, as características, as etapas e as possibilidades de organização curricular de atividades que são pautadas nessa alternativa metodológica. Destaca-se o papel da teoria da aprendizagem significativa na fundamentação e na defesa da modelagem matemática como proposta de ensino. Efetua-se um confronto das várias perspectivas oriundas dos textos científicos selecionados para estudo e análise, de modo a buscar convergências que evidenciem o potencial da modelagem matemática para: (1) favorecer a utilização pedagógica dos conhecimentos prévios dos aprendizes e (2) instigar o comprometimento deles com as situações de aprendizagem. Conclui-se o trabalho apresentando argumentos que caracterizam essa metodologia de ensino como favorecedora da aprendizagem significativa de conteúdos matemáticos, com o intuito de disponibilizar aos professores de matemática subsídios teóricos que os auxiliem na tomada de consciência do processo de interação cognitiva, entre as novas informações e os conhecimentos prévios do educando, subjacente às atividades de modelagem matemática. Palavras-chave: Modelagem Matemática. Aprendizagem Significativa. Educação Matemática. AbstractThis article presents some reflections based on a bibliographic research on mathematical modeling as a teaching methodology. The assumptions, characteristics, stages, and possibilities of curricular organization of activities based on this methodological alternative are discussed. The role of significant learning theory in the foundation and defense of mathematical modeling as a teaching proposal is highlighted. A comparison of the various perspectives from the scientific texts selected for study and analysis is made to find convergences that highlight the potential of mathematical modeling to: (1) favor the pedagogical use of the students' prior knowledge and (2) instigate their commitment to learning situations. The work is concluded with arguments that characterize this teaching methodology as fostering significant learning of mathematical content, to provide mathematics teachers with theoretical subsidies that help them to become aware of the cognitive interaction process, among the new information and the students' previous knowledge that underlies the mathematical modeling activities. Keywords: Mathematical Modeling. Meaningful Learning. Mathematics Education.

Cognitive Interaction Analysis in Human–Robot Collaboration Using an Assembly Task

In human–robot collaborative assembly tasks, it is necessary to properly balance skills to maximize productivity. Human operators can contribute with their abilities in dexterous manipulation, reasoning and problem solving, but a bounded workload (cognitive, physical, and timing) should be assigned for the task. Collaborative robots can provide accurate, quick and precise physical work skills, but they have constrained cognitive interaction capacity and low dexterous ability. In this work, an experimental setup is introduced in the form of a laboratory case study in which the task performance of the human–robot team and the mental workload of the humans are analyzed for an assembly task. We demonstrate that an operator working on a main high-demanding cognitive task can also comply with a secondary task (assembly) mainly developed for a robot asking for some cognitive and dexterous human capacities producing a very low impact on the primary task. In this form, skills are well balanced, and the operator is satisfied with the working conditions.

AN INVESTIGATION ON INTERACTIVE THEMES APPERTAINING TO DESIGN EDUCATION, AS CONCEPTUAL COMPONENTS OF A SYSTEM

Design education is a highly interdisciplinary area of study, reserving continual common problematics that have close affiliation with technological change, communicative tools or periodic social tendencies, as well as cognitive approaches. This complex operational network necessitates a heuristic approach, involving systemic and intuitive processes synchronously. Aim: Considering the traditional arduousness of defining, measuring or even predicting the existing or probable quantifiable outputs of an educational model focusing on various design disciplines, a basic framework for a conceptual model basing interactive association is constructed, using extensively adopted words or phrases to clarify possible connections for giving way to foreseeable creative ideational strikes in a sustainable educative process. Method: Stated words and phrases are coded and positioned on a comprehensive base quoted from the literature, followed by a mapping via eight generic titles that are used as a tool set for making a classificative settlement on a specific table, peculiar to the research. Components of the table are planned to be associated for an interactive interpretation through the discussion, in the light of the research aims. Results: Intraindividual methodical operation process of this study has shown the decisive effect of systemic thinking in formulating a theoretical guideline for a futuristic design education approach. Particular outcomes point out the actual dominancy of interactive educative models across innovative activities. Conclusion: Particular findings of the research point out that a systems oriented prudential educational guideline, formulating the utilization of intuitive thinking, would revive future-proof approaches concerning design education. Primarily emphasized conceptual factors that are proposed to focus on design education in the light of inferences of this study, are introduced as systemic reasoning, temporal fluidity of educative concepts, cognitive interaction, sustainable innovation and flexible conceptual platforms.

Cognitive Interaction Technology in Sport—Improving Performance by Individualized Diagnostics and Error Prediction

The interdisciplinary research area Cognitive Interaction Technology (CIT) aims to understand and support interactions between human users and other elements of socio-technical systems. Important reasons for the new interest in understanding CIT in sport psychology are the impressive development of cognitive robotics and advanced technologies such as virtual or augmented reality systems, cognitive glasses or neurotechnology settings. The present article outlines this area of research, addresses ethical issues, and presents an empirical study in the context of a new measurement and assessment system for training in karate. Recent advances in the field of cognitive assistance systems enabled largely automatized assessments of individual mental representation structures for action sequences, such as choreographed movement patterns in dance or martial arts. Empirical investigations with karate practitioners of different skill levels demonstrate that advanced software-based survey and algorithmic analysis procedures based on cognitive models generate individualized performance predictions for a movement sequence from the Kanku-dai kata (a pre-defined karate movement sequence), which correlated significantly not only with formal expertise (kyu/dan rank) but also with the actual likelihood of mistakes in action execution. This information could prospectively be used to define individual training goals for deliberate practice and incorporated into cognitive interaction technology to provide appropriate feedback. We argue that the development of cognitive interaction systems for sport should explicitly take ethical issues into consideration and present a particular developed engineering approach. The potential benefits of such an assistance system for intermediate and advanced practitioners include more effective and flexible practice, as well as supportive effects, and more flexible training schedules. Furthermore, we argue that researchers from the field of sport psychology can benefit from advances in technological systems that enhance the understanding of mental and motor control in skilled voluntary action.