Week 3b Activity 5 Vicarious Learning

Vicarious Learning as defined by Cox "is the notion that people can and will learn through being given access to the learning experiences of others". In other words, while one student has the direct attention of the tutor or is practising the skills in front of other students, the observing students will also learn. So those students who are too shy to talk up in class, learn from those who do talk up so that is why it's important for people to say when they're stuck so that everyone learns from it (ie discussion forums!)

Cox, R. (2006) Vicarious Learning and Case-based Teaching of Clinical Reasoning Skills (2004-2006) [online], http://routes.open.ac.uk/ ixbin/ hixclient.exe?_IXDB_=routes&_IXSPFX_=g&submit-button=summary&%24+with+res_id+is+res18635 (accessed 26 February 2009).

Vicarious reinforcement (Bandura 1977) occurs when one person sees another person postiveily reinforced or punished for a behaviour and responds positively to that reinforcement/punishment- learning from that person's experiences about the consequences of those actions/behaviours. It's linked to imitation where complex skills acquisition is through observational learning.

Many researchers found that the experience of over-hearing is also useful, students who listened to tutor-student dialogues - asked more deep-level questions than those who listened to tutorial discourse. Vicariously overhearing dialogue that included questioning resulted in higher quality student engagement with the learning materials.

A prerequisite of VL is that the observer must identify with the person they are observing - they must be representative of their community of similar to themselves so peers can be more effective learning models than experts.

Students working collaboratively tends to focus on mental states of each other, such as "I don't know what to do" and it is reassuring to others to know that they are not alone in having knowledge gaps or feelings of uncertainty. (Refleciton - This is happening on our course, I was the first to show a level of uncertainty but others are coming out of the woodwork, ok I've not learnt anything from them but it gives me the confidence to continue trying to understand. I think if we had more elluminate sessions or other realtime discussions we could help each other ceonceptualise the module, if nothing else talking something through even if you don't get any tangible outcomes, helps your thought processes).

Mayes (1995) propsed a 3 stage learning model for VL in educational contexts- 1. expository materials is absorbed and conceptualised. 2. interactive learning environments such as simulations support activity and mental reconstruction 3. discussions with peers and tutors about issues that have arisen in stages 1 and 2. (This is certainly a model that this course seems to be taking, especially now with the elluminate discussions to enhance the asynchronous forums) A learner confronted by his misconceptions in stage 3, may revisit stages 1 and 2.
Studies by Lee et al (1998) found that students exposed to online notes and video/audio clips of VL material did better than those with course notes alone.

PATsy - an established online learning resource for use in conjuntion with more traditional methods of clinical training, professional education and academic teaching about medical disorders. The multimedia database contains video, audio and pictures . Students can see virtual patient information, videos, assessments and medical histories. Students can administer various tests to the virtual patients - students can practice clinical reasoning and gives them practice with a far wider range of cases than they would in their placements. PATsy enables students to repeatedly address the same case and share experiences with students across the sector as this is used by many universities, which is unlike real patient contact. PATsy can also be used for inter-professional practice.

PATsy can help students acquire a crtical mass of case experience and it is difficult to teach clinical reasoning by instruction so professions are turning towards case based teaching.
Logs of student activities and decisions made in PATsy can be used in future tutorials. PATsy's features are said to embody all of Maye's 3 stages - exposition, interactive simulation and educational dialogue.

Results showed that online interactions with PATsy were positively correlated with end of term assessments.

PATsy included videos of students interacting with each other on task-directed discussion. They showed students explaining to each other, explaining to themselves, and collaborative learning (The Participation Metaphor linking very closely with the Acquisition Metaphor)
Students who took part knew they were being filmed so they did alter their approach to consider the audience and the future use of the resources but this would help them to develop their professional language that they would need in practice. (Identity change). This awareness encouraged them to engage in other directed explaining.

These videos would be incorporated into the PATsy database to help other students when they meet an impasse.
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This article shows how there is distinct blurring between AM, PM and IC. The individual learner learns and participates vicariously in the learning of others - this kind of learning combines social, individual, participatory and acquisitive learning.

As the students learn vicariously they get better at their profession and therefore changing their identity.

Activity Theory: Division of labour Who is the role of the teacher? The students are the teachers of each other, but the tutor is required to create the tasks and select suitable examples for others to learn from. Everyone using PATsy is part of a wider community as the results of individual reasoning tests can be used to help tutors frame future tutorials.