Using an Authoring System to Facilitate Student-centered Discovery Oriented Learning

Introductory students "brainstormed" experiments on subliminal messages and behavior, then evaluated them in terms ofethics, practicality, measurement, and control . The instructor used Authorware Professional and a Macintosh Ilex to implement five student-generated experiments in which students served as subjects . The pedagogical rationale for the exercise was to give students a sense of investment and ownership in the process of scientific inquiry, to "create a demand" for knowledge of statistics and experimental methods, and to make a convincing case for empiricism as a way of knowing . The exercise generated enthusiasm, produced meaningful discussions, and increased students' understanding of experimentation, measurement, control, and statistics. It was concluded that providing students with this experience would not have been possible without a sophisticated authoring system, and that this student-centered discovery oriented approach may be used effectively in a number of natural science and social science courses where on-line experimentation is appropriate. USING AUTHORING SYSTEMS TO FACILITATE STUDENT-CENTERED DISCOVERY ORIENTED LEARNING Two important developments in science education are the use of hands-on, discovery oriented experiences for students and the development of student-centered pedagogy . This paper demonstrates that computers equipped with sophisticated authoring systems can be powerful tools for facilitating student-centered, discovery oriented learning . The goal of student-centered education is to provide an environment where students can develop their own ideas about the natural and social world . Student-centered approaches have been used in teaching scientific writing[l], developing analogies for understanding biological processes[2], and creating metaphors for comprehending geologic time[3] . Discovery oriented learning makes students active participants in the learning process by promoting hands-on investigations . Recently, teachers in several disciplines have combined these approaches to form a student-centered discovery oriented approach to science education . In essence, this approach emphasizes providing students with the theoretical and methodological tools to develop and test their own hypotheses . Recently, discovery oriented approaches to science education have been used in fields as diverse as astronomy[4], biology[5], ecology[6], geophysics[7] . and statistical sampling[8] . Although the discovery oriented approach has generally been reserved for upper-level students, it can also be successfully used with less experienced students . The exercise reported here encouraged students in their first social science course to generate ideas for experiments . The experiments were designed to answer a question of interest to them and of relevance to the course : can subliminal messages affect human behavior? The goal was to provide students with an opportunity to apply scientific methods to their own hypotheses in their first encounter with empirical behavioral science . Until recently, such an approach posed a large number of logistical problems. However, with microcomputers, and powerful programming tools for on-line experimentation such as the Micro Experimental Lab MEL[9,10] Authorware Professional[l11, and a variety of "hYper systems"[12] such as HyperCard and LinkWay, implementing students' ideas is now feasible, even in relatively large classes. The setting for this exercise was "Is Freedom Possible?," the first of a series of four team-taught interdisciplinary social science courses. The course examined perspectives in the social sciences, behavioral sciences and philosophy on issues such autonomy, rationality, free will and determinism . The issue of subliminal messages was chosen because it is intrinsically interesting to most students,