The Computer as a Tool for Learning through Reflection

ed replay, and reification, student's can begin to think about, talk about, and experiment with their learning and problem-solving processes in a way not previously possible. By way of summary, we can briefly reiterate some of the reasons why reflection is important to learning: (1) Students can compare their own process to the way more expert performers carry out the process. (2) With reification, it is possible to reconfigure a process representation so that students can see separate aspects of the process together and can view the process itself from perspectives they have not seen before. (3) Students can derive abstractions about the process by comparing multiple performances simultaneously. (4) Abstractions can be constructed in a form that is critical to developing good metacognitive strategies. When we design learning environments for any subject, be it history, language, or physics, we should consider how to record and abstract the problem-solving processes students use in these learning environments. We should then provide students with facilities for replaying and observing their own performance and the performance of other students. And finally we should provide process models of more advanced performance that students can compare to their own process. Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc. 22