Conceptually Modeling the Domain Knowledge of an Instructional Environment

This paper presents a solution for conceptually modeling the training domain knowledge of computer-assisted instructional environments. A stringent requirement for an effective computer-assisted instructional environment is to elaborate a proper answer for the differentiated cognitive demands of users. The different cognitive style of learners imposes different modalities of presenting and structuring the information (the knowledge) to be taught. Conceptual organization of the training domain knowledge, with learning stages phasing, can constitute a better solution to the problem of adapting the instructional system interaction to users with different cognitive style and needs. 1. LEARNING AND INDIVIDUAL COGNITIVE STYLES Unanimously, psychologists and teachers consider that learning is a process that engages all aspects of the human personality. Whatever the learning content, from the simplest learning tasks to the most complex ones, a whole chain of psychical mechanisms is triggered, in what concerns receiving, processing, interpreting and valorizing the instructional entities. The internal psychical mechanisms involved in accomplishing various learning tasks have different nuances, according to the learning content and the psychical personality of the learner. The internal psychical mechanisms (“the internal conditions”) involved in the learning process can be split in two categories: (i) instrumental – operative mechanisms and (ii) motivational mechanisms. In the first category one can include attention, creativity and cognitive style. The second category comprises all the various internal objectives (internal goals), which are influencing and stimulating the learning process (Larmat, 1997). Like all human activities, learning always requires a substratum, a motivation (conscious or not) that acts as an energetic support, in the sense of triggering and directing the learning process. This motivation confers to the learning act a subjective internal nuance, different from person to person. In its ensemble, the learning process is the result of interaction between instrumental–operative components and motivational ones (Larmat, 1997). Learners’ cognitive style leads to individual variations within the learning process: each person has his own way of thinking and, thereby, the acquisition of new knowledge is personspecific. The concept of cognitive style ignores the knowledge content, emphasizing on the manner in which a person succeeds in the cognitive process (Nicola, 1992).