Learning processes, learner attributes and simulations

This article reports work on two aspects of learning with simulations. The first is the development of an account of the learning processes implicated in learning with computer simulations and of the potential problems learners may encounter in exploratory learning. The second is the creation of an inventory of attributes of learners which are of relevance to learning with computer simulations.

Learning with simulations is viewed as essentially exploration-based. Some of our account of learning processes can therefore be derived from the literature on exploratory learning, discovery learning, problem-solving and induction. In addition, we provide a synthesis of the research which is directly concerned with learning from computer simulations — analyzing the known problems of simulation-based learning and offering an empirically-derived classification of relevant learning processes (planning, model exploration, prediction, generalisation etc.).

A knowledgeable toolset for creating knowledgeable simulation-based learning environments (ISLEs) needs to have means for the explicit representation of knowledge about learners. Such knowledge is necessary for both the creation and the operation of an ISLE. We therefore provide an inventory of characteristics of learners which are of relevance in simulation-based learning. The inventory draws on accounts of learner characteristics found in the literature on Aptitude-Treatment Interaction, on learning styles and cognitive styles and on phenomenographic treatments of adult learning. Our analyses of learner characteristics relevant to the representation of the learner in an ISLE focuses on the status of mental models, the interaction with instructional goals and specific learning processes, and the centrality of learner activity.