JJSTE v39n2 - Study of Teaching and Learning Methods Based on the Pragmatic Schema of Students in Industrial Arts Education - About the Function and Construction of Thermostat

Abstract:

Study of Teaching and Learning Methods Based on the Pragmatic Schema of Students in Industrial Arts Education - About the Function and Construction of Thermostat
Yoshihiro MASUO

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how students can form new schema by making use of their pragmatic schema while studying electricity in Industrial Arts education. In this study, I have analyzed the elements of pragmatic schema, and, with the help of this analysis, I have prepared some learning materials. Next, I developed a new cognitive process through which students can activate their pragmatic schema, as well as, acquire autonomous learning by relating their own pragmatic schema to the contents of the teacher's instruction. As for the evaluation of schema, I have used concept maps after studying the relationship between the two. As a result, I have gotten strong evidence that when each student has developed a new schema, it is composed of five characteristics, including a Gestalt quality. I also found that this evaluation method has a close relationship with our conventional objective tests. Thus, I can safely say that this is an effective method for evaluating the quality of the schema. I believe that if we provide instructions which use pragmatic schema effectively, students can understand the new material and, therefore, form a new schema more easily.

Key words :Industrial Arts education, Pragmatic schema, Cognitive process of student, Concept map, Thermostat, Practical use of computers.