The Implicit Learning of Action Research

Rachel Deitcher

In this paper I report and reflect on the apparently spontaneous, general improvement in my teaching that emerged from a self-study action research project meant to examine and improve particular aspects of my teaching practice.

After having completed the active research stage of my doctoral dissertation, I began to be aware of improvements in my teaching which went beyond my stated goals. In my research I looked at ways in which I could take advantage of the theories of constructivism, situated learning and Feuerstein’s Mediated Learning Experience in my quest to close the gap between my declared educational theories and beliefs and the actual reality of my teaching. This paper does not deal with the findings of my research, but rather with the subsequent effects that doing the research had on my practice.

Just over a year after completing the active stage of my research, the mathematics education department at the college moved to new, temporary quarters. The classroom in which I taught was extremely wide and shallow,  and I found myself moving back and forth across the room in order to somehow include students  seated at its ends. In addition to this problem, the acoustics were extremely poor. In spite of these difficult objective conditions, from the first class of the year I found myself teaching more easily and with much greater confidence than I had ever done before. The expert quality of my teaching was unmistakable, both to myself, and, it seems, to my students as well.

Expert Teaching

When Schon used the term ‘swampy lowlands’ to refer to the messy, confusing problems of professional practice, he was referring to those problems that cannot be solved  through the use of research-based theory and technique. He was not referring to interactive classroom teaching. Nevertheless it would seem as though there could be no better metaphor for this profession and Eraut’s (1994) description of the work of teachers is an indication of the appropriateness of the term for this context. Classroom teaching

… involves a myriad of rapid decisions made on the spur of the moment in response to rapid readings of the situation and the overall purpose of the action. (Eraut, 1994, p. 239)

As mentioned above, there seemed to have been spontaneous development in my ability to teach in a way that is both controlled and responsive to my students. The literature on expertise, including Berliner’s work,  has provided me with some insight into possible reasons for this change. 

It is … said that experts have extraordinarily fast and accurate pattern recognition capabilities. These recognition skills appear to act like schema instantiations.  The recognition of patterns reduces the cognitive processing load for a person. Sense is instantaneously made …

(Berliner, 1986, p. 11)

In my interactive teaching I seem to have become better able to process and utilize information regarding student reactions to classroom incidents and regarding the desires and needs of individual students. In conducting my lessons today, it seems that my understanding of the situation allows me to be better attuned to any unusual comments or incidents, and to distinguish between those which are useful to dwell on, those which are potentially troublesome and need my immediate attention, and those which can be put off to a later date. Although I have not yet begun to explicitly think about the ways in which I deal with these different situations, the greater success of my lessons seems to indicate that my actions today are more appropriate and effective than they had been in the past.

For the expert, not only situational understandings spring to mind, but also associated appropriate actions. The expert performer, except of course during moments of breakdown, understands, acts and learns from results without any conscious awareness of the process. What transparently must be done is done.   (Dreyfus and Dreyfus, 1986, p.324)

Developing Expertise

The question then arises as to the processes that need to occur in order for this professional development to take place. One general assumption which seems to stem from a view which sees expert behaviours as based on situational understanding, is that long and rich experience is necessary in order to achieve expert ability. This, however, seems to be not always true. Although it is rare, we have all seen beginning teachers who exhibit many of the traits of much more experienced and expert practitioners. We have also seen many experienced teachers who never seem to develop this ability at all. Doyle, in a study comparing more and less successful student teachers shows that there are students who do, to some extent at least, display this ability.

… successful student teachers tended to classify individuals in terms of their potential for disruption,  skills in classroom tasks,  inclinations to participate in lesson activities, etc. They seemed to know that the movement of some students around the room to secure supplies or sharpen pencils could be ignored  whereas the movement of other students required careful monitoring. 

(Doyle, 1977, p. 54)

Action research, particularly self-study action research, seems to be one way in which we can increase the power of our experience to affect and speed up our professional development. Some people think of action research as advancing professional ability through the deliberate and explicit focus on particular problems identified in our practice. The significant changes that I eventually experienced in my teaching, however, could not be wholly explained by looking at the areas that I had explicitly investigated. It became clear to me that much of the learning that took place as a result of my research was implicit, and much of the knowledge that ensued was, and still is, tacit.

Implicit Learning

The literature on implicit learning has its roots in research on artificial intelligence. This research showed that much of human intelligence cannot be understood only by looking at its cognitive, symbol processing capabilities. Computers programmed to perform the same tasks as humans through symbol-processing were not able to replicate human performance. The understanding that there is something other than rule-bound symbolic behaviour that leads to expert practice has led to a focus on tacit knowledge and implicit learning. Dramatic evidence of the existence of implicit learning was found in studies done by Reber (1993) and Berry and Dienes (1993) which show that people exposed to various artificially structured situations, without being informed that any structure existed, were subsequently able to identify instances of the phenomenon or to predict future occurrences. An example was one study in which people were presented with nonsense syllables, some of which were followed by an electric shock. The people eventually  learned to avoid these syllables without ever being aware of their ability to do so or how they went about it.

Although I don’t imagine that I received any electric shocks during my research, it seems that something was subconsciously moving me in the right direction.

Reber (1993) has suggested that implicit learning is, in fact, a default mode of learning, a form of learning that happens unintentionally, unconsciously and most frequently as part of our daily experience.

Implicit learning is the acquisition of knowledge which takes place largely independently of conscious attempts to learn largely in the absence of explicit knowledge about what was acquired.

(Reber, 1993, p. 5)

My action research provided me with a context in which I was able to both experience and deliberately think about and reflect deeply on my  practice. It seems that these multiple significant experiences could not help but result simultaneously in a substantial amount of implicit learning as well. 

Situated Learning

The research on implicit learning lends support to the theory of situated cognition and learning. This theory holds that context is a prime factor in learning. Learning is not something that takes place in the isolated mind of the individual but is, rather, a holistic enterprise in which the individual modifies his or her behaviour through activity which involves a whole range of contextual factors. Rogoff stresses the mutuality that exists between individuals and context.

… the individuals’ efforts and sociocultural arrangements and involvement are inseparable, mutually embedded focuses of interest. Rather than examining context as an influence on human behaviour, I regard context as inseparable from human actions in cognitive events or activities.

(Rogoff, 1990, p. 27)

New concepts and ideas are not learned abstractly and separately  from the environment, but have been likened to tools whose usefulness and  significance   become clear when being used in particular situations. Brown et al. (1989) give an example of old-fashioned pocket knives which include a tool for removing stones from horses’ hooves. Although someone may be aware of its use and understand it theoretically, that is a far cry from being able to use it for its intended purpose.

In my action research I attempted to take advantage of my knowledge of certain educational theories which I felt would be helpful in dealing with problems in my teaching. It was only through experience and reflection that the knowledge of these theories became more and more useful as I learned, in fits and starts, to put my understanding into practice. That may be seen as my deliberate, explicit learning. The fact that this process seems to have resulted in understanding and skill beyond that which I deliberately sought may be attributed to the implicit learning that took place as I interacted with my students and with the general classroom environment.

People who use tools actively rather than just acquire them … build an increasingly rich implicit understanding of the world in which they use the tools and of the tools themselves. The understanding, both of the world and of the tool, changes as a result of their interaction. 

(Brown et al., 1989, p. 33)

                                                                                                                        

From this point of view it would no longer seem surprising that I experienced such dramatic improvement in my teaching subsequent to my research. This added value can be seen as an additional important quality of self-study action research.

References

Berliner, D.C. (1986) ‘In Pursuit of the Expert Pedagogue.’ Educational Researcher, August/September, pp. 5-13.

Berry, D.C. and Dienes, Z. (1993) Implicit Learning: Theoretical and empirical issues. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Doyle, W. (1977) ‘Learning the Classroom Environment: An ecological analysis.’ Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 28, pp. 51-54.

Dreyfus, H.L. and Dreyfus, S.E. (1980) ‘Why Skills Cannot Be Represented by Rules’ in Sharkey, N.E. (ed.) Advances in Cognitive Science 1. Chichester: Ellis Horwood Ltd., pp. 315-335.

Eraut, M. (1994) ‘Developing Professional Knowledge Within a Client-Centered Orientation’ in Guskey, T.R. and Huberman, M. (eds.) New Paradigms and Practices in Professional Development, pp. 227-252. NY: Teachers College Press.

Eraut, M. (1998) ‘Non-Formal Learning, Implicit Learning and Tacit Knowledge’. Unpublished paper, University of Sussex.

Feuerstein, R., Klein, P.S. and Tannenbaum. A.J. (1991) Mediated Learning Experience (MLE): Theoretical, psychosocial and learning implications. London, Freund Publishing House.

Reber, A.S. (1993) Implicit Learning and Tacit Knowledge: An essay in the cognitive unconscious. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Rogoff, B. (1990) Apprenticeship in Thinking: Cognitive development in social context. NY: Oxford University Press.

Schon, D. (1983) The Reflective Practitioner: How professionals think in action. NY: Basic Books

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