Recognition Networks

Through education, we convey a vast array of patterns valued by our culture. Although our recognition networks are very efficient, patterns such as alphabetic symbols, the format for writing a research paper, scientific and mathematical theories, and geographical or geological facts require specific study. Because students are not on equal footing when it comes to recognizing such patterns, instructors need to provide differentiated instruction. Applying insights into recognition networks, new technologies and strategies can help us, and the students we teach, succeed. Instructors, however, need to be sensitive to the range of exposure students actually receive and not "too" reliant on technology. Sometimes the most effective teaching is still the extra time and additional effort provided 1-1. Some strategies for supporting recognition include:

• Provide Multiple Examples (View Examples I)
• Highlight Critical Features (View Examples II)

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• Provide Multiple Media (View Examples III)

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• Support Background Knowledge (View Examples IV)

Much of the art of teaching patterns lies in selecting and presenting numerous, effective examples that key on different aspects of the task, or utilize different modes of learning . Digital media and tools can facilitate finding and presenting these examples in the form of text, image, sound, or video. Unlike a print resource, in which the examples are limited in number, appear as uni-modal` and selected by the publisher, the array of materials available in digital form (online and on multimedia disks) lets us build expansive collections of examples suited to our instructional needs and the needs of our students.

• Recognition networks need exposure to multiple examples to learn the key characteristics that define a pattern, whether that pattern be the letter A, the structure of a sonnet, or a concept such as justice or sarcasm.


• By seeing, hearing, smelling, or touching many instances of a pattern, recognition networks can extract the critical features that define that pattern and identify new instances that share those features.


• Exposure to multiple examples supports bottom-up recognition processes.

Recognition networks exposed to multiple examples derive key features and identify patterns. Good instructors make this process easier by highlighting the critical features of a pattern as a way of directing students' learning. Instructors can make the process of recognizing salient features efficient by explicitly identifying the critical elements in the examples they present. One way they do this is by pointing out these key features in a graphic-photographs or a drawing.

• Instructors also highlight critical features when they speak—using pitch, volume, pauses, intonation, pointing, gesturing, and facial expressions. In text, conventions such as italics, bold-faced type, font size, and color highlighting can draw learners' attention to the most important parts. But conventional marking methods—whether visual or auditory—will not work for everyone: textual cues only help those facile with text, spoken words are gone after class, and neither medium may be optimal for working with some kinds of patterns, such as musical themes or geographical features.


• Often students with cognitive disabilities are confused by graphics that offer too much information. Allowing students to manipulate the graphic by stripping layers can reveal the key elements amidst its complexity.


• Digital media and tools offer instructors a wider variety of ways to highlight key features. Animations, color highlighting, graphic elements that add emphasis, and the capacity to "zoom in" on photographic images are just a few examples. We can also overlay text and images onto video to emphasize particular elements of content. Even more significant for individualizing, with the flexibility of digital tools, we can select different sets of highlighting options for different learners.

Because learners' recognition networks have varying abilities to process visual, aural, olfactory, or tactile patterns, a single means of presentation doesn't work for all students:

• Presenting examples through speech alone would provide someone with a visual imparment access to this information, but would then exclude learners with hearing or language processing disorders.


• Providing multiple representations of patterns through a variety of media, formats, organizations, levels of detail, and degree of depth includes more learners by offering both choice and redundancy. Choice enables both students with disabilities and those without to affect a particular modality to access the information via another one, and allows them to find the format or medium that works best for them—increasing their access to learning. Redundancy offers opportunities to discern patterns in a variety of ways, thereby increasing the understanding about what matters in the pattern.

When students learn, they incorporate new knowledge into old knowledge. In neural network terms, new learning is integrated into networks that have been shaped by previous learning. Consequently, what the brain already knows can influence what it will learn from a new example or experience.

• Students differ significantly in the background knowledge they bring to a new situation. Instructors help students tie their background knowledge to new patterns (a top-down recognition process) and help fill in gaps by providing related information. Some of the familiar ways of doing this are:
  
  • asking students to reflect on their own experiences that relate to reading material
  • reviewing key vocabulary prior to reading assignments
  • directing students to relevant additional materials
  
  
• Research on prior experience shows that people bring their own framework and impose it on what they observe. Students need to be taught to observe in a manner consistent with the theories in specialized fields. Instructors can help students draw "correct" conclusions, based on new ways of "seeing" by:
  
  • Bottom-up learning
  • Going from examples to theories to discover the elements of critical observation and conclusion drawing that form the inherent "bias" of any profession
  
  
• Digital materials provide an ideal vehicle for supporting background knowledge because they are flexible and because they can be linked to other information resources such as those on the Web. In this context, students can access background knowledge if and when they need to, on their own schedule. Further, digital background supports can be provided in multiple media.