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Sasha's home page Ecological Paradigm
-- a four-stage model of learning
The ecological paradigm is based on a set of assumptions predicated on emergent principles of systems and self-organization theories. This ecologized, or self-organization model, assumes that learners, under appropriate condition, "want" to or are anxious to learn once the intention has been properly initialized. From this perspective, instruction involves establishing a system from within which the learner develops those practices that extend his/her functioning with respect to the greater cultural dynamics in which he/she is nested. Access to this deeper level of learning/functioning cannot be handed to the learner (wholecloth), but is contextually appropriated through situated activity.

In this new ecological model, learning/instruction involves the following four stages:
 
 
Ecological Model Stage 1
Facilitator: You'll learn how to build a log cabin.		 Stage 1: 
Building a feedback loop (a shared space in which the learner(s) and task are coupled) by creating the appropriate situation and occasion (that is, goal and opportunities for its realization) 

The first stage involves the coupling of learner(s) and goal, with the facilitator taking a highly informative role. This is the stage where a task intention must be sufficiently well defined for the learner so that he/she understands at some minimally sufficient level what the goal is. 
Ecological Model Stage 2
Facilitator: You need bigger trees for the cabin.		 Stage 2: 
Learner(s) interact(s) in the loop with the facilitator serving a forcing function, promoting and supporting his/her effectivities directly.

The second stage is where the loop is used by the facilitator to bring the learner closer to the ultimate intention by supporting the necessary effectivities. Since the facilitator and the learner remain coupled, the facilitator is in a position to respond to learner attempts with well-modulated, informed feedback.
Ecological Model Stage 3
Facilitator: I'm here if you need me.		 Stage 3: 
Learner(s) interact(s) in the loop with the facilitator serving as an affordance resource, one who steps back but remains available.

During this third stage, the facilitator remains in the loop but gradually recedes into the affordance terrain as an internalized "tutor." His role changes from an effectivity guide acting on the learner to that of an affordance resource available to the learner.
 
 
Ecological Model Stage 4
Learner: Wow, I'm getting pretty good at this.		 Stage 4: 
Learner(s) engage(s) in independent, generative learning, without feedback from the facilitator, but increasing feedback from the surrounding environment to which his/her actions are applied.

This is the stage where the learner(s) now become(s) independent from the loop. Feedback from the facilitator, either as an effectivity guide or an affordance resource, is no longer needed but learning is still taking place in direct relation to the goal. This is the stage where the seeds of expertise are being sown and where generative learning and creativity allow the learner(s) to exceed instruction.
For further discussion of the ecological paradigm, refer to the following article:
 
 
Sasha A. Barab et al. (1998). Principles of self organization: Ecologizing the learner-facilitator system. 

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Last updated March 10, 1999

URL: http://inkido.indiana.edu/research/ecomodel.html
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