Title:	EPISTEMIC EFFECTS OF EXTERNALIZATION
Author(s):	Ulrike Hanke
ISBN:	978-972-8939-17-5
Editors:	Miguel Baptista Nunes and Maggie McPherson
Year:	2010
Edition:	Vol. I
Keywords:	Mental model, externalization, externale model construction, learning
Type:	Full Paper
First Page:	147
Last Page:	155
Language:	English
Cover:
Full Contents:	click to dowload
Paper Abstract:	Based on the model of epistemic externalization (Hanke, 2006), externalization should have supporting effects on information processing because the external model can be used as an additional source of information (Stylianou, 2002; Meira, 1995; Galbraith, 1999) and as an external memory, but should not have supporting effects on learning, as the process of externalization does not interact with the process of schematization, in the sense of repeated construction of models. Rather, the availability of an external model is supposed to inhibit the repeated construction of a model and with it schematization and learning. In order to test whether externalizing one’s ideas during information processing and learning has supportive effects, a study with 79 learners was conducted. The models of learners who had the possibility to externalize their ideas while processing information and learning in a computer-based learning environment continuously reached a high state of stability very quickly in the learning process, but lost stability as soon as they had to reconstruct their models, meaning the results of this study give first evidence for the model of epistemic externalization (Hanke, 2006): externalizing seems to support information processing but to inhibit learning.
	Go Back