252 Frameworks for Thinking

Hauenstein’s conceptual framework for educational objectives (1998)

Acquisition, assimilation, adaptation, performance and aspiration are successive levels of learning in the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains. At each level, and within each domain, Hauenstein identifies processes which help to build understanding, skills and dispositions.

Vermunt and Verloop’s categorisation of learning activities (1999)

The cognitive categories are: relating/structuring; analysing; concretising/applying; memorising/rehearsing; critical processing; and selecting. The affective categories cover motivation and the management of feelings. The regulative categories are an elaboration of ‘plan-do-review’.

Marzano’s new taxonomy of educational objectives (2001a; 2001b)

The self system examines the importance of new knowledge, efficacy (ability to learn) and emotions associated with knowledge and motivation. The metacognitive system specifies learning goals and monitors execution, clarity and accuracy. The cognitive system deals with retrieval, comprehension, analysis and knowledge utilisation.

Sternberg’s model of abilities as developing expertise (2001)

This model includes the analytical, creative and practical aspects of successful intelligence, metacognition, learning skills, knowledge, motivation and the influence of context.

Description and evaluation of seven all-embracing frameworks

Romiszowski’s analysis of knowledge and skills

Description and intended use

Romiszowski’s (1981) analysis of knowledge and skills forms part of his treatment of instructional design, which he places in the still wider

Seven all-embracing frameworks	253

context of human resources development. He aims to achieve a balanced approach to instructional design by taking into account information content, cognitive processing and behavioural responses.

He claims to provide a comprehensive means of classifying knowledge and skills (while recognising that knowledge of a particular topic is seldom of one type and that his categories are non-exclusive). Table 6.1 lists the types of knowledge which are described by Romiszowski in pp. 243–249 of his 1981 book.

Romiszowski then outlines a four-stage skill cycle, applicable in the cognitive, psychomotor, ‘reactive’ (self-management) and ‘interactive’ (social interaction) skill domains. What he calls ‘reactive skills’ are reactions expressing appropriate feelings, attitudes and values. Similarly, ‘interactive skills’ express, in interpersonal contexts, appropriate

Table 6.1. Romiszowski’s knowledge categories

1.1concrete facts

1.1.1concrete associations (things observed and remembered)

1.1.2verbal (symbolic) information (including all knowledge of a factual nature that has been gained by means of a symbolic language)

1.1.3fact systems (structures or schemata)

1.2procedures

1.2.1linear procedures (chains)

1.2.2multiple discriminations (distinguishing similar information)

1.2.3algorithms (procedures which may be complex but which guarantee successful performance if followed correctly)

2.1concepts

2.1.1concrete concepts (classes of real objects or situations)

2.1.2defined concepts (concepts which are classes of other concepts and cannot be learned without the use of a suitable language)

2.1.3concept systems (structures or schemata)

2.2principles

2.2.1rules of nature (principles we can observe to be in operation in the world either by direct observation of by inference from their effects)

2.2.2rules of action (general heuristics regarding the appropriate actions or reactions to specific situations)

2.2.3rule systems (theories or strategies suitable for a given class of problems).

254 Frameworks for Thinking

feelings, attitudes and value systems: ‘voluntary reactions and actions, planned to lead to certain goals and involving the skills of self-control’ (p. 226). The four stages of the cycle (perceive, recall, plan, and perform) are said to be usually but not always involved in skilled performance.

The ‘expanded’ skill cycle is presented in figure 6.1. Romiszowski (1981, p. 257) presents the skill cycle as ‘a language for analysing skills’, helpful in identifying gaps between performance requirements and trainee abilities. It is ‘a taxonomy if you like’, but ‘no hierarchical dependencies are implied’.

The complete model of skill development therefore involves the operation of a skill cycle in which knowledge is selected for a particular purpose and used according to a plan. This produces results which act as new information to be evaluated in relation to purpose and plan.

Skills which require little planning and show little variation in execution from one instance to another are described as ‘reproductive’ while those which require strategic planning and show substantial variations in execution are termed ‘productive’. Reproductive skills generally map onto Bloom’s categories of knowledge, comprehension and application, while productive skills involve analysis, synthesis and

Fig. 6.1. Romiszowski’s skill cycle.

Seven all-embracing frameworks	255

evaluation. In table 6.2 the reproductive – productive skill continuum is shown to apply to skilled performance in all four domains. This skills schema is intended as a means of analysing instructional objectives so as to determine sources of difficulty, before one looks for effective ways to overcome them.

Table 6.2. Romiszowski’s schema of skill categories

	Type of ‘knowledge content’
	Reproductive skills	Productive skills
	Applying procedures	Applying principles
	(algorithms)	and strategies
Cognitive skills	Applying a known	Solving ‘new’
Decision-making,	procedure to a known	problems; ‘inventing’
problem-solving,	category of ‘problem’,	a new procedure, e.g.
logical thinking, etc.	e.g. dividing numbers,	proving a theorem,
	writing a	writing creatively.
	grammatically
	correct sentence.
Psychomotor skills	Sensori-motor skills;	‘Strategy’ skills or
Physical action,	repetitive or	‘planning’ skills; arts
perceptual acuity, etc.	automated action,	and crafts, e.g. page
	e.g. typewriting,	layout design,
	changing gear,	‘road sense’,
	running fast.	playing football.
Reactive skills	Conditioned habits	‘Personal control’
Dealing with oneself;	and attitudes, e.g.	skills, developing a
attitudes, feelings,	attending, responding	‘mental set’ or a
habits, self-control.	and valuing, and	value system;
	approach/avoid	self-actualisation.
	behaviours.
Interactive skills	Social habits;	‘Interpersonal control’
Dealing with others.	conditioned responses,	skills, e.g. leadership,
	e.g. good manners,	supervision,
	pleasant tone, verbal	persuasion, discussion,
	habits.	salesmanship.