Fostering Superficial Learning

Different views of learning and what it means to follow rules are discussed. The activities, the language and context of expertise and knowledge have traditionally often been neglected and underestimated as something ancillary to the real knowledge which lies "beyond " such surface manifestations and viewed as at most means to learn the knowledge beyond these aspects. The primacy of these aspects are argued for. It is further argued that these should be more emphasized and fully appreciated. The goal of fostering "superficial" learning is suggested, i.e., an emphasis on practical activities, the use of the language of the domain to be learned and getting familiar with the new culture. A case study is presented and discussed in terms of the theoretical viewpoint. 1. Criticisms of Traditional Approaches to Cognition According to traditional cognitive science based on the representation hypothesis human cognition is described (a) in terms of representations describing a portion of the world, e.g., in terms of propositions, ideas, or mental images or (b) in terms of symbol manipulation (also non-descriptiv