Integration across episodes and languages: Developmental and educational implications

发展的一个重要目标是建立一个丰富的知识库，以支持教育和专业成就。人们知识库中的大部分信息都是通过直接指导学习的。然而，学习者也会超越所学知识，整合跨媒体（文本、视频）和多种体验的信息，以得出新的结论。知识的自我生成被认为在教育中起着重要作用，它允许学习者扩展每一节课的范围。尽管人们认为自我生成对教育具有重要意义，但它在课堂上却没有得到检验。这项研究将测试课堂上的自我生成以及它与学业成就的关系。这些研究将1)在传统的单一语文教室进行，2)在儿童通过两种语文学习的日益普遍的教育模式中进行（双语教学）。当内容以不同的语言呈现时，学习者不仅要跨媒体和时间整合，还要跨语言整合。了解在单、双语课堂中知识的自我生成，以及它与学业成就的关系，是本研究的中心目标。研究结果将有助于优化传统和双语环境下的教育实践，从而造福社会。本研究的目的是研究在课堂环境中独立事件中获得的信息的整合和随后的自我生成。认知能力的同步和纵向个体差异测量将作为支持课堂知识扩展的潜在技能进行检查。知识的产生和学业成绩的衡量之间的关系也将被检查。第二，自我生成的研究将扩展到双语，这是一种越来越普遍的教育模式。需要审查的情况包括通过不同语言（英语/西班牙语）提供的信息，以及通过同一种语言提供但以替代语言进行测试的信息。最后，本研究旨在解决一个悖论，即尽管在跨语言背景下成功学习和扩展知识方面存在假定的挑战，但双语教育具有良好的学术成果。期望达到第二语言熟练程度可以最大限度地减少待整合材料之间的概念距离，从而支持跨语言整合。最终，该研究将揭示通过整合自我生成新知识所必需的潜在机制，以及不同的语言系统如何在个体中表现和相互作用。该研究对双语教育模式和传统教育模式的教育实践都有一定的借鉴意义。

An important goal of development is establishing a rich knowledge base to support educational and professional achievement. Much of the information that people have in their knowledge base they learned through direct instruction. Yet learners also go beyond what they are taught and integrate information across media (text, video) and across multiple experiences to generate new conclusions. Self-generation of knowledge is assumed to play an important role in education, allowing learners to extend the scope of each individual lesson. In spite of its presumed significance for education, self-generation has not been examined in the classroom. This research will test self-generation in the classroom and how it relates to academic achievement. The studies will take place 1) in traditional single-language classrooms and 2) in an increasing common educational model in which children learn through two languages (dual-language instruction). When content is presented in different languages, learners must integrate not only across media and time, but across languages as well. Understanding self-generation of knowledge in single- and dual-language classrooms, and how it relates to academic achievement, are the central goals of this research. The outcome will benefit society by helping to optimize educational practice in both traditional and dual-language settings. The proposed work aims to examine integration and subsequent self-generation of information acquired in separate episodes in classroom environments. Concurrent and longitudinal individual difference measures of cognitive ability will be examined as possible underlying skills supporting knowledge extension in the classroom. Relations between knowledge generation and measures of academic performance also will be examined. Second, the study of self-generation will be extended into dual-language, an increasingly common model of education. Situations to be examined include information presented through different languages (English/Spanish) and information presented through the same language but tested in the alternate language. Finally, the work aims to address the paradox that in spite of presumed challenges to successful learning and extension of knowledge across language contexts, dual-language education has excellent academic outcomes. The expectation is that achievement of second-language proficiency minimizes the conceptual distance between to-be-integrated materials, supporting cross-language integration. Ultimately, the research will inform the underlying mechanisms necessary for self-generation of new knowledge through integration as well as how different language systems are represented and interact within an individual. The research has applied implications for educational practice in both dual-language and traditional education models.