A Structural Measure of Learning for III-Structured Domains,
Abstract
This paper proposes and illustrates a technique to assess structuring which is an essential characteristic of learning. Structuring is defined as the addition, association, retention, and application of new concepts or relationships in a schema. The proposed approach is useful for studies of managerial cognition since, unlike many techniques which require identification of a learner's schema concepts a priori, this measure can be applied to ill-structured managerial domains which do not provide the opportunity to derive concepts a priori. The metric is illustrated by developing cognitive maps of financial analysts' rationale for firm earnings. Analysts operate in an ill-structured environment and routinely produce documents which can be used to discover their assertions about the causes of firm earnings. An unobtrusive cognitive mapping method is applied to documents to discover and represent these assertions. The contemporary military and civilian organizational environment is dynamic and increasingly interconnected. This circumstance challenges leaders to learn new behaviors in order to succeed and survive. However, the dynamic nature of organizational environments and the ill-structured decision-making tasks may obscure observation or measurement of learning since the state of theory development in command and managerial domains does not support use of measure requiring a priori discovery of concepts (Mintzberg, Raisinghani, and Theoret, 1976). This paper begins with the theoretical basis for the metric. Next, the structuring metric is developed. Finally, an example of its use Will be presented.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 17, 1992
- Accession Number
- ADP006944
Entities
People
- John Landry