Schemas

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[edit] Definitions:

Schemas

According to Reber and Reber's (2001) definition, schema is a plan, a structure, a framework, and a programme, and so on.

In all or any of the meanings, schemas (schemata)are mental plans that are abstract and that they function as guides for action, as structure for interpreting information, as frameworks for solving problems. For example, a prehensile schema for a child learning how to grape an object and perceiving the concrete object; people use reference to a linguistic schema for comprehending a sentence, a paragraph, and a context.

Some use "scheme" to serve "schema" for a model or organized outline touching on the primary elementary of a system. J. Piaget used "schema" to mean that the more concrete kinds of cognitive structures that are formed consciously.

Based on cognitive assumption, a schema is more than a set, because it is more elaborate and more ideational or implicit than a strategy and conceptually richer than a hypothesis (Reber & Reber, 2001, p.649).

In her book, "Teaching Reading in Middle School: A Strategic Approach to Teaching Reading That Improves Comprehension and Thinking", author Laura Robb places “Activating Prior Knowledge” number one in her “Seven Key Reading Strategies” (Robb 14). Robb discusses how readers bring many things to the table when approaching a text, including “his/her personality, present mood, and memories...Schema theory implies that each child brings a unique set of experiences and knowledge, called schemata, to reading” (14). If additional knowledge of a topic is added to the existing schemata of a reader, there will be an improvement of “comprehension and engagement” (14).

Pronunciation: (skeemah)

Plural Form: schemata/schemas

Part of Speech: noun

  1. A diagrammatic representation; an outline or model. (1)
  2. A pattern imposed on complex reality or experience to assist in explaining it, mediate perception, or guide response. (1)
  3. An internal representation of the world; an organization of concepts and actions that can be revised by new information about the world. (5)
  4. More definitions

Textbook Psychological Definitions (verbatim)

  • General: A schema may be used in a wide variety of situations as a framework for understanding incoming information.
  • Knowledge: A schema exists in memory as something that a person knows.
  • Structure: A schema is organized around a theme.
  • Comprehension: A schema contains "slots" that are filled by specific information in the text. (Mayer, 2003, p. 77)

Synonyms: Design, Framework, Method, Scheme

General Psychology terms or concepts related to schemas:

[edit] Types of Schemas:

Person schemas (eg. Student), Self-schemas, Role schemas (eg. Doctor), Event schemas (restaurant)

[edit] What do schemas do for us?

Schemas allow for us to form impressions. They affect how we may perceive, notice, and also interpret information. Unfortunately or fortunately schemas may bias encoding of social information. For example, people who come from different geographic locations may interpret a situation in one way while others, based on prior experience, may think it to be something totally different. Schemas also rely on encoding. Encoding is how we code what we may see, hear, smell, or touch in our minds. (4)

[edit] When do we rely on schemas?

Schemas have a very strong visual component. For example, we all hold schemas for age, race, or gender. We also may rely on schemas when something encoded in our minds was recently used or that is used frequently. We also rely on schemas for information that may stick out (something that seems odd, unexpected, or novel). Sometimes our schemas may change or be affected by our moods. For example, picture yourself walking alone, at night, down a dark alley way, when you see someone come out from the shadows. Well, you might have already been a little scared before someone popped out of the shadows, but it was just a little old woman looking for her cat. You had a schema for that situation...what or whom did you picture coming out from the shadows? Finally, one might use a schema when time is a factor or possibly when processing capacity may be limited. It could be a way to take a short cut. (4)

[edit] Where did the concept of a schema come from?

Frederic Bartlett, in 1932, first introduced the concept of the schema while working on constructive memory. He considered schemas a part of top-down processing. According to psybox.com (2002), Bartlett considered schemas to be "maps or structures of knowledge stored in the long-term memory." (3)

Although there may be some debate over the origin of the concept of the schema, some suggest that Piaget first introduced it in 1926, the fact remains that Piaget believed humans develop through a series of qualitative stages built upon common knowledge he called schemas. In other words, a schema is a picture of what we know about life at a particular point in time. As a child develops, he tends to interprete experiences based on what he already knows; what his schema tells him. Piaget referred to this process of making the world fit into our schema as assimilation. If the experience does not fit into our model of knowledge, we begin to modify our schema. Piaget referred to this as accomodation. (7)

It was from these teachings of schemas that Richard C. Anderson, a prominent educational psychologist, developed the "schema theory of learning." Anderson's learning theory describes schemas as knowledge that has been carefully organized into an elaborate network of abstract concepts by which we understand life and the world in which we live. These abstract concepts can only be interpreted and understood after a foundation of proven, relevant information has been established through past experiences. According to Anderson's schema theory, our schemata is in a constant state of change as we encounter new experiences and new information that shapen our schema. As we develop, we learn to broaden the boundaries of our schema to include more variables building on the foundation of what we already know. Using this theory, teachers can learn to help their students build their schemata. (7)

In 1990, a second-generation schema theory was introduced called "Cognitive Flexibility Theory." "By cognitive flexibility, we mean the ability to spontaneously restructure one's knowledge, in many ways, in adaptive response to radically changing situational demands...This is a function of both the way knowledge is represented (e.g., along multiple rather single conceptual dimensions) and the processes that operate on those mental representations (e.g., processes of schema assembly rather than intact schema retrieval)." (9) Especially formulated to support the use of interactive technologies, the theory is largely concerned with transfer of knowledge and skills beyond their initial learning situation (e.g. hypertext, online learning, podcasting, DVD videos). Its primary applications have been literary comprehension, history, biology and medicine. This theory is now being used to evaluate the effectiveness of online learning to students with no online experience. (6))

[edit] What evidence do we have that schemas exist?

In 1932, Bartlett began research on how people learn and remember prose. In this study, Bartlett gave a story called "The War of the Ghosts" to his first subject. The first subject was to read it twice. After fifteen minutes passed, the subject was instructed to write down all he could recall. That same version was given to another person and was told to recall as much as possible. In turn, that version was again passed on. When the story was read and recalled for the last time, the story changed greatly. This provided evidence that human memory does not work like a computer's may. We cannot remember word for word everything that we may take in. Instead, as we read, we attempt to make broader comprehensive aspects of the material. This comprehension process basically is a matter of taking the new information and adding it to preexisting information. That process of assimilation is what Bartlett called a schema. Since most people don't really have a preexisting schema for ghosts, the readers didn't fare as well as they could have in their test of recall. Bartlett stated, "without some general setting or label as we have repeatedly seen, no material can be assimilated or remembered" (Mayer, 2003, p. 76). (2)

[edit] Classroom applications:

Some English teachers may choose to teach what is called story grammars to understand narrative prose. Story grammars use the schema concept. In short, a story grammar includes the different parts of a story that bring together the whole. In actuality, a story grammar may consist of simply setting, beginning, action, end of each action, etc. See video illustrating how a teacher and 2nd grade students use a story grammar to help compose a story. As experienced readers we are able to call upon our existing schemas to help fill in various parts of a story. (2)

Another example of the use of schemas in classroom instruction is the use of instructional conversations. Instructional conversations center around the students and teachers discussing ideas in the classroom and constructing new knowledge from experiences and knowledge previously held. In a report written for the National Center for Research on Cultural Diversity and Second Language Learning,Instructional Conversations and Their Classroom Application, Claude Goldenberg explains the need for classrooms to build knowledge and promote authentic learning through discussions that build on knowledge and experiences that students and teachers have. [1]

[edit] Personal Testimonies:

I use schemas in my teaching of music all the time. I find that if I use the schema of "telling a story," students are able to listen more attentively to music for longer periods of time. Music sometimes is full of "sound images" that also provide students with audible schemas that they can relate to the sounds that they may have heard in nature or in a movie. - Brandon C.


I have also utilized the "telling a story" schema in teaching music. I have asked my students to create a storyline to accompany a piece of music. This is a successful way to engage students with the music. They not only perform better, but seem to enjoy the music more once they have created their own meaning. -J. Blanken-Webb

A schema is simply a model of how we perceive something. It can be music, literature, a blueprint of a structure, a data flow diagram of an information system, an entity-relationship diagram of a database. Understanding schemas is simply understanding the concept of modeling. I teach at a college level and I find that one of the best ways to help my students understand a concept or build on a skill or troubleshoot a problem is to model it. In my System's Analysis class my students learn the importance of schemas in designing and fixing information systems. To see it in your mind and outline it on paper, score it in music, sketch it in drawings, or build a model of it helps the student define it. A schema can also define how I view life and how I interprete life's experiences. If my student's can learn to identify and interpret the schema of a database, then they know how to work with it and fix its problems. That applies to any schema, our personal one as well. -J.Adwell

I think of schemas in terms of the way my students store information from a previous year of school. For example, when I am introducing a topic like proofs with congruent polygons, I first ask the students what polygons are, list the criteria for some figure being or not being a polygon, what does congruent mean, etc.? These may not be topics that the students use on a daily or even weekly or monthly basis, but they do have the information stored somewhere in their subconcious. It is more a matter of me saying the correct word or phrase to activate those thoughts. M Foshee

[edit] References:

1.Houghtin Mifflin Company (2000). Dictionary of the english language, fourth edition [Electronic version]. Retrieved October 21, 2004, from [2]

2.Mayer, Richard E. (2003). Learning and instruction. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merril Prentice Hall.

3.Psybox Ltd (2002). Schema [Electronic version]. Retrieved October 21, 2004, from [3]

4.Reber, A. S., & Reber, E. (2001). The Penguin dictionary of psychology (3rd ed.). London: Penguin Books Ltd., England. Untitled.

Retrieved October 21, 2004, from [4]

5.WordNet 2.0 (2003). WordNet 2.0 [Electronic version]. Retrieved October 21, 2004, from [5]

6.Paulukonis, A. (2000). The Use of Schemas By Students Taking Their First Online Course. Teaching with Technology Today Newsletter, 5, 5, Retrieved February 3, 2007 from [6].

7.Robb, L. (2000). Teaching Reading in Middle School: A Strategic Approach to Teaching Reading that Improves Comprehension and Thinking. New York: Scholastic Professional Books.

8.LigualLinks Library 4.0 (1999). Retrieved February 2, 2007, from [7]

9.Spiro, R. J., Feltovich, P. J., Jacobson, M. J., & Coulson, R. L. (1992). Cognitive flexibility, constructivism, and hypertext: Random access instruction for advanced knowledge acquisition in ill-structured domains. In T. M. Duffy & D. H. Jonassen (Eds.), Constructivism and the technology of instruction: A conversation (pp. 57-75). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

10.Spiro, R.J. & Jehng, J. (1990). Cognitive flexibility and hypertext: Theory and technology for the non-linear and multidimensional traversal of complex subject matter. D. Nix & R. Spiro (eds.), Cognition, Education, and Multimedia. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

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