Norm Vaughan and I have been teaching the first offering of a course focusing on the topic of blended learning delivered through a blended approach. In this course the students had an interesting online discussion with regard to the role of discussion with regard to cognitive presence. The comment was - "I don't necessarily agree that meaning is always confirmed through reflection and discourse. I definitely think reflection is an important part but I think meaning can and is constructed without discourse. " The role of discourse in an educational environment is a very important and complex issue.
My quick response was that constructing personal meaning may be constructed without discourse but deep learning often is based on shared understanding and some form of confirmation. I asked the students to recall the cognitive presence or practical inquiry model (http://www.communitiesofinquiry.com/) and noted that the shared world (ie, discussion) is particularly present at the exploration and resolution phases. That is, discourse is helpful and necessary respectively for both meaning making and confirming or testing through application. While we can construct meaning through reflection based on activities such as reading, listening or viewing, there are advantages for discourse to help in the exploration and integration of ideas. On the other hand, confirmation most definitely requires some engagement with the shared world. In educational environments, confimation of meaning (i.e., understanding) is most often and practically accomplished vicariously through discourse.
Our next challenge in this course is how we design a blended learning course that ensures that students not only construct but confirm meaning.
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