Cognitive Methods and a Case Study for Assessing Shared Perspectives as a Result of Social Learning

Measuring shared perspectives as a result of social learning has largely been limited to document reviews, participant observations, and interviews. Systematic methods that allow for quantitative analysis and minimize response effects may also be informative. This article discusses the use of consensus analysis and salience for analyzing the first stages of Cognitive Domain Analysis and the Conceptual Content Cognitive Map (3CM) to explore shared perspectives as a result of social learning. A case study compares perspectives about ideal use of communal forests in the Bolivian Amazon, where structured 3CM was implemented with 16 extension agents and 34 residents of two rural communities. Salience described the relative importance of communal forest concepts and consensus analysis described whether those who participated in a social learning process had similar content to their models as compared to nonparticipants. These tools promise to be engaging, effective methods to test the impacts of social learning.