I struggled with where we should we start with the DCAL blog - there are so many possible topics. Eventually, I decided to focus on learning...the theory being that if we understand how students learn we might be able to better understand how to teach.
One of the key publications related to learning is How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School, which is available online or stop by DCAL to borrow a copy.
How People Learn identifies the following three key findings about learning:
- Students come to the classroom with preconceptions about how the world works. If their initial understanding is not engaged, they may fail to grasp the new concepts and information that are taught, or they may learn them for purposes of a test but revert to their preconceptions outside the classroom (How People Learn, 2000).
Fish is Fish by Leo Leonni
is used in How People Learn to illustrate how preconceptions affect learning. This is a children’s book (I read it to my little people – stop by DCAL to borrow a copy of the book; you can even borrow my little people if you need an audience) but it does a wonderful job of
illustrating preconceptions. So the story goes… a tadpole and a fish become friends. The tadpole grows (into a frog it turns out) and leaves the pond to explore. Upon returning to the pond, he describes to his friend the fish what he has seen. Here is what the fish envisions when the frog describes a cow:
Teaching Implications: Teachers must draw out and work with the preexisting understandings that their students bring with them (How People Learn, 2000). So how can we do this?... I generally give a quiz or survey on the first day (not for a grade); simply asking them if they understand certain topics doesn’t seem to work, I have to get them to work through some problems. Another method, which is used by Physics Professor Eric Mazur at Harvard University, is to intersperse lectures with conceptual questions (or ConcepTests) and then have the students individually and in groups answer and respond to the questions. ConcepTests (a collection of conceptual questions that have been developed and tested by experts) are available in a growing number of disciplines including Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Geosciences, and Engineering – just do a search on “ConcepTest." Other ideas? What have you tried in your classroom?
- To develop competence in an area of inquiry, students must: (a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge, (b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and (c) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application (How People Learn, 2000).
Teaching Implications: Teachers must teach some subject matter in depth, providing many examples in which the same concept is at work and providing a firm foundation of factual knowledge.
The main point to me here is that we, as teachers, need to organize information around main concepts; students will have an easier time remembering the facts if they are tied to a few key concepts rather trying to remember an array of random facts. How People Learn stresses that students need facts and information but that it needs to be well connected (research shows that experts are not necessarily “smarter” but have better access to a larger knowledge-base). I think back to some of my high school History classes where I was asked to memorize a whole lot of information and dates that didn’t seem to be connected in any way – I remember very little… Nothing against History but it didn’t work for me. I’m sure History is being taught more innovatively now than way back when I was in high school. Maybe I’d actually enjoy it now!
I also believe that it is okay to have students jump in and try a “real” or complex problem before they have ALL of the facts. If students get interested in a more complex problem before they have all of the facts maybe they’ll be interested enough to search for and learn the facts they need (and thus better remember them). This is one of the ideas behind problem-based learning. What I think we do to often, myself included, is try to “cover” all of the basic material before having the students tackle a problem when maybe we should try the reverse - start to tackle the problem and then learn the facts. At a seminar at Dartmouth last fall, Professor Ken Bain, author of What the Best College Teachers Do, illustrated this point by asking the audience to remember the following series of numbers: 1,4,9,1,6,2,5,3,6,4,9. See how you do: Read the list, look away, and try to recall all of the numbers. Only physics professor, John Thorstensen, was able to remember the numbers but that was because he figured out the pattern – leave it to a physicist! Professor Bain then told everyone that the list of numbers was simply the squares of 1 through 7 – it was much easier to remember the list once we understood the concept (don't you agree?). This is a pretty simplified example but tries to show that if we cram a bunch of random facts into students’ heads without connecting them to something relevant they will forget them quickly.
- A “metacognitive” approach to instruction can help students learn to take control of their own learning by defining learning goals and monitoring their progress in achieving them (How People Learn, 2000).
So what does a "metacoginitive" approach mean… In “The Impending Revolution in Undergraduate Science Education” (an article I’d recommend as a starting place for thinking about learning - for science, math, and engineering folks at least), Robert DeHaan recommends finding ways to get students to select thinking strategies deliberatively and to plan, monitor, and evaluate thinking processes. As with all education, there is no one right answer here, I think we all need to think about our discipline and try to figure out what works for us. What have I tried?… if I work an example in class, I try to explain in detail why I make certain decisions or show alternative approaches. I’ve also tried having the students explain their thought process (either in class or documented along with their homework). Journals used by the students to document their learning process are also used by many instructors. What have you tried?
I hope this gives you some ideas - it is meant as a start… I’ve listed the key findings from How People Learn but there is much more information available in the complete document, which is separated into four parts. Part I of How People Learn is an introduction, Part II focuses on the learners and learning and Part III focused on the teachers and teaching (with examples of how to design learning environments and specific examples of effective teaching in History, Mathematics, and Science), Part IV outlines future directions for the science of learning. How People Learn is available online or stop by DCAL to borrow a copy.
Another great resource on learning is James E. Zull’s book called The Art of Changing the Brain: Enriching the Practice of Teaching by Exploring the Biology of Learning. This book is very easy to read even if you are not a biologist (okay I admit I skimmed some of the biology-heavy sections but I
still got a lot out of the book). DCAL has copies of Zull's book if you wish to borrow one.
And Robert L. DeHaan’s article, "The Impending Revolution in Undergraduate Science Education," provides a wonderful overview of scientific teaching (teaching based on cognitive science research; some also call this evidence-based teaching) that is rich with references to additional reading. It is geared toward teaching science but non-science disciplines should find at least the first several sections useful.
Vicki
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