Notes on How Learning Works: Seven Research Based Principles for Smart Teaching
Introduction felt like it was written for a bunch of just beginning college students.
Definition of learning: "a process that leads to change, which occurs as a result of experience and increases the potential for improved performance and future learning" (p. 3)
Three principles of learning
1. While learning is a process, we can only measure that process through products (we can't see inside the mind)
2. Learning requires actual change not just memorization or repeating. The change in knowledge, beliefs, behavior and attitudes takes place as a process over time leaving a lasting impact on the learner
3. Learners learn in response to their interpretations and responses to their experiences
Principle 1 Prior knowledge can help or hinder learning
Prior knowledge acts like a filter through which current knowledge is sieved. Whether and in what form the knowledge gets through depends on the filter at that moment.
P 2 How students organize knowledge influences how they learn and apply what they know
P3 Students' motivation determines, directs and sustains what they do to learn. Motivation comes from seeing a positive outcome in their work, feeling that their is a possibility of success and feeling they have adequate support.
P4 To develop mastery, students must acquire component skills, practice integrating them, and know when to apply what they have learned.
P5Goal directed practice coupled with targeted feedback enhances the quality of students' learning
P6Students' current level of development interacts with the social, emotional and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning
P7Self monitoring is key to develop self-directed learners who can adjust their approach to learning
Practice and Feedback to increase student learning
1. Set specific goals and make sure the goals delineate the how and what and are understandable by the student
2. Include the appropriate amount of challenge. Scaffold
3. Sufficient quantity of practice--do something multiple times and in multiple contexts
Feedback
1. feedback should state where a student is and where they need to be
2. feedback should be used frequently to shape towards improvement
3. make sure students have a chance to apply the feedback
4. Feedback should be timely and close to the when the assignment is turned in
To develop good self monitoring habits
1. Be able to assess the task, its goals and constraints (often students miss what the assignment is asking them to do. Need to get students to articulate how they view the assignment to make sure they have accurately assessed)
2. evaluate own abilities and knowledge to achieve those goals: what are strengths and weaknesses (the poorer the abilities the poorer students will be at assessing their own strengths and weaknesses, generally wildly overestimating their abilities)
3. make a plan and frequently assess its effectiveness
4. develop and apply strategies to achieve the plan with progress monitoring as they go
5. reflect on the projects progress and make adjustments as needed
Tell students what we do NOT want
Check students understanding
state explicit performance criteria
Definition of learning: "a process that leads to change, which occurs as a result of experience and increases the potential for improved performance and future learning" (p. 3)
Three principles of learning
1. While learning is a process, we can only measure that process through products (we can't see inside the mind)
2. Learning requires actual change not just memorization or repeating. The change in knowledge, beliefs, behavior and attitudes takes place as a process over time leaving a lasting impact on the learner
3. Learners learn in response to their interpretations and responses to their experiences
Principle 1 Prior knowledge can help or hinder learning
Prior knowledge acts like a filter through which current knowledge is sieved. Whether and in what form the knowledge gets through depends on the filter at that moment.
P 2 How students organize knowledge influences how they learn and apply what they know
P3 Students' motivation determines, directs and sustains what they do to learn. Motivation comes from seeing a positive outcome in their work, feeling that their is a possibility of success and feeling they have adequate support.
P4 To develop mastery, students must acquire component skills, practice integrating them, and know when to apply what they have learned.
P5Goal directed practice coupled with targeted feedback enhances the quality of students' learning
P6Students' current level of development interacts with the social, emotional and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning
P7Self monitoring is key to develop self-directed learners who can adjust their approach to learning
Practice and Feedback to increase student learning
1. Set specific goals and make sure the goals delineate the how and what and are understandable by the student
2. Include the appropriate amount of challenge. Scaffold
3. Sufficient quantity of practice--do something multiple times and in multiple contexts
Feedback
1. feedback should state where a student is and where they need to be
2. feedback should be used frequently to shape towards improvement
3. make sure students have a chance to apply the feedback
4. Feedback should be timely and close to the when the assignment is turned in
To develop good self monitoring habits
1. Be able to assess the task, its goals and constraints (often students miss what the assignment is asking them to do. Need to get students to articulate how they view the assignment to make sure they have accurately assessed)
2. evaluate own abilities and knowledge to achieve those goals: what are strengths and weaknesses (the poorer the abilities the poorer students will be at assessing their own strengths and weaknesses, generally wildly overestimating their abilities)
3. make a plan and frequently assess its effectiveness
4. develop and apply strategies to achieve the plan with progress monitoring as they go
5. reflect on the projects progress and make adjustments as needed
Tell students what we do NOT want
Check students understanding
state explicit performance criteria
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