Download - How (you can help) People Learn (biology)

How (You Can Help) People Learn (Biology)

1

What do you notice?

What do you wonder?

impaled by Yersinia on flickr CC-BY-NC-SA

How People Learn

HOW PEOPLE LEARN

Peter Newbury, Ph.D.

Center for Teaching Development,

University of California, San Diego

[email protected] @polarisdotca

ctd.ucsd.edu #ctducsd

slides available at tinyurl.com/HPLBiologySp14

April 21, 2014

How (you can help) People Learn 3

Survey

How (You Can Help) People Learn (Biology) 4

Which of these do you associate with a typical

university lecture?

A) listening

B) absorbing

C) note-taking

D) learning

The traditional lecture is based on the

transmissionist learning model

How (You Can Help) People Learn (Biology) 5 (Image by um.dentistry on flickr CC)

Let’s have a learning experience…

6 How (You Can Help) People Learn (Biology)

Here is an important new number

system. Please learn it.


1 = 4 = 7 =

2 = 5 = 8 =

3 = 6 = 9 =

Test


What is this number?

Scientifically Outdated, a Known Failure

9 How (You Can Help) People Learn (Biology)

We must abandon the tabula rasa

“blank slate” and “students as

empty vessels” models of teaching

and learning.

New Number System: tic-tac-toe code


1 2 3

4 5 6

7 8 9

What is this number?


Constructivist Theory of Learning


New learning is based on knowledge you already have.

You store things in long term memory through a set of connections that are made with your existing memories.

(Images by Rebecca-Lee on flickr CC)

Creating memories (aka learning) involves having neurons fire and link up in networks or patterns. (fMRI is allowing us to observe learning as it happens.)

learning is done

by individuals


What are the patterns of

how people learn?

How do we use them?

How People Learn


National Research Council (2000).

How People Learn: Brain, Mind,

Experience, and School: Expanded

Edition. J.D. Bransford, A.L Brown

& R.R. Cocking (Eds.), Washington,

DC: The National Academies

Press.

Available for free as PDF

www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=9853

Key Finding 1


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 the purposes of a test but revert to their preconceptions outside of the classroom.

(How People Learn, p 14.)

Key Finding 2

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To develop competence in an area, 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.



Key Finding 3

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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.



Aside: metacognition


Metacognition refers to one’s knowledge concerning one’s

own cognitive processes or anything related to them.

For example, I am engaging

in metacognition if I notice

that I am having more

trouble learning A than B.

([2], [3])

cognition meta

Key Finding 3

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Please gather into groups of 2-3


Each set of colored cards has

3 Key Findings

3 Implications for Teaching

3 Designing Classroom

Environments

TASK: Match the cards into

3 sets of 3 cards

Designing Classroom

Environment

Key Finding

2 Implications

for Teaching

Key Finding

3

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Key Finding 1


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 the purposes of a test but revert to their preconceptions outside of the classroom.


Implications for Teaching 1


Teachers must draw out and work with the preexisting understandings that their students bring with them.



1 = 4 = 7 =

2 = 5 = 8 =

3 = 6 = 9 =

1 2 3

4 5 6

7 8 9

unsupported, unfamiliar content built on pre-existing

knowledge

(tic-tac-toe board)

Transmissionist Constructivist

Classroom Environments 1


Schools and classrooms must be learner centered. (How People Learn, p 23.)

Learning requires interaction [4]


1 2

3 4

Key Finding 2

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To develop competence in an area, 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.




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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.


To provide a knowledge-centered environment, attention must be given to what is taught (information, subject matter), why it is taught (understanding), and what competence or mastery looks like.



Development of Mastery [5]


conscious

unconscious

incompetent competent

1

Level of Expertise

Beha

vior



conscious

unconscious


1

2

Level of Expertise

Beha

vior



conscious

unconscious


1

2 3

Level of Expertise

Beha

vior



conscious

unconscious


1

2 3

4

Level of Expertise

Beha

vior

Why Your Students Don’t Understand You


Expert brains differ from novice brains because novices:

lack rich, networked connections, cannot make

inferences, cannot reliably retrieve information

have preconceptions that distract, confuse, hinder

lack automization (“muscle memory”) resulting in

cognitive overload

Key Finding 3

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The teaching of metacognitive skills should be integrated into the curriculum in a variety of subject areas.


Formative assessments — ongoing assessments designed to make students’ thinking visible to both teachers and students — are essential.

We need to give our students opportunities to

practice being metacognitive: having an internal

dialogue about their own thinking



Putting theory into practice


student-centered instruction traditional lecture


peer instruction with clickers

interactive demonstrations

What do you notice?

What do you wonder?

surveys of opinions

reading quizzes

worksheets

discussions

videos student-centered instruction

Clicker Question

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The molecules making up the dry mass of wood that

forms during the growth of a tree largely come from

A) sunlight.

B) the air.

C) the seed.

D) the soil.

Question credit: Bill Wood


Typical episode of peer instruction


1. Instructor poses a conceptually-challenging multiple-choice question.

2. Students think about question on their own and vote using clickers, colored ABCD cards, smartphones,…

3. The instructor prompts students, “Turn to your neighbors and convince them you’re right.”

4. After the peer-to-peer discussion, [the students vote again and] the instructor leads a class-wide discussion concluding with why the right answer(s) is right and the wrong answers are wrong.

In effective peer instruction


students teach each other while

they may still hold or remember

their novice preconceptions

students discuss the concepts in their

own (novice) language

each student finds out what s/he does(n’t) know

the instructor finds out what the students (don’t) know

and reacts, building on their initial understanding

and preconceptions.

students learn

and practice

how to think,

communicate

like experts




What do you notice?

What do you wonder?

surveys of opinions

reading quizzes

worksheets

discussions



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Chemistry Day 4 by pennstatenews on flickr CC-BY-NC

Clicker question


A ball is rolling around

the inside of a circular

track. The ball

leaves the track

at point P.

Which path

does the ball

follow?

P

A

B C

E

D

(adapted from Mazur)




What do you notice?

What do you wonder?

surveys of opinions

reading quizzes

worksheets

discussions



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What do you notice?

What do you wonder?

impaled by Yersinia on flickr CC-BY-NC-SA




What do you notice?

What do you wonder?

surveys of opinions

reading quizzes

worksheets

discussions



Veritasium (Derek Muller) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KZb2_vcNTg

As you watch the

video, notice how

Derek talks to the

people he

interviews.

Active Learning in Discussion Sections

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peer instruction with clickers, colored ABCD cards, ABCDE pdf on smartphones,…

1-minute papers: What is most confusing right now?

2-minute pause: Give students 2 minutes to “catch their breath”, answer questions they have

Problem Solving in Groups

Ask what steps would you take to solve problem (versus actually solving them)

Critique or “fix” sample work/problem

overhead slides, document cameras, board?

If there’s a skill expert biologists have (drawing, identifying structures in diagram, etc.) give students a worksheet which gives them practice doing it.


How People Learn

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Learning is not about what the

instructor does. It’s about what

students do for themselves.


How People Learn

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Students need to encounter safe yet challenging

conditions in which they can try, fail, receive feedback,

and try again without facing summative evaluation.

(What the best college teachers do [6], p.108)

How People Learn

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Students will not learn (just) by

listening to the instructor explain.


How People Learn

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Students will not learn (just) by

listening to the instructor explain.

BE LESS HELPFUL How (You Can Help) People Learn (Biology)

If in doubt, ask yourself…

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Who is doing the work,

you or the students?


References


1. National Research Council (2000). How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience,

and School: Expanded Edition. J.D. Bransford, A.L Brown & R.R. Cocking

(Eds.),Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

2. Flavell, J. H. (1976). Metacognitive aspects of problem solving. In L. B. Resnick

(Ed.), The nature of intelligence (pp.231-236). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

3. Brame, C. (2013). Thinking about metacognition. [blog] January, 2013,

Available at: http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/2013/01/thinking-about-

metacognition/ [Accessed: 14 Jan 2013].

4. Prather, E.E, Rudolph, A.L., Brissenden, G., & Schlingman, W.M. (2009). A

national study assessing the teaching and learning of introductory astronomy.

Part I. The effect of interactive instruction. Am. J. Phys. 77, 4, 320-330.

5. Sprague, J., & Stuart, D. (2000). The speaker’s handbook. Fort Worth, TX:

Harcourt College Publishers.

6. Bain, K. (2004). What the best college teachers do. Cambridge, MA: Harvard

University Press.

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