Three Learning Principles

Dr. Michele DiPietro

Executive Director, Center for Excellence in Teaching and LearningKennesaw State UniversityFormer President, The Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education

mdipietr@kennesaw.eduhttp://cetl.kennesaw.edu

“It’s not teaching that causes learning. Attempts by the learner to perform cause learning, dependent upon the quality of feedback and opportunities to use it.”— Grant Wiggins, “Feedback: How Learning Occurs”

“Teachers possess the power to create conditions that can help students learn a great deal – or keep them from learning much at all. Teaching is the intentional act of creating such conditions.”

— Parker Palmer, “The Courage to Teach”

3 Learning Principles

• Students’ motivation determines, directs, and sustains what they do to learn.

• Goal-directed practice coupled with targeted feedback enhances the quality of students’ learning.

• To become self-directed learners, students must learn to monitor and adjust their approaches to learning.

3. Students’ motivation determines, direct, and sustains what they do to learn

.

Effects of value, self-efficacy, & environment on motivation

5. Goal-directed practice coupled with targeted feedback enhances the quality of students’ learning

7. To become self-directed learners, students must learn to monitor and adjust their approaches to learning. Students don’t!

(Carey & Flower 1989; Hinsley et al. 1977)

Students overestimate their strengths(Dunning 2007)

Students don’t plan, or do it poorly(Chi et al. 1989; Carey et al. 1989)

Self-explanation effect

But students don’t do it!(Chi et al 1989)

Students don’t!(NRC 2001; Fu & Gray 2004)

Intellectual Development by Year

Baxter-Magolda (1992)

Mandates from learning science

• Build/Demonstrate Value and Activate Goals• Build Expectancy:

•Build Self-Efficacy•Create a supportive environment

• Be Explicit—about:•Goals•Expectations•Assessments

• Teach Self-assessment, Planning, Reflection, Strategy Switching

Strategies

• Signature Pedagogies and High-Impact Practices

•Collaborative Learning, Undergraduate Research, Global Learning/Study Abroad, Service Learning/Community Engagement, Writing across the Curriculum…

• Use technology to solve pedagogical problems

•Pedagogy drives technology not the other way around

• Alignment•Measurable Goals, Authentic Assessments,

Instruction• Scaffolding• Feedback (Neutral < Sandwich < High

Standards)• Self-Assessment• Embed Reflection (Wrappers)

Institutional Strategies

• Create a community of educators• Treat Teaching Scholarly

Strategies toward Mastery of Skills

• Be explicit about practiceGoals (hint: be more explicit than you think you

need to)Rubrics and other grading criteriaSet expectations about practiceModel target performanceShow students what you DON’T want

• Give frequent, timely, constructive feedback

Prioritize feedbackBalance strengths and weaknessesLook for patterns of errors and use group or

peer feedback for efficiencyRequire students to say how they used your

feedback in subsequent work

Strategies for MotivationValue• Connect to students’

interests, real-world tasks, present and future academic and professional lives

• Show enthusiasm for discipline

Expectancies • Educational alignment • Appropriate level of

challenge • Early success

opportunities• Educate students about

their attributions• Give study strategies

Both: flexibility and control, reflection

Strategies for Metacognition

• Assess task: check students’ understanding of the task, provide grading criteria upfront.

• Evaluate own’s strengths and weaknesses: self-assessment, early assessments.

• Plan: model good planning, make planning the point of the assignment

• Monitor performance: give heuristics for self correction, require reflection and annotation of students’ own work, use peer review/reader response

• Reflect/adjust: require reflection on performance and on study skills (Wrappers)

• Beliefs: discuss them directly, broaden students’ understanding of ‘learning’