Transcript Key Findings on Learning

National Science Foundation
PD Led Workshops – Session B:
Transforming Undergraduate Education
in
Engineering
Louis Everett
Susan Finger
Don Millard
Russ Pimmel
Janis Terpenny
Zhanjing (John) Yu
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AGENDA
• These are good things
– Research based methods
– Theoretical foundations
• BUT … what does this mean?
– Research is extensive, technical, out of reach of
some practitioners
• Enter the National Academies
– They understand our problem
– “How People Learn”
• Today we will walk you through a small piece of this
work
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ACTIVITY 1
• As an individual, take 1 minute to list a few research
findings on how people learn
• Form a team of those at your table and in your team
– Take 5 minutes to introduce yourselves
– Take 5 minutes to create a list of research findings
related to how people learn
– Report back
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Key Findings
• Students come with preconceptions
– If initial understanding is ignored
• may fail to grasp new concepts and information
• may “memorize” for a test but revert outside class
• To develop competence one must have:
– A deep foundation of knowledge (large data set)
– A conceptual framework for facts (interrelate ideas)
– An organizational structure for retrieval (ready access)
• Students should think about their thinking
– “Metacognitive” skills help students control learning
– Students should define learning goals and monitor
progress
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Time Out!
• For 3 minutes, as a team, find a suitable definition for
METACOGNITION
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ACTIVITY 2
• As an individual, take 1 minute to list key teaching
strategies for accommodating how people learn
• As a team
– For 5 minutes, list as many pedagogies (a.k.a.
Correct instructional strategies) that address these
findings
• Preconceptions
• Deep information
• Conceptual framework
• Organization
• Metacognition
– Report out
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Teaching Implications
• Teachers must draw out pre-existing concepts
– Be familiar with predictable preconceptions
– Recognize and draw out unpredicted
preconceptions
– Work WITH preconceptions so students
• Build on them,
• Challenge them,
• Replace faulty concepts
• Use formative assessment to make students aware
of their thinking
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Teaching Implications 2
• Teach fewer topics in greater depth
– (less is more)
• Provide many examples of the concept
– (practice)
• Teachers must also be in-depth learners
– (model behavior)
• Assessment must test deep understanding
– may require new methods
• Develop independent learners
– teach metacognitive skills integrated into the
curriculum
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ACTIVITY 3
• Consider a current course or project
• For 3 minutes, list current or potential activities that
address these teaching pedagogies:
– Identifying and working through preconceptions
– Creating formative assessments
– Covering less but in more depth
– Developing metacognitive skills
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ACTIVITY 4 - Summarize
• For the same project spend 5 minutes to:
– Create a list of activities you can do to:
• Disseminate (get others to use) the ideas
where you are strong
• Strengthen your areas of weakness
– List ideas you can share
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Other Topics From How
People Learn
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How experts differ from novices
Learning and transfer
Mind and brain
Designing Learning environments
Teacher learning
Technology
…
J. D. Bransford, A. Brown, and R. Cocking. How people learn:
Mind, brain, experience, and school. Washington, DC: National
Research Council, 1999.
Available from many sources from $15.80
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Conclusions
• Please reflect on what you have heard (learned?)
• Share your reflections (criticism praise) with us.
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Use of Technology
• Help bring exciting curricula based on real-world
problems into the classroom
• Provide scaffolding and tools to enhance learning
• Give students and teachers opportunities for
feedback, reflection, and revision
• Build local/global communities that include teachers,
administrators, students, parents, practicing
engineers/scientists
• Expand opportunities for teacher learning