Understanding How Students Learn LIlly 2016

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Understanding How Students

Learn—The First Step to

Improving Our Teaching

Developed by Terry

Doyle

Professor Emeritus Ferris

State University

CEO Learner Centered

Teaching Consultants

[email protected]

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• Slides will be available at

www.learnercenteredteaching.wordpress.

com

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Here is our Professional Obligation

We must follow where the

research leads us even if it

makes us uncomfortable or

results in major changes in

our teaching practices.

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Here is Our Challenge?

We as teachers can’t make

informed decisions about

which teaching

approaches or tools to use

if we don’t first understand

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Here is Our Challenge?

To understand how our

students learn we must

understand how their brains

take in, process, and retrieve

information

as well as the

numerous factors that affect

these processes.

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Key Teaching Questions

1. What Content Should We

Teach?

What would make us

happy that our students

still knew and could apply

from the content and skills

of our course

a year later?

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Key Teaching Questions

2 .

What can students do on

their own?

What knowledge and skills

do students need our help

to learn and what can they

look up and learn on their

own?

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Key Teaching Questions

3. What is the

best use of our

time?

What teaching actions

optimize the opportunities

for students to

master the

learning outcomes of our

courses?

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The Definition of Learning

Learning is a change in

the neuron-patterns of

the brain.

(Goldberg, 2009)

www.virtualgalen.com/.../ neurons-small.jpg

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Teachers’ Definition of Learning

Learning is the ability to use information after

significant periods of disuse

and

it is the ability to use the information to solve

problems that arise in a context different (if

only slightly) from the context in which the

information was originally taught.

(12)

Basic Finding from

Neuroscience Research about Learning

It is the one who does the

work who does the

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What Instructors Don’t Control

about

the Learning Process

• Genes

• Family life

• Home environment

• Stress levels

• Sleep

• Diet

• Hydration

• Exercise

• Prior knowledge*

• Language skills*

• Work Ethic

• Financial situation

• Other priorities

• Mindset

• Learning strategies/disabilities

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What Instructors Do Control about

the Learning Process

• Our emotional readiness

to teach

• Our level of organization

and planning

• The quality of our learning

activities, assessments

and content

• Respect we have for

students

(15)

What Instructors Do Control about

the Learning Process

• Our accessibility to students

• The level of

challenge/expectation

• The level of support of the

learner

• Level of overall preparedness

• Quality and timeliness of

feedback

• The learning environment of

the classroom/online

(16)

Learning is Enhanced by Movement

Natural selection developed a

human brain to solve problems of

survival in outdoor, unstable

environments

while in almost

constant motion.

A brain in motion is a brain better

able to learn.

(17)

Moving to Learn

• A growing body of

evidence suggests we

think and learn better

when we walk or do

another form of exercise.

Rhodes, 2013

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Attention Drives Learning

Attention

is almost magical

in its ability to physically

alter the brain and enlarge

functional circuits.

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Attention and Learning

When we attend to something

we are readying various

cognitive process we may need

for learning.

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Keeping Students’ Attention

Neuroscientists have a

saying

:

Emotion drives

attention and attention

drives learning

—this makes

Attention the key to

learning.

(21)

General Consensus about

Attention Capacity

Attention capacity will increase or

decrease

due to:

One’s arousal level

meaningfulness/relevance/interest

Type of task

new vs. automatic

How people allocate attention

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Cognitive Load and Student

Learning

3 Parts

1. Intrinsic load

This is the effort required for a

student to understand a concept–

Teachers can’t do a lot about this.

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Cognitive Load and Student

Learning

2. Germane mental load

This is the load do to the

pedagogy and activity relevant

to schema formation.

•PBL is high cognitive load

•Lecture is low cog load

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Cognitive Load and Student

Learning

3. Extraneous Mental load

• These are activities not

relevant to schema

formation.

• Distractions, poor

communication, poor

humor.

(Sweller, 1988)

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Cognitive Load and Student

Learning

Information overload is

not just a metaphor it is

a

physical state.

When learning is

important we need to turn

the information faucet

down to a trickle.

(Nicholas Carr, What the Internet is doing to our

Brains)

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A Learner Needs a Clear

Rationale for Learning

To help students become

life long learners.

To help students gain

employment and keep that

employment.

Meet the survival need of

the learner.

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Developing a Clear Rationale

1. Why are we learning this?

2. How does it advance students

skills or understanding?

3. How does it help students

become life long learners?

4. How does it fit with the

students degree or job goals?

5. What challenges

wouldstudents face without this

skill or knowledge?

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Fix Prior Knowledge Deficits

• The brains goal is to find

established patterns of learning

with which to connect new

learning. (Ratey 2001)

• The more prior knowledge a

students has the easier new

learning usually is for them.

• Deficits in prior knowledge need to

be repaired in order to enhance

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Fix Prior Learning Deficits

• Assessment of prior

knowledge

• Tutoring or supplemental

work time

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Prior Knowledge

• Recalling prior knowledge

can also mean recalling

misconceptions,

information that is in error

or has a strong bias that

may resist change.

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The Brain Needs to be Ready for

Learning

• Hydration = drink when thirsty

• Diet = balanced and eat before

learning

• Exercise = dramatically improves

the brain’s readiness to learn

• Sleep = making new memories

and avoiding the harmful effects

of sleep deprivation

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The Power of Sleep

“Given the latest research on the many

functions of sleep, skimping on sleep is

looking like a worse and worse strategy for

dealing with the demands of daily life.”

(Strickgold,2015)

“Research on the role of sleep in hormonal,

immunological and learning and memory

function suggest that if you don’t get

enough

(sleep)

you could—besides being

very tired—wind up sick, overweight,

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Exercise Improves Learning

Readiness

Exercise is the single most

important thing a person

can do to improve their

learning.

(John Ratey, 2008, Spark, The

Revolutionary New Science of Exercise

and the Brain)

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Learning and Memory are Enhanced

when Multiple Senses are Engaged

• Humans are powerful

visual and auditory

learners—evolution made

certain of it.

• Each sensory pathway

creates its own memory

pathways

—the more

senses used in learning

the more chances for

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The brain is a pattern seeking

device

(Ratey 2002)

The brain is a pattern seeking

device that relates whole

concepts to one another and

looks for similarities,

differences, or relationships

between them.”

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Which of the following

slides is easier to

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SLIDE ONE

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Slide Two

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What are the patterns of your

content?

• We need to teach students

the patterns of our content.

• How it is organized.

• What types of thinking are

most often used.

• How does one learn to think

like a scientist or historian?

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Common Patterns for Learning

Similarity and Difference

Cause and Effect

Comparison and Contrast

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Actions that Improve Memory

Formation and Recall

1. Attention

2. Prior knowledge

3. Spaced learning

4. Naps and wakeful rest

5. Sleep

6. Wanting to remember

7. Distribute practice

8. Elaboration

9. Interest

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Factors Impacting Recall

1. Number of memory pathways

2. The number of senses used in the

learning process

3. The strength of the memory

4. The

cue

that is given to spark the

memory

5. Was the information learned as a part

of a whole idea or concept

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Keys to Remebering

Three Rules

1.Repetition over time

(distributive practice)

2.Elaboration of material

3. Wanting to remember

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Learner’s Mindset and Learning

• Dr. Carol Dweck spent 30

years developing the

theory of mindset.

• A mindset is believe a

person has about their

intelligence and abilities.

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Growth or Fixed

• Dweck’s work found that

only two belief system

developed in learners.

• Learners either saw their

intelligence

as fixed at birth—

hence a Fixed Mindset

.

• These learners see people as

being born either smart average

or below average and that is just

the way it is.

(46)

Growth Mindset

OR

• Learners see intelligence

as malleable and

changeable and that a

person never knows how

smart they might become.

• You get smarter your

(47)

Students’ Mindsets

• Our students’ mindsets

begin in middle school or

even before.

• Correlated with the time

when students, for the

first time, are confronted

with more difficult

(48)

Students’ Mindsets

• Students begin to see

clear difference between

themselves and other

(49)

Growth Mindset

In a growth mindset students

believe their intelligence and

abilities can be enhanced through

hard work and practice.

They see failure as a result of

lack of effort or strategy and it is

something to learn from.

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Fixed Mindset

In a fixed mindset students

believe that intelligence is a

fixed trait

-- that some people

have it and others don't

--

and that their intelligence is

reflected in their performance

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Fixed Mindset

Fixed mindsets believe

they

either shouldn’t need

to work hard

to do well

or

putting in the effort won’t

make any difference in the

(52)

Growth Mindset

Students are willing to

take learning risks and

understand that

through

practice and effort their

abilities can improve.

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Metacognition Skills and Learning

• Metacognition consist of

two basic processes

occurring simultaneously:

monitoring your

progress as you learn,

and making changes

and adapting your

strategies if you

perceive you are not

doing well.

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Suggestions for Building Metacognition

• When learners succeed at

tasks of any kind, focus

their attention on and

label the thinking skills

they used.

• (By permission E. Vockell,

Educational Psychology)

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Suggestions for Building

Metacognition

• Encourage students to

reflect on what they do

that is effective and to

give names to these

processes.

• Model strategies by

thinking aloud or by

asking students why you

did something, when you

yourself successfully

(56)

Suggestions for Building

Metacognition

• To encourage transfer,

emphasize connections

within and beyond the

topic of a given lesson.

Encourage the integration of

knowledge acquired on

different occasions.

(By permission E. Vockell, Educational

Psychology)

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Suggestions for Building

Metacognition

• Provide feedback on the degree

to which learners have

evaluated their

comprehension correctly, not

just on the degree to which they

have comprehended correctly.

• Emphasize not only knowledge

about strategies, but also why

these strategies are

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Suggestions for Building Metacognition

• Be aware that students

may not transfer

thinking strategies far

from the original

setting, unless they are

guided to do so.

• (By permission E. Vockell, Educational

Psychology

)

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Emotions and Learning

The emotional engagement

pathway is effective in

capturing and sustaining

attention.

(60)

Dopamine is the Reward for

Learning

Dopamine is there to reward

your brain for learning new

information, or engaging in

new experiences.

Without dopamine, you

would not be interested in

learning or trying new things.

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Emotional Contagion

• ”A process in which a

person or group influences

the emotions or behavior of

another person or group

through the conscious or

unconscious induction of

emotion states and

behavioral attitudes".

• Schoenewolf, G., (1990). Emotional contagion:

Behavioral induction in individuals and groups.'

'Modern Psychoanalysis; 15, 49-61

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Emotion and Memory

Emotional arousal organizes

and coordinates brain activity

(Bloom, Beal & Kupfer 2003)

When the amygdala detects

emotions, it

essentially

boosts activity

in the areas of

the brain that form memories

(63)

Stress and Learning

• Exercise helps reduce the

affects of stress on the brain.

• Exercise unleashes a

cascade of neurochemicals

and growth factors that can

reverse damage done by

stress, physically bolstering

the brain's infrastructure

.

(

Jesper Mogensen , Department of Psychology,

University of Copenhagen.

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Short Term Stress Impairs Learning

Acute stress activates

selective CRH molecules

(corticotropin)

releasing

hormones, which

disrupt

the process

by which the

brain collects and stores

memories.

(

Baram,2010)

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Technology and Learning

Serious Games

A serious game is a

game

designed for a primary purpose

other than pure entertainment.

The "serious" adjective refers to

products used by industries like

defense, education, scientific

exploration, health care, emergency

management, city planning,

(66)

Serious Games

• There is a growing body of research on the effectiveness of

online games as learning tools. In her review of the

peer-reviewed material from

the last ten year

s, Mary Jo

Dondlinger

concludes---•

_{“there is widespread consensus that games motivate}

players to spend time on task mastering the skills a game

imparts…[A] number of distinct design elements, such as

narrative context, rules, goals, rewards, multisensory cues,

and interactivity, seem necessary to stimulate desired

(67)

Serious Games in Higher Education

• Give psychology students a way to understand mental illness

• Stage a play in the “original” Old Globe Theater

• Teach market fund management

• Accelerate time for science experiments

• Teach Arabic language, culture and customs

• http://www.adobe.com/resources/elearning/pdfs/serio

us_games_wp.pdf

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Virtual Textbooks

The Future is Here--

Almost

Click on any bar in the

timeline, and that bar expands

to a list of images, which in

turn are linked to video about

that artist.

That's key, because, like a

great documentary, it makes

learning about what can be a

fairly narrow subject into

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Explore Virtual Textbooks

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Simulations and Models

• The ability for students to

engage in a virtual world

using simulations of the

real world problems is a

big step forward in

enhancing learning.

• Visit the Concord

(71)

Cognitive Enhancement

Meditation

The training has shown

success in

enhancing mental

agility and attention

by

changing brain structure and

function so that brain

processes are more efficient,

the quality associated with

higher intelligence (

Neuroscientist

Amishi Jha of the University of Miami)

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Caffeine + Sugar and Learning

The combination of caffeine

and sugar enhanced attention,

learning and memory.

Improves cognitive performance in

terms of

sustained attention and

working memory

by increasing the

efficiency of the areas of the brain

responsible for these two functions.

(Grabulosa, Adan, Falcón, and Bargalló, 2010 reported in the journal

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Nicotine Promotes Cognitive

Enhancement

Nicotine enhances attention

—

that key driver of neuroplasticity

and cognitive performance in

both smokers and nonsmokers.

Nicotine has significant positive

effects on fine motor skills, the

accuracy of short-term memory,

some forms of attention, and

working memory, among other basic

cognitive skills.

(Martha Farah, University of Pennsylvania)

Scientists at the National

Institute on Drug Abuse

reported in a 2010 analysis of

41 double-blind,

(74)

Adderall has Cognitive Benefits

There are cognitive benefits of

stimulants like Adderall , at

least in some people for some

tasks.

Enhance the recall of

memorized words as well as

working memory, which plays a

key role in fluid intelligence.

(75)

Adderall

Adderall has stronger

effects on the prefrontal

cortex and can therefore

improve concentration

and minimize fatigue

much more so than

caffeine.

(76)

Adderall has Side Effects

Adderall is not without

health risks.

Side effects include

difficulty sleeping,

seizures, high blood

pressure, loss of appetite,

depression, and many

(77)

Modafinil

• A new analysis of the

research revealed it does

improve planning and

decision making, flexibility,

learning and memory, and

even creativity.

• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3204567/Smart-dr

ugs-really-work-Pills-taken-fifth-university-students-impr

ove-memory-learning-raising-ethical-questions.html#ixzz3rr

s0gfvg

(78)

Modafinil

• Professor Guy Goodwin,

President of the European

College of

Neuropsychopharmacology

(ECNP) said:

• “This overview suggests that, on

current evidence, modafinil

enhances cognition independent

of its known effects in sleep

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Modafinil

• However, it can have worrying

side-effects — including

headaches, irritableness,

vomiting, irrational behavior,

tremors, palpitations and broken

sleeping patterns

•

http

://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3204567/Smart-drugs-really-work-Pills-taken-fifth-un iversity-students-improve-memory-learning-raising-ethical-questions.html#ixzz3rrsbXCwZ

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