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Hello. My name is Dave. I am a high school science teacher.
the reason why we have chosen to be professional educators. If there were no students, there
would be no need for educators. Learners are at the very center of teaching. This is
the central thesis of this presentation.
Since student learning is the goal of teaching, it stands to reason that teaching practices
should result in effective learning. Instructors and students have shared
responsibilities. For too long, instructors have felt justified if they simply
covered the curriculum. If the students didn’t learn, then it was their fault. Well, it could
be. But sometimes it is not. Instructors have a responsibility to teach in such
a way that their students learn. Students have a responsibility to employ
effective learning strategies. Research in neuroscience has illuminated the learning
process. We have a better understanding of what goes on in the brain during the
learning process. This understanding will help both instructors and students meet
their shared responsibilities.
While the gross structure of the brain has been known, great strides have been made in
understanding human brain function at the cellular and neurochemical level. Of
particular interest is the plasticity of the brain, the ability of the brain to
change. It turns out that the brain has the ability to change throughout life. It's
now known that structural changes in the brain occur when learning takes place.
Neurons grow new structures known as dendrites, which then form new synaptic connections
with other neurons to form new neural networks. This is the brain's
physical manifestation of learning. The tender networks of new learning are
weak, but can be strengthened and made permanent. The bad news for students is that it
takes work, effort. This is not a surprise to us as educators, but it is an
unfortunate reality many students. Learning is hard work. This is where students
often fail to meet their responsibilities.
Learning is not a spectator sport. The one who does the work is the one who learns
(Doyle, 2000). Learner-Centered Teaching (LCT) seeks to promote
teaching practices that capitalize on the knowledge of how learning takes place in
the brain. This requires the transformation of student passivity
to active engagement. If students are to learn and learning requires work,
then it is them that must do the work. The responsibility to do the work of learning
falls to the student alone. As we all know, the teacher cannot learn for the student. But the
teacher can be a facilitator of learning, one who promotes active, engaging learning
environments and activities. But there may be a problem. Many students are
quite ready to continue to passively listen, perhaps take notes, take a test, forget it an
move on to the next one. How can students be prodded to taking a more active role in
learning? A few ideas include cumulative testing or having students construct a
collaborative review of material. A wiki site or a Google document could be used
for this. Practice testing and quizzing also engages the student in the material prior
to actual testing (Doyle, 2011).
Authentic learning is learning that reflects real life work, activities, joys and concerns.
This piques student interest and justifies the students’ effort to learn. Teaching that
is detached from anything meaningful or useful to students is not likely to be
remembered for long. The challenge then, is to construct lessons which tap into their
need beyond a mere grade or fulfilling a requirement. Students need to grasp the
relationship between what they are learning and it's potential relevance to their life or the
world around them. Authentic learning mimics experiences students will encounter in
their work, personal or professional lives after school or college. In real practice,
problems are not normally neatly defined and limited in scope. Problems are often broad in
scope, poorly defined, and without specific direction toward a solution. Thus,
authentic assignments should be longer term and include a degree of ambiguity, require
students to seek out resources and collaboration of others. Assessment should also resemble
what is to come. This could include peer review as well as application of rubrics based
upon professional standards. Many professions and trades have understood and
practiced this for years. Apprenticeship and internship programs afford this
opportunity. Medicine, Engineering, Scientific Research and Accounting are a
few that come to mind.
The instructor is now a coach, supporter, mentor, and enabler of learning rather than a
dispenser of information and answers. That is not to say that the instructor doesn’t
employ direct instruction, but rather only to the extent that it is needed. The trick is to
not talk too much. This will require planning to shift from a teacher or lecture-centered
model to a learner-centered approach. In order to activate a student’s brain and form new
neural connections, his or her brain has to get to work. This requires new types of resources
and assessments that require them to think and make connections on their own. This
will take time to identify and/or author resources different from traditional
lecture notes. In science, an example of an approach such as this is POGIL™, Process
Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning. Some POGIL resources are available for purchase or
can be used as a model to develop your own.Do not misunderstand the role of
facilitator. It is not an abdication of responsibility to teach students. It is not
cutting them loose without direction to see what they can come up with. As a facilitator,
the task is to provide an environment which supports students such that they can do
their best work. The goal is to get students thinking and doing to the best of their ability.
This requires as much expertise as ever, which is then applied so as to actively engage the
student's brain.The strategy to transition to facilitator includes the writing of daily
learning objectives, an action plan to achieve those objectives, supplying the
students with needed practice, and providing meaningful feedback. Feedback is most
effective when it is instructive and promptly delivered. Think of it as
providing just enough information and just enough support for a student to do the
work of learning. Provide a scaffold from which he or she can build.
The more personable relationships we can form with students, the better. Notice
that I said personable rather than personal. Remember that the relationship between an
instructor and a student is a professional one. An awareness of issues such as learning
styles enhances teaching by allowing for differentiation of instruction. It’s been said
that one of the most precious words to a person is their name. People want to be known
by their name. To the extent that its possible, know students’ names. Greet them.
Converse with them. Carol Dweck in her book Mindset: The new psychology of success (2006)
summarizes a lifetime of work on the impact of a student's beliefs about their own
intelligence and learning. Students with fixed mindsets believe that intelligence is
basically a given quantity that cannot be changed. This manifests itself in student
approaches toward learning. If intelligence is hard-wired and cannot change, then there is no
use in putting a lot of effort into learning. Students with growth mindsets believe that
intelligence can change. These students are much more likely to take charge of their own
learning. They believe that with sufficient effort they can learn. They are much more
willing to take academic risks. Since student effort is key to their learning, a
with a fixed mindset needs to be introduced to the possibility of a growth
mindset. The growth mindset must lie at the heart of the
amounts of "deliberate practice,” 10,000 hours to become experts in any field
(Colvin, 2006).
In that people are social beings, it should not be surprising that learning is
social in nature also (Brookfield & Preskill, 2005). Discussion takes advantage of
this. When students participate in effective discussion groups, their level
of cognition is higher. They scale the Bloom's taxonomy pyramid into areas such as
analysis, application, synthesis, and creative problem solving. Because some students
have grown up with many years of teacher- or lecture-centered forms of teaching, some will be
reluctant to accept discussion as a form of teaching and learning. Students should
involve themselves in discussion groups because it taps into the social nature of
learning and it mimics features of the students’ future world of work. In this regard, the use
of discussion intersects with authentic learning mentioned earlier. Students will buy in
more if they have a say in things, if instructor power is shared. Encouraging student
input regarding the design and ground rules should lead to successful discussion
groups. Discussion groups can have as their objective instruction in content,
reflection, or analysis. Discussion competence, the ability to contribute and
evaluate discussion could also be a goal for discussion groups (Doyle, 2011).
We all acquire information through our senses. The different senses actually
interact with one another. This is known as cross-modal interaction. So, instruction
that engages multiple senses results in more effective learning. Vision and smell are
particularly important to retention and recall of information. Pictures, or
graphic information, are especially memorable. All of this argues for a multi-sensory
approach to learning, particularly incorporating graphics. It would seem that
the multi-sensory approach relates to Gardner's multiple intelligences (Gardner,
1999). The different channels of sensory input do have finite capacities. Think of them as
roadways that can only carry a certain amount of traffic. Too much traffic makes for a traffic
jam. So in lesson design, be careful not to include so much information that students get
overwhelmed and frustrated and then shut down. We’ve all suffered from cognitive
overload. Hopefully, now is not one of those times!
A student’s brain is looking for patterns in the information he or she is receiving. When
patterns are learned, it is much easier for the student to remember and incorporate new
information. Instructors that assist students in finding and using patterns see meaningful
learning occurring (Doyle, 2011). Patterns both reveal organization of subject matter
and establish a cognitive organization for information. Compare two rooms that have
the same things in them. One is a cluttered and chaotic mess. One is organized in a
manner that is useful to the occupant. Which room is more efficient? Which can
accommodate new items in a meaningful and retrievable way? When students recognize a
useful pattern, it also relieves them of much the burden of memorization. No
longer do they have a bucket of chaotic facts and information. They have a key to an organized
cabinet.
Students’ brains, like ours, are flooded with more information than can be taken in. So,
there has to be a filtering process to identify what is worthy of attention. Call it
selective attention. How this occurs is not clear, but what is clear is that attention is
required for memory encoding. If students have any hope of learning, they have to be
paying attention. Ultimately memory, and hence learning, is manifested in the construction
of neural networks. As these networks are used, they become strengthened, more robust
(Doyle, 2011). This is the neurophysiological basis for repetition and elaboration, in
other words, practice. So there is a reason to give homework after all. Students
need to practice, to rehearse, to exercise the circuits to make them stronger, more permanent.
Don't mistake this for rote memorization. Good homework requires active thinking. This
helps students retain what they are learning. Here are a few other things to think about.
Memory consolidation occurs during sleep. So a good night’s sleep is essential to
good learning. Naps help too. Stress detracts from learning. Aerobic exercise, 30 minutes a
day, four to five times a week, also helps effective learning (Ratey, 2008).
The neuroscience of learning has established the biological basis for active student
engagement in learning, requiring adaptation of traditional teaching methods.
As professionals, we are compelled to seek ways to implement into our practice,
the scientific understanding of the learning brain. Certainly we will meet with success and
failure, satisfaction and frustration. But it is worth it. Earlier generations of
professors and teachers were flying blind. But now, Neuroscientists and Cognitive
Psychologists are continuing to show us the biology of the learning brain. Aren’t we
obliged to use that information? Don’t our students deserve it? Thank you.