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Principle
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Example
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Reference
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1. The Rule of 4:
“It requires three to four experiences involving interaction with relevant information for a new knowledge construct to be created in working memory and then transferred to long-term memory.” |
You heard, you repeated, you wrote, you explained, and you applied - oops that is 5. |
Nuthall, G.A. (1999). The way students learn, Elementary School Journal, 99, 303-341. |
2. Problematizing the content:
Our brains are set up to solve problems. “Problematizing the content” helps students set goals for understanding. Being committed to goals enhances achievement, efficacy and interest. Goals that are specific, temporarily close at hand and difficult but attainable will maximize performance because they enhance attention, effort and persistence. |
Your goal for coming to this presentation was to solve a problem – how to make your own teaching more effective and what should your students know to make their teaching more effective. I have your attention. |
Schunk, D.H. (1990). Goal setting and self-efficacy during self-regulated learning. Educational Psychologist, 225, 71-86. |
3. Focused attention:
Attention is a necessary prerequisite of learning. It is a general limitation on the entire human information processing system. What is irrelevant must be actively ignored. Our senses are designed to pick up changes. Therefore, too much predictability and repetitiveness decreases attention. |
Since I offered possible solutions to your problem, you paid close attention to what I had to say. |
Parasuraman, R. (1998). The Attentive Brain. |
| 4. Contiguity: Our brains automatically link those things that appear together. This is why the context in which things are learned is important. Trying to imbed tasks in varied authentic situations increases the likelihood that, later, a similar context will cue recall. What is interesting is that repeated exposures to some things make them “known” and therefore more likely to be “liked.” |
HUDSON3-2700
Sauce Béarnaise Syndrome – this indicates that a connection to a strong emotional response does not require repetition to be learned. |
James, W. (1918). The Principles of Psychology. |
5. Active engagement:
Humans are goal-directed agents who actively seek information and try to understand, to make sense, of what they encounter. This active engagement leads to learning. |
The whole presentation |
Piaget, J. (1978). Success and Understanding. Vygotsky, (1978) Mind in Society. |
6. Indirect teaching:
Determining a rule or principle for yourself leads to better retention than memorizing. Cognitive development occurs only when environmental inputs do not match students’ schemata. Useful knowledge is connected and organized around important concepts and principles. |
Concept attainment lesson. Concepts are the most basic units of meaning our brains use to understand the world. They represent categories with common characteristics (horse, democracy, whole #s) so you can identify what is or is not one. |
Bruner, J..S., Goodnow, J.J. & Austin, G..A. (1977). A Study of Thinking |
7. Conceptual Change:
For students to get a better understanding of something takes awareness of and dissatisfaction with prior conception plus repeated evidence that new conception is understandable, fits with other understanding, and is useful. The impetus for change is within the learner’s control. |
Think, pair, share on the meaning of knowledge, learning and understanding |
Sinatra, G.M., & Pintrich, P. R., Eds. (2003). Intentional Conceptual Change. |
| 8. Metacognition/Self-regulation/Self-reflection: Metacognition is the deliberate conscious control of cognitive activity. People motivated to attain a goal engage in self-regulatory activities they believe will help them (e.g., organize and rehearse material, monitor learning progress and adjust strategies). That promotes learning. Students need to be taught strategies plus when, where, and why to use them. |
Information Processing questions – watch your mind search |
Schunk, D.H., & Zimmerman, B.J. (1998). Self-Regulated Learning: From Teaching to Self-Reflective Practice. |
| 9 Varied representations of a subject/Concept maps: Our brain “remembers” pictures better than words. Concept maps put isolated concept into a web of related schematic knowledge. Organized knowledge is easier to recall. Maps are good learning tools and good assessment tools. They require extensive thought and demonstrate deep understanding. They help spot misconceptions and show students what it takes to understand deeply. |
Concept map of Vygotsky’s theory of cognition |
Novak, J. D. (1998). Learning, Creating and Using Knowledge |
10. Explaining:
Little learning occurs just from listening to didactic explanations. Learning is maximized when learners construct their own explanations, even if only for themselves. |
Explaining Vygotsky’s theory |
Chi, M.T.H., deLeeuw, N., Chiu, M.H. & LaVancher, C. (1994). Eliciting self-explanations improves understanding. Cog. Sci., 18, 439-477. |
11.Varied contexts for engaging content:
For knowledge to transfer to new situations, it must be found in our memory. Those concepts, ideas, facts, etc. that are well linked to other things in memory are more likely to be found. Experience with ideas in multiple contexts and mindful abstraction of the useful principles makes those ideas more likely to be recalled and used in new settings. |
Chart of ways major theories would explain why a student might not be learning |
Anderson, J.R. (1990). Cognitive Psychology and Its Implications.
Mayer, R. E. (2001). Multimedia Learning. |
12. Emotional ties/surprise/mystery
Knowledge tied to an emotional response is more easily recalled. We attend to and therefore remember things that are a surprise or mysterious. Piaget says our minds are set up to try to solve problems. Once we are in disequilibrium because what we know does not allow us to make sense of a situation, our minds work to adapt. |
Questions about Panama, whales, etc. |
Lowenstein, G. (1994). The psychology of curiosity: A review and reinterpretation Psychological Bulletin, 117, 75-98. |
13. Thinking and learning take time:
“Revisiting the same material, at different times, in rearranged contexts, for different purposes, and from different conceptual perspectives is essential for attaining the goals of advanced knowledge acquisition” |
The whole presentation |
Spiro, R. J., Feltovich, P.J., Jacobson, M.L., & Coulson, R.L. (1991). Cognitive flexibility, constructivism, and hypertext. Educational Technology, 31(5), 24-33. |
