Understanding the Learning Process as the Gateway to Better Teaching

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• Understanding the Learning Process as the Gateway
  to Better Teaching

• Dr. Michele DiPietro

• Executive Director,
• Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
• Kennesaw State University
• mdipietr_at_kennesaw.edu
• http//www.kennesaw.edu/cetl

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Quick Problem to Solve

• There are 26 sheep and 10 goats on a ship. How
  old is the captain?

• Adults Unsolvable
• 5th graders Over 75 attempted to provide a
  numerical answer.
• After giving the answer 36 one student
  explained Well, you need to add or subtract or
  multiply in problems like this, and this one
  seemed to work best if I add.
• (Bransford Stein, 93)

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The Moral

• We must really understand how students
• process what we teach them!!

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How Learning Works

• Joint work with former Carnegie Mellon colleagues
• Synthesis of 50 years of research
• Constant determinants of learning
• Principles apply cross-culturally
• Translations to Mandarin and Korean in progress

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Objectives

• Following this workshop, participants should be
  able to
• List and discuss the seven principles of learning
• Describe the research and the evidence behind
  each principle
• Generate pedagogical strategies to support
  learning?

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7 Learning Principles

• Students prior knowledge can help or hinder
  learning.
• How students organize knowledge influences how
  they learn and apply what they know.
• Students motivation determines, directs, and
  sustains what they do to learn.
• To develop mastery, students must acquire
  component skills, practice integrating them, and
  know when to apply what they have learned.
• Goal-directed practice coupled with targeted
  feedback enhances the quality of students
  learning.
• Students current level of development interacts
  with the social, emotional, and intellectual
  climate of the course to impact learning.
• To become self-directed learners, students must
  learn to monitor and adjust their approaches to
  learning.

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• I consider that a man's brain originally is like
  a little empty attic, and you have to stock it
  with such furniture as you choose. (Sherlock
  Holmes)

FALSE
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1. Prior Knowledge can help or hinder learning
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Prior knowledge can hinder learning

• If it is
• Inappropriate
• Insufficient
• Declarative vs. Procedural knowledge
• Inaccurate

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Some examples of inaccurate prior knowledge
(misconceptions)

• Bricks A B are identical. The force needed to
  hold B in place (deeper than A) is
• Larger than
• The same as
• Smaller than
• the force required to hold A in place

• When the switch S is closed, do the following
  increase, decrease, or stay the same?
• The intensity of A B
• The intensity of C
• The current drawn from the battery
• The voltage drop across each bulb
• The power dissipated in the circuit

Mazur (1996)
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More misconceptions

• Science Seasons happens because the earth orbits
  the sun elliptically (Schneps and Sadler 1988)
• Math Probabilities are all uniform on the sample
  space
• Statistics Association implies causation
• Psychology People use only 10 of their brains
• What misconceptions do students have about your
  field?

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But even if prior knowledge is correct

• Each card has a letter on one side and a number
  on the other.
• Rule If a card has a vowel on one side, it must
  have an even number on the other side.
• Questions What is the minimum number of cards
  that must be turned over to check whether this
  rule is being followed? Which cards are they?
  (Wason 1966, 1977)

A
J
6
7
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Reasoning Using Prior Knowledge

• Each card represents a student at a bar. The
  age of each student is on one side and what he is
  drinking is on the other.
• Rule If a person is drinking a beer, then he
  is over 21.
• Question Which card(s) must be turned over to
  check whether everyones behavior is legal?
  (Griggs Cox, 1982)

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Beer
Coke
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The moral

• Prior knowledge lies inert most of the time
• Prior knowledge must be activated to be useful

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What we owe our students

• Learning environments that
• Value and engage what students bring to the
  table
• Actively confront and challenge misconceptions

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2. How students organize knowledge influences how
they learn and apply what they know
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How is information processed in the brain?
(Atkinson and Shiffrin 1968 Baddeley, 1986)
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• Memorize the following list
• TSXCOBCAFTNB
• Try again
• FOXABCTNTCBS

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A Statistics Example

• Memorize the following formula

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A Chemistry Example

• Memorize the following formula
• H H
• HCCOH
• H H

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An Electrical Engineering Example

• Memorize the following circuit

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Knowledge Organization

• We all chunk knowledge and organize it in the
  brain by connecting new information to existing
  knowledge
• The same knowledge can be organized in multiple
  ways
• Experts have mental structures very different
  from novices/students

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How Novices Experts Differ (Chi, Feltovich
Glaser, 1981)

• Novices Groupings
• Novice 1 These deal with blocks on an inclined
  plane
• Novice 6 Blocks on inclined planes with angles

• Experts Groupings
• Expert 2 Conservation of Energy
• Expert 4 These can be done from Energy
  considerations

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How Novices Experts Differ

• Experts have a higher density of connections
• Experts structures rely on deep underlying
  principles
• Experts have more flexible structures
• These features affect memory, meaning-making, and
  transfer!

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An Example

• If the balloons popped, the sound wouldn't be
  able to carry since everything would be too far
  away from the correct floor. A closed window
  would also prevent the sound from carrying, since
  most buildings tend to be well insulated. Since
  the whole operation depends on a steady flow of
  electricity, a break in the middle of the wire
  would also cause problems. Of course, the fellow
  could shout, but the human voice is not loud
  enough to carry that far. An additional problem
  is that a string could break on the instrument.
  Then there could be no accompaniment to the
  message. It is clear that the best situation
  would involve less distance. Then there would be
  fewer potential problems. With face to face
  contact, the least number of things could go
  wrong. (p. 719)
• Bransford Johnson, 1972

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Try now ?

• If the balloons popped, the sound wouldn't be
  able to carry since everything would be too far
  away from the correct floor. A closed window
  would also prevent the sound from carrying, since
  most buildings tend to be well insulated. Since
  the whole operation depends on a steady flow of
  electricity, a break in the middle of the wire
  would also cause problems. Of course, the fellow
  could shout, but the human voice is not loud
  enough to carry that far. An additional problem
  is that a string could break on the instrument.
  Then there could be no accompaniment to the
  message. It is clear that the best situation
  would involve less distance. Then there would be
  fewer potential problems. With face to face
  contact, the least number of things could go
  wrong. (p. 719)
• Bransford Johnson, 1972

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What we owe our students

• Learning environments that not only transmit
  knowledge, but
• Help students organize their knowledge in
  productive ways
• Actively monitor students construction of
  knowledge

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

• .

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Goals/Value

• If students cannot find any value in what you are
  offering them, they wont find motivation to do
  it
• Student value multiple goals
• Some goals are in competition

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Goals/Value

• Rewards Punishments
• Learning
• Competence
• Performance approach/avoid
• Social
• Affective
• Purpose/Integrity/Authenticity
• What do students value in your fields?

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Expectancy

• Expectancy expectation of a successful outcome
• Three main components of this positive
  expectation
• Outcome expectancy beliefs that certain
  behaviors are causally connected to desired
  outcomes
• Efficacy expectancy that one has the ability to
  do the work necessary to succeed (self-efficacy)
• Environmental expectancy that the environment
  will be supportive of ones efforts

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(1) Outcome expectancy

• A belief that certain behaviors are causally
  connected to desired outcome (Vroom 1964)
• Generally accepted for studying and learning
• Some contested areas
• Coming to class helps learning and performance
• Keeping up with the readings helps learning and
  performance
• Others?

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(2) Self-efficacy and beliefs about learning

• Self-efficacy belief that one has the ability to
  do the work necessary to succeed (Bandura 1997).
• Research studying students beliefs about
  themselves and about how learning works
• Learning is fast and easy vs. Learning is slow
  and effortful
• You have it or you dont vs. The mind is like
  a muscle
• Im no good at math vs. I lack
  experience in math
• I just cant draw vs. I could
  use drawing lessons
• How would student behaviors be affected if they
  endorsed the beliefs on the left vs. the ones on
  the right?

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(3) Belief in a supportive environment

• Environmental expectancy Belief that the
  environment will be supportive of ones efforts
  (Ford 1992)
• What matters here is students perception
• If I do what it takes to succeed, will it work
  out?
• Perceptions of
• Instructors fairness
• Feasibility of the task
• Instructors approachability/helpfulness
• Team members ability and effort

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Effects of value, self-efficacy, environment on
motivation
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Individual Reflection and Paired Activity

• Reflecting on Past Experiences as a Student
• Recall a learning situation (e.g. a course,
  assignment, etc.) in which you were very
  motivated and compare it to a similar situation
  (e.g. same discipline, same course) in which you
  were rather unmotivated. List at least 2 - 3
  factors which seemed to influence your level of
  motivation. Try to include at least one factor
  which you think influenced many other students
  motivations as well. (3 - 5 minutes)
• Discuss in pairs and prepare to report
• After quickly reviewing each persons examples,
  identify the common factors across both stories
  and classify them according to the motivational
  concepts we discussed (5 minutes)

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What we owe our students

• Learning environments that
• Stay up-to-date with what students value
• Engage multiple goals
• Build self-efficacy
• Are responsive and helpful

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• The next two principles pertain to learning skills

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Plan and Teach Activity

• Write a set of instructions to teach somebody to
  tie their shoe laces
• Pair up with somebody and try to teach them from
  your instructions, then switch
• What issues did this activity bring up for you as
  you watched your partner try to learn from your
  instructions?

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4. To develop mastery, students must acquire
component skills, practice integrating them, and
know when to apply what they have learned
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5. Goal-directed practice coupled with targeted
feedback enhances the quality of students
learning
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Its 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

• Goals
• Explicit
• Before the performance

• Feedback
• Frequent
• Timely
• Constructive

• Practice
• Scaffolded
• Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky 1978)

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An important caveat

• The Stroop Effect (1935)

XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX
RED YELLOW BLUE GREEN RED GREEN BLUE
YELLOW RED GREEN BLUE YELLOW BLUE RED
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An ExampleLearning to Drive

• Initially
• students rely on very general rules and
  problem-solving skills, e.g. following a
  step-by-step example, matching variables in
  equations
• working memory load is very high
• performance is very slow, tedious and error-prone
• With little practice
• very general rules are instantiated with
  discipline-specific details to make new, more
  efficient productions
• performance becomes faster
• many errors are detected and eliminated with
  feedback
• With a great deal of practice
• related steps are compiled and automatized by
  collapsing steps
• less attention is needed to perform
• performance continues to speed up
• experts may lose the ability to verbalize all
  steps

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The expert blindspot

• Sprague and Stuart (2000)

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What we owe our students

• Learning environments where educators
• Actively hunt down their expert blindspots
• Learning environments that
• Emphasize both individual skills and their
  integration
• Explicitly teach for transfer
• Provide multiple opportunities for authentic
  practice
• Oriented toward clear goals
• Coupled with targeted feedback

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6. Students current level of development
interacts with the social, emotional, and
intellectual climate of the course to impact
learning
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Case Study

• Please read over the case study
• As we go through the models and the research, see
  how they give you insights into the various
  students behaviors
• Well look at 3 umbrella theories
• Intellectual Development
• Social Identity Development
• Stereotype Threat
• Use the table in the handout to take notes on the
  case
• Well discuss the case after the theories

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From Morning-Glory to Petersburg (The World Book,
1928)

• Organized knowledge in story and picture
• confronts through dusty glass
• an eye grown dubious.
• I can recall when knowledge still was pure,
• not contradictory, pleasurable
• as cutting out a paper doll.
• You opened up a book and there it was
• everything just as promised, from
• Kurdistan to Mormons, Gum
• Arabic to Kumquat, neither more nor less.
• Facts could be kept separate
• by a convention that was what
• made childhood possible.

• Now knowledge finds me out
• in all its risible untidiness
• it traces me to each address,
• dragging in things I never thought about.
• I dont invite what facts can be
• held at arms length a family
• of jeering irresponsibles always
• comes along gypsy-style
• and there you have them all
• forever on your hands. It never pays.
• If I could still extrapolate
• the morning-glory on the gate
• from Petersburg in historybut its too late.
• --Adrienne Rich

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Developmental Theories

• Describe how our views of certain concepts (e.g.,
  knowledge, morality, culture, identity) evolve
  over time from unsophisticated positions to ones
  that embrace complexity
• Development is holistic but differential
• Development is described as a response to
  intellectual, social, or emotional challenges,
  where students begin to question values and
  assumptions inculcated by parents and society,
  and start to develop their own
• Development can be described in stages
• It describes students in the aggregate, not
  individually
• Development is not always forward
• Can be foreclosed or even backwards

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Theories of Intellectual Development

• Describe how approaches to knowledge develop over
  time
• Perry developmental scheme
• 464 interviews with 140 Harvard (male) students
  in 50s and 60s -- Perry (1970)
• Womens ways of knowing
• 135 women (90 students) in late 70s and 80 in
  the US -- Belenky at al. (1986)
• Gendered-patters in knowing and reasoning
• 101 students (50 males) at Miami University,
  followed for 5 years (86-91) -- Baxter-Magolda
  (1992)

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Stages of Intellectual Development
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Intellectual Development

• Dualism/Received/Absolute Knowledge
• Knowledge viewed as received Truth
• What matters factsthings are right or wrong
• Teacher has the answers
• Learning Memorizing notes for tests, getting the
  A is what counts
• Frustration Why wont the teacher answer my
  questions?

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Intellectual Development

• Transitional Knowledge
• Knowledge partially certain, partially uncertain
• What matters factsthings are right or wrong
• Teacher has the answers
• Learning Memorizing notes for tests, getting the
  A is what counts
• Frustration Why wont the teacher answer my
  questions?

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Intellectual Development

• Multiplicity/Subjective/Independent Knowledge
• Knowledge a matter of opinion
• Teacher not the authorityjust another opinion
• Learning a purely personal exercise
• Frustration How can the teacher evaluate my work?

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Intellectual Development

• Relativism/Procedural/Contextual Knowledge
• Knowledge based on evidence
• What matters supporting your argument with
  reasons
• Teacher Conversation partner, acts as a guide,
  shows the direction
• Learning depends on the contextwhat we know
  is colored by perspectives and assumptions
• Questions asked What are more sources of
  information?

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Intellectual Development

• Commitment/Constructed Knowledge
• Knowledge leads to personal actions outside the
  classroom
• What matters facts, feelings and perspectives
  and how I will act upon them
• Teacher a source among other sources
• Learning Making choices, acting on and taking
  responsibilities for these choices
• Questions asked What were the results of my
  action? What does that mean about my future
  actions principles I live by?
• Adapted from Perry (1970), Belenky et al. (1986),
  and Baxter-Magolda (1992)

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Intellectual Development by Year
Baxter-Magolda (1992)
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Social Identity Development

• Several models proposed for various social
  identities (various races/ethnicities, sexual
  orientations, disabilities etc)
• Describe trajectories which culminate with the
  establishment of a positive social identity as a
  member of a specific group
• Includes member of dominant groups

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Hardiman-Jackson Model (1992)

• Synthesizes commonalities of other models
• Naïvete
• ActiveAcceptancePassive
• ActiveResistancePassive
• Redefinition
• Internalization

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Classroom Climate

• Students work out these developmental challenges
  in the context of the classroom environment.
• Perceptions of a chilly climate affect student
  learning, critical thinking, and preparation for
  a career (Pascarella et al. 1997 Whitt et al
  1999).
• Climate is best understood as a continuum
• DeSurra Church (1994)

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What factors contribute to climate?

• Stereotypes
• Simply activating an academic stereotype for a
  minority group before a test produces a decrement
  in performance!! (Steele and Aronson 1995)
• Tone
• Syllabus studypunishing vs. encouraging
  (Ishiyama and Hartlaub 2002)
• Interactions
• Faculty-student and student-student
• Content

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Back to the Case Study

• Lets collectively analyze the case study in
  light of the information presented.
• How do the theories illuminate the story?
• What suggestions do you have for professor
  Battaglia?

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What we owe our students

• Learning environments that
• Use the tools of the disciplines to engage and
  embrace complexity
• Are explicitly inclusive in methods and content

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

• Read the two stories on the handout
• Pair up with the person next to you
• Analyze what unproductive behaviors, attitudes,
  circumstances etc are holding the students back
  (dont try to fix the problems yet)
• Share with the large group

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Metacognition Definitions

• Metacognition refers to ones knowledge
  concerning ones own cognitive processes or
  anything related to them, e.g., the
  learning-relevant properties of information or
  data. For example, I am engaging in metacognition
  if I notice that I am having more trouble
  learning A than B if it strikes me that I should
  double check C before accepting it as fact.J.
  H. Flavell (1976, p. 232).
• The process of reflecting and directing ones
  own thinking.National Research Council (2001,
  p. 78).

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7. To become self-directed learners, students
must learn to monitor and adjust their approaches
to learning
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Evidence from research on metacognition
Students dont! (Carey Flower 1989 Hinsley et
al. 1977)
Students dont! (NRC 2001 Fu Gray 2004)
Students overestimate their strengths (Dunning
2007)
Self-explanation effect
Students dont plan, or do it poorly (Chi et al.
1989 Carey et al. 1989)
But students dont do it! (Chi et al 1989)
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Research on beliefs about learning

• Quicklt-------------------------------gt Gradual
• Intelligence lt------------------------gt
  Intelligence as
  Entity Incremental
• Beliefs about learning influence effort,
  persistence, learning and performance (Schommer
  1994, Henderson Dweck, 1990)

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Metacognition can be taught

• Early research found it was EXTREMELY hard
• More recent research is a little more optimistic
• In particular
• Students can be taught to monitor their
  strategies, with greater learning gains as a
  result (Bielaczyc et al. 1995 Chi et al. 1994
  Palinscar Brown 1984)
• Students can be taught more productive beliefs
  about learning and the brain (Aronson et al.
  2002)

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What we owe our students

• Learning environments that foster
• metacognitive awareness
• a lifelong learning disposition

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Teaching strategies

• 2 in particular
• Guided self-assessment (Appendix A)
• http//www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/teach/exam
  wrappers/
• Exam Wrappers (Appendix F)
• http//www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/teach/exam
  wrappers/
• Two über-strategies
• Modeling Your Metacognitive Processes
• Scaffold Students Metacognitive Processes

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Discussion/QA

• What stands out from the 7 principles?
• What implications do they raise for your
  teaching?
• What challenges do they present to you?
• How are they relevant in the face of emergent
  technology, accountability concerns, and changing
  demographics?

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MICHELE