How Learning Happens: Seminal Works in Educational Psychology and What They Mean in Practice
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How Learning Happens: Seminal Works in Educational Psychology and What They Mean in Practice
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This misunderstanding of what actually constitutes learning is probably the biggest blind spot in modern education. Teachers often want to measure success by seeing if pupils are able to repeat important points there and then, in the lesson. But ascertaining if learning has actually taken place is not easy. The real question should be, will this knowledge make it through to the student’s long term memory? This is something we all know. Nobody can succeed in today’s society without being able to juggle a host of simultaneous demands and tasks. Sharp, A. (2012). Humanistic approaches to learning. In N.M. Seel (Ed.), Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer.
Think of some of your own learning experiences, whether they were in a traditional classroom, through professional development training, or related to personal interests, such as dance or photography lessons. Try to identify a few examples of behaviorism from those experiences and reflect on the following questions: Kuhlthau, C. C. (1990). The information search process: From theory to practice. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 31(1), 72-75. https://doi.org/10.2307/40323730 How Learning Happens introduces 28 giants of educational research and their findings on how we learn and what we need to learn effectively, efficiently, and enjoyably. Many of these works have inspired researchers and teachers all around the world and have left a mark on how we teach today. Because humanists see people as autonomous beings, they believe that learning should be self-directed, meaning students should have some choice in what and how they learn. Humanistic education is often connected with student-centered pedagogical approaches such as differentiated curricula, self-paced learning, and discovery learning (Lucas, 1996). Self-directed learning can take many forms, but it generally means that the instructor acts as a guide, and learners are given the freedom to take responsibility for their own learning. Teachers will provide the materials and opportunities for learning, but students will engage with the learning on their own terms. In a library classroom, we can give students choices about the topics they will research or offer learners different types of activities to practice skills and demonstrate what they have learned. Learning styles" are not supported by research. However, the dual coding theory (also called the multimedia principle) is, which says that using multiple modalities (say, visual along with auditory) increases learning. However, the modalities have be complementary, so this doesn't mean reading your PowerPoint slides out loud. There's a special place in hell for those people.The papers are organized into themed sections, which was a good idea. I think there was a little bit of a missed opportunity here to synthesize papers on a particular topic in a more developed introduction or conclusion to each section. Learning is the change in knowledge, behavior, or understanding that occurs when people make connections between new information and their existing knowledge. Various theories attempt to describe the factors that enable the learning process. As noted above, andragogy overlaps with other theories such as humanism and constructivism, and some of the principles of andragogy, like transparency, would benefit all learners. Still, this framework is useful in reminding instructors that adult learners likely have different priorities and motivations, and thus some differences in classroom approach might be warranted. Motivation Why? Because the human brain cannot multitask. If we define multitasking as “carrying out two or more conscious thought processes at the same time, with no loss of speed or accuracy”, then no-one has ever been able to multitask. We were impressed how comprehensive and rigorous each section is in its research, yet still manages to be highly accessible too. For example, each section starts with the heading of the paper followed by a key quote from the research. Each section also provides a full reference list, as well as suggested readings and links in case you wanted to delve deeper into the topic. We think that the use of QR codes here is genius too! Usability
The learning theories outlined above discuss various cognitive processes involved in learning, as well as some of the motivators and conditions that facilitate learning. While these theories attempt to describe how people learn, it is important to note that individuals are not born ready to engage in all of these processes at once, nor do they necessarily all engage in the same processes at the same time. Rather, more complex processes develop over time as people experience the world and as their brain matures. In addition to studying how people learn, some theorists have also proposed theories or frameworks to describe developmental stages, or the various points in human development when different cognitive processes are enabled, and different kinds of learning can occur. Humanism centers the individual person as the subject and recognizes learners as whole beings with emotional and affective states that accompany their cognitive development. Recognizing the role of students’ emotions means understanding how those emotions impact learning. Student anxiety, say around a test or a research paper, can interfere with the cognitive processes necessary to be successful. Empathetic teachers recognize and try to understand students’ emotional states, taking steps to alleviate negative emotions that might detract from learning by creating a supportive learning environment.Certain understandings follow from Knowles’ assumptions that we can use to guide our practice with adult learners. To begin with, we should recognize and respect adults’ tendency to be self-motivated and self-directed learners. After all, in most states, school attendance is compulsory up to a certain age, and relatively strict curriculum standards are set by each state, meaning that children have little choice about attending school in some form or about what content they learn. At least in theory, adults have a choice about whether to attend college or engage in other kinds of learning opportunities such as workshops and professional development and continuing education courses. Presumably, adults are motivated to pursue these opportunities for a specific reason, whether out of personal curiosity, to advance in their careers, or to gain a new skill. These adult learners will likely have opinions and ideas about what they want to learn and perhaps even how they want to engage with the content, so Knowles suggests we provide adult learners with choices and opportunities for input to help shape the curriculum. This book looks great and strikes a well-structured balance between text and useful figures throughout. This approach really helps the reader to digest all of the information that it contains. Roy, L., & Novotny, E. (2000). How do we learn? Contributions of learning theory to reference services and library instruction. Reference Librarian, 33(69/70), 129-139. https://doi.org/10.1300/J120v33n69_13 Megan Dixon is headteacher (acting) at Sandbach Primary Academy, and director of English and co-director at Aspirer Research School. She tweets @DamsonEd Active learning, which was covered positively in an earlier chapter, is also a cognitivist approach, as are some of the social learning techniques mentioned.
Keeping this idea of learning across theories in mind, we can sum up the key takeaways from this chapter: In contrast with much research in education, psychological research aims to identify effects that hold true in every context. Because cognitivists view memory and recall as the key to learning, they are interested in the processes and conditions that enhance memory and recall. According to cognitive psychology research, traditional methods of study, including rereading texts and drilling practice, or the repetition of terms and concepts, are not effective for committing information to memory (Brown et al., 2014). Rather, cognitivists assert that activities that require learners to recall information from memory, sometimes referred to as “retrieval practice,” lead to better memory and ultimately better learning. For example, they suggest that language learners use flash cards to practice vocabulary words, rather than writing the words out over and over or reading and rereading a list of words, because the flash cards force the learner to recall information from memory. While some controversy exists over whether andragogy really constitutes a theory per se or is more a set of guiding principles or best practices, the assumptions provide helpful guidance to instructors not just in how they organize content but also in how they frame the lesson and its purposes. Based on these assumptions, we can take certain steps to set an appropriate environment for adult education (Bartle, 2019):Choose one of the learning theories outlined in this chapter and design a brief lesson to teach Boolean operators from the perspective of that theory. Concentrate less on what you would teach but rather on how you would teach it in keeping with the chosen theory:
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