How people learn, exploring the key findings from Chapter 1 of "How People Learn." Plus, implications for teaching including peer instruction. A weekly workshop by the Center for Teaching Development at UCSD.

1. slides and resources: ctd.ucsd.edu/2012/11/how-people-learn/
HOW PEOPLE LEARN
Peter Newbury
Center for Teaching Development,
University of California, San Diego
pnewbury@ucsd.edu
@polarisdotca
#ctducsd

2. 2

3. Theories of Learning
3
Many lectures based in transmissionist learning
model.

4. Scientifically Outdated,
4
Culturally a Known Failure

5. How People Learn1
5
 People actively construct their own knowledge
 Individual
 Based in pre-existing understanding
 Biologically, learning changes the brain
 Proteinsform, neurons fire
 Technology allowing us to observe learning as it
happens (fMRIs)
[1] Committee on Developments in the Science of Learning with additional material from
the Committee on Learning Research and Educational Practice, National Research
Council. "1 Learning: From Speculation to Science." How People Learn: Brain, Mind,
Experience, and School: Expanded Edition. Washington, DC: The National Academies
Press, 2000.

6. How People Learn
6
Learning is not about what
professors do.
It’s about what students do!

7. How People Learn
7
Learning is not about what
professors do.
It’s about what students do!
Corollary: Students will not
learn (just) by listening to the
professor explain

8. Let’s have a learning
8
experience…

9. New Coding System
9
Please memorize this code:
1= 4= 7=
2= 5= 8=
3= 6= 9=
0=

10. Test
10
What is this number?

11. New Coding System
11
Here’s the structure of the code:
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
0=

12. Test
12
What is this number?

13. Constructivism
13
 All new learning is based in pre-existing
knowledge that you hold.
 You store things in long term memory through a
set of connections that are made with previous
existing memories.
 Higher-level learning = brain development
T.J. Shors, “Saving New Brain Cells”
Sci. Amer. 300, 46-54 (March 2009).

14. Another Example of
14
Constructivism:
Put up your hand when you know what this
means:
NBCNRAFBIUSAIRS

15. Key Finding 1
15
Students come to the classroom with
preconceptions about how the world works. If their
initial understanding is not engaged, they may fail
to grasp the new concepts and information that
are taught, or they may learn them for the
purposes of a test but revert to their
preconceptions outside of the classroom.
How People Learn – Chapter 1, p 14.

16. How do you think undergrad
students feel about learning your
16
field?
A B C D E
Strongly Strongly
Disagree Agree
1. To learn [your field], I only need to memorize
facts and definitions.

17. How do you think undergrad
students feel about learning your
17
field?
A B C D E
Strongly Strongly
Disagree Agree
1. To learn [your field], I only need to memorize
facts and definitions.
2. Knowledge in [your field] consists of many
disconnected topics.

18. Key Finding 2
18
To develop competence in an area of inquiry,
students must:
 have a deep foundation of factual knowledge,
 understand facts and ideas in the context of a
conceptual framework, and
 organize knowledge in ways that facilitate
retrieval and application.
How People Learn – Chapter 1, p 16.

19. Key Finding 3
19
A “metacognitive” approach to instruction can help
students learn to take control of their own learning
by defining learning goals and monitoring their
progress in achieving them.
How People Learn – Chapter 1, p 18.

20. Please break into groups of 3...
20
Each set of cards has
 3 Key Findings
 3 Implications for Teaching
 3 Designing Classroom Environments
TASK: For each Key Finding, match one
Implication for Teaching and one Designing
Classroom Environment.

21. 21

22. 22
Implications for Instructors
and Teaching Assistants

23. Traditional (lecture) class
23
Lecture Textbook Homework Exam
First Read Hard Stuff See if You Show Knowledge
Exposure Know Hard Stuff Mastery
 students get very little opportunity for “expert”
feedback

24. Constructivist class
24
Homework Lecture Lab Exam
Q
U
I
Z
First Exposure: Learn Hard Stuff: Practice
Show Knowledge
With resources and With teacher and Knowledge
Mastery
Feedback discussion Mastery
 Everyone constructs their own understanding:
I can’t dump understanding into your brain.
To learn, YOU must actively work with a problem
and construct your own understanding of it.
 Greater opportunity for expert feedback

25. When you are the instructor,
25
try…
Peer Instruction (aka “clickers”)
 One of most-studied active learning
techniques for improving learning
 Works in the large and small lecture halls
 Focuses students on their role and
responsibility as the learner

26. Typical Peer Instruction
26
Episode
Alternating with 5-10 minute “mini-lectures”,
1. Instructor poses a conceptually-challenging
multiple-choice question.
2. Students think about question on their own.
3. Students vote for an answer using clickers,
coloured cards, ABCD voting cards,...
4. The instructor reacts, based on the
distribution of votes.

27. Reacting to their votes
27
When you know the first-vote distribution (but the
students don’t) you have many options:
 confirm and move on
 ask students to discuss with their peers, vote
again
 ask students to advocate for the choices they
made, vote again
 check that the question made sense
 eliminate one or more choices before re-
voting
 and more...

28. In effective peer instruction
28
 students teach each other immediately,
students learn
while they may still hold or remember
and practice
their novice misconceptions
how to think,
 students discuss the concepts in theircommunicate
own language like experts
 the instructor finds out what the students know
(and don’t know) and reacts

29. Effective peer instruction
29
requires
1. identifying key concepts,
misconceptions before
2. creating multiple-choice questions that class
require deeper thinking and learning
3. facilitating peer instruction episodes during
that spark student discussion class
4. resolving the misconceptions

30. Clicker Question
30
The molecules making up the dry mass of wood
that forms during the growth of a tree largely come
from
a) sunlight.
b) the air.
c) the seed.
d) the soil.
Veritasium (Derek Muller)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KZb2_vcNTg
Question credit: Bill Wood

31. Active Learning Techniques for
31
Discussion Sections
 Think, Pair Share or peer instruction with
clickers
 One-Minute papers: What is most confusing
right now? (“muddiest point”)
 Problem Solving in Groups
 Provide scaffold/structure
 Ask what steps would you take to solve
problem
(versus actually solving them)
 Critique or “fix” sample work/problem
 overhead slides, document cameras, board?

32. Discussion Sections
32
Learning is not about what TAs explain.
It’s about what students understand!

33. Discussion Sections
33
Learning is not about what TAs explain.
It’s about what students understand!
Corollary 1: Students will not understand
(just) by watching the TA solve problems.

34. Discussion Sections
34
Learning is not about what TAs explain.
It’s about what students understand!
Corollary 1: Students will not understand
(just) by watching the TA solve problems.
Corollary 2: BE LESS HELPFUL.

35. But really ask yourself…
35
Who is doing the work?
You or the students?

36. slides and resources: ctd.ucsd.edu/2012/11/how-people-learn/
HOW PEOPLE LEARN
Peter Newbury
Center for Teaching Development,
University of California, San Diego
pnewbury@ucsd.edu
@polarisdotca
#ctducsd