How (you can help) People Learn Peter Newbury Center for Teaching Development, UCSD ctd.ucsd.edu 23 October 2013

1. What do you notice?
:-) by victor_nuno on flickr CC-BY-NC
What do you wonder?

2. slides and resources: ctd.ucsd.edu/programs/fall-2013-weekly-workshops/
CTD WEEKLY WORKSHOPS:
HOW PEOPLE LEARN
Peter Newbury
Center for Teaching Development,
University of California, San Diego
pnewbury@ucsd.edu
@polarisdotca
ctd.ucsd.edu
#ctducsd
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
12:00 – 12:50 pm Center Hall, Room 316

3. 3
How People Learn

4. Survey
Which of these do you associate with a typical
university lecture?
A) listening
B) absorbing
C) note-taking
D) learning
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How People Learn

5. The traditional lecture is based on the
transmissionist learning model
(Image by um.dentistry on flickr CC)
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How People Learn

6. Let’s have a learning experience…
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How People Learn

7. Here is an important number system.
Please learn it.
1=
7=
2=
5=
8=
3=
7
4=
6=
9=
How People Learn

8. Test
What is this number?
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9. Scientifically Outdated, a Known Failure
We must abandon the tabula rasa
“blank slate” and “students as
empty vessels” models of teaching
and learning.
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10. New Number System
Here’s the structure of the “tic-tac-toe” code:
1
5
6
7
How People Learn
3
4
10
2
8
9

11. Test
What is this number?
11
How People Learn

12. Constructivist theory of learning
New learning is built on and from existing knowledge.
You store things in long term memory
through a set of connections that are
made with previous existing memories.
Creating memories (aka learning) involves
having neurons fire and neurons link up in
networks or patterns.
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How People Learn
(Images by Rebecca-Lee on flickr CC)

13. How People Learn
National Research Council (2000).
How People Learn: Brain, Mind,
Experience, and School: Expanded
Edition. J.D. Bransford, A.L Brown
& R.R. Cocking (Eds.), Washington,
DC: The National Academies
Press.
Available for free as PDF
www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=9853
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How People Learn

14. Key Finding 1
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, p 14.)
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How People Learn

15. Key Finding 2
To develop competence in an area, students must:
a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge,
b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a
conceptual framework, and
c) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate
retrieval and application.
(How People Learn, p 16.)
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How People Learn

16. Key Finding 3
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, p 18.)
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How People Learn

17. Aside: metacognition
Metacognition refers to one’s knowledge concerning one’s
own cognitive processes or anything related to them.
For example, I am engaging
in metacognition if I notice
that I am having more
trouble learning A than B.
([3], [4])
meta cognition
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How People Learn

18. Key Finding 3
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, p 18.)
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How People Learn

19. Please break into groups of 3-4...
Each set of cards has
 3 Key Findings
 3 Implications for Teaching
 3 Designing Classroom Environments
TASK: Sort your cards into 3 groups of 3 cards by
matching the Implication for Teaching and Classroom
Environment to each Key Finding:
Designing
Classroom
Environment
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20. 20
How People Learn

21. Key Finding 1
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, p 14.)
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How People Learn

22. Implications for Teaching 1
Teachers must draw out and work with the preexisting
understandings that their students bring with them.
(How People Learn, p 19.)
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How People Learn

23. Transmissionist
Please memorize this code:
Constructivist
2=
5=
3=
6=
How People Learn
5
6
8
9
7=
8=
9=
unsupported, unfamiliar content
23
3
7
4=
2
4
1=
1
built on pre-existing
knowledge
(tic-tac-toe board)

24. Classroom Environments 1
Schools and classrooms must be learner centered.
(How People Learn, p 23.)
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25. Learning requires interaction [2]
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26. Learning requires interaction [2]
Learning gain:
100%
0.50
0
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% of class time
NOT lecturing
pre-test
post-test

27. Learning requires interaction [2]
1
3
27
2
4
How People Learn

28. Key Finding 2
To develop competence in an area, students must:
a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge,
b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a
conceptual framework, and
c) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate
retrieval and application.
(How People Learn, p 16.)
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How People Learn

29. 29
How People Learn

30. Implications for Teaching 2
Teachers must teach some subject matter in depth,
providing many examples in which the same concept is
at work and providing a firm foundation of factual
knowledge.
(How People Learn, p 20.)
Classroom Environments 2
To provide a knowledge-centered environment, attention
must be given to what is taught (information, subject
matter), why it is taught (understanding), and what
competence or mastery looks like.
(How People Learn, p 24.)
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How People Learn

31. Why Your Students Don’t Understand You
Expert brains differ from novice brains because novices:
 lack rich, networked connections, cannot make
inferences, cannot reliably retrieve information
 have preconceptions that distract, confuse, impede
 lack automization, resulting in cognitive overload
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How People Learn

32. Key Finding 3
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, p 18.)
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How People Learn

33. Implications for Teaching 3
The teaching of metacognitive skills should be
integrated into the curriculum in a variety of subject
(How People Learn, p 21.)
areas.
Classroom Environments 3
Formative assessments — ongoing assessments designed
to make students’ thinking visible to both teachers and
(How People Learn, p 24.)
students — are essential.
Instructors need to provide opportunities for
students to practice being metacognitive: an
internal dialogue about their own thinking
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How People Learn

34. traditional lecture
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student-centered instruction

35. peer instruction with clickers
interactive demonstrations
What do you notice?
What do you wonder?
surveys of opinions
reading quizzes
worksheets
discussions
videos
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How People Learn
student-centered instruction

36. Clicker question
Melt chocolate over low heat. Remove the chocolate
from the heat. What will happen to the chocolate?
A) It will condense.
B) It will evaporate.
C) It will freeze.
(Question: Sujatha Raghu from Braincandy via LearningCatalytics)
(Image: CIM9926 by number657 on flickr CC)
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How People Learn

37. Typical Episode of Peer Instruction (PI)
1. Instructor poses a conceptually-challenging
multiple-choice question.
2. Students think about question on their own and vote
using clickers, colored ABCD cards, smartphones,…
3. The instructor asks students to turn to their neighbors
and “convince them you’re right.”
4. After that “peer instruction”, the students vote again
and the instructor leads a class-wide discussion
concluding with why the right answer(s) is right and
the wrong answers are wrong.
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How People Learn

38. In effective peer instruction
 students teach each other while
they may still hold or remember
their novice preconceptions
 students discuss the concepts in their
own (novice) language
students learn
and practice
how to think,
communicate
like experts
 each student finds out what s/he does(n’t) know
 the instructor finds out what the students know (and
don’t know) and reacts, building on their initial
understanding and preconceptions.
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How People Learn

39. To learn more about peer instruction
Upcoming CTD Teaching and Learning Workshop:
Nov 13 Writing Good Clicker Questions: A good episode of
peer instruction requires a good question. In this session,
we’ll see a variety of questions and contrast good vs
bad questions, that you can adapt to your discipline.
To register, look for the
Fall 2013
Teaching and Learning Workshops
at ctd.ucsd.edu
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How People Learn

40. How People Learn
Learning is not about what the
instructor does. It’s about what
students do for themselves.
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41. How People Learn
Learning is not about what the
instructor does. It’s about what
students do for themselves.
Students will not learn (just) by
listening to the instructor explain.
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How People Learn

42. How People Learn
Learning is not about what the
instructor does. It’s about what
students do for themselves.
Students will not learn (just) by
listening to the instructor explain.
BE LESS HELPFUL
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How People Learn

43. If in doubt, ask yourself…
Who is doing the work,
you or the students?
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How People Learn

44. slides and resources: ctd.ucsd.edu/programs/fall-2013-weekly-workshops/
CTD WEEKLY WORKSHOPS:
HOW PEOPLE LEARN
Peter Newbury
Center for Teaching Development,
University of California, San Diego
pnewbury@ucsd.edu
@polarisdotca
ctd.ucsd.edu
#ctducsd
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
12:00 – 12:50 pm Center Hall, Room 316

45. References
1.
2.
3.
4.
45
National Research Council (2000). How People Learn: Brain, Mind,
Experience, and School: Expanded Edition. J.D. Bransford, A.L Brown
& R.R. Cocking (Eds.),Washington, DC: The National Academies
Press.
Prather, E.E, Rudolph, A.L., Brissenden, G., & Schlingman, W.M.
(2009). A national study assessing the teaching and learning of
introductory astronomy. Part I. The effect of interactive instruction.
Am. J. Phys. 77, 4, 320-330.
Flavell, J. H. (1976). Metacognitive aspects of problem solving. In
L. B. Resnick (Ed.), The nature of intelligence (pp.231-236).
Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Brame, C. (2013) Thinking about metacognition. [blog] January,
2013, Available at: http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/2013/01/thinkingabout-metacognition/ [Accessed: 14 Jan 2013].
How People Learn