Since I was a teenager, I’ve been interested in teaching and learning. My adult life has been spent as an educator in many roles and in several types of institutions. I’ve taught, led, researched, read and studied, written… and learned. One unquestionable conclusion about learning (in my opinion) is that we use one single term Read More
Category: Learning
What We Mean by “They Learned It”
In addition to having strong foundational knowledge (what we traditionally understand learning to be), we want those who have “learned it” to be able to use it critically; they should be able to judge the quality of their knowledge and the degree to which it will suffice in the current situation. We want those who Read More
Variation–It Belongs in Schools
The last generation of educators have been focused on standards. We fuss and fret over what it is students are supposed to know and we obsess over the dubious data we are given to indicate the degree to which students are or are not learning it. Standards were originally proposed as a strategy for ensuring Read More
Project-Based Learning
For many faculty (and students) anything that is not a test or a worksheet that is homework. As digital technologies have become more widely available, projects have included presentations and similar work. In the education literature, however, project-based learning has a very specific meaning. Project-based learning typically begins with a question that is defined by Read More
On Problem-Based Learning
Most scholars and practitioners trace the origins of problem-based learning to changes in medical school teaching in the 1960’s. At the time, traditional lecture was deemed insufficient to prepare physicians for the field which was characterized by rapidly expanding field of knowledge and the emergence of new medical technologies. It was reasoned physicians’ capacity to Read More
On Instructional Planning
All teachers plan. Those who are following the Standard Model of Education are likely to focus on content when they plan; they want to be sure they tell students everything they must tell them to cover all of the topics in the curriculum. They will also plan for how to best tell students what they Read More
Elevator Pitch: Statistical Learning
Similar to conditioning is learning that results when the learner is exposed to consistent patterns for many, many repetitions; statistical learning is understood to be a largely unconscious process. One of the best illustrations of statistical learning in informal setting s how humans learn language. We learn how to form sentences and the rules of Read More
Elevator Pitch: Deeper Learning & Foundational Learning
As students experience deeper learning, they frame, understand, and attempt to solve problems as they interact with foundational knowledge. This facilitates their ability to remember what they learned, and they also become more skilled at assessing what they know and what they do not know. Advocates for deeper learning differentiate the use of foundational knowledge Read More
Elevator Pitch on Cognitive Scaffolding
Some scaffolds are introduced to share the cognitive load or to draw attention to specific aspects of the work. Reiser & Tabak (2014) suggest scaffolding can be introduced to facilitate thinking in several ways. Especially when dealing with complex situations early in their studies, students may focus on irrelevant aspects of the problem or they Read More
On Collaboration in Learning
For several decades, cognitive scientists and anthropologists have been studying two opposing hypotheses to explain of the anatomical and behavioral differences between the brains of humans and the brains of other primates. According the social brain hypothesis, social factors are the primary force driving the development of the human brain; according to the ecological brain Read More