Learning How To Learn

Learning How to Learn 

How Faculty can Assist Students in Developing the Learning Skills and Strategies needed for College Success 

Developed by Professor Terry Doyle  Ferris State University  [email protected]

We don’t all Learn Alike • Add 17 + 56 in your head!

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We don’t all Learn Alike • A--In columns like on paper • • B—Added 10 to 56 and 7 to 66 • • C—Added 20 to 56 and subtracted 3  from 76 

• D—Rounded 56 to 60 added 17 and subtracted 4   

Reason to Teach Students How to Learn

• The meaning of knowing has shifted from being able to remember and repeat information to being able to find and use it. The goal of education is better conceived as helping students develop the intellectual tools and learning strategies needed to acquire the knowledge necessary to think productively. •

Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon 1996

Reason to Teach Students How to Learn • If our students do not understand the learning process, the chief engine of education—they are not going to learn very much in our courses no matter what we do. 

(L. Gardiner 1994 Redesigning Higher Education: Producing Dramatic Gains in Student Learning)

Reason to Teach Students How to Learn • One of the most valuable actions we could take to improve learning— and thus the productivity of both our students and our institutions— would be to teach our students how to learn. 

L. Gardiner 1994 Redesigning Higher Education: Producing Dramatic Gains in Student Learning

Definition of Learning • Learning is a change in the neuronpatterns of the brain 

(Ratey, 2002)

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Teacher’s Definition of Learning Robert Bjork, UCLA, Memory and Metamemory

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• Learning is the ability to use information after significant periods of disuse  AND • the ability to use the information to solve problems that arise in a context different • ( if only slightly) from the context in which the information was originally used.

The Brain and Learning • The key message about the brain is this: “The neurons that fire together wire together” (Hebb, 1949, Ratey 2002) •

The Brain and Learning • Meaning that the more we repeat the same actions and thoughts—the more we encourage the formation of certain connections and the more fixed the neural circuits in the brain for that

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The Brain and Learning • “Use it or lose

it” Is the corollary: if you don’t exercise brain circuits, the connections will not be adaptive and will slowly weaken and could be lost.

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Learning How to Learn includes all of the following areas.

• Ways of organizing information • • Ways of comprehending information • • Ways of recalling information

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Learning How to Learn includes all of the following areas.

• Ways of finding sources of information • • Ways of thinking about information

Ways of Organizing Information • The brain is a pattern seeking device 

(J. Ratey, User Guide to the Brain, 2002)

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• The most familiar patterns to students are: – Similarities and Differences – – Comparisons and Contrasts – – Main ideas and details

Ways of Organizing Information • Some common assumptions about the organization of information made by students are: • 

1. That information exist only in a linear form

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2. The teacher and textbooks should start at the beginning move to the end

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3. There is the important stuff and there is unimportant stuff

Ways of Organizing Information • Helping students to see the patterns that are imbedded or (sometime obvious) in the content that you teach will greatly aid students’ learning. • 

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Ways of Organizing Information For Example • Hierarchical— Biggest to Smallest 

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• Information Organized around a Pivot Concept • • • Example--Family as the center point of a social science course

Ways of Organizing Information • • • • • • • •

Other Simple Ways By topic By concept By theme By unit By time By location By importance

Tools for Organizing Information • Outlining—familiar pattern most important to least important • • Note-taking Systems/Cornell Method • • Summarizing—only the main ideas and in your own words • • Annotating- main ideas in our own words

Tools for Organizing Information • Note Cards– can be sorted into groups • • Graphic Displays/Maps—most powerful • • Time lines—linear comfort •

Memory and Organization • Information learned as part of a pattern can usually be recalled by stimulating any part of the pattern.

Memory and Organization Example • Learning about Disease would be easier if it was learned as a complete pattern 

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Name of the disease Definition Meaning of the definition Symptoms Diagnosis Prescription for treatment Assessment of treatment effectiveness

Ways of Comprehending Information. • The single most important factor in learning is the existing networks of neurons in the learner’s brain(their prior knowledge). Ascertain what they are and teach accordingly. •

(James Zull, The Art of Changing the Brain, pg93)

Ways of Helping Students to Comprehend Lecture Information. 

Best ways to help comprehension

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• By providing a meaningful framework for the lecture

• • An outline that is followed

• • A set of questions that will be answered

• • Provide analogies, metaphors and examples

Ways of Helping Students to Comprehend Lecture Information. • By use of visual images •

Ways of Helping Students to Comprehend Lecture Information.

• Display information in Cognitive Maps/Mind Maps/Concept Maps •

Ways of Helping Students to Comprehend Lecture Information.

• By placing information in a familiar context • “ His musical skills are similar to Hendrix” •

Ways of Helping Students to Comprehend Lecture Information

• By using predictions •

Ways of Helping Students to Comprehend Lecture Information

• By brainstorming to determine prior knowledge

Ways of Helping Students Comprehend Text Material • Don’t tell them everything in the textbook is important—because we know it is not. • • Give them guide questions that focus their reading. • • Establish a clear purpose for the reading. •

Ways of Helping Students Comprehend Text Material • Assign them to only read the most important information • • Teach them how to use the heading and subheading as question guides 

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Ways of Helping Students Comprehend Text Material • Teach them that the main idea is 90% of the time, the first sentence of a paragraph • • Teach them how to have a ongoing conversation with the author. •

Ways to Remember Information • Students can hold information in their working memories for up to 12 or more hours without it forming any long term memories (David Sousa, How the Brain Learns)

Ways to Remember Information • Long term memory formation requires the continual firing of the neuro networks for the information or skills being learned. • • Memory formation takes time and practice in most situations

Ways to Remember Information • Ways to help • 1. Give cumulative tests– this forces the students to relearn the information and can increase their interaction with the information by 3-5 times

Ways to Remember Information • 2. Always have students do something with the lecture material or text material you want them to learn  Examples • Journal about it—this causes reflection a key to memory • Summarize it—excellent way to find out if they understood

Ways to Remember Information • Quiz the information—this forces study • • Review in class the information • • Have students make maps showing their understanding of the information • • Check orally by questioning

Ways to Remember Information • • • • • •

Other helpful ways Mnemonic devices Music/songs Emotional significance Make it stand out/special/ unique

Ways of Finding the Best Sources of Information • • • • • •

Library Skills Data Bases Online Journals Search Engines Books Traditional Journals

Ways of Thinking about Information.

• Just recently neuroscientist have reported the discovery of mirror neurons—brain cells that work by helping humans copy other human behaviors (Vilayanur S. Ramachandran) • “Mirror neurons certainly have the potential to provide a mechanism for action understanding, imitation learning, and the simulation of other people's behavior” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_cells#Discovery)

Ways of Thinking about Information.

• One of the easiest ways to help students develop their thinking skills is by modeling the thinking process you want them to learn. • • A common students question is “ How did you do that” or “How did you get that answer” Modeling reveals the “magic “ behind your thinking

Ways of Thinking about Information.

• Showing students how to use critical thinking approaches (Richard Paul’s work is very good) 

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Application--how to use it Synthesis--combining Analysis-- finding its parts Evaluation--judging based on standards

Ways of Thinking about Information.

• Teaching a specific problem solving approach as a way of demonstrating how to look at and resolve problems that do not have a single answer • Identify the problem. • Define and represent the problem. • Explore possible solution strategies. • Act on the strategies. • Look back and evaluate Bransford and Stein (1984)

References • References 1. ATHERTON J S (2004) Teaching and Learning: Deep and Surface learning [On-line] UK: Available: http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/deepsurf.htm 2. Brooks, J. and Martin. In search of Understanding: The Case for the Constructionist Classroom, 1999 3. Bjork, R. A. (1994) Memory and Metamemory consideration in the training of human beings. In J. Metcalfe & A. Shimamura (Eds) Metacognition: Knowing about Knowing pp. 185-205. Cambridge, MA MIT Press. 4. Bloom, Benjamin S. (Ed). (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The  classification of Educational Goals. Handbook I. Cognitive Domain (pp. 201 207). New York: McKay. 

References Elizabeth Campbell Teaching Strategies to Foster "Deep" Versus "Surface Learning, Centre for University Teaching( based on the work of Christopher Knapper, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Instructional Development Centre at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario 6.Covington, M. V. (2000) Goal , theory motivation and school achievement: An Integrated review in Annual Review of Psychology ( pp 171-200) 7. Caine, Renate; Caine, Geoffrey. Education on The Edge of Possibility. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1997. 8. Dweck, Carol (2000) Self Theories: Their roles in motivation, personality and development. Philadelphia, PA Psychology Press 9. Damasio, A. R. (1994). Descartes' error: Emotion, reason, and the human brain. New York, NY, Grosset/Putnam 10. Diamond, Marion. (1988). Enriching Heredity: The Impact of the Environment on the Brain. New York, NY: Free Press. 11. Damasio AR: Fundamental Feelings. Nature 413:781, 2001. 12. Damasio AR: The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of 13.Consciousness, Harcourt Brace, New York, 1999, 2000. • 5.

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References 14 .D. O. Hebb,1949 monograph, The Organization of Behaviour 15. Sylwester, R. A Celebration of Neurons An Educator’s Guide to the Human Brain, ASCD:1995 16. Sprenger, M. Learning and Memory The Brain in Action by, ASCD, 1999 17.How People Learn by National Research Council editor John Bransford, National Research Council, 2000 18. Goldberg, E. The Executive Brain Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind ,Oxford University Press: 2001 19. Hagen, A. S. & Weinstein, C. E. (1995) Achievement goals, self-regulated learning and the role of classroom context. In P.R. Pintrich ( ed.) understanding self-regulated learning( pp. 4355) San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass 20. Kolb, D. A. (1981) 'Learning styles and disciplinary differences'. in A. W. Chickering (ed.) The Modern American College, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 21. Magnusson, J. L., & Perry, R. P. (1989). Stable and transient determinants of students' perceived control: Implications for instruction in the college classroom. Journal of Educational Psychology, 81, 362-370.  

References 22. 23. 24. 25.

Ratey, J. MD :A User’s Guide to the Brain, Pantheon Books: New York, 2001 Zull, James. The Art of Changing the Brain.2002, Stylus: Virginia Weimer, Maryellen. Learner-Centered Teaching. Jossey-Bass, 2002 Penny, W.G. Jr. (1981). Cognitive and ethical growth: the making of meaning. In A. Chickering (Ed.), The modern American college. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc. 26. Milton, O. , Pollio, H. R.,& Eison, J. ( 1986) Making sense of college grades, San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass 27. Perry, R. P., Magnusson, J. L. (1987). Effective instruction and students' perceptions of control in the college classroom: Multiple lectures effects. Journal of Educational Psychology, 79, 453-460. 28. Steinberg, L. (with Brown, B. B, & Dornbusch, S.M.)(1996) Beyond the classroom: Why school reform has failed and what parents need to do. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. 29. Stevenson, H.W., & Stigler, J. W. (1992) The learning gap: Why our schools are failing and what we can learn from Japanese and Chinese education. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster. 30. Tagg, John. The Learning Paradigm College. Anker Publishing , Bolton MA 2003 31. http://www.istpp.org/enews/2002_05_30.html Alarik Arenander and Fred Travis • • •  

Teaching Problem-Solving Skills http://ctl.unc.edu/fyc20.html 33. Sousa, David, How the Brain Learns, 2nd Ed, Corwin Press,2001 35. Gardiner. Lionel. 1994 Redesigning Higher Education: Producing Dramatic Gains in Student Learning 32.

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