pedagogy

Don't just have students focus on *what* they should be learning, but also *how.*

Great video from @edutopia to explain what that looks like: pic.twitter.com/iP3TAbh4Ez

— FourPoint Education Partners (@FourPoint_Ed) July 15, 2019

Knowing How to Study Can Mean the Difference Between Success and Failure for First-Generation Students. Here’s How Instructors Can Help. [McMurtrie]

On 07/15/2019, in chemistry, colleges, community colleges, higher education, ideas, law schools, memory, metacognition / metacognitive skills, pedagogy, productivity / tips and tricks, society, STEAM-related, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, universities, by Daniel Christian

Knowing How to Study Can Mean the Difference Between Success and Failure for First-Generation Students. Here’s How Instructors Can Help. — from chronicle.com by Beth McMurtrie

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

Some of the mistakes first-gen students make are common to undergraduates: They focus on re-reading and memorizing to absorb what they’re learning, rather than summarizing material in their own words, or quizzing themselves, which are more effective techniques. But many also carry the burden of imposter syndrome – feeling like they don’t belong in college – or simply don’t know how college works. That, says Horowitz, discourages them from seeking out their professors during office hours or heading to the tutoring center for help. As a result they may spin their wheels even more furiously as they fall behind.
…
Horowitz, who now works at Bard High School Early College Newark as a faculty member in chemistry, reached out to me after I wrote about the importance of helping undergraduates develop the metacognitive skills necessary to become effective learners. It turns out, she’s written a book about some of those strategies, tailored to the needs of first-generation students.

Horowitz designed the book to appeal to a mass audience of STEM faculty. “The most effective person to tell students how to study for a particular course is the instructor,” she says. “They can easily put little pointers in their classroom about how students should be studying. I believe that could be revolutionary for first-generation college students.”

Horowitz suggests putting study tips into the syllabus and then reviewing them in class.
…
Explain how to use problem sets effectively.
…
In reading-oriented classes, she recommends that, after reading each chapter, students write a single paragraph that synthesizes and summarizes the material. And on tests she often lists the amount of time students should spend on each problem.
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Reach out, she says. It will pay off for both of you.

“For most of them it’s a big sense of relief that they’re having a conversation with you,” she says. “Most have been suffering in silence for a long time.”

Reflections on “Choice -> Ownership -> Empowerment -> Deeper Learning” [Juliani]

On 06/21/2019, in 21st century, attention, curriculum, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, drama/theater, education, education reform, engagement / engaging students, K-12 related, more voice more choice more control, pedagogy, society, teachers, teaching & learning, youth, by Daniel Christian

Choice -> Ownership -> Empowerment -> Deeper Learning — from AJ Juliani

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Students continue to fall into the same trap year after year with traditional schooling. They rarely have a chance to choose their learning path in school, and routinely treat school like a “job” instead of the most valuable learning experience they will ever have…

By the time students get to high school, over 83% are stressed out, [and] 67% say they are bored half the time, and many learn to “play the game of school” worrying about what will happen to them if they do not get a particular grade and get into a specific college.

What we end up with are students who are never given a chance to explore their own interests in school, who end up confused about what they want to do with their future because they continue to march down a path that has been chosen for them for 12 years. Many of these students end up getting jobs in fields they think are “safe” or “practical” but don’t have a personal connection or interest to the work they are doing.

Choice in what content our students consume, what activities they take on in and out of school, what assessments they take, and choice in their purpose for learning.

Choice drives student ownership of their learning, which kicks engagement into high-gear, and ultimately leads to learning that is intrinsic and powerful and deep.

From DSC:
Our son has become a game-player. He knows just what he needs to get that A. No more, nor less. He doesn’t care about learning. And he is tired of getting information crammed down his throat. Information he doesn’t care about…at all. Since 10th grade, he has become disengaged.

Next year (for his senior year of H.S.), he is heading to studying what he wants to study — acting. Although it will be very difficult, I think he will blossom. He will become fully engaged…because he’s doing what he chooses to do.

Some resources re: the flipped classroom

On 06/12/2019, in blended learning, digital learning, education, education technology, engagement / engaging students, flipping -- inverted learning, higher education, ideas, innovation, K-12 related, pedagogy, personalized/customized learning, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, universities, by Daniel Christian

The definition of a flipped classroom, according to the Flipped Classroom Global Initiative:

Flipped Learning is a framework that enables educators to reach every student. The Flipped approach inverts the traditional classroom model by introducing course concepts before class, allowing educators to use class time to guide each student through active, practical, innovative applications of the course principles.

Some resources regarding the flipped classroom:

The Flipped Learning Global Initiative
College students’ cognitive learning outcomes in flipped classroom instruction: a meta-analysis of the empirical literature
Robert Talbert, a professor at GVSU — his blog and his Twitter account
- Example posting: How much research has been done on flipped learning? Update for 2019

Four research-based strategies every teacher should be using [Gonzalez]

On 06/10/2019, in adjunct faculty, assessment, colleges, community colleges, education, faculty, higher education, ideas, learning theories, memory, metacognition / metacognitive skills, online learning, pedagogy, research, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, by Daniel Christian

Four research-based strategies every teacher should be using — from cultofpedagogy.com by Jennifer Gonzalez

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

[Per Jennifer] Cognitive scientist Pooja Agarwal and K-12 teacher Patrice Bain have collaborated on a new book, Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning. In the book, they go into detail about what it looks like when we actually apply four research-based “Power Tools” in the classroom: retrieval practice, spaced practice, interleaving, and feedback-driven metacognition—which is one we haven’t covered at all on this podcast. Today I’m going to talk with Pooja and Patrice about these strategies, the research behind why they work, and some ways you can start using them right away in your instruction.

Instead of assigning homework to give students practice with course material, give mini-quizzes at the start of each class that ask 3-5 questions about the prior day’s learning. These should either receive no grades or be given a very low point value, because the goal of these is to reinforce the learning, not measure or grade student work.

In her social studies classroom, Bain used to assign homework most nights, and found that not only was she spending up to two hours a night grading it, it also was doing nothing to help students retain information.

“Belief in Learning Styles Myth May Be Detrimental” [APA] + 5 other items on the lack of support for learning styles

On 06/03/2019, in active learning, adjunct faculty, assessment, blended learning, colleges, community colleges, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, education, education reform, higher education, ideas, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, learning preferences, learning theories, lifelong learning, love of learning, more voice more choice more control, motivation, multimedia, online learning, passions, pedagogy, personalized/customized learning, psychology, research, society, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, training / L&D, universities, youth, by Daniel Christian

Belief in Learning Styles Myth May Be Detrimental — from apa.org
Many people believe learning styles predict academic and career success, study finds

Excerpts:

WASHINGTON — Many people, including educators, believe learning styles are set at birth and predict both academic and career success even though there is no scientific evidence to support this common myth, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.
…
Previous surveys in the United States and other industrialized countries across the world have shown that 80% to 95% of people believe in learning styles. It’s difficult to say how that myth became so widespread, Nancekivell said.

Also see:

Maybe They’re Born With It, or Maybe It’s Experience: Toward a Deeper Understanding of the Learning Style Myth — from apa.org by Shaylene E. Nancekivell, Priti Shah, and Susan A. Gelman
.
Learning Styles are NOT an Effective Guide for Learning Design — from debunker.club
Excerpt:
The strength of evidence against the use of learning styles is very strong. To put it simply, using learning styles to design or deploy learning is not likely to lead to improved learning effectiveness. While it may be true that learners have different learning preferences, those preference are not likely to be a good guide for learning. The bottom line is that when we design learning, there are far better heuristics to use than learning styles.
.
Learning styles: Worth our time? — from Cathy Moore
.
Learning Styles Debunked: There is No Evidence Supporting Auditory and Visual Learning, Psychologists Say — from psychologicalscience.org
.
Learning Styles FAQ — by Daniel Willingham
Excerpt:
How can you not believe that that people learn differently? Isn’t it obvious?
People do learn differently, but I think it is very important to say exactly how they learn differently, and focus our attention on those differences that really matter. If learning styles were obviously right it would be easy to observe evidence for them in experiments. Yet there is no supporting evidence. There are differences among kids that both seem obvious to us and for which evidence is easily obtained in experiments, e.g., that people differ in their interests, that students vary in how much they think of schoolwork as part of their identity (“I’m the kind of kid who works hard in school”) and that kids differ in what they already know at the start of a lesson. All three of these have sizable, easily observed effects on learning. I think that often when people believe that they observe obvious evidence for learning styles, they are mistaking it for ability.

From DSC:
While I’ve heard and read through the years that there isn’t support for learning styles — and I’ve come to adopt that perspective as well due to what I’ve read, such as the items listed above — I do think that each of us has our learning preferences (as the debunker club mentioned as well). That is, how we prefer to learn about a new subject:

Some people like to read the manual.
Others never pick up the manual…they prefer to use the trial and error / hands-on method.
Some people prefer to listen to audio books.
Others prefer to watch videos.
Others like to read about a new topic.
Others like to study in a very quiet place — while others prefer some background noise.
Some people love to learn in a 100% online-based mode…some people hate it, and that delivery method doesn’t work as well for them.

Along these lines…in my mind, offering learning in multiple media and in multiple ways maximizes the enjoyment of learning by a group of people. And now that we’re all into lifelong learning, the enjoyment of learning has notched waaay up in importance in my book. The more we enjoy learning, the more we enjoy life (and vice versa).

In fact, I’m getting closer to the point of putting enjoyment of learning over grades in terms of importance. Grades are a way to compare people/school systems/colleges/universities/etcetera…they are the currency of our current systems…and they are used to “incentivize” students. But such systems and methods often produce game players, not learners.

Recommended books from RetrievalPractice.org
Check out our recommended books and reports that describe research on the science of learning and provide practical tips for classroom teaching.

.

…plus several others

Flipped Learning 3.0 [flr.flglobal.org]

On 05/15/2019, in blended learning, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, creativity, digital learning, education technology, face-to-face, flipping -- inverted learning, higher education, hybrid learning, K-12 related, law schools, pedagogy, teachers, teaching & learning, universities, by Daniel Christian

5 Research-Backed Studying Techniques — from edutopia.org by Edward Kang
Teachers can guide students to avoid ineffective studying habits in favor of ones that will increase their learning outcomes.

Excerpts:

Ineffective techniques include:

Studying for long periods of time
Studying a single subject for a long period of time and repeating phrases over and over to memorize them (known as massed practice)
Reviewing one topic repeatedly before moving onto another topic (blocked practice)
Reading and rereading a text
Highlighting or underlining important concepts in a text and then reviewing
Reviewing notes

The book Make It Stick identifies several research-proven studying techniques.

Pre-test
Spaced practice
Self-quizzing
Interleaving practice
Paraphrasing and reflecting

Pastors, what do you think of these ideas? [Christian]

On 05/12/2019, in assessment, assistive technologies, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, experimentation, faith, ideas, learning theories, memory, pedagogy, society, teaching & learning, tools, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Pastors, what do you think of these ideas?

Summarize your key points and put them up on slides at the end of your sermons (and/or at discussion groups after service)
Summarize your key points and post them to the churches’ websites — including links to resources that you referenced in your sermons (books, devotions, other)
Have an app that folks in your congregation could complete during the sermon (like “fill in the blanks” / missing words or phrases). Or, if you’d prefer that your congregation not have their smartphones out, perhaps you could provide “quizzes” mid-week to assist in information recall (i.e., spaced repetition). That is, people would need to try to fill in the missing phrases and/or words mid-week. Answers would be immediately available if someone asked for them.

Along these lines…should there be more classes in seminary on learning theories and on pedagogy? Hmmm….an interesting thought.

With flip of a giant ceremonial switch, CMU starts effort to energize ‘learning engineering’ — from edsurge.com by Jeff Young

Excerpt:

Pittsburgh, PA—For a moment this week, the provost of Carnegie Mellon University looked a bit like a game show host as he grabbed the lever of an oversized switch and called on an audience to join him in a countdown—“5, 4, 3, 2, 1.” Then, he toggled the cardboard lever and declared open a new website, one that gave away software that took more than $100 million in grant funding to develop.

It was an unusually theatrical moment for a gathering to announce the release of software tools to help professors improve their teaching. But the organizers were playfully acknowledging the size of their project’s ambition—which they hope will spark a more data-driven and experimental approach to teaching at colleges around the country. And the flair was fitting, since success will end up being based not so much on how well the software works, but on how well its creators can attract momentum to their cause—and change the culture of the academic profession to make teaching an area professors are excited to make discoveries around.
…
Plenty of others have tried in the past to bring the principles of engineering to college teaching, though with limited success. In fact, the effort at Carnegie Mellon is named for Herbert Simon, a longtime professor at Carnegie Mellon who won a Nobel Prize in economics and devoted his energy and academic capital to trying to spread his ideas about turning teaching from a solo sport to a team effort. But it didn’t catch on widely in his lifetime.

From DSC:

…and devoted his energy and academic capital to trying to spread his ideas about turning teaching from a solo sport to a team effort. But it didn’t catch on widely in his lifetime.

Why do you supposed getting faculty members to use a team-based approach is so difficult? We really need to look at that, especially if institutions of higher education are going to keep increasing how much it costs to take courses at their schools — and all the while placing the emphasis on research…not teaching.

Like using an indexing fund in investing — vs. a hand-picked set of stocks — a team-based approach will be more effective the majority of the time. How can it not? There are simply too many skillsets/interests needed, especially as teaching and learning continues to move more online.

“Learning by doing appears to have a 6x better [outcome] than learning by watching or reading,” Koedinger said. He and his colleagues published an academic paper with the finding called “Learning is Not a Spectator Sport.”

Also see:

Three ways to use video feedback to enhance student engagement — from scholarlyteacher.com by Christopher Penna

Excerpt:

An innovative approach for providing feedback on student work in a variety of disciplines is the use of screen capture videos (Mathisen). These videos allow for the recording of what is on the instructor’s screen (for example, a student paper) accompanied by audio narration describing strengths and weaknesses of the work being discussed as well as any edits that the instructor is making on the page. Once created, the video is available to the student for repeated viewing. Research indicates these videos provide more concrete and effective guidance for students and a higher level of student engagement than traditional written comments and rubrics (Jones, Georghiades, & Gunson, 2012; Thompson & Lee, 2012).

Building rapport with students [Agarwal & Lang] + 2 Q’s to ask in the last 5 mins of class

On 04/25/2019, in face-to-face, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, K-12 related, memory, pedagogy, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, by Daniel Christian

An excerpt from a recent e-newsletter from Pooja K. Agarwal, Ph.D. from RetrievalPractice.org

Want more tips for building rapport with students? We highly recommend Professor James Lang’s series in the Chronicle of Higher Education on how to make the most of:

We love his book, Small Teaching. It’s full of practical teaching strategies and the science behind them. For example, combine retrieval, spacing, feedback, and more with quick and easy Connection Notebooks!

Excerpt from the last 5 minutes of class (emphasis DSC):

Don’t waste them trying to cram in eight more points or call out as many reminders as possible

The minute paper. You can’t wade very far into the literature of teaching and learning in higher education without encountering some version of the Minute Paper, a technique made justly famous by Thomas A. Angelo and K. Patricia Cross in their book Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers. The Minute Paper comes in many variations, but the simplest one involves wrapping up the formal class period a few minutes early and posing two questions to your students:

What was the most important thing you learned today?
What question still remains in your mind?

Taken together, those two questions accomplish multiple objectives. The first one not only requires students to remember something from class and articulate it in their own words (more about that in a moment), but it also requires them to do some quick thinking. They have to reflect on the material and make a judgment about the main point of that day’s class.

Check out these resources for writing better multiple choice questions!

On 04/20/2019, in adjunct faculty, assessment, blended learning, colleges, community colleges, faculty, higher education, ideas, law schools, online learning, pedagogy, teachers, teaching & learning, universities, by Daniel Christian

In the last 10 years, I have written over 2000 provincial certification exam questions and reviewed more than 10000 questions written by tech writers. This resource is the best I have seen and I endorse every tip. What an excellent job by @caranorth11 and @mshEducation https://t.co/1nTpOaU6xt

— Taruna Goel (@write2tg) April 2, 2019

If you missed our presentation (@mshEducation) at #LSCon about writing better multiple-choice test items, you can get the resources here: https://t.co/I4k6Vxa0Rk
We've also been asked to do an encore via webinar to dive into this again. Once we have it finalized, we will share. pic.twitter.com/WlkGU9Pjlr

— Cara North #ATD2019 (@caranorth11) April 1, 2019

Educational Web Tools to Empower Students Voice in Class [educatorstechnology.com]

On 04/12/2019, in blogs / blogging / vlogging, communications, education, education technology, innovation, K-12 related, pedagogy, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technology (general), tools, by Daniel Christian

Educational Web Tools to Empower Students Voice in Class — from educatorstechnology.com

Excerpt:

At the core of progressive pedagogy is the empowerment of students by giving them a voice in class and making them part of the decision making. Unlike traditional instruction where students are viewed as passive receivers of pre-designed knowledge, a progressive instruction is primarily student-centered and dialogic in nature. It views students as subjects with a sense of agency capable of co-constructing their own knowledge. This pedagogical stance is especially popularized by educationists such as John Dewy, Paulo Freire, Maxine Greene, and Vygotsky. For these theorists, learning is driven by curiosity, inquiry and self-discovery, processes which involve students in their own learning and makes their learning meaningful.

With the help of web technologies, you can use a wide variety of web tools with students to provide them with an outlet through which they can express their voices. Here are some examples to try …

Learning Ecosystems

Pastors, what do you think of these ideas? [Christian]

With flip of a giant ceremonial switch, CMU starts effort to energize ‘learning engineering’ [Young]

Check out these resources for writing better multiple choice questions!

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