student-related

Why Studying Is So Hard, and What Teachers Can Do to Help [McKenna & Willingham]

On 02/14/2023, in education, instructional design, K-12 related, learning, Learning Experience Design, learning theories, memory, productivity / tips and tricks, psychology, research, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, United States, by Daniel Christian

Why Studying Is So Hard, and What Teachers Can Do to Help — from edutopia.org by Laura McKenna
Beginning in the upper elementary grades, research-backed study skills should be woven into the curriculum, argues psychology professor Daniel Willingham in a new book.

Excerpt:

The additional context for Willingham’s new book is that students often don’t know the best methods to study for tests, master complex texts, or take productive notes, and it’s difficult to explain to them why they should take a different tack. In the book, Willingham debunks popular myths about the best study strategies, explains why they don’t work, and recommends effective strategies that are based on the latest research in cognitive science.

I recently spoke to him about why listening to lectures isn’t like watching a movie, how our self-monitoring of learning is often flawed and self-serving, and when it’s too late to start teaching students good study skills.

Why Are Students So Disengaged? [Alonso]

On 02/13/2023, in adjunct faculty, career development, colleges, community colleges, engagement / engaging students, faculty/staff, higher education, ideas, instructional design, Learning Experience Design, real-world assignments, skills, staying relevant, student-related, teaching & learning, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Why Are Students So Disengaged? — from insidehighered.com by Johanna Alonso
A new survey by Wiley finds that one-fourth of students said they would be more invested in their courses if they learned in a way that emulated their future careers.

Excerpt:

Undergraduate students are struggling to stay engaged in class—and they believe that material more directly connected to real-life issues could help solve the problem.

That’s a key finding of the recent State of the Student 2022 survey by the academic publishing company Wiley, which noted that 55 percent of undergraduate and 38 percent of graduate students said they struggle to remain interested in their classes. The same proportion of undergraduates and 34 percent of graduate students also said they have trouble retaining the material they learn.

The survey of 5,258 students and 2,452 instructors in North America was conducted in August 2022 and sought to understand the factors that most impact student success, as well as what factors instructors perceive as the most impactful.

Preparing Today’s Students for the Future Workforce — from rdene915.com by Rachelle Dené Poth

Excerpt:

Today’s high school students are the future of our workforce. Before long they will be in college or starting full-time jobs of their own. But how are today’s students preparing for their futures? What will the workforce look like when these students move on to the next stage of their lives?

Schools, districts, and even state education departments provide various programs for students to gain relevant work experience and gain necessary skills outside of the classroom.

What Are These Programs?
There are a number of school-based programs that support student growth through work such as…

Also relevant/see:

One Foot in the Future — from the BIG questions institute

As an excerpt from an email describing this new/free ebook, Homa Tavangar and Will Richardson write:

We need a fresh set of tools, frameworks, and lenses if we are to meet the future effectively.

With this new ebook, “One Foot in the Future,” we’re charting a different path forward, introducing readers to things like:

Design Fiction – A tool to help us become “archeologists of the future” and help us
Regenerative Learning – A lens that helps us see our work as it impacts all living things
Schoolpunk – A movement and a community to help imagine the future of education together.

And much more.

Our sense is that there is growing appetite to get out of the traditional school box and to design a more aspirational future. This new ebook is a great starting point for anyone who wants to do just that.

Brandon Busteed (emphasis DSC):

This is a Titanic moment. The iceberg is right in front of us and there just isn’t enough time to turn the massive U.S. education/higher education/employer training ship. Unless… We all go to work on work.

From DSC:
My comment on that string from Brandon was:

And I can’t help but think that part of that work involves Design Thinking…reinventing what lifelong learning looks/acts like.

Some resources regarding how our emotions impact our learning [Knight]

On 02/10/2023, in Daniel S. Christian, education, Emotion, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning theories, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, United States, by Daniel Christian

Learning relies on emotions — from linkedin.com by Melanie Knight

From DSC:
I don’t know nearly enough about how our emotions impact our learning. But this version of the Learn About Learning newsletter reminds me of a wish I have that our nation would create a one-stop shop/resource for how we learn:

I wish we had a one-stop shop / URL for how we learn

What can work colleges teach the rest of higher ed? [Spitalniak]

On 02/07/2023, in adjunct faculty, career development, colleges, cost of getting a degree, experimentation, faculty/staff, funding / grants, higher education, passions, real-world assignments, reinvent, skills, strategy, student-related, by Daniel Christian

What can work colleges teach the rest of higher ed? — from highereddive.com by Laura Spitalniak
Amid high worries about higher ed’s value in the job market, work colleges offer lessons on integrating classroom learning with employment opportunities.

Excerpt:

To qualify as a work college, an institution must be nonprofit, offer four-year degrees and provide students with employment through a work-learning-service program that will contribute to their education.
…
It found work colleges’ strengths — reduced or free tuition, job experience and mentorship from college faculty and staff — address student concerns over the cost and real-world applicability of a college degree. Work colleges can also make adult learners’ lives logistically easier by combining academics and work, the report found.

The intentional connection of learning, work and service is the most compelling part of the model, according to Louis Soares, chief learning and innovation officer at ACE and one of the report’s authors.

Reflections on “Incremental Change Didn’t Save Blockbuster. It Won’t Save Education, Either” [Miles]

On 02/02/2023, in change, changing business models, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, Design Thinking, future, game-changing environment, ideas, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, student-related, teachers, technology (general), by Daniel Christian

Incremental Change Didn’t Save Blockbuster. It Won’t Save Education, Either — from the74million.org by Mike Miles; with thanks to Rob Reynolds for this resource
Broken public school systems need wholescale change if they are going to prepare students for the skills they will need by 2035

Excerpt:

Perhaps the biggest failure of the current education ecosystem is its inability to envision what the future holds for our students and to make systemic changes now to prepare them for that future. Shackled to a monolithic, change-resistant system, school and district leaders continue to make incremental and piecemeal changes to a broken system expecting to get different outcomes.

In an analogous way, almost all public-school systems are like Blockbusters in the late 1990s — unwilling to assess the impact of technological advances and consider how they might need to revisit their design principles. In the end, if an organization does not move purposefully toward some likely future, then any path forward will do, and it is likely to be the path they are currently on.

From DSC:
The following quote…

Using a split-screen strategy, a district would not attempt to make systemic changes district-wide. Rather, it would implement transformative changes in one or two schools while continuing to make incremental improvements in the rest of the district. Once the schools operating with the new system principles achieve the outcomes and succeed, they will become proof points to allow the district to implement systemic change in even more schools over a period of time.

…made me think of a graphic (see below) — and an article out at evoLLLtion.com — I developed a while back re: the need for more Trim Tab Groups. I think we’re talking about the same thing here.

Addendum on 2/4/23:

A Few Educators ‘Going the Extra Mile’ Cannot Save the Education System — from edsurge.com by Jennifer Yoo-Brannon

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Not a Pyramid, But a Garden
Instead of a pyramid, let’s adopt a new image, a more organic one. School communities are webs of complex relationships, like gardens. Imagine if we all understood a school community like a Three Sisters Garden. In this Indigenous agricultural practice, corn, beans and squash grow together to create a sustainable cycle of growth in which the whole garden can thrive. Corn provides the tall stalks for the beans to climb. The large squash plant leaves provide shade so the soil can retain moisture, and the beans provide the nitrogen to fertilize the soil. The garden does not rely on the exploitation of one crop to allow the rest to grow.

From DSC:
Re: the emphasized text immediately above…that sounds like a learning ecosystem to me! 🙂

Unbundled: Designing Personalized Pathways for Every Learner [Nate McClennen & Co.]

On 01/31/2023, in assessment, Blockchain, change, changing business models, competency-based learning/education, content development, aggregation, repositories, credentialing, Design Thinking, education, education reform, engagement / engaging students, ideas, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, leadership, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, love of learning, marketplaces, microlearning, more voice more choice more control, motivation, new business models, online learning, participation, passions, personalized/customized learning, platforms, reinvent, society, streams of content, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technology (general), ubiquitous learning, United States, user experience (UX), vendors, vision/possibilities, vocational / trades, youth, by Daniel Christian

Unbundled: Designing Personalized Pathways for Every Learner — from gettingsmart.com by Nate McClennen “with contributions from the Getting Smart team and numerous friends and partners in the field”

Excerpts:

In this publication, we articulate the critical steps needed to unbundle the learning ecosystem, build core competencies, design learning experiences, curate new opportunities, and rebundle these experiences into coherent pathways.
.

Vision

Every learner deserves an unlimited number of unbundled opportunities to explore, engage, and define experiences that advance their progress along a co-designed educational pathway. Each pathway provides equitable and personalized access to stacked learning experiences leading to post-secondary credentials and secure family-sustaining employment. Throughout the journey, supportive coaches focus on helping learners build skills to navigate with agency. In parallel, learners develop foundational skills (literacy, math), technical skills, and durable skills and connect these to challenging co-designed experiences. The breadth and depth of experiences increase over time, and, in partnership, learners and coaches map progress towards reaching community-defined goals. This vision is only enabled by an unbundled learning ecosystem.
…

Recommendations

Solutions already exist in the ecosystem and need to be combined and scaled. Funding models (like My Tech High), badging/credentialing at the competency level (like VLACS), coaching models (like Big Thought), and open ecosystems (like NH Learn Everywhere) provide an excellent foundation. Thus, building unbundled systems has already begun but needs systemic changes to become widely available and accepted.

1. 1. Build a robust competency-based system.
  2. Create a two-way marketplace for unbundled learning.
  3. Implement policy to support credit for out-of-system experiences.
  4. Invest in technology infrastructure for Learning and Employment Records.
  5. Design interoperable badging systems that connect to credentials.

Colleges consider overhauling grading system for freshmen to ease transition to higher learning — from mercurynews.com by Kate Hull
Supporters say ‘ungrading’ could result in less stress and a more level playing field for students from less rigorous high schools

Excerpt:

Dubbed “weed-out” or “gatekeeper” classes, they can be dream-crushing for many students — especially those hoping to enter the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. And a growing body of research says the courses can be particularly discriminatory toward historically excluded groups such as Latinos and Black and Indigenous people.

One possible remedy, some educators say, is “ungrading,” a style of teaching and assessment that seeks to evaluate students in other ways besides A-F letter grades — usually just in their freshman year.

“You’re trying to move the focus from a score to the learning,” said Robin Dunkin, who teaches biology and is the assistant faculty director at UCSC’s Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning. “For that reason, it’s immensely powerful.”

Also relevant see the #Ungrading hashtag on Twitter, from which the below item was taken:

Any educators out there who are #ungrading in a standards-based grading school district? I’ve been studying @Jessifer’s work for a bit & I’d love to go full-implementation next year.

If you have any experience, let me know. I’d love to pick your brain! https://t.co/ClnwZsBdl9

— Adrian Neibauer, EdD (@MrNeibauer) January 25, 2023

Excerpts from Jesse Stommel’s Ungrading: an Introduction presentation:

Also relevant/see Robert Talbert’s Grading for Growth.

But how can students use AI well? Here is a basic tutorial and guide I am providing my classes. [Mollick]

On 01/31/2023, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, curriculum, digital learning, education, education technology, emerging technologies, entrepreneurship, experimentation, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, global / globalization, higher education, innovation, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, legislatures / government / legal, MBA, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, skills, society, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, tools, trends, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

The practical guide to using AI to do stuff — from oneusefulthing.substack.com by Ethan Mollick; with thanks to Sam DeBrule for this resource. Ethan Mollick is a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where he studies entrepreneurship & innovation, as well as how we can better learn and teach.
A resource for students in my classes (and other interested people).

Excerpts:

My classes now require AI (and if I didn’t require AI use, it wouldn’t matter, everyone is using AI anyway). But how can students use AI well? Here is a basic tutorial and guide I am providing my classes. It covers some of the many ways to use AI to be more productive, creative, and successful, using the technology available in early 2023, as well as some of the risks.
…
Come up with ideas
Open Source Option: Nothing very good
Best free (for now) option: ChatGPT (registration may require a phone number)
Best option if ChatGPT is down: OpenAI Playground
.

Also relevant/see:

It was nice talking to @lapiaenrose for the @WIRED article on #ChatGPT and #education. I shared how I use LLMs in class and suggested that banning them would not remove the need for redesigning both the learning goals and assessment methods. #AIEthics https://t.co/30tqFN1FSS

— Olya Kudina (@OlyaKudina) January 27, 2023

On a relevant note:

Gen Z says school is not equipping them with the skills they need to survive in a digital world — from fastcompany.com by Shalene Gupta; with thanks to Robert Gibson for this resource
According to a study from Dell Technologies, Gen Z-ers in 15 different countries feel their government could do better.

Excerpt:

They see an education and skills gap: Forty-four percent said that school only taught them very basic computing skills, while 37% said that school education (for children under age 16) didn’t prepare them with the technology skills they needed for their planned careers. Forty percent consider learning new digital skills essential to future career options.

It’s clear that Gen Z see technology as pivotal for their future prosperity. It is now up to us—leading technology providers, governments, and the public sector—to work together and set them up for success by improving the quality and access to digital learning. Forty-four percent of Gen Z feel educators and businesses should work together to bridge the digital skills gap, and with the speed at which technology continues to evolve, this will require constant collaboration.

Aongus Hegarty, president of international markets at Dell Technologies

AI raises floor, not ceiling.

Basic writers ?? Good writers
Basic designers ?? Good designers
Basic instructors ?? Good instructors

Experts see fewer benefits

AI ?? speed + ideation but better to be original + unique as expert. That’s ? AI

Experts know rules, then break them

— Scott David Meyer (@MrScottMeyer) January 27, 2023

Tired of the Same Old Professional Development? Let Students Lead. [Homrich-Knieling]

On 01/28/2023, in communities of practice, education, experimentation, ideas, instructional design, K-12 related, Learning Experience Design, professional development, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, by Daniel Christian

Tired of the Same Old Professional Development? Let Students Lead. — from edsurge.com by Matt Homrich-Knieling

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

Despite my love for learning, I strongly disliked most professional development sessions. The way sessions were facilitated often contradicted research-based teaching strategies. It is also frustrating when pre-packaged PD sessions are disconnected from your specific school context and student population.

To most teachers, this critique isn’t surprising. PD has a bad reputation in education circles, and it isn’t because teachers are resistant to professional learning. On the contrary, teachers want professional learning that is practical, engaging and relevant.
…
A group of students from the club met with the principal and explained their idea for leading a PD on building classroom community and supporting student self-confidence.
…

“Think about times when you lacked community or self-confidence in class. What did the teacher do/not do that led you to that experience? On the other hand, think about times when you felt a great sense of community or self-confidence in class. What did the teacher do/not do that led you to that experience?”

From DSC:
“On the contrary, teachers want professional learning that is practical, engaging and relevant.“

Hmmm…sounds like what students want as well.

“Exhausted majority” wants to rethink K-12 education [Stef W. Kight]

On 01/25/2023, in education, education reform, homeschooling/homeschoolers, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, more voice more choice more control, parents/guardians, participation, passions, student-related, United States, youth, by Daniel Christian

“Exhausted majority” wants to rethink K-12 education— from axios.com by Stef W. Kight; via GSV

Excerpt:

Americans have drastically shifted some priorities on K-12 education since the start of COVID, a new study by Populace reveals.

Why it matters: There’s new pressure to change the existing model. Preparing students for college has fallen from 10th highest priority to 47th.

The study demonstrates what Populace co-founder Todd Rose called an “exhausted majority” who just wants kids to learn to think for themselves and find a career “with meaning and purpose.”

The big picture: Americans have a warped understanding of what the majority prioritizes in education.

U.S. adults overestimate the public’s desire for teachers to prepare kids for college, internships and only the highest-paying jobs. They also overestimate support for standardized processes and teaching social norms.
They underestimate preferences to allow students to learn at their own pace and according to their own interests and for kids to come away with more holistic, practical skills.

Also relevant/see:

New Survey: America’s Families are Rethinking K-12 Education — from schoolchoiceweek.com by the National School Choice Week Team

Excerpt:

K-12 education in America is experiencing a once-in-a-generation transformation, as tens of millions of parents rethink their children’s education and make crucial decisions about how and where their children learn. From exploring their school choice options to expressing interest in nontraditional learning models, parents are eager to find better or supplementary learning environments for their children. Parents don’t see this a dichotomous; a majority of them are open to change even as two thirds of all parents (67.9 percent) remain largely satisfied with the schools their children attend.

What do we mean by rethinking? Parents choosing new schools, parents considering options more frequently, and parents seeking to round out their children’s education by thinking outside the box and exploring new or nontraditional learning options.

On a related note see:

What Do Parents Prefer for their Children’s’ Schooling? — from michaelbhorn.substack.com by Michael Horn with Adam Newman and Christian Lehr of Tyton Partners

Let’s develop a nationwide, direct-to-learner campaign: “Learn how to learn.” [Christian]

On 01/23/2023, in 24x7x365 access, active learning, adjunct faculty, adult learning, career development, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, education, faculty/staff, future, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, hybrid learning, Hyflex learning, ideas, informal learning, instructional design, K-12 related, law schools, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning theories, legislatures / government / legal, liberal arts, library / librarians, lifelong learning, love of learning, metacognition / metacognitive skills, microlearning, mobile learning, online learning, online media, personalized/customized learning, platforms, professional development, psychology, skills, society, sociology, strategy, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, traditional / tradition, training / L&D, United States, universities, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Let’s put together a nationwide campaign that would provide a website — or a series of websites if an agreement can’t be reached amongst the individual states — about learning how to learn. In business, there’s a “direct-to-consumer” approach. Well, we could provide a “direct-to-learner” approach — from cradle to grave. Seeing as how everyone is now required to be a lifelong learner, such a campaign would have enormous benefits to all of the United States. This campaign would be located in airports, subway stations, train stations, on billboards along major highways, in libraries, and in many more locations.

We could focus on things such as:

Quizzing yourself / retrieval practice
Spaced retrieval
Interleaving
Elaboration
Chunking
Cognitive load
Learning by doing (active learning)
Journaling
The growth mindset
Metacognition (thinking about one’s thinking)
Highlighting doesn’t equal learning
There is deeper learning in the struggle
…and more.

A learn how to learn campaign covering airports, billboards, subways, train stations, highways, and more

NOTE:
The URL I’m using above doesn’t exist, at least not at the time of this posting.
But I’m proposing that it should exist.

A group of institutions, organizations, and individuals could contribute to this. For example The Learning Scientists, Daniel Willingham, Donald Clark, James Lang, Derek Bruff, The Learning Agency Lab, Robert Talbert, Pooja Agarwal and Patrice Bain, Eva Keffenheim, Benedict Carey, Ken Bain, and many others.

Perhaps there could be:

discussion forums to provide for social interaction/learning
scheduled/upcoming webinars
how to apply the latest evidence-based research in the classroom
link(s) to learning-related platforms and/or resources

Some example components of a learning ecosystem [Christian]

On 01/20/2023, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adjunct faculty, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Augmented Reality (AR), blended learning, blogs / blogging / vlogging, bots, Canvas - and other Instructure-related items, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital textbooks, digital video, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, face-to-face, faculty/staff, heutagogy, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, Hyflex learning, informal learning, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, K-12 related, law schools, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, learning theories, library / librarians, lifelong learning, microlearning, mobile learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, online learning, online media, online tutoring, open courseware and systems, parents/guardians, pedagogy, personalized/customized learning, platforms, play, podcasting, professional development, social learning / networks, social media, society, streams of content, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technology (general), tools, training / L&D, universities, videoconferencing, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vocational / trades, webinars, by Daniel Christian

A learning ecosystem is composed of people, tools, technologies, content, processes, culture, strategies, and any other resource that helps one learn. Learning ecosystems can be at an individual level as well as at an organizational level.

Some example components:

Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) such as faculty, staff, teachers, trainers, parents, coaches, directors, and others
Fellow employees
L&D/Training professionals
Managers
Instructional Designers
Librarians
Consultants
Types of learning
- Active learning
- Adult learning
- PreK-12 education
- Training/corporate learning
- Vocational learning
- Experiential learning
- Competency-based learning
- Self-directed learning (i.e., heutagogy)
- Mobile learning
- Online learning
- Face-to-face-based learning
- Hybrid/blended learning
- Hyflex-based learning
- Game-based learning
- XR-based learning (AR, MR, and VR)
- Informal learning
- Formal learning
- Lifelong learning
- Microlearning
- Personalized/customized learning
- Play-based learning
Cloud-based learning apps
Coaching & mentoring
Peer feedback
Job aids/performance tools and other on-demand content
Websites
Conferences
Professional development
Professional organizations
Social networking
Social media – Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook/Meta, other
Communities of practice
Artificial Intelligence (AI) — including ChatGPT, learning agents, learner profiles,
LMS/CMS/Learning Experience Platforms
Tutorials
Videos — including on YouTube, Vimeo, other
Job-aids
E-learning-based resources
Books, digital textbooks, journals, and manuals
Enterprise social networks/tools
RSS feeds and blogging
Podcasts/vodcasts
Videoconferencing/audio-conferencing/virtual meetings
Capturing and sharing content
Tagging/rating/curating content
Decision support tools
Getting feedback
Webinars
In-person workshops
Discussion boards/forums
Chat/IM
VOIP
Online-based resources (periodicals, journals, magazines, newspapers, and others)
Learning spaces
Learning hubs
Learning preferences
Learning theories
Microschools
MOOCs
Open courseware
Portals
Wikis
Wikipedia
Slideshare
TED talks
…and many more components.

These people, tools, technologies, etc. are constantly morphing — as well as coming and going in and out of our lives.

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