How Learning Happens: Seminal Works in Educational Psychology and What They Mean in Practice

Product Information

Give learners a sense of choice and control. Choice allows learners to have a stake in the class, while control helps them determine the level of risk they will take and thus increase their confidence. We can foster choice and control by allowing learners options in the types of activities and assignments they engage in, or in the topics they research.

Now updated to include a new section on Memory and Cognition with five new chapters, this revised second edition explores a selection of the key works on learning and teaching, chosen from the fields of educational psychology and cognitive psychology. It offers a roadmap of the most important discoveries in the way learning happens, with each chapter examining a different work and explaining its significance before describing the research, its implications for practice, and how it can be used in the classroom –including the key takeaways for teachers.Regarding technology, the medium does not determine effective learning; the method does. That means that the delivery of the content has a negligible effect and therefore technology should not be used for technology's sake. Further, the concept of "digital native" should not imply that students are adept at using technology to facilitate their own learning. It’s not difficult to understand why this would be a popular idea. All those brain cells lying dormant… imagine what a genius you’d be if one day you could get them all fired up…But sadly there is no evidence for this idea … and it can be added to the pile of things that are entirely WRONG. An overload of stimuli – lots of different things competing for attention - actually diminishes learning ability.

For the research geek, it is a thought-provoking read. It will be adored by many and I hope it introduces some to the complexity of psychology and the study of cognition." Megan Dixon is headteacher (acting) at Sandbach Primary Academy, and director of English and co-director at Aspirer Research School. She tweets @DamsonEd Selbing I, Olsson A. Anxious behaviour in a demonstrator affects observational learning. Sci Rep. 2019;9(1):9181. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-45613-1 Present the stimulus. Share new information. This step depends on the content of the lesson. For instance, a lesson on Boolean operators might begin with a Venn diagram and examples of the uses of and, or, and not.I liked the format! Each chapter focuses on a seminal paper in learning theory. The authors review the article, provide the abstract, a summary and analysis of the big ideas, discuss how it should inform practice, and end the chapter with takeaways and links to future reading. If you can think of examples of behaviorism from several different learning experiences, were they more appropriate in some situations than others? How so? Madsen, S. R., & Wilson, I. K. (2012). Humanistic theory of learning: Maslow. In N. M. Seel (Ed.), Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer. Repetition works. Proceeding from simple to complex and from concrete to abstract works, as students learn to assimilate information into cognitive schemata. Teaching of discrete skills doesn't help this process, so be sure to show how knowledge and skills are related to each other and to the whole.

These are all areas of study and findings that have been widely discussed for many years. Complex topicsThis does not mean the original studies were in some way flawed, but it might suggest that the participants were not representative of the general population - somehow bias has crept in. What this means is that single studies are fascinating but cannot be considered universal truths. What is wanted is for serious conceptual explanations to be translated into tangible practical ideas, with suggestions for helping teachers to adapt to new habits in the classroom. Above all, this has to come with a pretty large dose of certainty that the change will make learning better than before, and this is where the challenge lies.

However, this does not tell us a huge amount about how this might look in Year 3, on a wet Wednesday afternoon when Mrs Blogs is trying to teach the Tudors. It felt like there was a missing analysis of the wide ranging contexts these approaches are used in. I want to speak more to context later in the review. Perry’s (1970) Scheme of Intellectual and Moral Development offers another useful framework for understanding the developmental stages of learning. Perry proposed four stages of learning. In the first stage, dualism, children generally believe that all problems can be solved, and that there are right and wrong answers to each question. At this stage, children generally look to instructors to provide them with correct answers. The second stage is multiplicity, where learners realize that there are conflicting views and controversies on topics. Learners in the multiplicity stage often have trouble assessing the authority and credibility of arguments. They tend to believe that all perspectives are equally valid and rely on their own experiences to form opinions and decide what information to trust. In the next stage, referred to as relativism, learners begin to understand that there are different lenses for understanding and evaluating information. They learn that different disciplines have their own methods of research and analysis, and they can begin to apply these perspectives as they evaluate sources and evidence. At this point, learners can understand that not all answers or perspectives are equal, but that some answers or arguments might be more valid than others. In the final stage, commitment, students integrate selected information into their knowledge base. You might notice connections between Perry and the cognitivists and constructivists described above in the way they each describe people making sense of information by comparing new information to existing knowledge. However, Perry organizes the processes into developmental stages that outline a progression of learning. While a student-centered approach and choice can be introduced in any classroom, observers note that in an age of curriculum frameworks and standardized tests, where teachers are often constrained by the material, the ability to provide students with choice and allow for exploration is limited (Sharp, 2012; Zucca-Scott, 2010). Librarians often face similar constraints. School librarians also must meet state and district curriculum standards. Academic librarians generally depend on faculty invitations to conduct instruction and need to adapt their sessions to fit the content, time frame, and learning objectives of the faculty member. Nevertheless, we can always find ways to integrate some self-direction. For instance, rather than using planned examples to demonstrate searches, we might have students suggest topics to search. If we plan hands-on practice activities, we could allow learners to explore their own interests as they engage in the activity, rather than limiting them to preselected topics. Cognitivism Another great part is the last section called ‘Cautionary Tales’. We particularly liked the exploration of papers such as “When teaching kills learning: Research on mathematics” as well as “Reconsidering research on learning from media”. We think it’s really refreshing to get a research driven take on what doesn’t work, rather than just opinions. Value for money

Your thoughts

Knowles proposed andragogy as “the art and science of helping adults learn” (1988, p. 43). Andragogy is based on a set of assumptions about the ways in which adult learners’ experience, motivations, and needs differ from those of younger students, and suggests that traditional classroom approaches developed with younger students in mind will not necessarily be successful with adult learners. Perhaps one of the biggest differences between child and adult learners, according to Knowles (1988), is that adults are interested in the immediate applicability of what they are learning and are often motivated by their social roles as employees, parents, and so on. As Knowles notes, in traditional classrooms, children are usually taught discrete subjects like math, reading, and history, and their learning is focused on building up knowledge for the future. Young students might not use geometry in their everyday lives, but it forms a foundation for more complex math and for future job or life tasks like measuring materials for home repairs. Gain attention. Engage students’ attention by tying learning to relevant events in their lives and asking stimulating questions. The kind of learning students do in school--cultural or secondary learning--differs from the primary learning that comes naturally to them, so this kind of learning requires direct instruction from someone with expertise. Inherent motivation is not sufficient for learning to take place; working memory and effort are necessary! And students don't become independent, self-regulated learners by being left to wander unsupervised. They get there through modeling, a great deal of guided practice, and intentional scaffolding. Problem-based, inquiry, or discovery learning (whatever you want to call it) doesn't always work well because novices think differently from experts. Beginning learners don't have enough domain-specific knowledge to learn from this approach, and often it takes up so much working memory (see cognitive load theory) that knowledge can't get encoded into long-term memory (which is how these authors define learning). This book takes a student-centered approach to describing learning theory. Chapter 7 provides an excellent overview of motivation and self-efficacy, including implications for practice. References This is something we all know. Nobody can succeed in today’s society without being able to juggle a host of simultaneous demands and tasks.