How Does the Way Students Organize Knowledge Affect Their Learning? CETL Winter Warmer Series Ben Newling (Department of Physics) 16 February 2017

How Does the Way Learners Organize Knowledge Affect Our Learning? CETL Winter Warmer Series Ben Newling (Department of Physics) 16 February 2017 declaring now

Goals of the Winter Warmer Series: Identify 1 principle of learning that resonates with you Identify 1 principle of learning that want to learn more about because you believe that it could have a big impact on your students Give you a framework & some language to describe what you do and how it works Help you design effective teaching strategies that are helpful and appropriate to a particular situation

Winter Warmer Series CETL 2017 #3 What Factors Motivate Students to Learn? Fred Mason (Kinesiology) February 21 1:00 p.m. #4 How Do Students Develop Mastery? Kathy Wilson (Nursing) March 2 2:30 p.m. #5 What Kinds of Practice & Feedback Enhance Learning? Ted Needham (FOREM) Mar 14 2:30 p.m. #6 Why Do Student Development and Course Climate Matter for Student Learning? Nadya Ladouceur (Renaissance College) March 23 1:00 p.m. #7 How Do Students Become Self-Directed Learners? Dawn MacIsaac (Computer Science and Engineering) March 29 1:30 p.m.

Overview of the book: The Principles 1) Students’ prior knowledge can help or hinder learning. 2) How students organize knowledge influences how they learn and apply what they know. 3) Students’ motivation determines, directs, and sustains what they do to learn. 4) To develop mastery, students must acquire component skills, practice integrating them, and know when to apply them. 5) Goal-directed practice coupled with targeted feedback enhances the quality of students’ learning. 6) Students’ current level of development interacts with the social, emotional, and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning. 7) To become self-directed learners, students must learn to monitor and adjust their approaches to learning.

Overview of the book: The Principles 1) Students’ prior knowledge can help or hinder learning. 2) How students organize knowledge influences how they learn and apply what they know. 3) Students’ motivation determines, directs, and sustains what they do to learn. 4) To develop mastery, students must acquire component skills, practice integrating them, and know when to apply them. 5) Goal-directed practice coupled with targeted feedback enhances the quality of students’ learning. 6) Students’ current level of development interacts with the social, emotional, and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning. 7) To become self-directed learners, students must learn to monitor and adjust their approaches to learning.

The EnD Knowledge organization influences how we learn and how we apply our knowledge. Expert knowledge organisations are very connected and deeply (meaningfully) connected. Experts use multiple knowledge organizations and can access the one most suitable for the task at hand. We can and should help our students to emulate expert organisations.

OrganiZing Knowledge “We’ve never seen anything like that before.”

OrganiZing Knowledge “We’ve never seen anything like that before.” Being able to recognise the common principles between two situations requires that knowledge be organised appropriately.

OrganiZing Knowledge How do you organiz/se your knowledge?”

OrganiZing Knowledge How do you organiz/se your knowledge? Split into groups sort of by faculty affiliation/loyalty or unit (engineering, education+RC?, kinesiology, arts, libraries, science+computer science+forem+health… business is tricky)

OrganiZing Knowledge How do you organiz/se your knowledge? Split into groups sort of by faculty affiliation/loyalty or unit (engineering, education+RC?, kinesiology, arts, libraries, science+computer science+forem+health… business is tricky) Draw [something] that answers the question “how is the knowledge in your group connected”?

The Principle How we organize our knowledge influences how we learn … 10 seconds

The Principle How we organize our knowledge influences how we learn … 10 seconds X I B M M C A T A T V P H D X

The Principle How we organize our knowledge influences how we learn … 10 seconds How many of the letters can you remember?

The Principle How we organize our knowledge influences how we learn … 10 seconds X I B M M C A T A T V P H D X

The Principle How we organize our knowledge influences how we learn … 10 seconds How many of the letters can you remember now? [Mark Vernoy, Dept. Of Psychology, Palomar College]

The Principle How we organize our knowledge influences how we learn and how we apply our knowledge.

The Principle How we organize our knowledge influences how we learn and how we apply our knowledge. Knowledge is much more than an isolated collection of facts (Stephen Chew, Cognitive Psychology, Samford University, YouTube) Thanks, Magdalen

The Principle How we organize our knowledge influences how we learn and how we apply our knowledge. Knowledge is much more than an isolated collection of facts E.g. (Stephen Chew, Cognitive Psychology, Samford University, YouTube) Thanks, Magdalen

The RESEARCH The form of our knowledge organisation fits its function. “Understanding the way students and scientists think is the key to developing more effective methods of science teaching and is itself an intellectual challenge.” F. Reif Phys. Today 39(11) 48 (1986). Eylon & Reif “Effects of Knowledge Organization on Performance” Cognition & Instruction 1 5-44 (1984): more than just recall.

The RESEARCH The form of our knowledge organisation fits its function. “We assume that a person, acquiring knowledge in a learning process, actively constructs an internal representation of this knowledge.” The authors specifically suggest hierarchical organizations are best & represent a difference between novice and expert organizations. Eylon & Reif “Effects of Knowledge Organization on Performance” Cognition & Instruction 1 5-44 (1984): more than just recall.

The RESEARCH The form of our knowledge organisation fits its function. We must consider the tasks that our students will be asked to perform to determine the knowledge organization that will best support those tasks.

The RESEARCH The form of our knowledge organisation fits its function. We must consider the tasks that our students will be asked to perform to determine the knowledge organization that will best support those tasks. Corollary: the tasks we ask our student to engage in will shape their knowledge organisation.

The RESEARCH Expert knowledge organizations have many connections

The RESEARCH Expert knowledge organizations have many connections This is evident when you try to build a mind map of your discipline: the more expert you are, the more connections you see. www.compoundchem.com

The RESEARCH Expert knowledge organizations have many connections “A little Learning is a dang'rous Thing” – POPE www.compoundchem.com

The RESEARCH Expert knowledge organizations have many connections “A little Learning is a dang'rous Thing” – POPE A little, poorly-connected Learning is even more dangerous. www.compoundchem.com

The RESEARCH e.g. Expert knowledge organizations have many connections phenomenological primitives ANDREA diSESSA Cognition and Instruction 10 (2–3) 105–225 (1993) epistemological framing JOE REDISH umdperg.pbworks.com/w/page/10511199/Joe%20Redish Expert knowledge organizations have many connections “A little Learning is a dang'rous Thing” – POPE A little, poorly-connected Learning is even more dangerous.

The RESEARCH Expert knowledge organizations have many connections “A little Learning is a dang'rous Thing” – POPE A little, poorly-connected Learning is even more dangerous. RETRIEVAL SLOW, DIFFICULT + CONTRADICTIONS RETRIEVAL SLOW (esp. if long), ONLY IN SEQUENCE

The RESEARCH Expert knowledge organizations have many connections An advance organizer can improve learning gains: show your students what the structure looks like (guide the incorporation of new information). RETRIEVAL EFFICIENT and EFFECTIVE

The RESEARCH Expert knowledge organizations have many connections We must provide our students with structures that show how we organise and draw upon disciplinary knowledge RETRIEVAL EFFICIENT and EFFECTIVE

The RESEARCH Expert knowledge organizations have more meaningful (deeper) connections than novices’. Chi et al. Cognitive Science 5 121-152 (1981); ibid. 13 145-182 (1989).

The RESEARCH Expert knowledge organizations have more meaningful (deeper) connections than novices’. Novices tend to concentrate on the superficial Experts can recognise deeper patterns Chi et al. Cognitive Science 5 121-152 (1981); ibid. 13 145-182 (1989).

The RESEARCH Expert knowledge organizations have more meaningful (deeper) connections than novices’. Novices tend to concentrate on the superficial Experts can recognise deeper patterns We can help e.g. giving our students solved problems and ask them to explain the solution helps them to concentrate on the principles at play. Chi et al. Cognitive Science 5 121-152 (1981); ibid. 13 145-182 (1989).

STRATEGIES SUGGESTED by the Research Create a concept map. APPENDIX B cmap.ihmc.us

STRATEGIES SUGGESTED by the Research Create a concept map. You should make one to analyse your own knowledge organization. You can walk your students through your map to orient them.

STRATEGIES SUGGESTED by the Research Create a concept map. You should make one to analyse your own knowledge organization. You can walk your students through your map to orient them. Your students should make a concept map. You can check the development of their knowledge organisation if they do so more than once.

STRATEGIES SUGGESTED by the Research Create a concept map. Analyse tasks to identify the most appropriate knowledge organization. You can provide your students with a skeleton (an empty table or barren tree) for organizing their knowledge for that particular task. Different tasks might require different organisations, which helps your students to develop multiple organizations.

STRATEGIES SUGGESTED by the Research Create a concept map. Analyse tasks to identify the most appropriate knowledge organization. Provide students with the organizational structure of the course. Elizabeth Barkley advocated graphical syllabi, Bev has this book too

STRATEGIES SUGGESTED by the Research Create a concept map. Analyse tasks to identify the most appropriate knowledge organization. Provide students with the organizational structure of the course. Elizabeth Barkley advocated graphical syllabi, Bev has this book too Remind the students periodically where you are in the course. Draw an organisational structure for a course or class or workshop you have run, are running or will be running.

STRATEGIES SUGGESTED by the Research Create a concept map. Analyse tasks to identify the most appropriate knowledge organization. Provide students with the organizational structure of the course. Explicitly share the organization of each lecture, lab or discussion. Draw an organisational structure for a course or class or workshop you have run, are running or will be running.

STRATEGIES SUGGESTED by the Research Create a concept map. Analyse tasks to identify the most appropriate knowledge organization. Provide students with the organizational structure of the course. Explicitly share the organization of each lecture, lab or discussion. Use contrasting & boundary cases to highlight organising features. Present cases in which items share many features, but differ in critical ways. Boundary cases or commonly misclassified anomalies can also help.

STRATEGIES SUGGESTED by the Research Create a concept map. Analyse tasks to identify the most appropriate knowledge organization. Provide students with the organizational structure of the course. Explicitly share the organization of each lecture, lab or discussion. Use contrasting & boundary cases to highlight organising features. Explicitly highlight deep features. Present cases in which items share deep features, but differ superficially and ask students to find the commonality.

STRATEGIES SUGGESTED by the Research Create a concept map. Analyse tasks to identify the most appropriate knowledge organization. Provide students with the organizational structure of the course. Explicitly share the organization of each lecture, lab or discussion. Use contrasting & boundary cases to highlight organising features. Explicitly highlight deep features. Make connections among concepts explicit. Connections can be similarities or contrasts. Also ask students to find connections (meaningful ones).

STRATEGIES SUGGESTED by the Research Create a concept map. Analyse tasks to identify the most appropriate knowledge organization. Provide students with the organizational structure of the course. Explicitly share the organization of each lecture, lab or discussion. Use contrasting & boundary cases to highlight organising features. Explicitly highlight deep features. Make connections among concepts explicit. Encourage students to work with multiple organizing structures.

STRATEGIES SUGGESTED by the Research Create a concept map. Analyse tasks to identify the most appropriate knowledge organization. Provide students with the organizational structure of the course. Explicitly share the organization of each lecture, lab or discussion. Use contrasting & boundary cases to highlight organising features. Explicitly highlight deep features. Make connections among concepts explicit. Encourage students to work with multiple organizing structures. Use sorting tasks to expose knowledge organisation.

STRATEGIES SUGGESTED by the Research BE AWARE, THROUGHOUT, OF YOUR & YOUR STUDENTS’ KNOWLEDGE STRUCTURE Create a concept map. Analyse tasks to identify the most appropriate knowledge organization. Provide students with the organizational structure of the course. Explicitly share the organization of each lecture, lab or discussion. Use contrasting & boundary cases to highlight organising features. Explicitly highlight deep features. Make connections among concepts explicit. Encourage students to work with multiple organizing structures. Use sorting tasks to expose knowledge organisation.

Nicole O’Byrne (Faculty of Law) Thank you! Nicole O’Byrne (Faculty of Law) nobyrne.ca@gmail.com @lewvansk Ben Newling (Physics) bnewling@unb.ca @UNB_IntroPhys

The EnD Knowledge organization influences how we learn and how we apply our knowledge. Expert knowledge organisations are very connected and deeply (meaningfully) connected. Experts use multiple knowledge organizations and can access the one most suitable for the task at hand. We can and should help our students to emulate expert organisations.

STRATEGIES SUGGESTED by the Research BE AWARE, THROUGHOUT, OF YOUR & YOUR STUDENTS’ KNOWLEDGE STRUCTURE Create a concept map. Analyse tasks to identify the most appropriate knowledge organization. Provide students with the organizational structure of the course. Explicitly share the organization of each lecture, lab or discussion. Use contrasting & boundary cases to highlight organising features. Explicitly highlight deep features. Make connections among concepts explicit. Encourage students to work with multiple organizing structures. Use sorting tasks to expose knowledge organisation.