A Postscript to Powerful Learning

Lynn Hoffman: “More often than not I have observed students . . . only peripherally engaged in the learning process .”

“Not meaningful or memorable” “Academics are described as boring, routine, and necessary . . . for college.”

“Students value their yearbook classes -- because they produce a real product, they expend extensive out-of-class time and effort that is clearly necessary and expected, and they determine their own … work activities.”

Ted Sizer: “Those ‘reforms were like ordering the Model T to drive 60 miles per hour. . . People who made those policies have not understood the necessity of fundamentally reshaping the way schools are run.”

New Country School No required curriculum Individual projects No classes Work stations

Conditions for Powerful Learning What they learn How they learn The setting in which they learn

is challenging and they accept the challenge. What they learn is personally meaningful; they feel a need to learn it. is challenging and they accept the challenge. is appropriate for their developmental level.

How they learn They can learn in their own way and have some degree of choice and control. They use what they already know as they construct new knowledge.

How they learn They have opportunities for social interaction. They get helpful feedback. They acquire and use strategies.

The setting in which they learn They experience a positive emotional climate. Their environment supports the intended learning.

What do you think? Accurate? Scientific? Useful?

Spelling & handwriting help “If you have to switch your attention to figuring out how to spell a word, that disrupts your planning process.” – Steve Graham, Maryland

“Active engagement” -- Bruer “Brain reorganization takes place only when the animal pays attention to the sensory input and to the task.” -- Bruer

Meaningful “Only those aspects of experience that are targets of elaborative encoding processes” are likely to be remembered. -- Schachter

Emotions “Our emotional system drives our attentional system, which drives learning and memory and everything else.” -- Sylwester

Emotions “. . . help us decide what to remember and what to forget.” -- Pert

Emotions “large, distributed neural ensembles . . . encode both external stimuli and the animal’s responses to them.” -- Brothers

So -- Emotions are an integral part of learning. are mostly unconscious, so environment is important. But negative as well as positive.

They experience unusually strong emotions. The setting (People learn well when . . .) They experience unusually strong emotions.

Personally meaningful “Students are motivated to . . . learn complex subjects . . . they find interesting. Opportunities to create products and benefits for others are particularly motivating.” -- Bransford

What they already know -- How People Learn “People construct new knowledge and understanding based on what they already know and believe.” -- How People Learn

What they already “know” “Pay attention to incomplete understandings, false beliefs, and naïve renditions” -- How People Learn

“A common misconception “. . . is that teachers should never tell students anything directly.” -- How People Learn

Feedback -- How People Learn “. . . has long been identified as important . . . but it should not be regarded as a unidimensional concept.” -- How People Learn

“Frequent feedback – How People Learn, Bransford “is critical: students need to monitor their learning and actively evaluate their strategies and their current levels of understanding.” – How People Learn, Bransford

“Metacognitive processes and self-regulatory capabilities” “such strategies as predicting outcomes, planning ahead, apportioning one’s time” --How People Learn, Bransford

Circumstances differ, so “Place less reliance on traditional educational research.” -- Hirsch

Instead: “Flexible application of deep general principles.”

Meaningful “The familiar distinction between ‘rote learning’ and ‘meaningful learning’ is well grounded – if understood liberally.” -- Hirsch

Prior knowledge “a profound mistake . . . to suppose that skillful thinking can be mastered independently of . . . knowledge.” -- Hirsch

Attention determines learning “. . . concentrating an immense wealth of individual elements into a single symbol or name that can be attended to all at once.” -- Hirsch

Rehearsal necessary -- Hirsch “How long something will be remembered is typically determined by how often it has been attended to.” -- Hirsch

Automaticity -- Hirsch “Rehearsal . . . serves to make certain operations non-conscious and automatic.” -- Hirsch

Rehearsal (practice) If it just has the proper dispersal. You can get a good deal from rehearsal If it just has the proper dispersal. You would just be an ass To do it en masse: Your remembering would turn out much worsal. -- Neisser (Hirsch)

Implicit instruction of beginners less effective “Should students be immersed right away in complex situations that simulate real life? . . . Answer complex: both implicit and explicit.” -- Hirsch

Vocabulary development “Implicit is superior . . . since word acquisition occurs over a very long period . . . (but) explicitly learning a few foundational words is much faster.” -- Hirsch

Powerful Learning fairly accurate but not complete. Continuing challenge is how make school learning more like natural learning.

Research on learning – How People Learn “. . . that has implications for the design of formal instructional environments.” – How People Learn

Now what do you think? How can we use it? What do we know about learning, and How can we use it?

Knowledge about learning Applies to: My own learning Your learning Other educators Policy makers and the public.

Can “the new science of learning” help our whole society understand and support powerful learning?

Circumstances differ, so: “Flexible application of deep general principles.”