July 2001Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning 1 Teaching for Effective Learning: Teaching for Understanding

July 2001Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning 2 Is Learning Necessarily an Outcome of Teaching? “Cognitive research is revealing that even with what is taken to be a good instruction, many students, including academically talented ones, understand less than we think they do”

July 2001Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning 3 How is What Students Learn Influenced by Their Existing Ideas? preconceptions versus misconception reconstructing/reorganizing pedagogical content knowledge

July 2001Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning 4 How does Progression in Learning Usually Occur? from concrete to abstract –visual, auditory, tactile and kinesthetic –pictorial? –multiple representations –...

July 2001Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning 5 What and How do People Learn to Do Well? only what they practice doing thinking critically, analyzing information, communicating scientific ideas making logical arguments, working as a part of a team, acquiring other skills

July 2001Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning 6 Transfer Transfer can be defined as the ability to extend what has been learned in one context to new contexts = apply ideas in novel situations The quality of people’s learning experiences is dependent on the transfer

July 2001Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning 7 Key Characteristics of Learning and Transfer Initial learning Knowledge in context Abstract representations New learning involves transfer based on previous learning

July 2001Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning 8 Elements that Promote Initial Learning Understanding versus memorizing Time to learn Feedback Motivation

July 2001Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning 9 Other Factors that Influence Transfer Context - Transfer across contexts Multiple representations What is learned versus what is tested Abstracted representations Dynamic process Metacognition

July 2001Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning 10 All New Learning Involves Transfer Building on existing knowledge Understanding conceptual change Transfer and cultural practices Between school and everyday life Metacognitive approach

July 2001Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning 11 Critical dimensions of classrooms that promote understanding tasks tools norms structuring and applying knowledge reflection and articulation classroom norms developing sense of ownership

July 2001Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning 12 How is Performance Affected by Expectations success in learning - growth in confidence

July 2001Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning 13 How can Teaching Aim to Counteract Mathematics Learning Anxieties? “Understanding anything is never absolute and it takes many forms” build on success equity group learning Is mathematics is about finding things out?

July 2001Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning 14 Should Teaching Mathematics Stay within School? Extend beyond the school Rich resources of larger community Obstacles

July 2001Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning 15 What is the relationship between Teaching and TIME “more is more” or “less is more”? concepts must be offered periodically in different contexts and increasing levels of sophistication

July 2001Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning 16 This presentation was based on American Association for the Advancement of Science (1989). Science for all Americans: Project New York, NY: Oxford University Press National Research Council. (2000). How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. National Academy Press. Washington, D. C.