1. How do brain studies and cognitive science help us create an active learning environment?
Eugenia Etkina
Rutgers University, NJ,

2. Active Learning in Science

3. Investigative Science Learning Environment (ISLE) Etkina and Van Heuvelen, 2001
Observational experiments
Pattern
more
Explanation, mechanism, hypothesis, relation (need tools for this)
different
Revision
Prediction no
Testing experiments
Yes
More
Application

4. What is Learning?
Brain research

5. What is Learning? Brain research
Learning is a physical process that happens through activation and extension of neural networks

6. Learning and brain
J. Zull, The Art of Changing the Brain, 2002

9. Image formation has to precede the words.
Learning and brain
Image formation has to precede the words.
J. Zull, From Brain to Mind, 2011 9

11. Amygdala and Learning
Fear suppresses brain activity.

12. What does it mean for my classroom?
Learning starts with sensory experiences and ends with active testing.

13. 2. New concept starts with an image.

14. 3. Concept first – vocabulary second.

15. 4. Students connect new to
what they already know.

16. 5. You need to help them activate the right pathways.
Forces?

17. 5. You need to help them activate the right pathways.
system

18. 6. Create a “mistake rich”
environment.

19. Implications of brain studies for my students’ learning
Start with sensory experiences and end with active testing.
Image first.
Concept first – vocabulary second.
Connect new to what they already know.
Activate the right pathways.
No fear (mistake-rich environment).

20. Most important
Conceptual change has to be intentional

21. Key - motivation
Getting better at it Being “cool” or seeing “cool” Having meaning

22. Textbook reading Is reading “active learning”?
How to turn reading into active learning?
When should students read the textbook?
What are productive strategies to use?

23. Interrogation strategy
Why is this sentence true?
B. Smith et al. “Student’s comprehension of science textbooks using a question-based reading strategy,” 2009.

24. Low vs High Interrogatability
“The radian unit can be removed from an equation or multiplied in an equation with no consequence.“
“But like a figure skater, as the star’s core collapses and its mass moves closer to the axis of rotation, its rotational velocity increases.”

25. What is Learning? Cognitive research
Learning is a social process that happens when learners working together activate and build on existing resources

26. Learning and teaching of any subject
How do we apply this?
Brain research
Cognitive research
Learning is physical process that happens through activation and extension of neural networks
Learning is a social process that happens when learners working together activate and build on existing resources
Learning and teaching of any subject

27. What does it mean for my classroom?
Work with your partner to make a list of things that you do or you think you need to do to help your students actively construct knowledge in your classroom

28. What does it mean for my classroom?
We need to reconsider what we do (teaching vs learning).
We need to reconsider what students bring into the classroom (misconceptions vs ideas to build on).
We need to reconsider the role of a textbook (source of authority vs a tool to make sense and connections).

29. Thank you!