1. 6.5: Learning Fads: Do They Work?

2. Objective(s): Evaluate popular techniques marketed to enhance learning.
Agenda: Bellwork, 6.5 notes and discussion, Closure
Bellwork:
Do you know of any trends in learning that have been used here?
Lesson #14

3. Sleep-Assisted Learning
Learning new material while asleep
Is it too good to be true?
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
Positive reports, at first
Were people actually awake?
Ruling out rival hypothesis
Sleep-Assisted Learning

4. Superlearning or Suggestive Accelerative Learning and Teaching Techniques (SALTT)
Supposedly allow people to pick up new information at anywhere from 25 to several hundred times their normal learning speeds
Relies on a mixture of techniques—setting expectations, visualization, playing classical music, breathing techniques while learning
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence
Rule out rival hypothesis—placebo effect
Accelerated Learning

5. Giving students experimental materials and asking them to figure out the scientific principles on their own
Versus
Direct instruction-delivering the information directly to the students
May encourage students to learn how to pose scientific questions on their own
Bad idea for people with weak cognitive skills
Discovery Learning

6. Learning Styles A preferred means of acquiring information
Boosting leaning by matching different methods of instruction to students learning styles
Verbal, spatial, auditory, kinesthetic, etc…
Has not stood the test of careful research
We are a blend of different learning styles
Research shows that approaches to teaching work best
Learning Styles

7. Have you ever tried a learning fad discussed?
Closure