1. Modeling for Expert Learning Dr. Mok, Y.F.

2. Many university students do not study Their decoding is inefficient, making comprehension weak & difficult. effectively.

3. Decoding Comprehension Short-term Capacity Inefficient Decoding Automatic Decoding McCormick (1997)

4. Why don’t students use strategies/skills to help them learn? Because there are no challenging tasks; they think they have good enough skills; they have wrong beliefs about intellectual ability which affect their learning approach & effort. Learning approach & effort Beliefs about intellectual ability & factors of success

5. Research Findings Learning Strategies mastery learning self-efficacy learning competence cognitive competence motivation Research finds that the using of learning strategies are positively associated with different competencies & attributes:

6. Learning Strategies & Skills There are many strategies & skills that students can make use of to help their learning. Teachers can teach such strategies & skills in the classroom.

7. Critical Thinking Skills For example, teach students to: Distinguish facts from ideas Distinguish ideas Examine assumptions Distinguish relevant from irrelevant facts Make plausible inferences Supply evidence for a conclusion Recognize contradictions Explore implications & consequences Refine generalizations Paul, Binker & Charbonneau (1987)

8. Precise Terminology Or teach students terms that are important for different levels of thinking: Let’s look at these two pictures. What do you think will happen when …? How can you put into groups …? Let’s work this problem. compare predict classify analyze

9. What do you think of the story? How can you explain …? How do you know that’s true? How else could you use this…? conclude hypothesize give evidence apply Costa & Marzano (1985)

10. Thinking About Thinking Or teach students to monitor & check their own thinking: The answer is …  Describe the steps you took to arrive at that answer. I don’t know how to solve this problem.  What can you do to get started? I am ready to begin.  Describe your plan of action.

11. We’re memorizing our poems.  What do you do when you memorize? I like the large one best.  What criteria are you using to make your choice? I’m finished.  How do you know you are correct? Costa & Marzano (1985)

12. Tap on Your Skills, Strategies & Thinking ! There are so many skills & strategies, which ones are suitable to teach, how to teach, where to start? Take from your own repertoire of cognitive skills! Start from what you have learned & experienced before!

13. Think how you constructed the skills you use. How did / do you learn? How do you recognize problems? How you do things now versus how you did things earlier? With these, you can think how to teach those skills! Tap on Your Skills, Strategies & Thinking !

14. Think about the Students What learning strategies did they use well? What learning strategies did they not use well? What learning strategies would have helped them better?

15. General thinking & learning strategies Content Knowledge Subject domain skill & strategy instruction Research shows that:   ? ? Students’ learning is more effective if teachers’ teaching is about subject domain content knowledge coupled with skills & strategies that are significant in the subject domain.

16. Subject Domain: Knowledge Students: skills strategies Teachers: skills strategies Subject Domain: Epistemology* * how knowledge is constructed -- in the subject domain Hence, the teaching of learning strategies is based on :

17. Example Case (Chalmers & Fuller, 1996) Applied Science Problems of students  understanding,  engagement w/ the subject  knowledge integration  confront conflicting ideas  challenge critically

18. Goals of strategy teaching: Focus on acquiring & working with information Learning strategies that are helpful to students: Study & time management Identifying main points from lectures & readings Note making from text Writing summaries from notes Organizing ideas Generating questions Making concept maps