Strategies for Meaningful Learning

By: Amy Gimino, Ph.D.Associate ProfessorDepartment of Education, Graduate & Pedagogical Studies

Setting the Stage: “The 5 minute University.”

http://videosrv6.cs.washington.edu/general/5minuteU.wmv http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO8x8eoU3L4

Setting the stage

What main point about teaching and learning is made in the 5 minute university clip?Do you agree? Disagree? Why or why not?

Defining Learning

The goal(s) of learning are to …. Store information in Long-term Memory “Acquire information that can be used as

conceptual tools to facilitate subsequent problem solving.”

Types of KnowledgeSchneider & Shiffrin (1977)

Controlled, Conscious,Conceptual or “declarative”

(e.g., ideas, facts, events, relations, knowledge that)

HippocampusApproximately 30%

Automated, UnconsciousProcedural

(e.g., skills, how to..)Neostratum

Approximately 70%

Metacognitive

Key Questions

What is the difference between the processes we used to acquire information that we still remember versus information that we have forgotten? and

What can teachers do help students learn information (i.e., commit it to LTM and effectively utilize it for future problem solving) ?

The Information Processing Model

Short-term

Sensory StoreWorking Memory Long-term

Memory

Short-term Sensory Store (STSS)A.K.A. “Sensory Register”

What do we know about STSS? Environmental input

(information) enters through our 5 senses

Information only lasts a matter of seconds.

We must attend to information in order for it to move to working memory.

Working MemoryA.K.A. “Short-term Memory” What do we know about WM? Center of Consciousness – where we “think”,

apply strategies, problem solve, and put forth mental effort to process conceptual knowledge and practice procedural-type knowledge.

Limited in Duration (without applying learning strategies, info lasts approximately 20 – 30 seconds and then is “forgotten”)

Limited in Capacity (Miller’s 1957 study found it can hold approximately 7 +- 2 bits of meaningful “chunks” of conceptual knowledge at a time)

Working MemoryA.K.A. “Short-term Memory” (Cont.) How does one overcome duration and

capacity limitations? By using strategies By developing elaborate networks of

schemas (categories and subcategories of knowledge) specifying relationships

By automating procedural knowledge (for info consult Anderson’s 1995 ACT-R theory)

Long Term Memory

What do we know about LTM? Our permanent store of factual, conceptual and

procedural (domain specific, general and metacognitive) knowledge in organized structures.

Well organized knowledge (e.g., chunked by “Big Ideas” and Schemas) promotes prompt retrieval

Both the developing brain and the mature brain are structurally altered when learning occurs. (e.g., it is Initially affected by the overproduction and loss of synapses, and then by the addition and modification of synapses)

Note: LTM can be lost due to senility, physical condition or brain damage.

Learning Information

How do we move information into Long-Term Memory?

If Declarative (Conceptual) Rehearsal (Repetition) only extends the amount of

time information remains in Working Memory Elaboration (connecting new information with prior

knowledge) Organization (sorting, categorizing, grouping or

representing information in meaningful ways)

Learning Information (Cont).

Directions: Read the following passage and see how much you can remember:

The procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange things into different groups depending on their make-up. Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities that is the next step, otherwise you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo any particular endeavor. That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many. In the short run this may not seem important, but complications from doing too many can easily arise. A mistake can be expensive as well. The manipulation of the appropriate mechanisms should be self-explanatory, and we need not dwell on it here. At first the whole procedure will seem complicated. Soon, however, it will become just another facet of life. It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but then one never can tell. (p. 722)

Learning Information (Cont).

Directions: Re-read the passage with the title “Washing Clothes” in Mind

The procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange things into different groups depending on their make-up. Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities that is the next step, otherwise you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo any particular endeavor. That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many. In the short run this may not seem important, but complications from doing too many can easily arise. A mistake can be expensive as well. The manipulation of the appropriate mechanisms should be self-explanatory, and we need not dwell on it here. At first the whole procedure will seem complicated. Soon, however, it will become just another facet of life. It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but then one never can tell. (p. 722)

Learning Information (Cont.)

Directions: Read the following list of letters once. Then without looking at the screen, attempt to write out this list (in order) on a separate sheet of paper

FB IMT VU SAHB OC IA

Learning Information (Cont.)

Now let’s look at another list. Read this list onceand then without looking at the screen try to write

down all the letters you can remember in order. FBI MTV USA HBO CIA

Learning Information (Cont).

Visual Organizational Structures

1. Sequences: Use for Indicating Steps, Stages, Phases, Cycles etc.

Sensorimotor Preoperational Concrete Formal

2. Hierarchies: Use for Indicating Kinds of, Types of, Parts of, Groups of, Characteristics of, Perspectives of, etc.

3. Matrices: Use for comparing and contrasting information

4. Diagrams: Use to show visual relationships.

Learning Information

How do we move information into Long-Term Memory?

If Procedural Practice the steps until they become

automatic

The Information Processing Model

Short-term

Sensory StoreWorking Memory

Long-termMemory

Input

LossForgetting

Attention

(P.K.)Practice

(D.K)Elaboration

Organization

Maintenance

Rehearsal

A few words on Expertise

Experts … Are made, not born Are metacognitive and deliberate in their actions Continually monitor their comprehension continue to pursue novel, challenging problems Continue to seek clarification and precision (by asking

higher level questions such as how, why and under what conditions?)

Continue to invest significant amounts of mental effort over time.

Implications

What are the implications of the “5 minute university,” the Information Processing Model and your readings for …

(1) Curriculum Design(2) Instructional Design (Pedagogy)(3) Assessing Learning(4) Life-long Learning?

Some Additional Research

In 1956, Benjamin Bloom headed a group of educational psychologists who developed a classification of levels of intellectual behavior important in learning. Bloom found that over 95 % of the test questions students encounter require them to think only at the lowest possible level...basic recall. The same holds true for the types of questions teacher ask during instruction.

Refer to handout “Task oriented question construction wheel”

John Sweller’s cognitive Load theory and instructional design

John Sweller (Australia), Fred Paas (Netherlands) and Alexander Renkl (Germany) have develop an extensive theory on how to reduce cognitive load to overcome working memory limitations.

For further information, visit:

http://homepages.nyu.edu/~jpd247/2251/readings/paas_renkl_sweller_2003.pdf

Further Resources for Planning Instruction and/or Assessing Learning

1. Applying Bloom’s Taxonomyhttp://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/cogsys/bloom.html

2. Utilizing the Information Processing Approach in the Classroom

3. The Lesson Plans Page

http://www.lessonplanspage.com

4. Ask ERIC Lesson Plans

http://www.eduref.org/Virtual/Lessons/index.shtml

http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/cogsys/infoproc.html

Further Resources for Life-long Learning Dembo, M. & Seli, H. (2008) Motivation and

learning strategies for college Success: A self-management approach (3rd Ed.). Maywah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum & Associates.

Weinstein, C.E. & Hume, L.M. (1998). Study strategies for lifelong learning. American Psychology Association: Psychology in the classroom series.