Strategies for Meaningful Learning

1. Strategies for Meaningful Learning By: Amy Gimino, Ph.D. Associate Professor Department of Education, Graduate & Pedagogical Studies

2. Setting the Stage: “The 5 minute University.” http://videosrv6.cs.washington.edu/general/5minuteU.wmv http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO8x8eoU3L4

3. 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?

4. 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.”

5. Types of KnowledgeSchneider & Shiffrin (1977) Controlled, Conscious, Conceptual or “declarative” (e.g., ideas, facts, events, relations, knowledge that) Hippocampus Approximately 30% Automated, Unconscious Procedural (e.g., skills, how to..) Neostratum Approximately 70% Metacognitive

6. 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) ?

7. The Information Processing Model Short-term Sensory Store Long-term Memory Working Memory

8. 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.

9. 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)

10. 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)

11. 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.

12. 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)

13. 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)

14. 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)

15. 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

16. Learning Information (Cont.) Now let’s look at another list. Read this list once and then without looking at the screen try to write down all the letters you can remember in order. • FBI • MTV • USA • HBO • CIA

17. 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.

18. Learning Information How do we move information into Long-Term Memory? • If Procedural • Practice the steps until they become automatic

19. The Information Processing Model Maintenance Rehearsal (D.K) Elaboration Organization Attention Input Short-term Sensory Store Long-term Memory Working Memory (P.K.) Practice Forgetting Loss

20. 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.

21. Implications What are the implications of the “5 minute university,” the Information Processing Model and your readings for … • Curriculum Design • Instructional Design (Pedagogy) • Assessing Learning • Life-long Learning?

22. 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”

23. 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

24. Further Resources for Planning Instruction and/or Assessing Learning • Applying Bloom’s Taxonomy http://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

25. 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.