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Last week we discussed how to move students from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset as well as how to address misconceptions in the classroom. In this next segment, we will begin to uncover how students learn both new information and information that conflicts with what they already know.
We will also be exploring how to help students with contextual learning and the transfer of learning from one application to another as well as to commit this information to their long-term stores. Principles 3, 4 and 5 of the “Top 20 Principles from Psychology for Prek-12 Teaching and Learning” (APA, 2015) aim to help teachers understand why it is important to facilitate learning across contexts as well as how to help students use higher level thinking and reasoning skills. Principle 3 – Students’ cognitive development and learning are not limited by general stages of development. For the longest time, it was believed that students’ knowledge and reasoning was based solely on age (or grade). However, this simply is not the case. Student knowledge and their ability to reason is based on something called schemas. Schemas, simply put, are like file folders in the brain. People (throughout the lifespan) are continually adapting and taking in new information as they experience and encounter new things. As we take in new information, our brain “files” it for future reference. For example, a young boy might develop a schema for a cow. The boy knows that the cow is an animal, is big, and has four legs. The brain creates a new file folder – “cow”. The boy might see a horse for the first time the next day and initially call it a cow. It fits in with what he already knows – animal, big, four legs. However, the child’s parent will most likely correct the child and tell them that it is not a cow, but a horse. The child will “edit” their file folder for cow and make a “new” file folder for horse. Point being – the more schemas or “file folders” a child has and the more information they have in their “file folders”, the more they will be able to think and reason at a higher level. This is not determined by age alone. So how can teachers help their students use higher level thinking and reasoning? There are a lot of different strategies teachers can use. However, the following have been found to be tried and true:
There’s always something teachers can do for a student. It may not be easy but there’s always an intervention out there to help students reach their full potential. It might take a combination of efforts but learning and understanding is possible for every child. Additional Resources Classroom Management: Why You Must Pretest Your Students http://www.teachhub.com/classroom-management-why-you-must-pretest-your-students Six Traits of Quality Pre-Assessments https://www.byrdseed.com/six-traits-of-quality-pre-assessments/ Zone of Proximal Development https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Im_GrCgrVA Teaching Strategies that Enhance Higher-Order Thinking http://www.teachhub.com/teaching-strategies-enhance-higher-order-thinking Principle 4 – Learning is based on context, so generalizing learning to new contexts is not spontaneous but instead needs to be facilitated. Students learn in context but need help transferring and using this information in other settings. For example, students might learn about ratios in math class (context = school subject) but need to be assisted in transferring this knowledge to science class where they need to mix two chemicals together in a 2:1 ratio. Technically, the reasoning is the same, but students won’t automatically make the connection between the two. It needs to be facilitated by teachers. The quality of learning is said to be linked to a student’s ability to transfer their learning to other settings and contexts. How can teachers help facilitate their students’ learning across varying contexts? Research shows us that it is very important to teach a topic in multiple contexts (like the ratio example above). It is not enough to simply teach a math lesson on ratios and expect it to trickle down into all other areas of the student’s life. It is also essential to help students make their own connections between what they already know and what you want them to know. Application of concepts to the real world is very important. If a student does not have the ability to apply what they already know, what is the point in having that knowledge in the first place? Again, by teaching in multiple contexts, using multiple different examples, and by helping students apply their knowledge to the real world, you can give them their best chance at success. Additional Resources Contextualized Learning: Teaching Made Highly Effective! https://www.efrontlearning.com/blog/2017/06/contextualized-learning-effective-elearning.html The Real Stuff of Schooling: How to Teach Students to Apply Knowledge https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/03/24/the-real-stuff-of-schooling-how-to-teach-students-to-apply-knowledge/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.86c51b1b9ee6 Top 12 Ways to Bring the Real World Into Your Classroom http://www.teachhub.com/top-12-ways-bring-real-world-your-classroom What is “Transfer of Learning” and How Does it Help Students? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8QfkT8L9lo&feature=youtu.be Principle 5 – Acquiring long-term knowledge and skill is largely dependent on practice. It is not enough to simply give our students knowledge by teaching lessons. Teachers need to actively be engaging students in practicing and using that knowledge in order to transfer the learned material from their short-term/working memory into their long-term memory stores. The key? PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. But not just any practice. Thoughtful, deliberate, engaging practice over time. Research shows that through this type of practice, students become more motivated. They are able to transfer their learning to more difficult tasks. They are more likely to be able to retrieve the information in the future and the skills and application become more automatic. What if students aren’t motivated? What if they don’t want to practice? Let’s be honest, practice isn’t always fun. Students might not enjoy practicing as much as they need to in order to reach the goals described above. However, teachers can help this process by showing them how much they can improve by practicing, praise them for their efforts, and give graduated practice problems (give easier ones first and progressively increase their difficulty). Worksheets and practice tests are tried and true and provide structured practice. However, these can become monotonous and students might not actually be engaging with the material as much as they should be. By using open-ended questions on worksheets (or having students answer verbally to the class or with a partner), they have to know the information well enough to retrieve it, not just fill in a blank or select an answer from a multiple-choice list. Designing practice time and practice problems around what students already know and enjoy learning about is also a helpful strategy. Additional Resources Additional Resources: Making it Stick: Memorable Strategies to Enhance Learning http://www.ldonline.org/article/5602/ Effective Memory Strategies for Special Needs Children https://www.educationcorner.com/special-needs-memory-strategies.html Memory, Not Memories: Teaching for Long-Term Learning https://primarytimery.com/2017/09/16/memory-not-memories-teaching-for-long-term-learning/ Top 5 Strategies for Motivating Students https://www.lukewilcox.org/blog/2017/6/6/top-5-strategies-for-motivating-students Reference American Psychological Association, Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education (2015). Top 20 principles from psychology for preK-12 teaching and learning. Retrieved from: http://www.apa.org/ed/schools/cpse/top-twenty-principles.pdf A teacher’s role is so often viewed as teaching the factual information students need to know. What is often forgotten is that teachers also need to be teaching students the skills to think and learn on their own. In order to do this, teachers need to understand students on a personal level. How is learning happening? What is affecting my students’ learning? How do I better engage them in learning? The first 8 of the “Top 20 Principles from Psychology for Prek-12 Teaching and Learning” (APA, 2015) aim to answer just those questions. Over the next few weeks we will be dissecting a couple principles at a time to help teachers better understand the principles, offer advice for current educators and include some extra resources that may be of use. Without further ado…. Principle 1 – Students’ beliefs or perceptions about intelligence and ability affect their cognitive functioning and learning (American Psychological Association, 2015). Students typically employ one of two beliefs about themselves in regards to their successes and their failures. These beliefs can impact both their learning and cognition. Students who tend to believe their performance is based on their ability generally have what is called a “fixed mindset.” These students often shy away from taking on more difficult tasks as they are afraid of failing. They take criticism personally and when they fail, feel as though it is due to their lack of intelligence. On the flip side, students who have what is called a “growth mindset” are much more flexible, successful and enjoy taking on harder tasks to see how much they have learned. These students view their successes and their failures in terms of effort – if they fail it is because they did not try hard enough, not because they aren’t smart. This type of student welcomes constructive criticism more openly - it is a suggestion to do better next time, not a personal attack. Here’s a handy chart you are more than welcome to use for yourself or your classroom that outlines the differences between the two types of mindsets:  The next question is, what are the implications of this in the classroom? Often times teachers offer praise after a success in the classroom – “Wow, Tommy, you’re so smart!” Sometimes they may try to increase the self-esteem of lower-performing students by praising them when they answer very easy problems correctly. While both of these examples may seem like positive classroom practices, it actually can be very detrimental to the students involved. If teachers are constantly praising students for being smart, it is (perhaps inadvertently) encouraging students to employ a fixed mindset – success is based on intelligence. This is the opposite of what needs to happen. This doesn’t mean that teachers cannot praise their students – students still need encouragement and reassurance. However, teachers need to be careful and aware of their verbiage. A better approach would be to praise students based on their effort – “Wow, Tommy, you really worked hard on those math problems!” Or for those lower performing students who know they are behind or struggling – “Look how much you’ve improved from last week!” These types of phrases help students realize that with increased effort or by trying different strategies, outcomes can improve. This, in the long run, should foster a respect for the learning process and can help students find the motivation and perseverance to take on more difficult tasks. Additional Resources: Developing a Growth Mindset with Carol Dweck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiiEeMN7vbQ&feature=youtu.be Effective Effort Rubric https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/mindset-net-site/FileCenter/3JIQAYABR8M8GHQCQ05Q.pdf Growth Mindset: Clearing Up Some Common Confusions https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/42769/growth-mindset-clearing-up-some-common-confusions Free Printable Growth Mindset Posters for the Classroom https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/FREE-Growth-Mindset-Posters-for-the-Classroom-or-Bulletin-Board-3080287 Principle 2 – What students already know affects their learning. Students bring their own set of baggage into the classroom. Their past experiences with other teachers, their parents, social groups, etc. all have had an impact on them and their learning. This “baggage” determines how they will respond to new information and how they will incorporate the information into what they already know. There are two main routes to learning:
The first is pretty cut and dry. Conceptual growth is just teaching students new information. For example, students might know the moon is the moon but that is about it. Teachers can give a lesson on moon phases and move on. However, conceptual change can prove to be much more difficult. For example, a student might think the moon increases and decreases in size throughout the month. It will be more difficult to confront these misconceptions than to simply teach students about the moon’s phases. So, how do teachers know what their students already know and how should teachers address misconceptions? At the beginning of the school year or prior to the introduction of a new unit, teachers can give their students what is known as a “formative assessment.” In simple terms – a pre-test. This will allow teachers to gain a sense of what the student already knows as well as any misconceptions they may have about the topic. This can be a quick and effective way to get a baseline of students’ knowledge. When the pre-test shows that students do not have previous knowledge or misconceptions about a topic or lesson, teachers can simply go about lessons “as usual”. Hands-on activities, application activities, and reading/defining new terms are good starting points. When the pre-test shows that students might have misconceptions, a different approach is often necessary. Simply telling students what they know is wrong is not helpful and students often become resistant to any new learning or change. It is essential for students to be involved in the discovery process. If they can actively see their existing knowledge being disproved, they will a) remember the correct information longer and b) understand why their original thinking was incorrect. This can be done by having students predict answers and then assist them in doing more research to lead them to the correct answer. Another useful strategy is to ask students to explain their thought process. Often, they will realize the error in their thinking on their own. Additional Resources Teaching for Conceptual Change: Confronting Children’s Experience http://www.msuurbanstem.org/teamone/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/teachingforconceptualchange.pdf Conceptual Change: How New Ideas Take Root https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3a_4471DEU&feature=youtu.be Conceptual Change: Un-learn to Re-learn https://www.slideshare.net/jsgroff/conceptual-change-groff-14376146 Reference American Psychological Association, Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education (2015). Top 20 principles from psychology for preK-12 teaching and learning. Retrieved from: http://www.apa.org/ed/schools/cpse/top-twenty-principles.pdf What can teachers do to ensure their students’ success?
Teaching is complex. Teaching means having a super-human ability to multi-task and make snap-decisions left and right. Teaching is multi-faceted and a truly challenging job. Teachers are responsible for the cognitive, emotional, physical and social well-being of two to three dozen students at a time. With decreasing budget and increasing expectations, teachers are being put under the microscope and it can be difficult to know if what you’re doing really is working. Educational psychologists and learning development specialists have found that by incorporating perspectives from the psychological sciences, we can have a much better idea of how to teach students, how to set up the classroom in the most beneficial ways academically, socially and cognitively, and how to figure out if teaching strategies are working. Essentially, what it boils down to is – what needs to be done to (a) get kids excited about learning (b) teach them what they need to know academically and (c) help them become active, respectful citizens. Luckily for you, the American Psychological Association, in conjunction with the Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education, teamed up to bring us the “Top 20 Principles from Psychology for PreK-12 Teaching and Learning.” This article has been written in collaboration between experts ranging from educational psychologists, counselors, scientists, educators and more, making it extremely relevant and well-informed. This article aims to answer some of the most common and pressing questions teachers seem to have:
Bottom line is, these twenty principles should help teachers all over overcome some of the biggest challenges in the educational realm and help them become the best teachers they can be. The twenty principles are summarized here:
Over the next few weeks, we plan to dive deeper into the 20 Principles of Teaching & Learning by explaining each in depth, offering advice for current teachers and providing additional resources and information. Stay tuned! Reference: American Psychological Association, Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education. (2015). Top 20 principles from psychology for preK–12 teaching and learning. Retrieved from http:// www.apa.org/ed/schools/cpse/top-twenty-principles.pdf |