How People Learn: A Scientist’s Perspective

Jose Mestre

Departments of Physics and Educational Psychology

University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign

Backdrop

The National Research Council has released 2 reports:

1) How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School.

2) How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice.

Today's presentation

• Provide an overview of findings from the How People Learn report related to teaching & learning in science/engineering.

• Do an activity with you to illustrate some of the points covered in the report.

• Link overview to activity.

The Nature of Expertise

Research with experts & novices reveals marked differences in the way they store, and apply knowledge.

Expertise: Knowledge Acquisition & Organization

• Experts have a rich knowledge base that is hierarchically organized.

• Experts notice and remember large amounts of complex information in their domain of expertise after short exposures to a new situation (“called chunking”).

Classic Studies with Chess Masters

• Electronic Technicians

• Computer Programmers

Expertise: Knowledge Acquisition & Organization

• Expertise in one area does not transfer to another area; expertise is context-bound.

• The more you know about a topic the easier it is to learn more about that topic.

Expertise: Knowledge Application

• Experts’ knowledge is linked to conditions of applicability.

• Experts cue on the major idea needed to solve a problem.

Classic Studies with Physics Novices & Experts

• Novices : • “These are inclined

plane problems”• Experts: • “This can be viewed as a

work-energy problem” (Chi, Feltovich and Glaser, 1981).

Summary of what we know about the nature of expertise

• Experts have well-organized knowledge -- not just “problem solving” strategies; their knowledge is organized to support understanding (qualitative before quantitative) and it is “conditionalized” for use. Experts have fluent access to their knowledge. Such knowledge is acquired over time and depends on multiple, contextualized experiences.

• Implications -- “wisdom” can’t be taught directly and instruction must be directed towards the gradual acquisition of understanding & expertise.

Implications for Teaching

• Being an expert in a topic does not imply you are effective at teaching that topic. You also have to be an expert on teaching that topic (pedagogical techniques are also bound to context). Hence, need content expertise and pedagogical content knowledge.

Implications for Teaching

• Teaching the content of a discipline without helping the learner organize that content is not optimal for learning.

Transfer of Learning

The transfer of learning from one context to another is neither trivial, nor automatic.

Transfer Experiment A general wishes to capture a fortress in the center of a country. There

are many roads radiating outward from the fortress. All roads have been mined so that while small groups of men can pass over the roads safely, a large force will detonate the mines. A full-scale direct attack is therefore impossible. The general’s solution is to divide his army into small groups, send each to the head of a different road, and have the groups converge simultaneously on the fortress.

You are a doctor faced with a patient who has a malignant tumor in the stomach. It is impossible to operate on the patient, but unless the tumor is destroyed, the patient will die. There is a kind of ray that may be used to destroy the tumor. If the rays reach the tumor all at once and with sufficient high intensity, the tumor will be destroyed, but surrounding tissue may be damaged as well. At lower intensities, the rays are harmless to healthy tissue, but they will not affect the tumor either. What type of procedure might be used to destroy the tumor with the rays, and at the same time avoid destroying the healthy tissue?

Few college students could solve the second problem on their own. When told to use information from first, >90% were able to solve it.

Transfer

• Transfer is facilitated by knowing the multiple contexts under which an idea applies (i.e., effective transfer is inextricably tied to conditions for applicability, rote learning rarely transfers).

• New learning depends on previous learning and previous learning often interferes with what you are trying to teach.

Some Analogs to the Fish is Fish Story

• Young children who believe the earth is flat….• Physics students who assume “force of the

hand” when a ball is thrown into the air.• Student beliefs that history is about the “good

guys” vs the “bad guys.” • Students’ (of different ages) beliefs about

seasons -- distance from sun not tilt.

Implications for Teaching

• When teaching science, place emphasis on the multiple contexts to which major concepts apply.

• To facilitate transfer, encourage verbalization of why a concept applies to a given context.

• Probe for pre-conceptions that may interfere, or support, learning and transfer.

Let’s illustrate these ideas by engaging in a simple

physics activity

Vote for A, B, or C if you think race results in a tie.

I will ask for volunteers to explain the reasoning leading to your selection.

Let’s now consider a slightly different scenario

Explanation for why ball B wins race

Vote for A, B, or C if you think race results in a tie.

I will ask for volunteers to explain the reasoning leading to your selection.

Aside: learners are embedded in social context

• Story of what happened during the NRC presentation of this talk: Argument for which ball should win the V-track race presented by science writer relying on social context.

Link Between Mini-Lecture and Activity

• Learners use their current knowledge to construct new knowledge. Effective instruction must take into account what learners bring to the classroom. Active engagement in learning supports the construction of knowledge.

• Learners should be assisted in developing strategies for monitoring and correcting their own thinking (metacognitive strategies).

• Learners learn more efficiently and effectively when they are provided with feedback to help them monitor progress.

• Students are not blank slates, so instruction should begin with students’ current knowledge and skills.

Link Between Mini-Lecture and Activity• Instruction should help students organize knowledge in ways that

are efficient for recall and for application to solving problems.• Instruction should focus on helping students gain deep

understanding of the major concepts and principles, rather than the acquisition of disconnected facts and skills.

• Formative assessment (assessment done during the course of instruction to monitor students’ progress and to foster learning) makes thinking visible to the learner, the instructor, and other students, and is pivotal for providing feedback to improve the quality of their thinking.

• Summative assessments (assessments done at the end of instruction for purposes of evaluating learning and competence) should reflect the knowledge, concepts, principles, and problem solving & lab skills of the discipline.

• Learners are embedded in social contexts.

Summary Points

• There is an emerging science of learning• It has major implications for all aspects of

schooling -- curriculum, instruction, assessment, plus preservice and inservice teacher education

• It provides a basis for knowing when, how and why to use various instructional strategies

• It can guide the intelligent design and use of new curricular materials as well as information technologies