The Constructive Alignment of Educational Technology and

Cognitive Neuroscience

William A. Kennedy, Ph.D., DirectorCenter for Teaching, Learning, and

Faculty DevelopmentMichigan Technological University

Design Decisions

• Encourage two-way dialogue• Short time-frame• Detailed explanation of complex mechanics of

memory systems not possible• Desire to provide information participants can

use• References for those who are interested in

delving more deeply

Learning and Memory

• Learning means acquiring new information• Memory means retaining it so that it can be

used

The Classroom Crisis

• #1 cause of high school dropout – sheer boredom (Gates HS study)

• Digital Natives being forced into the analog world of the Digital Immigrants

• Students immerse themselves in digitally mediated world outside of world – constantly stimulated, in-touch, and actively participating

• Lectures are excruciatingly slow, repetitious, irrelevant, and unbelievably one-sided affairs

“Why Not Try A Scientific Approach to Education?” Carl Wieman

1. Lectures don’t work – our expectations of student learning don’t square with neuroscience

2. Students master no more than 30% of basic concepts in lecture-based classes

3. The average physics student thinks more like a novice after completing their first course in physics than when they began

Change, Sept/Oct 2007

To get us going

• Learning and Memory in Everyday Life

• Top Ten Tips for a Better Memory

Top Ten Tips

1. We learn and retain more when we pay full attention.

2. Associating new ideas with existing memories facilitates storage and recall.

3. Associating words and numbers with pictures facilitates memory

4. Practice makes perfect, within reasonable limits

Top Ten Tips

5. Reading critically important information out loud helps to encode that information aurally as well as visually.

6. Offload routine memory tasks to planners, Post-its, calendars, etc. The idea of a “cluttered mind” may have some merit.

7. Retrieval is aided by recalling events or locations associated with the desired memory.

Top Ten Tips

8. Learning requires adequate sleep time. 2/3 of Americans are sleep deprived

9. Mnemonics work.10. Retrieval can often be triggered by moving

on to another task. Concentrating hard in high anxiety situation usually doesn’t help

Memory Friendly Practices

1. Keep Full Attention2. Encourage Association3. Use Pictures with Words4. Build in Repetition and

Opportunity for Drill5. Encourage Reading Out

Loud6. Reduce Clutter – Keep

Key Points in Foreground

7. Provide Context – Rich Narratives – Many Examples

8. Encourage learning in short sessions

9. Employ mnemonics10. Provide cues and

practice retrieval

Practices that Encourage Learning, Memory, and Retrieval

1. Getting and Maintaining Attention

2. Encourage Association with Existing Ideas

Practices that Encourage Learning, Memory, and Retrieval

3. Use Multi-Media 4. Build in Drill

Practices that Encourage Learning, Memory, and Retrieval

5. Encourage Reading Out Loud 6. Reduce Clutter

Practices that Encourage Learning, Memory, and Retrieval

7. Provide Rich Context8. Encourage Short Session Learning

Practices that Encourage Learning, Memory, and Retrieval

9. Employ Mnemonics10. Provide retrieval cues and opportunities for practice

Beyond the Basics

• More has been learned about the brain and how it works in the last 30 years than in all of human history

• Since educators are in the business of helping students change their brains in productive ways, it’s essential that we incorporate beneficial findings into our practices

• There are many accessible paths….

The Art of Changing the Brain

• James Zull, teaching center director at Case Western.

• Great introduction to contemporary neuroscience

• Laden with case studies

Memory: From Mind to Molecules

• Squire and Kandel• Excellent introduction to

cognitive neuroscience by two of its modern pioneers

• How learning occurs on the microscopic and macroscopic levels

The Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are

• Joseph LeDoux• Excellent discussion of the

role of emotion on cognition• Lively, well-written survey

of modern cognitive neuroscience with an emphasis on fear conditioning.

On Intelligence

• Artifical intelligence expert Jeff Hawkins offers a hypothesis of human learning and intelligence that is getting traction with mainstream neuroscientists

• Humans as “pattern seeking” beings

Learner-Centered Teaching

• Maryellen Weimer1.Balance of Power2.Function of Content3.Role of the Teacher4.Responsibility for Learning5.Purpose and Processes of

Evaluation

Rethinking Learning• Hawkins, Jeff, On Intelligence, Henry Holt, 2004• LeDoux, Joseph, Synaptic Self: How Our Brains

Become Who We Are, Penguin, 2003• Squire, L, and Kandel, Eric, Memory: From Mind

to Molecules, Roberts & Company, 2008• Weimer, Maryellen, Learner-Centered Teaching:

Five Keys Changes to Practice, Jossey Bass, 2002• Zull, James, The Art of Changing the Brain:

Enriching the Practice of Teaching by Exploring the Biology of Learning, Stylus Publishing, 2002