MPTL
General Concepts of Learning
New ideas about ways to facilitate learning—and about who is most capable of learning
—can powerfully affect the quality of people's lives. Many people who had difficulty in
school might have prospered if the new ideas about effective instructional practices had
been available. Furthermore, given new instructional practices, even those who did well
in traditional educational environments might have developed skills, knowledge, and
attitudes that would have significantly enhanced their achievements. Learning research
suggests that there are new ways to introduce students to traditional subjects, such as
mathematics, science, history and literature, and that these new approaches make it
possible for the majority of individuals to develop a deep understanding of important
subject matter. There is hope that new approaches can make it possible for a majority
of individuals to develop a moderate to deep understanding of important subjects. New
approaches include -Learning with understanding -Preexisting knowledge -Active
Learning (metacognition)
Three Principles of Learning
"The following three principles have strong implications for how we teach.
Students come to the classroom with preconceptions about how the world works. If their
initial understanding is not engaged, they may fail to grasp the new concepts and
information that are taught, or they may learn them for purposes of a test but revert to
their preconceptions outside the classroom. To develop competence in an area of
inquiry, students must: have a deep foundation of factual knowledge, (b) understand
facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and (c) organize knowledge in
ways that facilitate retrieval and application. A "metacognitive" approach to instruction
can help students learn to take control of their own learning by defining learning goals
and monitoring their progress in achieving them.Implications for Teaching
Teachers must draw out and work with the preexisting understandings that their
students bring with them. Teachers must teach some subject matter in depth, providing
many examples in which the same concepts is at work and providing firm foundations
for factual knowledge. The teaching of metacognitive skills should be integrated into the
curriculum in a variety of subject areas.
"
Expertise
"How Experts Differ from Novices
-People who are experts are able to think effectively in the areas they are experts in.
- Understanding expertise is important because it provides insights into the nature of
thinking
and problem solving.
-Expertise is more than general abilities like memory or intelligence. Instead, experts
have acquired extensive knowledge that affects what they notice and how they
organize, represent, and interpret information in their environment, in turn, affecting their
abilities to remember, reason, and solve problems.
,-This chapters focuses on the development of expertise considering the following
principles:
1. Experts notice features and meaningful patterns of information that are not noticed by
novices.
2. Experts have acquired a great deal of content knowledge that is organized in ways
that reflect a deep understanding of their subject matter.
3. Experts' knowledge cannot be reduced to sets of isolated facts or propositions but,
instead, reflects contexts of applicability: that is, the knowledge is "conditionalized" on a
set of circumstances.
4. Experts are able to flexibly retrieve important aspects of their knowledge with little
attentional effort.
5. Though experts know their disciplines thoroughly, this does not guarantee that they
are able to teach others.
6. Experts have varying levels of flexibility in their approach to new situations.
"
Transfer
"- A major goal of schooling is to prepare students for flexible adaptation to new
problems and settings.
- The ability of students to transfer provides an important index of learning that can help
teachers evaluate and improve their instruction. However, much testing only measures
learning as memory for information rather than mastery.
- Instructional differences become more apparent when evaluated from the perspective
of how well the learning transfers to new problems and settings.
- Several critical features of learning affect people's abilities to transfer what they have
learned.
- Opportunities to use knowledge to create products and benefits for others are
particularly motivating for students.
- Time spent learning for understanding has different consequences for transfer than
time spent simply memorizing facts or procedures from textbooks or lectures.
-In order for learners to gain insight into their learning and their understanding, frequent
feedback is critical: students need to monitor their learning and actively evaluate their
strategies and their current levels of understanding.
- Knowledge that is taught in only a single context is less likely to support flexible
transfer than knowledge that is taught in multiple contexts.
- Using multiple contexts, students are more likely to abstract the relevant features of
concepts and
develop a more flexible representation of knowledge
- The use of well-chosen contrasting cases can help students learn the conditions under
which new
knowledge is applicable.
- Abstract representations of problems can also facilitate transfer.
-In assessing learning, the key is increased speed of learning the concepts underlying
the new material.
- All new learning involves transfer.
-Previous knowledge can help or hinder the understanding of new information.
- Teachers can help students change their original conceptions by helping students
, make their thinking visible so that misconceptions can be corrected and so that students
can be encouraged to think beyond the specific problem or to think about variations on
the problem.
- One aspect of previous knowledge that is extremely important for understanding
learning is cultural practices
that support learners' prior knowledge.
-Effective teaching supports positive transfer by actively identifying the relevant
knowledge and strengths that
students bring to a learning situation and building on them
- Transfer from school to everyday environments is the ultimate purpose of school-
based learning.
- An analysis of everyday environments provides opportunities to rethink school
practices in order to bring them into alignment with the requirements of everyday
environments; however, it is important to avoid instruction that is overly dependent on
context.
-Helping learners choose, adapt, and invent tools for solving problems is one way to
facilitate transfer while also encouraging flexibility.
- A metacognitive approach to teaching can increase transfer by helping students learn
about themselves as learners in the context of acquiring content knowledge.
"
Alternative Perspective/Definition of learning
Learning is a multidimensional process that results in a relatively enduring change in a
person or persons, and consequently how that person or persons will perceive the world
and reciprocally respond to its affordances physically, psychologically, and socially. The
process of learning has as its foundation the systemic, dynamic, and interactive relation
between the nature of the learner and the object of the learning as ecologically situated
in a given time and place as well as over time.
Nine core concepts about the human nature of learning
"Principle 1: Learning Is Change
Principle 2: Learning Is Inevitable, Essential, and Ubiquitous
Principle 3: Learning Can Be Resisted
Principle 4: Learning May Be Disadvantageous
Principle 5: Learning Can Be Tacit and Incidental as Well as Conscious and Intentional
Principle 6: Learning Is Framed by Our Humanness
Principle 7: Learning Refers to Both a Process and a Product
Principle 8: Learning Is Different at Different Points in Time
Principle 9: Learning Is Interactional
"
Framing the Nature of Learning
"Specifically, we assert that any comprehensive theoretical
perspective of learning should be constituted of at least four
dimensions that are continuously interwoven and interactive,
represented by the what, where, who, and when of learning.
"
Scientific Nature of Learning
General Concepts of Learning
New ideas about ways to facilitate learning—and about who is most capable of learning
—can powerfully affect the quality of people's lives. Many people who had difficulty in
school might have prospered if the new ideas about effective instructional practices had
been available. Furthermore, given new instructional practices, even those who did well
in traditional educational environments might have developed skills, knowledge, and
attitudes that would have significantly enhanced their achievements. Learning research
suggests that there are new ways to introduce students to traditional subjects, such as
mathematics, science, history and literature, and that these new approaches make it
possible for the majority of individuals to develop a deep understanding of important
subject matter. There is hope that new approaches can make it possible for a majority
of individuals to develop a moderate to deep understanding of important subjects. New
approaches include -Learning with understanding -Preexisting knowledge -Active
Learning (metacognition)
Three Principles of Learning
"The following three principles have strong implications for how we teach.
Students come to the classroom with preconceptions about how the world works. If their
initial understanding is not engaged, they may fail to grasp the new concepts and
information that are taught, or they may learn them for purposes of a test but revert to
their preconceptions outside the classroom. To develop competence in an area of
inquiry, students must: have a deep foundation of factual knowledge, (b) understand
facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and (c) organize knowledge in
ways that facilitate retrieval and application. A "metacognitive" approach to instruction
can help students learn to take control of their own learning by defining learning goals
and monitoring their progress in achieving them.Implications for Teaching
Teachers must draw out and work with the preexisting understandings that their
students bring with them. Teachers must teach some subject matter in depth, providing
many examples in which the same concepts is at work and providing firm foundations
for factual knowledge. The teaching of metacognitive skills should be integrated into the
curriculum in a variety of subject areas.
"
Expertise
"How Experts Differ from Novices
-People who are experts are able to think effectively in the areas they are experts in.
- Understanding expertise is important because it provides insights into the nature of
thinking
and problem solving.
-Expertise is more than general abilities like memory or intelligence. Instead, experts
have acquired extensive knowledge that affects what they notice and how they
organize, represent, and interpret information in their environment, in turn, affecting their
abilities to remember, reason, and solve problems.
,-This chapters focuses on the development of expertise considering the following
principles:
1. Experts notice features and meaningful patterns of information that are not noticed by
novices.
2. Experts have acquired a great deal of content knowledge that is organized in ways
that reflect a deep understanding of their subject matter.
3. Experts' knowledge cannot be reduced to sets of isolated facts or propositions but,
instead, reflects contexts of applicability: that is, the knowledge is "conditionalized" on a
set of circumstances.
4. Experts are able to flexibly retrieve important aspects of their knowledge with little
attentional effort.
5. Though experts know their disciplines thoroughly, this does not guarantee that they
are able to teach others.
6. Experts have varying levels of flexibility in their approach to new situations.
"
Transfer
"- A major goal of schooling is to prepare students for flexible adaptation to new
problems and settings.
- The ability of students to transfer provides an important index of learning that can help
teachers evaluate and improve their instruction. However, much testing only measures
learning as memory for information rather than mastery.
- Instructional differences become more apparent when evaluated from the perspective
of how well the learning transfers to new problems and settings.
- Several critical features of learning affect people's abilities to transfer what they have
learned.
- Opportunities to use knowledge to create products and benefits for others are
particularly motivating for students.
- Time spent learning for understanding has different consequences for transfer than
time spent simply memorizing facts or procedures from textbooks or lectures.
-In order for learners to gain insight into their learning and their understanding, frequent
feedback is critical: students need to monitor their learning and actively evaluate their
strategies and their current levels of understanding.
- Knowledge that is taught in only a single context is less likely to support flexible
transfer than knowledge that is taught in multiple contexts.
- Using multiple contexts, students are more likely to abstract the relevant features of
concepts and
develop a more flexible representation of knowledge
- The use of well-chosen contrasting cases can help students learn the conditions under
which new
knowledge is applicable.
- Abstract representations of problems can also facilitate transfer.
-In assessing learning, the key is increased speed of learning the concepts underlying
the new material.
- All new learning involves transfer.
-Previous knowledge can help or hinder the understanding of new information.
- Teachers can help students change their original conceptions by helping students
, make their thinking visible so that misconceptions can be corrected and so that students
can be encouraged to think beyond the specific problem or to think about variations on
the problem.
- One aspect of previous knowledge that is extremely important for understanding
learning is cultural practices
that support learners' prior knowledge.
-Effective teaching supports positive transfer by actively identifying the relevant
knowledge and strengths that
students bring to a learning situation and building on them
- Transfer from school to everyday environments is the ultimate purpose of school-
based learning.
- An analysis of everyday environments provides opportunities to rethink school
practices in order to bring them into alignment with the requirements of everyday
environments; however, it is important to avoid instruction that is overly dependent on
context.
-Helping learners choose, adapt, and invent tools for solving problems is one way to
facilitate transfer while also encouraging flexibility.
- A metacognitive approach to teaching can increase transfer by helping students learn
about themselves as learners in the context of acquiring content knowledge.
"
Alternative Perspective/Definition of learning
Learning is a multidimensional process that results in a relatively enduring change in a
person or persons, and consequently how that person or persons will perceive the world
and reciprocally respond to its affordances physically, psychologically, and socially. The
process of learning has as its foundation the systemic, dynamic, and interactive relation
between the nature of the learner and the object of the learning as ecologically situated
in a given time and place as well as over time.
Nine core concepts about the human nature of learning
"Principle 1: Learning Is Change
Principle 2: Learning Is Inevitable, Essential, and Ubiquitous
Principle 3: Learning Can Be Resisted
Principle 4: Learning May Be Disadvantageous
Principle 5: Learning Can Be Tacit and Incidental as Well as Conscious and Intentional
Principle 6: Learning Is Framed by Our Humanness
Principle 7: Learning Refers to Both a Process and a Product
Principle 8: Learning Is Different at Different Points in Time
Principle 9: Learning Is Interactional
"
Framing the Nature of Learning
"Specifically, we assert that any comprehensive theoretical
perspective of learning should be constituted of at least four
dimensions that are continuously interwoven and interactive,
represented by the what, where, who, and when of learning.
"
Scientific Nature of Learning
