Transcript The Constructive Alignment of Educational Technology and

The Constructive Alignment of
Educational Technology and
Cognitive Neuroscience
William A. Kennedy, Ph.D., Director
Center for Teaching, Learning, and
Faculty Development
Michigan 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.
2.
3.
4.
Keep Full Attention
Encourage Association
Use Pictures with Words
Build in Repetition and
Opportunity for Drill
5. Encourage Reading Out
Loud
6. Reduce Clutter – Keep
Key Points in Foreground
7. Provide Context – Rich
Narratives – Many
Examples
8. Encourage learning in
short sessions
9. Employ mnemonics
10. 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 Context
8. Encourage Short Session
Learning
Practices that Encourage
Learning, Memory, and Retrieval
9. Employ Mnemonics
10. 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 Weimer
1. Balance of Power
2. Function of Content
3. Role of the Teacher
4. Responsibility for Learning
5. 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