July 2001 Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning

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Teaching for Effective Learning:

Teaching for Understanding

July 2001 Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning

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Is Learning Necessarily an Outcome of Teaching?

“Cognitive research is revealing that even with what is taken to be a good instruction, many students, including academically talented ones, understand less than we think they do”

July 2001 Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning

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How is What Students Learn Influenced by Their Existing

Ideas?

• preconceptions versus misconception

• reconstructing/reorganizing

• pedagogical content knowledge

July 2001 Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning

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How does Progression in Learning Usually Occur?

• from concrete to abstract– visual, auditory, tactile and kinesthetic– pictorial?– multiple representations– ...

July 2001 Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning

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What and How do People Learn to Do Well?

• only what they practice doing

• thinking critically, analyzing information, communicating scientific ideas

• making logical arguments, working as a part of a team, acquiring other skills

July 2001 Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning

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Transfer

• Transfer can be defined as the ability to

extend what has been learned in one

context to new contexts = apply ideas in

novel situations

• The quality of people’s learning

experiences is dependent on the transfer

July 2001 Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning

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Key Characteristics of Learning and Transfer

• Initial learning

• Knowledge in context

• Abstract representations

• New learning involves transfer based on previous learning

July 2001 Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning

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Elements that Promote Initial Learning

• Understanding versus memorizing

• Time to learn

• Feedback

• Motivation

July 2001 Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning

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Other Factors that Influence Transfer

• Context - Transfer across contexts

• Multiple representations

• What is learned versus what is tested

• Abstracted representations

• Dynamic process • Metacognition

July 2001 Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning

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All New Learning Involves Transfer

• Building on existing knowledge

• Understanding conceptual change

• Transfer and cultural practices

• Between school and everyday life

• Metacognitive approach

July 2001 Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning

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Critical dimensions of classrooms that promote understanding

• tasks

• tools

• norms

• structuring and applying knowledge

• reflection and articulation

• classroom norms

• developing sense of ownership

July 2001 Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning

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How is Performance Affected by Expectations

success in learning -

growth in confidence

July 2001 Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning

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How can Teaching Aim to Counteract Mathematics Learning

Anxieties? • “Understanding anything is never absolute

and it takes many forms”

• build on success

• equity

• group learning

• Is mathematics is about finding things out?

July 2001 Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning

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Should Teaching Mathematics Stay within School?

• Extend beyond the school

• Rich resources of larger community

• Obstacles

July 2001 Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning

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What is the relationship between Teaching and TIME

• “more is more” or “less is more”?

• concepts must be offered periodically in different contexts and increasing levels of sophistication

July 2001 Mara Alagic: Teaching for Effective Learning

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This presentation was based on

• American Association for the Advancement of Science (1989). Science for all Americans: Project 2061. New York, NY: Oxford University Press

• National Research Council. (2000). How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. National Academy Press. Washington, D. C.