“Ah yes, but that would never

work with my students….”

Simon Bates CTLT Institute

May 2013

Overview

I. A framework for learning (and teaching)

II. One such framework: How Learning Works

III. Two principles, expanded

IV. Case study: PHYS101 at UBC

What is known about learning…

• is a process not a product• involves change in knowledge, beliefs,

behaviors, or attitudes• is not something done to students, but rather

something students themselves do

What is known about learning…

Effective teaching has to be rootedin what improves learning

The instructor can advance learning only by influencing what the student does to learn

Implications for the new instructor

• Do NOT do what I did

• Seek out, learn from, incorporate teaching strategies that are:– Theory-grounded– Evidence-based

Finding these in your ‘Goldilocks Zone’ is not always easy

Bridging

• What is needed is a framework that bridges learning research and teaching practice

• Fortunately, such frameworks already exist.

“Ah yes, but that would never

work with my students….”

http://goo.gl/CzvyP

What HLW is about:

• A bridge between research about learning research and implications for teaching practice :– Why certain teaching approaches are or are not

supporting students’ learning– Teaching approaches that effectively foster

student learning in specific contexts– Transferring and applying these principles

About the 7 principles

• Research in brain science, cognitive, developmental, and social psychology, anthropology, education, and diversity studies

• K-12 and higher education• Domain-independent• Experience-independent• Cross-culturally relevant

7 Principles1. Students prior knowledge can help or hinder

learning2. How students organize knowledge influences

how they learn and apply what they know3. Students’ motivation determines, directs,

and sustains what they do to learn4. To develop mastery, students must acquire

component skills, practice integrating them, and know when to apply what they have learned

7 Principles5. Goal-directed practice coupled with targeted

feedback enhances the quality of students’ learning

6. Students’ current level of development interacts with the social, emotional, and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning

7. To become self-directed learners, students must learn to monitor and adjust their approaches to learning

Knowledge

Structure

Motivation

Mastery

Practice

Climate

Metacognition

Knowledge

Structure

Motivation

Mastery

Practice

Climate

Metacognition

Principle 2: Knowledge Structure and Organization

How students organize knowledge influences how they learn and apply what they know

Principle 2: Knowledge Structure and Organization

How experts and novices structure and organize knowledge

Source HLW Fig 2.1

Principle 2: Knowledge Structure and Organization

Consider the following code key

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Principle 2: Knowledge Structure and Organization

Write down your phone number in the symbolic code

Principle 2: Knowledge Structure and Organization

Consider the following code key

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98

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What the research shows

• When S are provided with a structure for organizing new info, they learn more and better

• S show better learning gains when given an advance organizer i.e. a set of principles that provide a cognitive structure to guide incorporation of new knowledge

Strategies

• Create a concept map to analyze your own knowledge organization

• Provide S with the organizational structure of the course• Explicitly share the organization of each lecture, lab or

discussion• Explicitly highlight deep features• Make connections among concepts explicit• Ask S to draw a concept map to expose their knowledge

organizations• Monitor S work for problems in their knowledge organizations

Principle 3: Motivation

Students’ motivation generates, directs and sustains what they do to learn

Motivation determined by:1. Subjective value of a goal2. Expectancies or expectations for successful

attainment of that goal

Source HLW Fig 3.1

Value of a goal

• Attainment value: satisfaction from mastery and accomplishment

• Intrinsic value: satisfaction from simply doing the task

• Instrumental value: degree to which an activity or goal helps to achieve another (e.g. praise, financial reward)

Expectancies

• Positive outcome expectancies: People are motivated to pursue goals and outcomes that they believe they can successfully achieve

• Efficacy expectancies: belief that one is capable of identifying, organizing, initiating and executing a course of action that will bring about a desired outcome

Expectancies determined by

• Prior experience • Attribution of success or failure to internal

/controllable causes (more likely to expect future success)

• Attribution of success or failure to external/uncontrollable causes (less likely to expect future success)

• Supportive environment

Strategies to establish value

• Connect the material to S interests• Provide authentic, real-world tasks• Share relevance to S current academic lives• Demonstrate the relevance of higher-level

skills to S future professional lives• Identify and reward what you value• Show your own passion and enthusiasm for

the discipline

Strategies that help build positive expectancies

• Ensure alignment of objectives, assessments and instructional strategies

• Create assignments that provide the approp. level of challenge

• Provide early success opportunities• Articulate your expectations• Provide rubrics• Provide targeted feedback• Describe effective study strategies

A case study PeerWise in PHAS 101

• Web-based Multiple Choice Question repository built by students

• Students:– develop new questions with

associated explanations– answer existing questions and rate

them for quality and difficulty– take part in discussions– can follow other authors

peerwise.cs.auckland.ac.nz

>100,000student contributors

>500,000unique questions

>10,000,000answers

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As a question author…..

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As a question answerer …..

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Timeline

2010-11: UoE pilot study

2011-12: Multi-institution, multi-course

2012-13: UBC PHYS 101

Coursera MOOC

48

Previous research

• Good engagement and participation beyond the minimum requirements

• Correlation between use and end-of-course outcome

• Replication study in 3 institutions, 5 courses,3 disciplines

1st year Physics N=172University of Edinburgh

0%

5%

10%

15%

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Taxonomic Category

Per

cen

tag

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f S

ub

mit

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Previous research

• Question quality: mapped onto levels in cognitive domain of Bloom’s taxonomy

• Surprisingly high overall quality, evenfrom ‘novices’

First semester N = 350

Second semester N = 252

Implementation in PHAS 101

2012 W2 3 sections

N=791

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 X 8 9 10 11 12 13

T 1 1 2 2 3 X 3 4 - 5 5

L 1 2 2 3 3 4 X 4 - ex 5 5

M M

PW @ @ ! @ !

Assessment requirements

As a minimum:

• Write one question• Answer 5• Comment on & rate 3

Contributed ~3% to course assessment

(mostly participation, small bonus for performance)

52

We were deliberately

hands off.

• No moderation• No corrections• No interventions at all

But we did observe…..

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Scaffolding in tutorials

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Scaffolding in tutorials

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Engagement

First assessment exercise:

• 664 active students (out of 790!) • 1340 Q, 11000 A, 5000 C• x1.75, x17, x7 minimum requirements

Engagement

Score

Examples

60

61

How this case study exemplifies HLW

Knowledge structures and organization

• S challenged to think about gaps / broken links• Explicit opportunity to build better / repair

structures• Taps into ‘What?’ and ‘Why?’• Scaffolded to combine multiple concepts /

ideas / topic areas

How this case study exemplifies HLW

Motivation

• Diverse reasons for taking course• Explicit mention of higher order skills

development • Low floor / high ceiling• Their space: control and flexibility• Rewarding what you value: participation credit• Community: peer interaction, scores, badging

Knowledge

Structure

Motivation

Mastery

Practice

Climate

Metacognition

Acknowledgements

• HLW slides - Naureen Madhani • PHAS 101 – Georg Rieger, Firas Moosvi, Emily

Altiere

• UoE Physics Education Research Group• Universities of Glasgow, Nottingham, Auckland

Resources - HLW

• http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/principles/index.html

• Brent, R. & Felder, R. (2011). Random thoughts… how learning works. Chemical Engineering Education 45(4). 257-8. Available at: http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Columns/Ambrose.pdf

• Coming soon – 5 page summary of HLW

Resources - PeerWiseCommunity: http://www.PeerWise-Community.org

JISC-funded multi institution study:https://www.wiki.ed.ac.uk/display/SGC4L/Home

UoE Physics Pilot Study: AIP Conf. Proc. 1413, 359 http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3680069

RSC overview articlehttp://www.rsc.org/Education/EiC/issues/2013January/student-generated-assessment.asp

UoE Physics scaffolding resources http://www2.ph.ed.ac.uk/elearning/projects/peerwise/

Image / Icon credits

• Figures from How Learning Works, Ambrose et al. Chaps 2 and 3

• Icons: – Stack of Books designed by Jeremy J Bristol from The Noun

Project– Mesh Network designed by Lance Weisser from The Noun

Project– Excited designed by Austin Condiff from The Noun Project– Components designed by Iris Q. Li from The Noun Project– Group designed by Alexandra Coscovelnita from The Noun

Project– Brain designed by Martha Ormiston from The Noun Project