The culture that learners experience contributes to their views and perspectives that determine what is important to them and the people around them. These become the learned behaviors that determine what learners value, how they define learning, and other decisions about how learning occurs. Educators observe how deviation from cultural expectations affect learners’ actions in Read More
Teaching and learning are endeavors that have changed significantly in the decades since the cognitive science and the learning sciences emerged. More accurately, the nature of human learning has not changed, but our understanding of it has changed and this has led scholars and educators to redefine what they expect of students. Yes, teachers are Read More
145: Social Aspects of Learning Normal brain development depends on social interaction, and the social nature of human learning continues throughout life, and deeper learning has social components. In recent decades, cognitive and learning scientists have converged on the conclusion that human cognitions is a strongly social phenomenon. Michael Gazzaniga (2008), a noted neuroscientist who Read More
Scientists have identified several strategies whereby individuals can improve their memories, however. While these can be used effectively when adopting a content-only approach to teaching, they can also be incorporated in other ways. For example, faculty can recommend students use these outside of class in homework situations; this allows students to invest as much time Read More
Educators are fond of adding various adjectives to the word age to capture the nature of schools that reflected the realities of school during that age. We can also trace the history of our schools through some of the vestiges that remain: Summer breaks are a remnant of Agrarian Age Schools when children’s labor was Read More
Qualitative researchers are among the thinkers who practice inductive reasoning. They investigate questions, gather experience, immerse themselves in their data which captures the part of the world that holds their interest. From their data, they identify generalizations that appear to be supported by their data and they seek to apply those generalizations to other situations. Read More
I’ve been reading some of Robin Dunbar’s work recently, specifically Dunbar’s number. According to this idea, humans are capable of having meaningful interaction with about 150 people. In my recent readings, it seems “other” personified entities (such as God or our pets) can be included in our counts. Dunbar suggests the number is actually one Read More
“Effective schools” is a nebulous term. We could define schools in which students earn top scores on standardized tests as effective; likewise, we could define schools in which students write cogent essays (or create paintings, music, and dance) expounding the evils of standardized tests as effective. In fact, these schools may not be exclusive; perhaps Read More
While learning is familiar to all, it has become the subject of serious scientific inquiry in the last several decades. New imaging technologies have provided cognitive scientists a view into the functioning brains and they can see the results of learning as differences in patterns of brain activities. This has led both cognitive and learning Read More
For a generation, educators have been attempting to teach so that students are “career and college ready.” One tenant of this goal has been “grades must reflect what students know and can do.” Educators were encouraged to remove criteria such as participation, homework completion, timeliness, and other aspects of work that are not associated with Read More