How People Learn: A Summary
Exciting research about the mind, the brain, and the processes of learning draws implications for what we teach, how we teach it, and how we assess what is learned. Evidence from this research indicates that when the following three principles are incorporated into teaching, student achievement improves:
Principle 1
Learning is enhanced when learning opportunities are tailored to individuals’ current levels of readiness.
“There is a good deal of evidence that learning is enhanced when teachers pay attention to the knowledge and beliefs that learners bring to the learning task, use this knowledge as a starting point for new instruction, and monitor students’ changing conceptions as instruction proceeds.” Bransford, Brown and Cocking (2000)
Therefore to improve student learning, teachers must tailor their efforts to what students already know and can do, and their interests. This means that teachers need to find these things out for individual learners. However, teachers often lack the time and skills required to identify individual learning needs because of pressure to cover the curriculum, some philosophical opposition to differentiated instruction, and the fact that they are dealing with widely dispersed levels of attainment.
Principle 2
Learning is more effective when it leads to deep understandings of subject matter.
“One of the hallmarks of the new science of learning is its emphasis on learning with understanding.” (Bransford, Brown and Cocking, 2000)
The learning of facts and procedures is very important. However, the teaching of disconnected knowledge undermines understanding and does not help students learn when and how to apply what they learn. Underlying concepts and principles give meaning to knowledge and help learners to organise what they are learning and to understand the contexts to which their knowledge can be applied. Therefore to improve student learning, teachers must develop students’ understandings of key concepts and principles, providing multiple examples of how what they are learning can be applied. This requires a deepening of the knowledge base and the development of a conceptual framework for subject matter. Unfortunately teachers too often lack the depth of content knowledge required for such highly effective teaching.
Principle 3
Learning is more effective when learners are supported to monitor and take responsibility for their own learning.
Learning is motivated more by a desire to understand and to acquire new skills than to satisfy somebody else’s expectations. Students are encouraged to take responsibility for their own progress; and assessment is used not merely to establish whether students have learnt what teachers have taught, but to identify starting points for learning and to provide feedback to student learning. Therefore to improve student learning, teachers must create classroom learning cultures in which there is a belief in every student’s ability to learn, individuals feel supported to take risks, teachers provide timely and useful feedback, and students monitor their own learning over time. Currently classroom learning often is driven less by curiosity than by external demands, and teachers often lack the time and skills to provide individualised feedback to guide learning.
The report also indicates that assessment must be expanded beyond the traditional concept of testing to make use of frequent formative assessment to make students’ thinking visible, and assessments must tap understanding rather than merely the ability to repeat facts or perform isolated skills. It also finds that the teaching of metacognative skills should be integrated into the curriculum. And, the report indicates that superficial coverage of all topics must be replaced with in-depth coverage of fewer topics that allows key concepts to be understood.
It is particularly important for teachers to promote these principles as we head towards a national curriculum.
Reference
Bransford, J. Brown, A, Cocking, R. (eds.), How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School, 2000, National Academy Press, Washington.