Relationships are key

When reading “The New Science of Learning” by R. Keith Sawyer, I was reminded of Dr. Khendum Gyabak’s synchronous session with us, where she shared her research experiences in Bhutan, Papua New Guinea, and Nepal. Sawyer discusses early on in the chapter about the importance of building on a learner’s prior knowledge and if a teacher does not engage their prior knowledge, students “often learn information just well enough to pass the test, and then revert back to their misconceptions outside of the classroom” (Sawyer, 2). Dr. Gyabak spoke about trying to teach villagers about clean water. This proved difficult without first showing them what clean water looked like versus their own water. Without the prior knowledge of having ever seen clean water, the training on clean water and hand washing had no effect.

A second point that was also brought to light in both Dr. Gyabak’s session as well as Rachel Koblic’s session was the importance of reflections. Rachel even mentioned that reflection and metacognitive learning is a secret weapon and the more you do it, the better you learn. Sawyer imparts that students learn better when they “express their developing knowledge – either through conversation or by creating paper, reports, or other artifacts – and then are provided with the opportunity to reflectively analyze their state of knowledge” (Sawyer, 2-3). Sawyer compares traditional classroom practices to those from cognitive science, and the reflective task is forgotten for memorization.

For me, memorization is futile. I’ve never been one to memorize random facts, thus, I was never very good at traditional science and history. I could not memorize names and dates to save my life, and if I thought I knew them, they left my head immediately upon sitting down to take the test (unless I tucked it into a short-term memory that I wrote down quickly upon receiving my test).

Once again, authentic learning is coming into play in Sawyer’s chapter, where it’s been found that students learn better when they engage in activities that are similar to everyday activities of professionals. Part of me wants to say – “obviously”. Memorization for the sake of regurgitation onto a test does not mean you have learned anything. I love how Sawyer says “Deep Learning” in regard to cognitive science. That’s something that traditional education is missing. Deep learning is making relationships to something you already know or have experienced. It’s looking for patterns. I’m always doing that in my work. I’m always looking for a pattern; looking for a way to explain something related to something already known.

Wagner and McCombs’ discuss the need for learner-centered instruction not only in distance learning (which was the focus of their article), but also that evidence from psychological and educational literature suggests that ALL learners benefit from instruction where they feel “motivated, feel they exercise control over their learning experience, are respected, and are accountable for their own learning outcomes” (Wagner & McCombs, 32). What’s interesting is this article was written in 1995, but it could have been written in 2021 given what we’ve learned with pandemic learning and the switch to online. Student engagement, motivation in an online learning environment is really not a different concept – as an instructor, you should have already been creating that environment for your students in the in-person classroom. As I was reading about motivation, accountability, etc. in Wagner and McCombs, I was thinking that in real-world experiences every day, we must make decisions around these “feelings”. In my work, no one is going to help me be motivated to do my job. I am accountable for myself and learning to function in a classroom promoting these “ideals” is authentic learning at its finest.

References

Sawyer, R. K. (2006). The New Science of Learning. In The Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences (pp. 1–16). essay, University Press.

Wagner, E. D., & McCombs, B. L. (1995). Learner Centered Psychological Principles in Practice: Designs for Distance Education. Educational Technology, 35(2), 32–35.