Tina Doe

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Tina Doe

• Learning Current Research and its Impacts on
  Teaching

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IF WE DONT CHANGE DIRECTION, WELL END UP
EXACTLY WHERE WE ARE HEADED. Ancient Proverb
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This Session

• What the research says about learning
• How these new understandings are redefining
  approaches to teaching and learning
• Introduce the notion of Learning Design
• Implication for preparing teachers

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(No Transcript)
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Who Am I?

• As a Person

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Who Am I?As a Professional in the Education
Industry

• Qualifications
• Diploma of Teaching Secondary Arts/Humanities
• Graduate Diploma in Applied Linguistics
• Masters Learning Management
• Teacher with 20 years experience
• Learning Contexts
• Primary, Secondary, TAFE, migrant,
• Adult Education and University
• Management Roles
• Deputy Principal SBSHS
• Arts/LOTE HOD SBSHS

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Attitudes and Perceptions

• Take time to develop rapport
• Dispel myths/misconceptions
• Check perceptions and values
• Establish safe risk-taking
• Find areas of commonality
• Form networks and partnerships
• Test hypotheses/standpoints

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References

• OECD (2002). Understanding the Brain Towards a
  New Learning Science. Paris OECD Publications
• Marzano, R. J., Gaddy, B. B., Dean, C. (2000).
  What Works in Classroom Instruction. Aurora, CO
  McREL.
• Smith, R. and Lynch, D. (2006), The Learning
  Design Process, in The Rise of the Learning
  Manager, Pearson, Frenchs Forest, NSW
• Lynch, D. (1998), The Learning Design Process,
  cited in Smith, R. and Lynch, D. (2006), The Rise
  of the Learning Manager, Pearson, Frenchs
  Forest, NSW, p. 62

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What the Research says about Learning

• The greatest impact to the work of teachers is
  coming from a greater understanding about the
  brain and its functions
• The research I present is a summary of key points
  and is a subset of a very complex set of research
  findings.

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How smart is the brain?

• Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde
  Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer In waht oredr the
  ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng
  is that the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit
  pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can
  sitll raed it wouth it bnieg a porbelm.Tihs is
  bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter
  by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

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So, what is learning?

• Schema behaviour pattern and in education
  refers to the current organisation of ones mind/
  thinkings
• Biological standpoint we grow new synapses (or
  new neural connections in the brain)
• Learning is the process by which ones schema is
  altered/ modified or added to so that resulting
  cognitive processes are constituted differently
• Therefore we acquire a change in schematic makeup
  when we learn (not always permanent)

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Lets see if we can prove the notion of a schema
and its influence on your brains function

• The questions that p________ face as they raise
  ch________ from in_________ to adult are not easy
  to an_________. Both f______ and m________ can
  become concerned when health problems such as
  co_________ arise anytime after the e____ stage
  to later life. Experts recommend that young
  ch____ should have plenty of s________ and
  nutritious food for healthy growth. B___ and
  g____ should not share the same b______ or even
  be in the same r______. They may be afraid of the
  d_____.

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See how you were relying on your education
schematic framework to work this task!

• The questions that poultry-men face as they raise
  chickens from incubators to adult are not easy to
  answer. Both farmers and merchants can become
  concerned when health problems such as
  coccidiosis arise anytime after the egg stage to
  later life. Experts recommend that young chicks
  should have plenty of sunshine and nutritious
  food for healthy growth. Bantees and geese should
  not share the same barnyard or even be in the
  same roost. They may be afraid of the dark.

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What the research says about learning

• Education today is a pre-scientific discipline,
  reliant upon psychology, philosophy,sociology
  etc. for its theoretical foundation. Cognitive
  neuroscience is offering a sounder basis for the
  understanding of learning and the practice of
  teaching. (OECD, 2002, p.10)

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What the Research says about Learning some
background

• Knowledge Economy is underpinned by learning --a
  central component-and there is much money being
  ploughed into understanding it by many sectors.
  Most notably outside education
• The emergence of this new economy one built on
  knowledge-- has spawned greater understandings
  about learning
• This contrasts with the industrial era where
  fields such as education had to rely on other
  fields, such as sociology and psychology, for
  professional underpinnings
• The challenge has always been to make the stuff
  fit with the core business of teachers teaching
  and learning

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What the Research says about Learning

• Advances in medical technologies have boosted our
  understandings about how the brain functions
• We now have compendiums of educational research
  which details direct strategies for teachers to
  enhance the learning of all learners.
• The meshing of these bodies of research is
  defining specifically the what, why, where, when
  and how of teaching practice.

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Key Research Findings

• There are sensitive or optimum periods for
  learning
• Age reference points for acquiring certain
  knowledges
• We have predispositions to certain types of
  learning
• There are fundamentally two types of knowledge
  declarative and procedural knowledge and these
  require differential approaches
• Learning is hierarchical in that certain
  knowledge precedes others
• Learning occurs when schematic frameworks (growth
  of synapses) are established in the brain that
  connect previous learnings to new and to
  differing situations

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The Faculty knowledge-base

• Declarative knowledge - to know things in order
  to generate ideas
• Procedural knowledge - to know how to proceed
• Metacognition - to know how to make things
  happen.

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Problems with research into learning

• Communication problems exist between the
  cognitive neuroscientists conducting such
  research and the education practitioners who
  would deliver its findings
• The research is developing faster than educators
  can be in-serviced
• Learning science is still in its infancy- meaning
  there is still much to uncover
• Current theoretical underpinnings for preparing
  teachers are at odds with the research evidence
• Means a fundamental shift in teacher practice and
  the notion of how education is organised at all
  levels in the economy

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So what does this mean for preparing teachers

• The work of teachers is about learning
• Science of learning is providing new professional
  foundations and
• A set of professional strategies that enables
  teaching to work for all learners
• Learning Design

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LEARNING DESIGN

• Putting the research into action for teachers

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Learning Design and Teacher Preparation

• In the following sections I want to illustrate
  how the research into learning can be brought to
  bear on preparing teachers
• to detail a learning design process that
• Provides a schematic learning framework for the
  student teacher,
• Organises the knowledge elements of a teacher
  education course
• And also provides the student teacher with
  strategies to be an effective teacher
• In effect, a how to recipe for organising the
  knowledge required for successful teaching
  graduates.

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Learning Design

• Is a process that focuses the teacher to the
  learners profile and to teaching strategies that
  build on current understandings about learning
• Contrasts with Curriculum Planning which focuses
  the teacher to predetermined content and to age
  related learning cohorts. The strategies are then
  left to the teachers creative endeavours.
• Learning Design student learning needs
  research based strategies enhanced student
  learning outcomes

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Learning Design

• Lynch (1998) developed a Learning Design process
  built on the notion of schematic framework
  building
• The process is known as the 8 Learning Management
  Questions
• The process organises for the student teacher the
  key elements required for successful teaching and
  learning
• The teacher preparation program then packages/
  arranges its units of study so they inform each
  question (the required elements of the students
  teachers learning)

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8 Learning Management Questions
PHASE 3 Ascertainment (7) How will I check to
see the learner has arrived? (8) How will I
inform the learner and others about his/her
progress ?
PHASE 1 Profiling (1)What does the learner
already know? (2) Where does my learner need to
be? (3) How does my learner best learn?
PHASE 2 Strategising and delivery (4)
What resources do I have at my disposal? (5)
What will constitute the learning journey?
(6) Who will do what?
(Lynch, 1998)
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Learning Design

• The 8 LMQs provide for the development of a
  schematic framework to organise and develop a
  series of learning considerations
• Whats needed then is a series of evidence based
  practices that provide the student teacher with
  actual strategies to implement the design
  learning program

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The Dimensions of Learning
Attitudes and Perceptions
Habits of Mind
D1
D5
Extending and Refining Knowledge
Acquire and Integrate New Knowledge
Using Knowledge Meaningfully
D3
D2
D4
ACTUAL RESEARCH BASED TEACHING STRATEGIES
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Summary

• Research is providing us with evidence-based
  approaches to teaching and learning
• These need to be applied to the organisational
  elements of how we prepare teachers

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A creative idea becomes an innovation only when
it can be replicated on a meaningful scale at
practical costs. - Senge (1990)
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ITS NOT THE STRONGEST OF THE SPECIES WHO
SURVIVE, NOR THE MOST INTELLIGENT, BUT THE ONES
MOST RESPONSIVE TO CHANGE. - Charles Darwin