HOW DO WE LEARN

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HOW DO WE LEARN?

• Neuroscience, Theories, Practice and Resources
• SMWILL
• Show Me What It Looks Like

Instructional Practice/Team Building
Workshop Carlisle School August 21, 2009
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Goals Objectives

• Share information about how the brain processes
  information on the physiological level.
• Share theories about how information processing
  affects the way we learn.
• Practice problem-solving.
• Share resources for instructional practice.

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WHAT IS THIS?
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CAN YOU NAME THIS?
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How does this incredible organ allow us to know
what we know?
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Electro-chemical messages are transmitted
between neurons.
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Cell Structure

• Neurons individual cells in the nervous system
  that receive, integrate, and transmit information
• Soma cell body which contains the cell nucleus
  and much of the chemical machinery common to most
  cells
• Dendrites parts of a neuron that are
  specialized to receive information
• Axon - a long, thin fiber that transmits signals
  away from the soma to other neurons or to muscles
  or glands

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Cell Structure

• Myelin sheath insulating material that encases
  some axons
• Terminal buttons small knobs that secrete
  chemicals called neurotransmitters
• Synapse a junction where information is
  transmitted from one neuron to another
• Glia cells found throughout the nervous system
  that provide various types of support for neurons

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Neural Communication
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Neural Impulse

• Neurotransmitters chemicals that transmit
  information from one neuron to another
• Synaptic cleft a microscopic gap between the
  terminal button of one neuron and the cell
  membrane of another neuron
• Synaptic vesicles small sacs within the
  terminal buttons that store neurotransmitters

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Neural Impulse

• Postsynaptic potential (PSP) a voltage change
  at a receptor site on a postsynaptic cell
  membrane
• Excitatory PSP a positive voltage shift that
  increases the likelihood that the postsynaptic
  neuron will fire action potentials
• Inhibitory PSP a negative voltage shift that
  decreases the likelihood that the postsynaptic
  neuron will fire action potentials
• Reuptake a process in which neurotransmitters
  are sponged up from the synaptic cleft by the
  presynaptic membrane

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Neural Impulse
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Neuronal Connections
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Neurotransmitters

• Agonist a chemical that mimics the action of a
  neurotransmitter
• Antagonist a chemical that opposes the action
  of a neurotransmitter
• Endorphins internally produced chemicals that
  resemble opiates in structure and effects

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Neurotransmitters
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Examples of Neurotransmitters Communication
Pathways and Areas of the Brain Affected
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Neural Circuits

• The brain contains nerve cells grouped together
  into bodies
• These bodies interconnect with other regions in
  the brain
• Individual neurons, collections of neurons and
  their interconnections make up a circuit

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The Human Brain

• Contains 10,000 different types of neurons
• Contains 100 billion neurons
• Each neuron communicates with 5,000-200,000 other
  neurons to make one trillion neuronal connections

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• Figure 11.12 Piaget's stage theory
• Figure 12.11 Maslow's hierarchy of needs
• Figure 3.19 The cerebral cortex in humans
• Figure 3.4 Overview of synaptic transmission
• Figure 3.3 The synapse
• Figure 3.1 Structure of the neuron

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Electrical Stimulation

• Gustav Fritish (1828-1929)
• Eduard Hitzig (1838-1907)
• Hitzig in 1860s worked on patients who had
  pieces of their skulls blown away in battle and
  he stimulated exposed brains with wires connected
  to a battery
• Hitzig discovered weak electric shocks applied to
  areas at the back of the brain, caused the
  patients eyes to move

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Electrical Stimulation

• Hitzig and Fritsch set up a makeshift lab in
  Fritschs house
• Stimulated the brains of live dogs
• Found that they could cause crude movements of
  the dogs bodies
• Found specific areas of the brain controlled
  specific movements
• Question of ethics in non-human studies

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Lobes of the Brain
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Frontal Lobe

• Responsible for
• reasoning some aspects of speech
• planning organization
• movement problem solving
• attention creative thought
• personality impulse control
• emotions physical reaction
• memory libido (sexual urges)

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Occipital Lobe

• Helps see light and objects
• Allows us to recognize and identify things
• Aids color recognition
• Occipital lobe on the right interprets visual
  signals from the left visual space
• Damage to one occipital lobe will result in loss
  of vision in the opposite visual field

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Cerebral Cortex
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Parietal Lobe

• Concerned with cognition (thinking)
• Information processing
• Pain and touch sensation
• Spatial orientation
• Speech
• Language and visual perception
• Receives sensory information from other areas of
  the brain
• Uses memory to attach meaning to objects

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Temporal Lobe

• Assists us to tell one smell from another and one
  sound from another
• Has a role in auditory and visual memory
• The right temporal lobe is involved in visual
  memory (for pictures and faces)
• The left temporal lobe is involved with verbal
  memory (words and names)

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Motor and Sensory Cortex

• Motor Cortex
• Area at the rear of the frontal lobes that
  controls voluntary movements
• Sensory Cortex
• Area at the front of the parietal lobes that
  registers and processes body sensations

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Electrical Stimulation

• Wilder Penfield (1891-1976)
• Neurosurgeon specializing in the surgical
  treatment of epilepsy
• Kept his patients awake so they could talk to him
  about what they were feeling as he stimulated
  areas of the brain to locate seizure activity
• Developed a map of the somatosensory cortex
  showing how much space is taken up by the
  different regions of the body the homunculus or
  little man

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Motor Cortex Sensory Cortex
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Magnetic Stimulation

• Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
• A magnetic coil is held on the scalp and
  depending on the strength of the current, the
  brain areas can be made more or less active, that
  is, the neurons can be switched on and off
• From this technique functional maps of the brain
  can be generated

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Corpus Callosum

• Large band of neural fibers
• Connects the two brain hemispheres
• Carries messages between the hemispheres

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Left Brain, Right Brain
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Left Hemisphere

• Controls the right side of the body
• Controls language speech, including reading and
  writing
• Controls understanding speech
• Controls speaking
• Controls verbal memory (remembering things heard)

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Right Hemisphere

• Recognizing shapes and forms
• Musical and artistic awareness
• Spatial organization and perception
• Imagination
• Processing and storage of visual data insight
• Generating mental images of sight, sound, touch,
  taste and smell

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Split Brain
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PLASTICITY

• The brains capacity for modification, as
  evident in brain reorganization following damage
  (especially in children) and in experiments on
  the effects of experience on brain development.

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Lesion

• A lesion is when a part of the brain is either
  destroyed or its function is disrupted.
• Lesions can occur naturally such as following a
  stroke or after a seizure.

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BRAIN LESIONS

• Some lesions are from brain injury or trauma and
  some experiments have been conducted to
  deliberately lesion a portion of the brain.

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Ablation

• Ablation
• is when a part of the brain is removed.
• MRI of normal brain (right) and fluid-filled or
  ablated brain (left).

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Charles Darwin

• William James was influenced by Charles Darwins
  Theory of Natural Selection which proposed that
  heritable characteristics that provide a survival
  or reproductive advantage are more likely than
  alternative characteristics to be passed on to
  subsequent generations and thus come to be
  selected over time.

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Evolutionary Theory

• Darwins theory suggested that the typical
  characteristics of a species must serve some
  purpose
• James applying this concept noted that
  consciousness obviously is an important
  characteristic of our species

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Terms and Definitions

• Information Processing all cognitive and mental
  activities
• Input information people receive from their
  senses
• Output ideas and actions that result from
  processing
• Central Processing storing (memory) and sorting
  (thought) of this information in the brain

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THALAMUS

• Thalamus the structure in the forebrain through
  which all sensory information (except smell) must
  pass to get to the cerebral cortex
• The thalamus also appears to play an active role
  in integrating information from various senses

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Seeing to Speaking
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• 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
• Did gyre and gimble in the wabe
• All mimsy were the borogroves,
• And the mome raths outgrabe.

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John Tenniels Illustration
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Terms and Definitions

• Selective attention the ability to pick and
  choose among various available inputs
• Feature extraction deciding which aspects of
  the selected channel you will focus on
• Recall the active reconstruction of information

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Terms and Definitions

• Eidetic memory photographic memory more
  common in children than in adults
• Confabulation when a person remembers
  information that was never stored in memory
• Forgetting when information that was once
  entered in long-term memory cannot be retrieved

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Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909)

• German philosopher and psychologist
• Pioneered numerous experimental studies of memory
• Forgetting Curve identified a distinct
  correlation between memory retention and time

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Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve

• Meaningless stimuli are more difficult to
  memorize than meaningful information
• Increasing the amount of material to be learned
  generally increased the amount of time it took to
  learn it (learning curve)

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Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve

• Established that relearning is easier than
  initial learning
• It takes longer to forget material after each
  subsequent relearning
• Suggested learning is more effective when it is
  spaced out over time rather than conducted during
  a single longer session

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Speed of Forgetting dependent on the following
factors

• Difficulty of the learned material
• How meaningful the material is to the subject
• Representation of material
• Other physiological factors including stress and
  sleep

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George Miller and the Magic Number 7

• In 1956 Miller presented the idea that short-term
  memory could only hold 5-9 chunks of information
  (seven plus or minus two) where a chunk is any
  meaningful unit.
• An information chunk could be numbers, words, or
  peoples faces.

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Richard Atkinson Richard Shiffrin

• Proposed that memory can be understood as a
  series of structures sensory memory short-term
  memory and long-term memory.
• There are associated processes that pass
  information between the memory stores.

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Memory as a sequential series of stages has
become the dominant view.

• Sometimes criticized for being too simplistic.

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Atkinson Shiffrin Model of Memory
Sensory Memory
Short-Term Memory
Long-Term Memory
Sensory Input
Encoding
Perception
Attention
Retrieval
Manipulation of Information
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Terms and Definitions

• Decay fading of input Items decay quickly in
• sensory storage
• short-term memory
• Repression blocking a memory subconsciously on
  purpose
• Too embarassing
• Too frightening
• Associated with Sigmund Freud and the unconscious

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Terms and Definitions

• Interference memory being blocked or erased by
  previous or subsequent memories
• Proactive interference earlier memory
• Retroactive interference later memory
• State Dependent Memory theory assumes that
  events learned in a certain emotional state can
  be remembered better when one is put back into
  the same state

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Craik and Lockhart (1972)Levels of Processing
Model of Memory

• Propose that memory is just a by-product of the
  depth of processing of information and there is
  no clear distinction between short term memory
  and long term memory
• Depth is defined as the meaningfulness extracted
  from the stimulus rather than in terms of the
  number of analyses performed upon it

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Levels of Processing Model suggests we process
information in 3 ways

• Shallow Processing
• Structural processing (appearance) when we
  encode only the physical qualities of something
• Phonemic processing when we encode its sound
• Involves maintenance rehearsal (repetition to
  help us hold something in the STM) and leads to
  fairly short-term retention of information this
  is the only type of rehearsal to take place
  within the multi-store model

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Levels of Processing Model

• Deep Processing
• Semantic processing which happens when we
  encode the meaning of a word and relate it to
  similar words with similar meaning
• Involves elaboration rehearsal which involves a
  more meaningful analysis (e.g. images, thinking,
  associations, etc.) of information and leads to
  better recall. For example, giving words a
  meaning or linking them with previous knowledge.

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Baddeley and Hitch (1974)Working Memory Model
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Working Memory Model
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Gestalt Psychology

• Perception is often different from reality
• The whole is more than the sum of its parts
• The organism structures and organizes experience
• The organism is predisposed to organize
  experience in particular ways
• Learning follows the law of Pragnanz People
  perceive and remember things more simple than
  they are An apple is round

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Gestalt Psychology

• Law of Proximity People tend to perceive things
  that are close together in space as a unit
• Law of similarity People tend to perceive
  similar things as a unit
• Law of closure People tend to fill in missing
  pieces to form a complete picture
• Law of Pragnanz Individuals organize their
  experience as simply, concisely, symmetrically,
  and completely as possible

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Frederic Bartlett (1886-1969)

• Schema Theory
• Schema is a framework for integrating and
  organizing information, based on previous
  experience
• Interpreting plays a large role in what we
  remember
• Memory is a constructive process

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Word Scramble

• ehmo
• eeeelcdarhsr
• cimmgoonhe
• yctroiv

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Schema has 4 characteristics

• General A schema can be used in a wide variety
  of situations
• Knowledge A schema is created from ones
  knowledge and memories
• Structure A schema is organized around a
  certain theme
• Comprehension A schema is not complete,
  instead, it allows one to fill in specific
  information of a situation

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Bartlett - Schemas

• Reconstructive vs Reproductive Memory
• The War of the Ghost
• The Owl to Cat drawings
• Serial reproduction subjects see an abstract
  drawing, decide what it is, and drawn their
  version based on their schema of a cat

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Memory Construction

• Influence of leading information in memory
  formation and reconstruction
• Elizabeth Loftus False Memories

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Edward Thorndike (1874-1949)

• Law of Effect any behavior that is followed by
  pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated
  and any behavior followed by unpleasant
  consequences is likely to be stopped.
• Forerunner to Skinners Theory of Operant
  Conditioning

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Martin Seligman Learned Helplessness

• Dogs were harnessed and shocked
• After conditioning dogs did not try to escape
  even when they could
• Seligman theorized that in humans Learned
  Helplessness - leads to depression

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Albert Bandura BoBo Dolls

• Showed that organism can learn not only if
  directly rewarded or punished, but also by
  observing others subject to a reward or
  punishment, thereby pointing to some mental
  processes occurring during observation

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BoBo Doll Experiments
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Mirror Neurons
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Auditory Mirror Neurons
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Jean Piaget

• Swiss psychologist neo-structuralist
  developed concept of genetic epistemology
  meaning the study of the development of knowledge
• Observed his own children and others to develop
  theory of Stages of Cognitive Development

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PIAGET

• Noticed that even infants have certain skills in
  regard to objects in their environment, which
  directed the way in which the infant explored
  his or her environment and so how they gained
  more knowledge of the world and more
  sophisticated exploratory skills
• Piaget called these skills schemas (e.g.
  assimilation, accommodation)

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Piaget Cognitive Theory

• Constructivsim People are active processors of
  information Humans are actively involved in
  constructing their own knowledge from the
  information they received from the environment
• Knowledge can be described in terms of structures
  that change with development (schemas)

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Schemas

• Schema is the basic structure through which an
  individuals knowledge is mentally represented
• As children develop, new schemas emerge, and
  existing schemas are repeatedly practiced,
  occasionally modified and sometimes integrated
  with one another into cognitive structures
• The development of cognitive structures that
  govern logical reasoning structures that Piaget
  called operations

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Piaget Cognitive Development

• Cognitive development results from the
  interactions that children have with their
  physical and social environments
• By interacting with the environment growing
  children develop and modify their schemas
• Young children are egocentric have difficulty
  understanding that others dont share their
  perspective of the world

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Piaget Cognitive Development

• The processes through which people interact with
  the environment remain constant
• People are intrinsically motivated to try to make
  sense of the world around them
• Cognitive development occurs in distinct stages,
  with thought processes at each stage being
  qualitatively different from those at other
  stages
• The rate of cognitive development is controlled
  to some extent by maturation (internally
  programmed rate of development nature)

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Piagets Stages of Cognitive Development
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Characteristics of the Stages

• Invariant sequence
• Universal (not culturally specific)
• Related to cognitive development
• Generalizable to other functions
• Stages are logically organized wholes
• Hierarchical nature of stage sequences (each
  successive stage incorporates elements of
  previous stages, but is more differentiated and
  integrated)
• Stages represent qualitative differences in modes
  of thinking, not merely quantitative differences

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Examples

• Object permanence children are able to form
  mental representations of objects that are not
  there
• Conservation properties of an object remain the
  same despite changes in appearance

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Lev Vygotsky

• Russian psychologist and philosopher in the
  1930s
• Social constructivist theory
• Emphasizes the influences of cultural and social
  contexts in learning and supports a discovery
  model of learning
• This model places the teacher in an active role
  while the students mental abilities develop
  naturally through various paths of discovery

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Vygotskys Theory

• Making meaning the community plays a central
  role, and the people around the student greatly
  affect the way he or she sees the world
• Tools for cognitive development the type and
  quality of these tools (culture, language,
  important adults to the student) determine the
  pattern and rate of development

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Vygotskys Theory

• The Zone of Proximal Development problem
  solving skills of tasks can be placed into three
  categories
• Those performed independently by the learner
• Those that cannot be performed even with help
• Those that fall between the two extremes, the
  tasks that can be performed with help from others

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ZPD Zone of Proximal Development
VYGOTSKYS DEFINITION The distance between
the actual developmental level as determined by
independent problem solving and the level of
potential development as determined through
problem solving under adult guidance, or in
collaboration with more capable peers. ZPD is
the students range of ability with and without
assistance from a teacher or a more capable
peer.
?________________Zone of Proximal
Development_____________? Range of
Students ability level Students ability
Students ability level with assistance
level without assistance
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SCAFFOLDING

• The teacher should act as a scaffold, providing
  the minimum support necessary for a student to
  succeed according to ZPD theory.
• The challenge for the teacher, then, is to find
  the optimal balance between supporting the
  student and pushing the student to act
  independently.
• To effectively scaffold the student the teacher
  should stay one step ahead of the student, always
  challenging him or her to reach beyond his or her
  current ability level.
• However, if instruction falls outside of the zone
  (above or below) a students ZPD, no growth will
  occur.

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To Effectively Scaffold

• Teacher modeling behavior for the student
• Student imitating the teachers behavior
• Teacher fading out instruction
• Student practicing reciprocal teaching
  (scaffolding of others) until the skill is
  mastered by all students in the classroom

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Knowledge Control of Self
Successful students are aware of, monitor, and
control their learning. Central to this knowledge
of self and self regulation are commitment,
attitudes, and attention. Commitment - Students
who choose to commit themselves to tasks align
Skill with will Attitude - Successful
students attribute their success to their own
efforts Attention - Conscious control of
attention helps students understand that the
level of attention required for a task varies
with the task and that they can adjust the focus
of their attention accordingly
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Knowledge Control of Process
Types of Knowledge Declarative information
factual and involves knowing the concepts of a
given task Procedural Knowledge refers to
information about how to apply metacognitive
strategies Conditional Knowledge is an
awareness of when and why one strategy may be
superior to another or more appropriate to
use
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Executive Control of Behavior

• Evaluation refers to students ongoing
  assessments of their knowledge or understanding,
  resources, tasks goals
• Planning involves the purposeful selection
  of strategies for specific tasks and is dependent
  on declarative and conditional knowledge
• Regulation includes the monitoring and revision
  of progress towards goals
• Evaluation, planning, and regulating should take
  place at, before, during and after stages of
  tasks.
• Teachers who identify and teach these components
  of tasks are helping students to exert
  metacognitive control over a process.

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Blooms Taxonomy Wheel
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Blooms Question Stems
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Blooms Activities
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WE REMEMBER

• 10 of what we read
• 20 of what we hear
• 30 of what we see
• 50 of what we see and hear
• 70 of what we discuss with others
• 80 of what we personally experience
• 95 of what we teach others
• - Edgar Dale

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Dales Cone of Experience
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Comparison
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Methods of Instruction
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Instructional Resources

• Bloom's Taxonomy Wheel/Circle
• 101 Interactive Techniques for Teaching
  Creativity and Problem Solving
• Creating, Evaluating, and Selecting Instructional
  Resources
• Technology Tips for Classroom Teachers
• Instructional Strategies Online

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Right Tool for the Job
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Whats in your tool box?

• Knowledge of Subject
• Variety of Instructional Modalities
• Variety of Instructional Resources
• Technology

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How well equipped is your tool box?
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Choose Wisely
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Learning Checklist

• Objectives stated
• Pre-assessment done
• Factual information presented
• Hands-on learning opportunities presented
• Variety of instructional modalities used
• Technology incorporated
• Post-assessment done
• Problem Solving opportunities presented
• Reflection activities provided
• Cooperative Learning taking place
• Inquiry based activities
• Opportunities for further learning provided

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