The Learning Cycle

1
The Learning Cycle

• The Use of Innovative Instructional Strategies
• Jeanelle Day, Ph.D.

2
The Learning Cycle

• To create meaningful learning, instruction has to
  be adapted to help students
• Become aware of their prior knowledge
• Work cooperatively in a safe, positive learning
  environment
• Compare new ideas to their prior knowledge

3
We must also help students to

• Connect new ideas to what they already know
• Construct their own new knowledge
• Apply the new knowledge in ways that are
  different from the situation in which it was
  learned.

4
Traditional Course Lessons
Lesson Begins
Lesson Ends
Instructor tells/lectures content, questions
students Student answers questions, recites
work and problems
Instructor provides verification and
summary Student Asks for clarification
5
More Meaningful Learning
Lesson Begins Here
Science Lesson Ends Here Leading to the NEXT
Exploration
6
Why Use a Learning Cycle?

• It allows students to
• Become aware
• Recognize shortcomings
• Apply critical reasoning
• Search more efficiently
• Apply what they learn
• Transfer knowledge

7
A Deeper Look..

• History of the Learning Cycle
• Created by Karplus (late 50s-early 60s), and
  fully conceptualized by Atkin and Karplus (1962)
  as guided discovery and used in SCIS elementary
  science program. At the same time, written about
  by Chester Lawson in his book, Language, Thought,
  and the Human Mind (1958). In 1967, Karplus and
  Their first named the learning cycle and the
  component phases. Reinterpreted by Barnes in
  1976, with alternate versions by Driver (1986),
  Karplus (1977), Erickson (1979), Nussbaum and
  Novic (1981), Renner (1982), and Rowell and
  Dawson (1983). There is no One Right Way to
  design a learning cycle.

8
The Learning Cycle-First Stage Exploration

• If we accept that each of us must develop
  understandings that we have about a concept for
  ourselves, then an alternative instructional
  method is most appropriate. The learning cycle
  was created out of concern with pupils gaining
  experience and this becomes the first stage of
  the model.
• Learners are provided with suitable experiences
  in order to create for themselves what is to be
  learned.
• This is where experience must be given in order
  to allow students to assimilate what is to be
  learned with prior knowledge.
• A common weakness in this stage is not allowing
  sufficient time, and that the time must be spent
  with the materials and activities that will lead
  to the concept. A strong exploration provides
  opportunities for students to assimilate the
  concept from more than one activity.

9
The Learning Cycle Second Stage Invention or
Term Introduction.

• The students and/or teacher derive the concept
  from the data, usually a classroom discussion.
  The learner is introduced to some
  appropriately-specific terminology in relation to
  the phenomenon being investigated. The teacher
  uses this to assist the learner to interpret what
  has been found.
• Five factors to be included in a term
  introduction include
• The findings of the exploration need to be
  reviewed and summarized.
• All findings used must be the students.
• The concept must be stated in the students own
  words.
• The proper terminology of the concept should be
  introduced.
• One or more reasons for the importance of the
  concept need to be given.

10
The Learning Cycle Third Stage Concept
Application or Expansion

• The purpose is to provide students the
  opportunity to organize the concept they have
  just learned with other ideas that relate to it.
• The scientific terminology of the concept must be
  used during the concept-application phase. The
  new ideas of the learner are meshed with existing
  knowledge in order to expand both that knowledge
  and the newly acquired idea. Additional
  experiences to help this elaboration process are
  an essential part of this stage. These
  experiences would have some of the attributes of
  experiments because the outcomes would not be
  known even though the pupils know the concept
  that is the subject of investigation.

11
What to include in each phase

• Exploration (initial actions)
• Help students try out and confront their prior
  knowledge
• Ask probing questions to diagnose students prior
  knowledge on the science idea.
• Focus students attention on science experiences.
• Encourage students working cooperatively in
  groups to recall and relate prior knowledge to
  the new science idea.
• Make public students prior knowledge

12
What to include in each phase

• Invention (next actions)
• Ask students to reflect on and explain related
  experiences, concepts and terminology in their
  own words (e.g. whole group discussion of the
  exploration activity)
• Ask students to clarify the new idea and justify
  statements with evidence.
• Provide definitions, clear explanations, and
  terms for the new science idea.
• Provide clear examples of the new science idea or
  model the new skill.
• Provide for student practice using the new
  science idea just explained.
• Provide a concise, brief closure of the key
  science idea.

13
What to include in each phase

• Expansion (concluding actions)
• Provide additional practice to help students use
  terms, definitions and explanations experienced
  previously in the lesson.
• Provide application activities in new, relevant
  contexts, at the same time helping students to
  recall their original alternative explanations.
• Provide activities to help students transfer the
  new science knowledge to increasingly real world
  events.
• Provide a summary of the important events in the
  science lesson.

14
An important note

• Each phase of the learning cycle uses one or more
  teaching methods to accomplish its purpose. The
  choice of the methods to use depends upon 1) the
  type of science idea(s) or skill(s) to be taught,
  2) prior knowledge and specific learning needs of
  the student, and 3) part of the learning cycle
  with which the teacher is involved.

15
Preparing Learning Cycles

• Select the concept students are to learn and
  write out a concise statement of it.
• Select the activities students will use to
  collect data and to guide them toward forming the
  concept in the term introduction.
• Prepare instructions to use as an outline and/or
  to give to students for collecting the data.
• Be certain that the instructions direct students
  ONLY in the collection of data, and DO NOT
  provide information that allows them to ascertain
  the concept from the instructions alone.
• Prepare teacher guidelines for the term
  introduction or invention phase. The guidelines
  will consist of carefully structured questions to
  lead the students through the interpretation of
  their data and TO the concept.
• Select the activities to be used during the
  concept application or expansion phase. Be sure
  these activities freely use the concept AND its
  terminology.
• Prepare evaluation materials that are to be used.

16
In Order for ANY Instruction to Work, There MUST
be a Match
Needs of the Student
Match Required for Meaningful Science Learning
Science Instructional Strategy to be Used by the
Teacher
Science Content and Skills to be Learned
17
Exploration Phase Summary

• Encourages learning through students own inquiry
  and focuses their interest.
• Involves minimal guidance or expectation on the
  teachers part.
• Often provides an experience that confronts
  students old way of thinking.
• Begins with a preplanned open or divergent
  question from the teacher.
• Involves students in working in cooperative
  groups.
• Encourages observation of the natural world and
  raises questions for the students.
• Provides for student interaction with ideas and
  materials as well as the collection and
  organization of data.
• Encourages students reflection in selecting
  resources, discussion, and debate.
• Encourages trying out prior ideas, suspending
  judgment, predicting, hypothesizing, and testing.
  
• Provides students with adequate time to relate
  prior knowledge to the new idea or skill.
• Allows students to know the purpose and objective
  of the science lesson.
• Allows teacher to know students present
  understanding of the idea or skill.

18
Invention Phase Summary

• Follows adequate exploration of the science idea
  or skill where some development may have
  occurred.
• Encourages discussion of past experiences with
  the science idea or skill in the exploration
  phase and elsewhere.
• Allows learning from explanation through an
  interesting variety of teaching methods and
  student hands-on, minds-on learning activities.
• Introduces an idea or skill in a structured
  manner through additional experiences using a
  variety of mediums including student senses,
  teacher explanations, technology interfaces,
  films, textbook readings, field trips,
  cooperative group discussions, Internet searches,
  guests to be interviewed, and others.
• Encourages students to develop as much of the new
  idea or skill as possible through providing one
  or more complete cycles of explanation, giving
  clear examples and modeling, and checking for
  understanding.
• Provides a closure on the new idea or skill.

19
Expansion Phase Summary

• Provides for learning through repetition.
• Provides additional time and experiences for the
  science idea or skill to become part of the
  students thought processes (conceptual change)
• Provides application activities in new, relevant
  conte3xts while helping students to recall their
  original alternative explanations.
• Encourages retrieval from long-term memory by
  helping students form an abstraction from
  concrete examples.
• Extends the range of applicability of the new
  science idea or skill outside of the learning
  setting by transferring it to other relevant
  contexts and times.
• Provides a summary of the important events in the
  science lesson.

20
Next Steps

• You will now be given a rating sheet for a
  learning cycle lesson.
• In pairs, take the two sample lessons and rate
  them according to the rubric.
• Compare the two lessons on strengths and
  weaknesses.