How People Learn, a presentation to biology teaching assistants. Peter Newbury Center for Teaching Development UCSD

1. HOW PEOPLE LEARN
Peter Newbury
Center for Teaching Development,
University of California, San Diego
pnewbury@ucsd.edu
@polarisdotca
ctd.ucsd.edu/2012/10/how-people-learn-the-biology-edition

2. Who Am I?
2
 Peter Newbury
 PhD Univ. of British Columbia
Vancouver, Canada
 Research Interests
 How people learn astronomy, physics, mathematics
 How to teach (instructors how to teach) students to
use graphs: “Please graph the graph on the graph.”
 Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative
 Establishing and maintaining an online
personal learning network (PLN)
@polarisdotca

3. 3

4. Theories of Learning
4
Many lectures based in transmissionist learning
model.

5. Scientifically Outdated,
5
Culturally a Known Failure

6. How People Learn [1]
6
 People actively construct their own knowledge
 Individual
 Based in pre-existing understanding
 Biologically, learning changes the brain
 Proteinsform, neurons fire
 Technology allowing us to observe learning as it
happens (fMRIs)
[1] How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School
Expanded Edition. Ed. Bransford

7. How People Learn [1]
7
Learning is not about what
professors do.
It’s about what students do!
[1] How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School
Expanded Edition. Ed. Bransford

8. How People Learn [1]
8
Learning is not about what
professors do.
It’s about what students do!
Corollary: Students will not
learn (just) by listening to the
professor explain
[1] How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School
Expanded Edition. Ed. Bransford

9. Let’s have a learning
9
experience…

10. New Coding System
10
Please memorize this code:
1= 4= 7=
2= 5= 8=
3= 6= 9=
0=

11. Test
11
What is this number?

12. New Coding System
12
Here’s the structure of the code:
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9

13. Test
13
What is this number?

14. Constructivism
14
 All new learning is based in pre-existing
knowledge that you hold.
 You store things in long term memory through a
set of connections that are made with previous
existing memories.

15. Another Example of
15
Constructivism:
Think about the house you grew up in. How many
windows does it have? Enter the number using
your clicker:
to turn on or refresh
to select 0 – 9
to move to next digit in number
SEND
to submit answer

16. Constructivism
16
 “Creating memories” (aka learning) involves
having neurons fire (and neurons link up in
networks or patterns)

17. Learning Requires Your Effort
17
 Higher-level learning = brain development
It’s like muscle development!
Strenuous, repeated effort ->
New Muscle Cells
Strenuous, repeated effort ->
New Neurons, Links!
Development of new neurons in response to difficult learning task
T. Shors, Sci. Amer. Mar 09

18. Key Findings about how people
18
learn
1. Students come to the classroom with
preconceptions about how the world works. If
their initial understanding is not engaged, they
may fail to grasp the new concepts and
information that are taught, or they may learn
them for the purposes of a test but revert to
their preconceptions outside of the classroom.
How People Learn – Chapter 1, p 14.

19. Preconceptions in biology
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(Think, Pair, Share)
What pre-existing concepts might you be able to
use to teach a biology concept?


20. Resources on Biology
20
Education
http://lifescied.org
 Search abstract on
 Preconception
 Misconception

21. How do you think undergraduate
students feel about learning
21
biology?
A B C D E
Strongly Strongly
Disagree Agree
1. To learn biology, I only need to memorize facts
and definitions

22. How do you think undergraduate
students feel about learning
22
biology?
A B C D E
Strongly Strongly
Disagree Agree
1. To learn biology, I only need to memorize facts
and definitions
2. Knowledge in biology consists of many
disconnected topics.

23. How do you think undergraduate
students feel about learning
23
biology?
A B C D E
Strongly Strongly
Disagree Agree
1. To learn biology, I only need to memorize facts
and definitions
2. Knowledge in biology consists of many
disconnected topics.
3. When I am answering a biology question, I find it
difficult to put what I know into my own words.

24. 2) Key Findings
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2. To develop competence in an area of inquiry,
students must:
 have a deep foundation of factual
knowledge,
 understand facts and ideas in the context
of a conceptual framework, and
 organize knowledge in ways that facilitate
retrieval and application.
How People Learn – Chapter 1, p 16.

25. 2) Key Findings
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3. A “metacognitive” approach to instruction can
help students learn to take control of their own
learning by defining learning goals and
monitoring their progress in achieving them.
How People Learn – Chapter 1, p 18.

26. Please break into groups of 3...
26
Each set of cards has
 3 Key Findings
 3 Implications for Teaching
 3 Designing Classroom Environments
TASK: For each Key Finding, match one
Implication for Teaching and one Designing
Classroom Environment.

27. 27

28. 28
Implications for Instructors
and Teaching Assistants

29. Traditional (lecture) class
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Lecture Textbook Homework Exam
First Read Hard Stuff See if You Show Knowledge
Exposure Know Hard Stuff Mastery
 students get very little opportunity for “expert”
feedback

30. Constructivist class
30
Homework Lecture Lab Exam
Q
U
I
Z
First Exposure: Learn Hard Stuff: Practice
Show Knowledge
With resources and With teacher and Knowledge
Mastery
Feedback discussion Mastery
 Everyone constructs their own understanding:
I can’t dump understanding into your brain.
To learn, YOU must actively work with a problem
and construct your own understanding of it.
 Greater opportunity for expert feedback

31. When you are the instructor of
31
record…
 Peer Instruction (aka “clickers”)
 One of most-studied active learning
techniques for improving learning
 Works IN the (large) lecture hall
 Focuses students on their role and
responsibility as the learner

32. Typical Peer Instruction
32
Episode
1. Instructor poses a conceptually-challenging
multiple-choice question.
2. Students think about question on their own.
3. Students vote for an answer using clickers,
coloured cards, ABCD voting cards,...
4. The instructor reacts, based on the
distribution of votes.

33. In effective peer instruction
33
 students teach each other immediately,
students learn
while they may still hold or remember
and practice
their novice misconceptions
how to think,
 students discuss the concepts in theircommunicate
own language like experts
 the instructor finds out what the students know
(and don’t know) and reacts

34. Effective peer instruction
34
requires
1. identifying key concepts,
misconceptions before
2. creating multiple-choice questions that class
require deeper thinking and learning
3. facilitating peer instruction episodes during
that spark student discussion class
4. resolving the misconceptions

35. Clicker Question
35
The molecules making up the dry mass of wood
that forms during the growth of a tree largely come
from
a) sunlight.
b) the air.
c) the seed.
d) the soil.
Veritasium (Derek Muller)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KZb2_vcNTg
Question credit: Bill Wood

36. Clicker Question
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Suppose that in the tree below new data were
uncovered indicating that taxon E is sister to a
group consisting of taxa D and F. Draw the new
phylogeny.

37. Which one is the closest match to your phylogeny?
37
a) b)
c) d) Some other
phylogeny

38. Quiz
38
Selection is the stimulus/pressure (internal or
external) that affects life and/or the ability to
reproduce.
True 1. Some plants don’t experience selection.
T F or False?
T F 2. Insects often experience a different type of
selection as larvae than as adults.
T F 3. Birds can experience different directions of
selection in different years.
T F 4. Selection in mammals always operates more
strongly on survival than on reproduction.

39. Sync with Key Findings 2?
39
 Does that lesson demand deep foundation of
knowledge, a conceptual framework,
organization of knowledge?
 Did instructor teach in depth, multiple examples
of concept, provide firm foundation?
 Is attention given to what is taught, why it’s
taught and what mastery looks like?

40. Clicker question: Selection
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How many of the following statements are true?
Plants: Some plants don’t experience
selection.
Insects: Insects often experience a different type
of
selection as larvae than as adults.
Birds: Birds can experience different directions
of
selection in different years.
Mammals: Selection in mammals always operates
more strongly on survival than on

41. Active Learning Techniques for
41
Discussion Sections
 Think, Pair Share or peer instruction with
clickers
 One-Minute papers: What is most confusing
right now?
 Problem Solving in Groups
 Provide scaffold/structure
 Ask what steps would you take to solve
problem
(versus actually solving them)
 Critique or “fix” sample work/problem
 overhead slides, document cameras, board?

42. Discussion Sections
42
Learning is not about what TAs explain.
It’s about what students understand!

43. Discussion Sections
43
Learning is not about what TAs explain.
It’s about what students understand!
Corollary 1: Students will not understand
(just) by watching the TA solve problems.

44. Discussion Sections
44
Learning is not about what TAs explain.
It’s about what students understand!
Corollary 1: Students will not understand
(just) by watching the TA solve problems.
Corollary 2: BE LESS HELPFUL.

45. But really ask yourself…
45
Who is doing the work?
You or the students?

46. Questions?
46
 And feedback…