IET 3: How People Learn Jim Sibley University of British Columbia Gordon Stubley University of Waterloo

Table Introductions 5 minutes

Not an exploration of learning theory, but some practical examples of using the research on how people learn to find small but powerful ways to improve your course You can easily go very deep, very quickly…but today we want look for simple., easy to implement, research-based course improvements

How do we use these insights to improve our everyday instruction? Advances in Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience has given us some powerful new insight into learning How do we use these insights to improve our everyday instruction?

2001 2010 2016

Knowledge Retrieving Predicting Interleaving Understanding Connecting Practicing Self-Explaining Inspiration Motivating Growing Expanding Book highlights research that can help you design better courses and gives concrete examples of how make small research supported changes with big effects to your course Today we are going focus on some of the small things you can do in the Knowledge domain: specifically some practices around retrieving, predicting and interleaving We are not going to look today at his recommendations for the Understanding domain and the Inspiration domain…but similar to the knowledge domain examples in his book he highlights the relevant research, the salient principles ,and gives concrete examples of how to incorporate these into your courses - nice I recommend the book – Small Teaching by James Lang

Gordon’s Simple Learning Model Storage / Long-term Memory Ultra-large capacity Complex network connects knowledge “chunks” Network and connections are living: Connections and their strength changes Biological timescale for changes Degree of self-awareness Working / Short-term Memory LEARNING CHALLENGE: For lasting knowledge that is transferable we need to build numerous network connections that allow future access. Adapted from Richard E. Meyer, 2009, Multi-media Learning, Second Edition, Cambridge University Press

Learning Goals List strategies to incorporate retrieval practice Identify opportunities to incorporate prediction practice Suggest strategies to incorporate more interleaving Modest but achievable we hope

Power of Retrieval Retrieving an event can be a more potent learning opportunity than restudying it Henry Roediger Story: Welcome to the week videos in an introduction to Engineering course. I was puzzled that the teacher had embedded 12 not very difficult MCQ questions in a 6 minute video, till I saw the pattern and realized he would ask a few question every few minutes – what did we just cover MCQs - and then at end – what did the video cover MCQs…the teacher was in fact doing something quite brilliant, by having student retrieve the information multiple times he was in fact strengthen the memory every time it moved in and out of memory

Activity 1 5 mins later test 1 week later final test Predict which group will do best on Final Test Study – Study – Study – Study Study – Test – Study - Test Study – Test – Test - Test 5 mins later test First delay = 5 minutes Second delay = 1 week 1 week later final test Roediger HL III and Karpicke JD (2006). The power of testing memory: basic research and implications for educational practice.

A A B C Get results here Roediger HL III and Karpicke JD (2006). The power of testing memory: basic research and implications for educational practice.

Principles of Retrieval More retrieval practice = more learning and frequency does matter Your retrieval practice can take the form of simple memory exercises The type of questions you use for retrieval practice should be precursors to type of question on high stake assessment APSC 100 story – prep for week videos with easy questions embedded, my first thought was you could make questions harder, but came to realize teacher was using retrieval practice to help students learn – look like simple memory exercise – moving and idea in and out of brain a few times to reinforce it

Activity 2 Individually (4 minutes): Think of small opportunities to incorporate more retrieval practice in your own courses. Team (4 minutes): Pool your table ideas and create a list of all ideas and possible strategies to have thought up that would increase the amount of retrieval practice for your students. Report (6 minutes): Whole class will compile a master list of possible strategies to incorporate more retrieval practice. Open questions– in first few minutes of class - can someone remind me what we covered last class, what two theories have we been working with so far, spend a few minutes writing down what you remember from last class Closing questions – similar to opening questions, can also do a minute paper (CAT) of 2 most important things we learned today or write an exam question based on what we covered today Frequent low stakes quizzing - to force frequent retrieval can be at start of class as reading check or end of class for an understanding check Space out due dates - longer term engagement with course concepts

Power of Interleaving

Principles of Interleaving BLOCK and Interleave – blocking is important to gain initial mastery - you can still block, just add some interleaving Keep it small, Keep it Frequent – frequency matters - return to key concepts multiple times Explain to students why you are delaying their feelings of progress Massed practice guitar/golf story – storage strength vs accessibility (Bjork)

Activity 3 Individually (3 minutes): Think of small opportunities to incorporate more interleaving in your own courses. Team (5 minutes): Pool your table ideas and create a list of all ideas and possible strategies to have thought up that would increase the amount of interleaving for your students. Report (4 minutes): Whole class will compile a master list of possible strategies to incorporate more interleaving. Reserve parts of exams for older course content Open and close sessions retrieving prior knowledge Weekly mini-review sessions Stagger deadlines

Power of Predicting Wrong guesses expose fluency illusions, our false impression we know Carey, 2014

Principles of Predicting Focus prediction activities on major concepts (not minutiae) Close the loop and provide fast feedback Induce reflection – ask students to think about why they made a particular prediction Should do a prediction activity based on Wood’s Engineering problem-solving study (1989) MPS document

Activity 4 Team (8 minutes) Consider the scenario and determine where you could incorporate retrieval practice, interleaving and spaced practice, and having students make predictions. Think both of class-level changes and course-level changes Be prepared to make 3 recommendations. Report (8 minutes): Whole class will compile a master list of recommendations to incorporate more retrieval, interleaving and prediction. Low stakes pre-tests to establish prior knowledge and focus attention on subsequent instruction (IF-ATs) Clicker predictions (voting cards) Whole class organizer - prediction-exposure-feedback Single idea class moment - pause-predict-ponder Closing predictions to motivate homework engagement Summary statement: from Make it Stick – Roediger et al “unsuccessful attempts to solve a problem encourages deep processing of the answer when it is later supplied, creating fertile ground for its encoding, in a way that simply reading the answer will not”

Scenario Professor Smith course meets 3 times a week for 50 minutes. His primary mode of instruction is traditional lecture. He has two midterms and a final exam and has structured it so each exam only covers the material since the last midterm (or start of course in case of first midterm). Student are required individually complete a detailed design and prepare a 15 page report (due in last week of class) and he has them present their design to the class in second last week of term. Prediction Low stakes pre-tests to establish prior knowledge and focus attention on subsequent instruction (IF-ATs) Clicker predictions (voting cards) Whole class organizer - prediction-exposure-feedback Single idea class moment - pause-predict-ponder Closing predictions to motivate homework engagement Retrieval Open questions– in first few minutes of class - can someone remind me what we covered last class, what two theories have we been working with so far, spend a few minutes writing down what you remember from last class Closing questions – similar to opening questions, can also do a minute paper (CAT) of 2 most important things we learned today or write an exam question based on what we covered today Frequent low stakes quizzing - to force frequent retrieval can be at start of class as reading check or end of class for an understanding check Space out due dates - longer term engagement with course concepts Interleaving Reserve parts of exams for older course content Open and close sessions retrieving prior knowledge Weekly mini-review sessions Stagger deadlines Encourage effective study habits by explicitly draw attention to what you are doing Summary statement: from Make it Stick – Roediger et al “unsuccessful attempts to solve a problem encourages deep processing of the answer when it is later supplied, creating fertile ground for its encoding, in a way that simply reading the answer will not” Where you could incorporate retrieval practice, interleaving, and prediction practice? Think both of class-level changes and course-level changes - 3 recommendations

Burning Questions Individually (2 minutes): Write out a few lingering questions you might have about today’s session. Team (4 minutes): Share your questions with your tablemates. Try to answer each other questions and identify 2 important questions that remain. Write them on the provided large post-it notes. Report (4 minutes): When your table is done put the post-it note on the flipchart labeled “Parking Lot”. IET 6 will focus on addressing these questions.