1. Three Learning Principles
Dr. Michele DiPietro
Executive Director,
Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
Kennesaw State University
Former President, The Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education

2. “It’s not teaching that causes learning
“It’s not teaching that causes learning. Attempts by the learner to perform cause learning, dependent upon the quality of feedback and opportunities to use it.”
— Grant Wiggins, “Feedback: How Learning Occurs”
“Teachers possess the power to create conditions that can help students learn a great deal – or keep them from learning much at all. Teaching is the intentional act of creating such conditions.”
— Parker Palmer, “The Courage to Teach”

3. 3 Learning Principles
Students’ motivation determines, directs, and sustains what they do to learn.
Goal-directed practice coupled with targeted feedback enhances the quality of students’ learning.
To become self-directed learners, students must learn to monitor and adjust their approaches to learning.

4. 3. Students’ motivation determines, direct, and sustains what they do to learn
Goals: novelty, flexibility, control, structured complexity
career .

5. Effects of value, self-efficacy, & environment on motivation

6. 5. Goal-directed practice coupled with targeted feedback enhances the quality of students’ learning

7. Students overestimate their strengths
7. To become self-directed learners, students must learn to monitor and adjust their approaches to learning.
Students don’t!
(Carey & Flower 1989; Hinsley et al. 1977)
Students don’t!
(NRC 2001; Fu & Gray 2004)
Students overestimate their strengths
(Dunning 2007)
1. Carey and Flowers (1989): half the college students they observed ignored the instructions for a writing assignment and instead used a generic writing-as-knowledge-telling strategy from high school.
1.Hinsley, Hayes, and Simon (1977): students categorized algebra problems after reading only the first few words of the problem. Moreover, once a category was chosen students tended to misread information that did not fit their category (e.g., reading ‘minutes’ as ‘miles’).
2.Dunning (2007): when nursing students were asked about their proficiency in performing several basic procedures (such as inserting an IV), the majority of them overestimated their abilities relative to their actual performance. Replicate in a variety of settings. Problem is diference between declarative and procedural knowledge
3. Chi et al. (1989): experts solve problems much quicker than novices but spend more time planning than novices
3. Carey et al. (1989): less effective writers plan less appropriately
5. NRC (2001): poor problem solvers continue to use a strategy even after it has failed
Issues: degree of effectiveness of the old approach, cost of the new approach, activation energy
5. Fu & Gray (2004): people will often continue to use a well-honed strategy that works moderately well rather than switch to a new strategy that would work better
Self-explanation effect
But students
don’t do it!
(Chi et al 1989)
Students don’t plan, or do it poorly
(Chi et al. 1989; Carey et al. 1989)

8. Intellectual Development by Year
Baxter-Magolda (1992)

9. Mandates from learning science
Build/Demonstrate Value and Activate Goals
Build Expectancy:
Build Self-Efficacy
Create a supportive environment
Be Explicit—about:
Goals
Expectations
Assessments
Teach Self-assessment, Planning, Reflection, Strategy Switching

10. Strategies Signature Pedagogies and High-Impact Practices
Collaborative Learning, Undergraduate Research, Global Learning/Study Abroad, Service Learning/Community Engagement, Writing across the Curriculum…
Use technology to solve pedagogical problems
Pedagogy drives technology not the other way around
Alignment
Measurable Goals, Authentic Assessments, Instruction
Scaffolding
Feedback (Neutral < Sandwich < High Standards)
Self-Assessment
Embed Reflection (Wrappers)

11. Institutional Strategies
Create a community of educators
Treat Teaching Scholarly

12. Strategies toward Mastery of Skills
Be explicit about practice
Goals (hint: be more explicit than you think you need to)
Rubrics and other grading criteria
Set expectations about practice
Model target performance
Show students what you DON’T want
Give frequent, timely, constructive feedback
Prioritize feedback
Balance strengths and weaknesses
Look for patterns of errors and use group or peer feedback for efficiency
Require students to say how they used your feedback in subsequent work

13. Strategies for Motivation
Value
Connect to students’ interests, real-world tasks, present and future academic and professional lives
Show enthusiasm for discipline
Expectancies
Educational alignment
Appropriate level of challenge
Early success opportunities
Educate students about their attributions
Give study strategies
Both: flexibility and control, reflection

14. Strategies for Metacognition
Assess task: check students’ understanding of the task, provide grading criteria upfront.
Evaluate own’s strengths and weaknesses: self-assessment, early assessments.
Plan: model good planning, make planning the point of the assignment
Monitor performance: give heuristics for self correction, require reflection and annotation of students’ own work, use peer review/reader response
Reflect/adjust: require reflection on performance and on study skills (Wrappers)
Beliefs: discuss them directly, broaden students’ understanding of ‘learning’
Development
Make uncertainty safe
Resist a single right answer
Incorporate evidence in grading criteria
Climate
Be mindful of low-ability cues
Reduce anonymity, Model inclusivity (language, behavior, attitudes)
Use diverse examples
Ground rules for interaction