2. Adopting and adapting teaching and learning styles Neil Denby

3. Learning Behavioural (Skinner, Thorndike) Learning is a change in observable behaviour Change existing classroom behaviours Shape observable learning outcomes Shape new skills

4. Four approaches Contiguity Two stimuli become associated when they repeatedly occur together Classical conditioning The pairing of an automatic response (emotional) (positive or negative) with a certain stimulus Operant conditioning The type and timing of reinforcement affects learned behaviour Social learning Learning by observing other behaviours

5. Contiguity Two stimuli become associated when they repeatedly occur together Task: Give examples from your subject Matching games, battleships, missing words, bingo, concentration-type games Discourage incorrect matches: It is imperative that wrong notions are not initially given!

6. Classical conditioning The pairing of an automatic response (emotional) (positive or negative) with a certain stimulus e.g.: Fear, anxiety, worry – associated with ‘difficult’ concepts, examinations, etc. … Confidence, pride, comfort associated with ‘easy’ concepts, ‘fun’ lessons Task: Give examples from your subject

7. Learning experiences … Enjoyable, positive so that positive outcomes are associated with the subject Learning tasks must be hard enough to challenge, but not so hard that failure is inevitable Use cooperative team structures to establish new ideas Minimise individual competition (tests are for progress, not competition) Use familiar and relevant case study material so that study is associated with everyday life

8. Operant conditioning The type and timing of reinforcement affects learned behaviour, e.g.: An unpredictable series of reinforcement promotes persistence at a learning task Reward good ‘learning’ behaviour Reinforce new learning: Apply previously learned knowledge to a local issue or make relevant by collecting current data Use unpredictable reinforcement Use plenty of praise when learning new concepts (construction of praise is important – give reasons) Surprise tests are better than scheduled ones

9. Social learning Learning by observing other behaviours. (attention; retention; reproduction; motivation): Attention is paid to things that are interesting, exciting, enthusiastic, engaging Use of props, newspaper clippings, stories Reproduction: Model behaviour to be reproduced (‘talking through’ difficult concepts) Motivation: Positive reinforcement – grades, marks, praise motivates

10. Cognitive Change in observable behaviour is a reflection of a more important internal change Learning is the result of one’s attempts to make sense of the world Learner is an active source of plans, goals, intentions and emotions, which are used to sort incoming stimuli and construct meaning and knowledge Cognitive learning is often experiential (Piaget et al.)

11. Experiential learning On-the-job experience Mini enterprise Role play Problem solving: o Understand the problem o Have enough prior knowledge to solve the problem o Visually portray the problem Encourage role taking and opinion forming Encourage different perspectives Encourage ownership

12. Perception and attention Which stimuli are attended to, and which are ignored? Depends on: Rules Knowledge Patterns Beliefs Expectations Give examples from your own subject

13. Different perceptions Different outputs possible from the same input (different perceptions) Teachers (you) can help pupils to attend to (focus on) relevance Provide a context: o Purpose and main ideas of the lesson o Repeat and review main ideas o State ideas in student’s own words o Identify important central concepts and supporting examples Use of headings and sub-headings

14. Arouse curiosity For each of the following, give examples from your own subject: Use surprise Use novel ideas or approaches Set up a puzzle or open-ended issue Raise a question or issue before knowledge/answer

15. Memory Information storage consists of: Words, concepts, skills, strategies (verbalised) Pictures, imagination (images) Meanings, perceptions (interpretation)

16. Networks Networks of ideas, etc., form the basis of memory, and are reinforced with examples, relationships and sub-concepts New ideas are integrated into the existing network

17. Retrieval Help students to retrieve prior knowledge before proceeding For each of the following, give examples from your own subject: Brainstorm existing knowledge Hierarchical classification (what I knew, what I know now, both together) Pupils make mental images of new ideas Rephrase, give examples, develop graphic representations Pupils to be active participants