Get Students to Value Learning: Teach them HOW to Learn!

1. Get Students to Value Learning: Teach them HOW to Learn! Saundra Y. McGuire, Ph.D., Director Center for Academic Success Adj. Professor, Dept. of Chemistry Assoc. Dean, University College Louisiana State University Baton Rouge, LA

2. Desired outcomes • We will have concrete metacognitive strategies that faculty can teach students to increase critical thinking • We will know what motivates students to learn • We will view our students differently • We will see positive changes in our students’ performance and self-perception © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

3. A Tale of Three LSU Students • Travis, junior psychology student 47, 52, 82, 86 • Robert, freshman chemistry student 42, 100, 100, 100 • Terrence, junior Bio Engineering student GPA 1.67 cum, 3.54 (F 03), 3.8 (S 04) © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

4. Reflection Questions • Did you study a lot in high school? In college? • When did you learn the conceptual structure (relationships between basic concepts) of your discipline? • When/why/how did you to learn this? © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

5. How do some faculty members inadvertently decrease student learning? • By assigning homework and giving tests that require little, if any, higher order thinking • By assessing learning too infrequently • By putting notes on-line and advising students they don’t need to purchase the textbook • By having little ability to teach students concrete learning strategies © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

6. Counting Vowels in 30 seconds How accurate are you?

7. So, what can we do to improve student learning? • Teach students about metacognition • Use pedagogical strategies that reinforce the use of metacognition • Assess and provide feedback as often as possible • Use motivational techniques © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

8. Metacognition The ability to: • think about thinking • be consciously aware of oneself as a problem solver • monitor and control one’s mental processing © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

9. This pyramid depicts the different levels of thinking we use when learning. Notice how each level builds on the foundation that precedes it. It is required that we learn the lower levels before we can effectively use the skills above. Bloom’s Taxonomy Evaluation Graduate School Making decisions and supporting views; requires understanding of values. Combining information to form a unique product; requires creativity and originality. Synthesis Identifying components; determining arrangement, logic, and semantics. Analysis Undergraduate Using information to solve problems; transferring abstract or theoretical ideas to practical situations. Identifying connections and relationships and how they apply. Application Restating in your own words; paraphrasing, summarizing, translating. Comprehension High School Memorizing verbatim information. Being able to remember, but not necessarily fully understanding the material. Knowledge Louisiana State University  Center for Academic Success  B-31 Coates Hall  225-578-2872  www.cas.lsu.edu

10. What Can Faculty Do to Increase Learning? • Clearly communicate course goals and expectations • Teach basic learning strategies within the context of the discipline • Use engaging pedagogical technique (e.g. think pair-share, one-minute essay, in class groups, etc.) © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

11. Provide a Learning-Centered Syllabus • Focus less on what you will do and more on what you expect the students to do. • Specify the learning outcomes you expect and the assessment tools you will use. • Clarify the mutual responsibilities of both you and the students. • Provide students with resources and study aids. • Indicate all course policies, but in a friendly helpful tone. Source: Judith Grunert, The Course Syllabus: A LearningCentered Approach, 1997. Anker Publishing Company © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

12. Clearly specify what is to be learned • Memorization of facts • Comparing and contrasting data • Application of information • Creation of new information (synthesis) • Critical evaluation of differing ideas • Other © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

13. Example~ Bloom’s Levels of Learning ~Applied toGoldilocks and the Three Bears Courtesy of http://www.kyrene.k12.az.us/schools/brisas/sunda/litpack/BloomsCriticalThinking_files/v3_document.htm © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

14. Keys to Learning Based on Cognitive Science Principles • Deep factual and procedural knowledge of a discipline is required to solve problems • Learning is a continuous process; repetition is the key • New knowledge must be tied to existing knowledge; accurate judgment of knowledge is crucial! • Learning should involve both sides of the brain and several learning styles © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

15. Experts vs. Novices They think differently about problems © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

16. Novices vs. Intelligent Novices • Intelligent novices learn new domains more quickly than other novices • The metacognitive skills make the difference © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

17. What intelligent novices know • Learning is different from memorization • Solving problems without looking at the solution is different from using the solution as a model • Comprehension of reading material must be tested while the reading is in progress • Knowledge is not “handed out” by the instructor; it is constructed by the learner © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

18. The Study Cycle Phase 1:Read or preview chapter(s) to be covered in class… before class. Phase 2: GO TO CLASS! Listen actively, take notes, participate in class. Phase 3:Review and process class notes as soon after class as possible. Phase 4: Implement Intense Study Sessions. Repeat © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

19. Intense Study Sessions • 2-5 minutes:Set Goals • 20-50 minutes:STUDY with FOCUS and ACTION(Read your text, create flash cards, create maps and/or outlines, work problems -without peeking at the answers, quiz yourself…)Achieve your goal! • 5 minutesTake a break • 5 minutesReview what you have just studied • Repeat © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

20. How does background knowledge affect comprehension?Read this passage and see! *”The procedure is actually quite simple. First, you arrange things into different groups. Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities, that is the next step. Otherwise, you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo things. That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many. In the short run this may not seem important but complications can easily arise. A mistake can be expensive as well. At first, the whole procedure will seem complicated. Soon, however, it will become just another facet of life. It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but then one can never tell. After the procedure is completed, one arranges the materials into different groups again. Then they can be put into their appropriate places.” What is the task? © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

21. Washing Clothes Exercise • *Source: Bransford, J.D.& Johnson, M.K. “Contextual Prerequisites for Understanding: Some Investigations of Comprehension and Recall,” Journal of Verbal Learningand Verbal Behavior, 2:7, 1972. © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

22. Turning Students into Intelligent Novices • Have them determine their learning style • Have them do “think aloud” exercises • Provide time for them to do metacognitive activities in class • Have them ask “why” and “what if” • Have them write exam questions that are at the application level (or higher) on Bloom’s taxonomy • Others? © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

23. Active Learning Strategies • Get Involved • Ask Questions • Recite and Write • Review • Reflect (megacognate?) © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

24. Good notes are essential for meaningful learning © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

25. Cornell Note Taking Format Notes on Taking Notes, 4/05/03 Recall Column: Uses of notes • identify major points • identify minor points There are 4 Kinds of Notes: • Running Text • Formal Outline • Informal Outline • Cornell Note system Reduce ideas and facts to concise summaries and cues for reciting, reviewing and reflecting over here. © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

26. Closing the Gap Between What Faculty Present and What Students Understand An acid is a substance that produces protons when dissolved in water. Other Examples of Misconceptions of HCC students? © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

27. Get the Most Out of Homework • Start the problems or questions early--the day they are assigned • Do not flip back to see example problems; work them yourself! • Don’t give up too soon (<15 min.) • Don’t spend too much time (>30 min.) © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

28. Concept maps facilitate development of higher order thinking skills © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

29. Compare and Contrast Acids Bases How are they similar? How are they different? © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

30. Create a Chapter Map Title of Chapter Primary Headings Subheadings Secondary Subheadings

31. Cooperative Learning Activity Develop a mini-lesson on the difference between strong acids and weak acids vs. concentrated and dilute acids © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

32. Faculty Role in Student MotivationEric Hobson, Albany College of Pharmacy Positive Motivation Teacher’s attitudes 27% Course structure 22% Intrinsic 20% Course content 17% Performance meas. 10% Financial 1% Parents/Others 1% Negative Motivation Teacher’s attitudes 27% Course structure 26% Learning environ. 13% Course content 11% Intrinsic 10% Parents/Others 1% Financial 0.3% © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

33. Motivation Boosters • Partial credit for partially correct answers • Letting students use their own problem solving method • Flexible grading scale based on student performance • Demonstrated personal interest in having EVERY student succeed! © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

34. Motivation Busters • Multiple choice tests with no opportunity for partial credit • Requiring students to use one problem solving method • Absolute grading scale with no flexibility • Attitude that most students are not prepared to do well, and probably won’t! • Assessment that is not closely tied to what students learned © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

35. The Role of Academic Support Centers in Facilitating Learning Provide faculty with information on student characteristics and on metacognitive learning strategies they can teach students Assist faculty in developing ways to incorporate learning strategies information into their courses Help students identify the problem with their performance, and prescribe remedies involving metacognitive strategies © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

36. A Tale of Two More LSU Students • Amy, junior organic chemistry student 54, 82, 76, 78 • Michael, senior pre-medical organic student 30, 28, 80, 91 © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

37. What Metacognitive Learning Strategy Can You Teach that Might Improve Student Performance in Your Course? © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

38. Strategies that have worked at other colleges • Integrating study strategy techniques into class structure. • Teaching and requiring concept mapping • Setting up collaborative working groups in class • Frequent pop quizzes and different approaches to testing and homework • Using motivational techniques • Supplemental Instruction and Service-Learning © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

39. Final Note © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

40. Please visit the CAS website at www.cas.lsu.edu. We have on-line workshops that will introduce you and your students to effective metacognitive strategies. Please feel free to contact me at smcgui1@lsu.edu. I wish you great success with your students. Saundra McGuire © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

41. References • Bruer, John T. , 2000. Schools For Thought: A Science of Learning in the Classroom. MIT Press. • National Research Council, National Academy Press, 2000. How People Learn • Robinson, Adam. 1993. What Smart Students Know. Three Rivers Press. • www.cas.lsu.edu © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

42. In conclusion Our students CAN change their attitudes and behaviors about learning. BUT, this will happen only if and when they are taught how, and are motivated to do so. © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

43. B-31 Coates Hall Louisiana State University www.cas.lsu.edu © LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership