Helping students help themselves

1. Helping students help themselves Marilla Svinicki Educational Psychology The University of Texas at Austin

2. Where do students need help? • Decreasing their focus on memorization • Increasing their self-regulation strategies • Increasing and focusing their own motivation • Recognizing the need for transfer

3. Instructional problem: Emphasis on memorization • “I studied so hard and thought I knew everything. How could I get a C?” • “Could you post all the notes on the website?” • “What’s the right answer?” Students don’t have the same definitions of learning that we do.

4. What does it mean to understand? • Put a concept in your own terms? • Give your own examples? • Apply the concept to new situations? • Understand the structure of a concept and how it relates to other concepts.

5. Structural knowledge: the concept map

6. Why does structure help?5 • It provides organization to memory, which reduces cognitive load. • It identifies similar concepts for generalization. • It forms the basis for analogical reasoning. • It allows you to fill in gaps by inference. • It allows you to imagine possible realities you haven’t directly experienced.

7. A simple comparative organizer

8. Example of a cumulative, comparative organizer

9. A generative chart Columns Rows

10. Applying this to your own situation. • Is there an example of a structural model of the content that you use in your course? • How can you encourage students to use or create their own structural understanding representations?

11. Instructional Problem: Poor student self-regulation

12. How can we help our students be better learners? The GAMES model G oal-oriented learning A ctive learning M eaningful learning E xplanations and learning S elf-regulation of learning

13. Goal-oriented learning • Example of good goals for studying • Be able to list, define and give my own example of the key vocabulary in a chapter. • Be able to solve the problems highlighted in a chapter without looking at the solution beforehand. • Be able to explain how the statistical test described in this chapter differs from the one in the previous chapter.

14. Active learning • Examples of good active learning strategies for studying: • Outlining or creating charts to make connections • Summarizing or paraphrasing sections of the reading • Working through problems • Thinking of examples or questions • Creating mental images, metaphors, analogies • What’s wrong with highlighting? • What about in your field?

15. Meaningful learning • Encourage structural understanding • Making outlines • Using concept maps • Creating comparative organizers • Drawing flow charts • Creating a story line for sequences

16. Explanations and learning • Using peer learning during and outside of class time • Face to face in class group activities • Online discussion boards or chat rooms • Contributor FAQs sites • Reflective journals or blogs with responses • Identified Audience summary sheets

17. Self-regulation of learning • What does it involve? • Self, task, strategy knowledge • Self-monitoring, evaluation and correction • Examples of Self-regulation activities • Students hand in a critique of own papers. • Study plans or phased paper writing • Selection amongst options

18. Would GAMES work for your students and your content? • What do you do already that helps your students become better learners? • How would you adapt GAMES to your classes? • What special learning strategies are particularly salient for your discipline? (Can you help my research team?)

19. Instructional problem: Misplaced or lack of motivation • “Will that be on the test?” • “I need an ‘A’ in this class. What can I do for extra credit?” • “Just tell me the right answer.” • Students are too focused on grades or not focused at all.

20. Motivation: Goal Orientation • Four proposed orientations • Mastery “I want to learn” • Approach “I want to succeed” • Avoidance “I don’t want to fail” • Strategic effort “I want the biggest bang for my buck”

21. Fostering mastery goals7 • Clear expectations • Focus on personal improvement • Emphasize learning value of errors • Positive support and useful feedback • De-emphasize comparison with others • Allow some personal control over the process • Develop classroom community

22. Motivation: Self-efficacy for a task • What is it and what effects does it have? • Encouraging accurate self-efficacy • Past success • Present success • Persuasion through support • Mindful analysis of learning

23. Motivation: Value of a task • Where does value come from? • Utility • Interest • Challenge • Self-determination • Societal influences • Why should students learn your content?

24. How would this apply to you?

25. Instructional problem: Transfer failure • “Didn’t you learn how to do this last semester?” • “That stuff is from the previous chapter. Do I have to remember it now?” • Students fail to make use of what they already know, and they forget everything after the test.

26. Useful learning theory • Cognitive learning theory • The value of activating prior knowledge • The need to overcome “situated” learning • The need to create a “transfer” mindset • Teaching strategies • Building on what students know • Providing lots of varied practice • Emphasizing mindful learning • Build in activities that point forward

27. How would this apply to you? • How do you help students connect? • What previously learned content/skills would be important to remind students of in your class? • How do you make the connection between the present and future uses of content?

28. A quick review • Foster structural understanding instead of memorization. • Help students learn to self-regulate. • Cultivate student motivation. • Encourage students to think about transfer while they’re learning.

29. Readings about learning • Bransford, J., Brown, A. and Cocking, R. (1999) How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. • Halpern, D. and Hakel, M. (2002) Applying the science of learning to university teaching and beyond. New Directions for Teaching and Learning no. 89 San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publisher. • Halpern, D. and Associates (1994) Changing College Classrooms. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publisher. • Svinicki, M. (2004) Learning and Motivation in Postsecondary Classrooms. Bolton, MA: Anker Press.