“Memory and Learning: A Practical Guide for Students” New, Free Text-book & Materials

1. The text for this workshop (with instructions for the exercises) is in a separate document that is matched to the slides. Both should be posted together. “Memory and Learning: A Practical Guide for Students” New, Free Text-book & Materials for students or teachers Noyce Scholars, College Freshman, & High School Seniors Paul D. Heideman (pdheid@wm.edu) Department of Biology College of William and Mary

2. Outline • Introduction – two courses and materials • ‘How Students Learn’ (Noyce Scholars) • (b) ‘Memory and Learning: a practical guide for students’ (Fr) • Textbook* and other materials (* βeta free on a website) • (http://www.pdheid.blogs.wm.edu ) • Learning methods • Chunking & working memory • Student experiments on their own • Noyce class experiment: drawing-to-learn • Assessment • – Enduring change? The text for this workshop (with instructions for the exercises) is in a separate document that is matched to the slides. Both should be posted together.

3. Level 1 Level 2 A B C a b c d e … r s t Level 3 Cab car crab red Red car Level 4 Level 5 Mother has a red car. Figure 4.1 (Oops. I forgot to learn the letter .) Figure 4.2 The e is a edca . Illustration from the book: Chunks made of other chunks The effect of missing chunks:

4. Illustration from the book: Problems with words alone Yes! Ugh. This thing will never move. Give me better instructions! This won’t work either! Why are you doing this to me? Nit. Figure 8.1

5. 4 2 3 1c 1d 1a 1b 2 1a 4 1b 1c 1d 3 Figure 11.7 Illustrations from the book: Neural circuits and learning (the letter L) Figure 11.15

6. Learning and Study Methods Workshop Exercise 1 • What are your students preferred study methods? • (1-2 greatest preferences) • Rereading (reading over their text or notes) • Highlighting • Summarization (looking through materials and making a summary) • Keyword mnemonics (making mnemonics using key words) • Practice testing (testing themselves by practice recall or problems) • Distributed Practice (spreading study time over multiple sessions)

7. Learning and Study Methods Workshop Exercise 1 Which are your students preferred study methods? (1-2 most common) Rereading (reading over their text or notes) Highlighting Summarization (looking through materials and making a summary) Keyword mnemonics (making mnemonics using key words) Practice testing (testing themselves by practice recall or problems) Distributed Practice (spreading study time over multiple sessions) (2) Which do you feel are most effective? (Rank as many as you wish)

8. Learning and Study Methods Workshop Exercise 1 Which are your students preferred study methods? Rereading Highlighting Summarization Keyword mnemonics Practice testing Distributed Practice (3) Which are least versusmost effective (according to research)?

9. Learning and Study Methods Workshop Exercise 1 (3) Which are least and most effective (according to research)? (see review by Dunlosky et al., 2013) LOW Rereading LOW Highlighting LOW Summarization LOW Keyword mnemonics (f) HIGHPractice testing (g) HIGHDistributed Practice & several more methods not listed here rate low - moderate

10. Learning and Study Methods • When should we give this information to students (& teachers)? • Middle School? • High School? • College? • Never?

11. Exercise 1. Learning and Study Methods • When should we give this information to students (& teachers)? • Middle School? • High School? • College? • Never? • Multiple times, from G-6 through college? • When do we give information to our students about how to learn?

12. What does it mean to students to ‘learn’ something? Water cycle

13. “pall-ee-hoag” Please Palihog Subig Water Tubig Cebuano Central Philippines Tagalog “too-big” Northern Philippines Figure 3.3 Water Tubig Acqua Eau p Agua What does it mean to ‘learn’ something? An Illustration from the text: Connections vs. Organization Fewer connections, but higher organization More connections, but almost no organization Please Palihog “pall-ee-hoag” Cebuano “too-big” Central Philippines Northern Philippines Tagalog Figure 3.4

14. What does it mean to ‘learn’ something? TheCarbon Cycle A complex structure, pathway, or concept – overwhelming for novices

15. Chunking and working memory capacity Workshop Exercise 2

17. Chunking and working memory capacity Workshop Exercise 2 How many parts correct?

18. Working Memory

19. Working Memory Excess Cognitive Load

20. Chunking and working memory capacity Workshop Exercise 3

22. Chunking and working memory capacity Workshop Exercise 3

23. Chunking and working memory capacity Workshop Exercise 3

24. Using student understanding of chunks and chunking Is understanding chunks and chunking useful? Can we suggest better learning or studying strategies? (easier, faster, and/or moreenduring learning)

25. Learn a new figure Workshop Exercise 4 Create manageable chunks

26. Simpler chunks, each fitting in working memory Workshop Exercise 4 Create manageable chunks, each of which means something. The S The claw

27. Simpler chunks, each fitting in working memory Workshop Exercise 4 The S The lollipop Y The claw

28. Simpler chunks, each fitting in working memory Workshop Exercise 4 The recliner The S The lollipop Y smile & mustache The claw

29. Draw your chunks from memory: Workshop Exercise 4

30. How much did you recall? Workshop Exercise 5

31. Workshop Exercise 4 The problem is not the number of lines and connections. The problem is whether we can chunk them effectively. (Is this just a way for students to do their own scaffolding?)

32. Chunking complex figures Workshop Exercise 5 The carbon cycle, overwhelming working memory

33. Information Reduction (chunking) as a Learning Tool Workshop Exercise 5 • Take a complex figure • Break it into smaller pieces • Practice each • Combine ‘Information Reduction’ -- an application of chunking

34. Information Reduction (chunking) as a Learning Tool Workshop Exercise 6 The carbon cycle, one chunk …

35. Information Reduction (chunking) Complex Figures Workshop Exercise 5 Try doing just this one chunk, - with even more information reduction 0.2

36. Information Reduction (chunking) Complex Figures Workshop Exercise 5 0.2 Weathering Make a simple flow chart or sketch for all or part of this portion

37. Chunking complex figures Workshop Exercise 5 The carbon cycle, one portion as a minute sketch (a drawing-to-learn tool) Weathering 0.2 Weathering 0.2 Rainfall 0.4 Vegetation & Soil 2300 0.8 Rain   Ocean 0.2 Rock (Gigatons C)

38. Metacognition Experiments (my definition) Workshop Exercise 6 • Metacognition Experiment: - any experiment on yourself testing ways you learn.

39. Metacognition Experiments Workshop Exercise 6 • Metacognition Experiment: - any experiment on yourself testing ways you learn. • Do I recall more after rereadingvs.practicetesting?

40. Metacognition Experiments Workshop Exercise 6 • Metacognition Experiment: - any experiment on yourself testing ways you learn. • Do I recall more by rereading vs. practice testing? • Experiment: Chapter 9: rereading, vs. Chapter 10 practice testing • Decision rule: number correct on end-of-chapter questions (20 min for each)

41. Metacognition Experiments Workshop Exercise 6 • Metacognition Experiment: - any experiment on yourself testing ways to learn. • Do I recall more by rereading vs. practice testing? • Highlighting vs. retrieval practice?

42. Metacognition Experiments Workshop Exercise 6 • Metacognition Experiment: - any experiment on yourself testing ways to learn. • Do I recall more by rereading vs. practice testing? • Highlighting vs. retrieval practice? • Do I focus better listening to music or in silence? • Mind-mapping a chapter vs. highlighting with rereading? • Will I learn better using minute sketches vs. my normal method?

43. Metacognition Experiment Portfolios • All students in my freshman class, - Complete at least 10 experiments (as part of studying for other courses) • Their choice, with some required topics (I provide samples; may use classmates’ experiments) • Noyce Scholars (new in 2012 – at their request) - Complete a collaborative class experiment In a format that they could do in their own classes

44. Metacognition Experiment Portfolios • All students in my freshman class: - Complete at least 10 experiments (as part of studying for other courses) • Their choice, with some required topics (I provide samples; may use their classmates’ experiments) • Noyce Scholars (new in 2012 – at their request) - Complete a collaborative class experiment In a format that they could do in their own classes My goal: that students and teachers know how to run more experiments whenever they choose, AFTER the course is over.

45. Metacognition Experiment on Sleep Workshop Exercise 6 • Today… based on a student metacognition experiment: • Does sleeping for 6 hours vs. 8 hours • affect my problem solving ability?

46. Metacognition Experiment example: Sleep & problem solving Workshop Exercise 6 • Title: Amount of Sleep and Problem Solving (by 2 different students) • Purpose: to test whether the number of hours I sleep affects my ability to solve problems in my head. • Method(condensed): • In advance, write out two sets of multiplication problems of equivalent difficulty • Choose numbers at random; assign problems to treatments at random. • Solve one set 2 hours after waking up on a night with 8 hr sleep, and the other set 2 hr after waking up on a night with 6 hr sleep. • Record: • The time it takes to solve each problem • Whether or not I got the right answer. • If an answer was wrong, did I notice? • How confusing it felt (if it felt confusing at all). • Analysis: Decision rule: If I am just as fast to solve problems and have no more errors on 6 hours as 8 hours of sleep, then 6 hours of sleep does not affect my ability to solve this kind of problem in my head.

47. Metacognition Experiment example: Sleep & problem solving Workshop Exercise 6 • Students Recorded: • The time it takes to solve each problem • Whether or not they got the right answer. • If an answer was wrong, did they notice? • How confusing it felt (if it felt confusing at all).

48. Metacognition Experiment example: Sleep & problem solving Workshop Exercise 6 Student 1: “It took me nearly twice as long to solve the [hardest] problems with six hours of sleep as opposed to eight. There wasn’t a big difference in the level of complexity that I could handle.”

49. Metacognition Experiment example: Sleep & problem solving Workshop Exercise 6 Student 2: “On 6 hours of sleep it was much harder to hold all of the individual pieces that I had to work with in my working memory… I would have to go through each step several times in my head until I could actually work with that chunk.” digit problem digit problem digit problem digit problem digit problem • Overall: students have found that on six hours of sleep, • Solving challenging problems takes a little longer, • Is more likely to give a wrong answer (and not be noticed), and • Feels harder.

50. A drawing-to-learn experiment: Minute sketches with folded lists • A Noyce class metacognition experiment • Their question: • Do minute sketches with folded lists work? • The class was skeptical. • They should be skeptical of claims with weak evidence.