How People Learn, 1999, National Academy Press
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Learner
Centered
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Knowledge
Centered
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Assessment
Centered
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Community
Centered
Learner Centered
What does the learner bring to the learning setting?
These may be beliefs, cultural background, or knowledge of the
academic content. This is what new information needs to be connected
to.
Learners use current knowledge to construct new knowledge and
what they know and believe at the moment affects how they will
interpret new information.
Current knowledge can help or hamper learning.
Teachers have a harder time in using the learner’s background
because they are not familiar with it. A teacher must make an effort
to learn about their students’ backgrounds if they are to
effectively connect to their prior knowledge.
Knowledge Centered
Instruction that focuses on how to help students use
their current knowledge and skills to think and solve problems.
How do we help students learn and understand new knowledge verses
learning a set of disconnected facts and skills?
Too much information in the curricula may result in developing
disconnected facts or skills rather than connected knowledge.
Assessment Centered
Feedback is fundamental to learning—it may be the
most powerful part of the learning experience.
Students need opportunities for formative assessment that allow
for revision and improvement of the quality of their thinking and
understanding.
If the learning goal is to enhance understanding and
applicability of knowledge, it is not sufficient to provide
assessments that focus primarily on memorizing facts and formulas.
Community Centered
The learning environment must promote a sense of
community.
Most activities outside of school are based in community
settings, homes, clubs, teams, etc.
A community allows more opportunity for motivation, interaction,
and feedback.
A Shift in the Meaning of Effective
Learning
As a result of the research from the past 30 years, the views
of effective learning have shifted from the benefits of drill and
practice to a focus on students’ understanding and application of
knowledge (How People Learn, 2000 pg. xi).
Research on expertise in areas such as chess, history, science,
and mathematics demonstrate that the experts’ ability to think and
solve problems depend strongly on a rich body of knowledge about the
subject matter (e.g. Chase and Simon, 1973, Chi et al., 1981;
deGroot, 1965).
However, the research also shows clearly that "usable knowledge"
is not the same as a mere list of disconnected facts. The experts’
knowledge is connected and organized around important concepts. It
is "conditionalized" to specify the contexts in which it is
applicable; it supports understanding and transfer to other contexts
rather than only the ability to remember (How People Learn 2000,
page 9). |
