How do we remember? Dirksen Chapter 4

This chapter brings up important distinctions in memory and processing and their implications for learning. Memories are formed based on the context and type of information. Humans are active sense makers, not merely robots that regurgitate information. Dirksen…

How do students develop mastery?

Mastery and transfer is often the goal of learning. Instructors want to bridge the knowledge gap for learners, but it can be difficult to do so when instructors have built up such sophisticated schemas and chunks of information. I have certainly been in a lot of classes…

4mat

In class today we talked about the 4mat learning theory, developed by Bernice McCarthy. It is a theory that organizes different learning styles to describe a whole range of the learning and communication experience. It is important and relevant to what we are doing with our client, because we have to think about how…

Engage the Elephant!

Dirksen’s chapter 5 describes how to get and maintain learners attention, which is not an easy task. Staying focused is…

Mapping out the problem space

After looking at the problems together in class on Tuesday, our team came together to discuss and map out the problem area on our own. We discovered new problem areas as well as areas we would like to continue exploring. We wanted to focus on the many different stakeholder…

Practice Makes Perfect?

In How Learning Works, Ambrose et al talk about practice and feedback. Chapter 5 aims to answer the questions, what are the kinds of practice and feedback that are most productive? We know that they are both important, but how should they be implemented in learning settings? According…

Designing for Knowledge

In chapter 6 of Design for How People Learn, Dirksen describes some of the ways to put things discussed in the previous chapters together. Some of the key guiding questions for this chapter were:

• Will your learners remember?

Understanding by Design

When we truly understand, we:

• can explain: not just a knowledge of facts, but the knowledge of why and how
• can interpret: be able to tell meaningful stories, how facts relate to each other in a linear fashion

Fun with Math Dice + Khan Academy

Last week in class we split up into our groups to play games. Most of the games had some sort of educational component to it, and our group played a game called Math Dice. The premise of the game is simple:

Reflections

Throughout the course we have talked about many different types of learning styles and how to design for knowledge. Thinking of ways to apply what we are learning about in the course to the client has been challenging. It is almost like everytime we go to the drawing board we are discovering something new…