Evidence-based learning environment design

Published in

Meta Humans

7 min readJul 7, 2021

We all have our own theories and beliefs about what works and doesn’t in education, which is why we must use an objective and informed approach to make sure we aren’t getting in our own way or fooling ourselves. By leveraging vetted research (doing our homework), applying proven methods can measurably improve our students’ learning experience. This can be harder than it sounds.

Design real-life simulators as realistic learning environments

What is evidence-based learning?

Evidence-based learning strategies are *supposed to be* supported by research. Unfortunately, because learners are all different (each with unique cultural backgrounds, varying ages, disparate prior knowledge and beliefs, etc.), it is very difficult to draw general conclusions from that research. One quick example: It’s challenging to measure engagement because having someone tell you they were engaged doesn’t always mean they learned efficiently.

“Motivation, engagement, and any similar affective state for which people experience positive or negative emotions or feelings, are almost never measured in a direct and objective manner.¹” — Mirjam Neelen

Experts in expertise — filter the noise

Most of us live in a society where individuality, feelings and beliefs are important. Most of us also have unprecedented access to information. This leads to an overwhelming number of opinions, promoted by self-proclaimed experts, which creates an ocean of mostly inaccurate information. Due to the sheer volume, it can be hard to filter down to the truth. Even seemingly reputable organizations that publish research can be tinted and twisted by bias. It isn’t nearly as hard to polish and publish as it once was.

“Everyone is entitled to his own opinions, however, not his own facts.”
— Daniel Patrick Moynihan

That’s why isn’t enough to do research and call it a day. We also need to validate and cross-reference our findings to create a strong foundation of knowledge that can support our work. At Meta Humans, we chose to work with industry leaders and seasoned educators to help establish a strong foundation for the ways we approach learning. Our focus is to create an operational framework that would allow for change, a framework that is based on experimentation, observation and analysis because we know we don’t know everything, and it will take all of us — including established, vetted experts — to achieve our goals.

Real problems have built-in relevance

David Didau’s philosophy of education

When Elon Musk said that children should “learn to the problems, not the tools,” it further validated our approach. We wanted to provide our members with real-life challenges that could be tackled in a safe and supportive environment. When faced with real-life challenges, we capture attention and active curiosity. The members’ new sense of purpose and drive to solve the problem will empower them to learn any skill or piece of information needed to get the job done. It’s an entire universe away from the rote memorization and high-stress exams many of us experienced as young people. This is about showing kids their potential and giving them the tools to live up to it. That kind of exhilaration is both motivating and memorable. It’s a more inspiring, and effective, way to learn.

3 ingredients to authentic learning experiences

Having a real purpose is only the first ingredient. For the learning experience to be successful, it is important to create an environment that will fully support the task at hand and mimic real-life as much as possible. Those carefully crafted environments act as real-life simulators of sorts. Our learning environments have three components: the physical space, the setup and the storyline.

1. The setting

Meta Humans’ centers feature modular zones. Those physical areas provide different layouts, equipment and visual/auditory designs to enhance the learning experience.

2. The setup

The way the tasks and challenges need to be addressed should also match the way they would materialize in real life. If a task is a group effort, then the learning experience should also be a group effort.

3. The storyline

The final touch is provided by our storyline, a common thread that links everything we do. Having a compelling storyline connects our physical spaces, challenges, projects and gamification dynamics to provide consistency and familiar patterns. It also provides powerful motivation (the same inherent motivation that lures your child to video games or iPhone screens for hours on end) and helps kids embrace delayed gratification through an epic personal and collective adventure.

Knowledge seeding

What should our children learn? The specific skills or knowledge should be mastered is a loaded question (we will dedicate another article on that subject). What if we start with just the knowledge side, for now? Many people believe that because we now have access to a world of facts on the internet, learning or memorizing facts is now obsolete. For starters, that ignores the important thinking tools that will be required to sort through an overwhelming amount of information or the capacity to weigh the validity of what we may discover.

The real trouble is this: Knowledge isn’t just “facts” but a complex combination of concepts related to the information we know we know, the information we know without knowing we know, and the way we do things.

David Didau² summarized his position on knowledge in these three propositions:

Knowledge is both what we think with and about.
We cannot think with or about something we don’t know.
The more we know about something, the more sophisticated our thinking.

There is a consensus in cognitive psychology that it takes knowledge to gain knowledge. Those who repudiate a fact-filled curriculum on the grounds that kids can always look things up miss the paradox that de-emphasizing factual knowledge actually disables children from looking things up effectively. To stress process at the expense of factual knowledge actually hinders children from learning to learn. Yes, the Internet has placed a wealth of information at our fingertips. But to be able to use that information — to absorb it, to add to our knowledge — we must already possess a storehouse of knowledge. That is the paradox disclosed by cognitive research.
— E. D. Hirsch

Eric Donald Hirsch Jr. brings us back to the issue of using search engines as a primary source of knowledge, or as a replacement for individual learning and understanding. Using and navigating that source effectively requires its own set of knowledge and skills. Relying solely on web-generated answers and information also robs us of the opportunity to make spontaneous connections, a unique (and powerful) tool of our flexible minds. We find an immediate answer to our query, and then we move on. We don’t have to mull over things, reach out and have conversations with experts, or genuinely expand our field of knowledge. We type into our phones or laptops and find an answer — and even if we do happen across a verified source of information, we can forget it as quickly as we found it. Easily gained, easily lost.

And we miss out on building up a lifetime of knowledge and the understanding and opportunities for mental connections that comes with it.

One way we process the world around us is by association, by connecting new information to what we already know. The French have something called “culture générale” (general knowledge), which is the discipline of learning a little bit about a lot of things that gave a liberal arts education its lasting appeal. This seeding of knowledge is a great way to create starting points for new information. When introduced to a new fact about something, that new fact can more easily be connected to one of those other seeds, which helps us better retain, understand and analyze. It also makes life more fulfilling and makes learning a worthwhile journey.

Problem-solving is domain-specific

You can’t fully teach problem-solving because it isn’t a generic skill; it is closely linked to expertise, which is a direct function of domain-specific knowledge and practice.

“Expert knowledge impacts each stage of the problem-solving process. (…) Knowledge structures are acquired through deliberate practice, and learning environments can be designed to facilitate their acquisition³.”
— T J Nokes, C D Schunn & M T H Chi

This is another reason why working with a variety of contextually-rich environments, seeded with general knowledge and opportunities for deliberate practice, is such an important part of Meta Humans’ learning design. Young people can develop problem-solving skills that suit one area of expertise and then start again with another, making valuable cross-disciplinary connections as they go.

Whole-task approach drives complex learning

Finally, I thought I would share one last piece of the Meta Humans puzzle for the education nerds out there: the 4C/ID design framework.

4C/ID Design Framework, isn’t this elegant?

After much research, we decided to combine and repackage bits and pieces of the frameworks that had the most potential for us, and the 4C/ID model became the foundation for the way we package our workshops and programs. One missing element that we needed to add to this model was the gamification techniques, a uniquely motivating method for inspiring kids to become lifelong learners and getting them hooked on the excitement of personal development.