4 Proven Ways to Learn Faster, Better!
For centuries the science of learning has been on the radar of cognitive and education psychologists world wide. Several studies and experiments have been conducted by researchers in an effort to back with evidence the previously postulated hypothesis, that “Active Learning improves learning outcomes”.
As Communications & Information Technology (C&IT) gained huge momentum in the past two to three decades, educational and teaching space underwent its own revolution. Universities saw an expansion in online territory via part-time in-service courses. This space saw a quite entry of Private Course providers- such as Coursera and Udacity- who benefited hugely riding on the back of high demand for part-time courses by working professionals. (You can read more on this in an article I published earlier- Education 3.0) The high development of information technology calls for new working style, which in turn requires the doers have abilities both on solving standardised tasks and coping with emerging problems under different contexts.
In this short write up, I aim to quickly review the 4 techniques of Active Learning, namely- Problem Solving using Case Studies, Practice Learning, Mentoring and Experiential or Hands-On Learning. I must mention here, I am personally a huge advocate for Active Learning and in a effort to drive my readers in that direction, I have backed all the theories with scientific evidence.
Before we proceed, it must be noted that Active Learning is not a replacement for formalised knowledge accumulation i.e. reading, writing, understanding the broader concepts, etc. The overall objective of active learning is to acquire the skills required to apply formalised knowledge to real-life situations. In other words, in order to satisfy the markets, graduates should have abilities of combining theoretical knowledge with practice. To fulfil this requirement, it is important to create a curriculum that has a balanced mix of both practical as well as theoretical learning techniques.
What is this Active Learning?
Collins and O’Brien have defined Active Learning as the process of having students engage in some activity that forces them to reflect upon ideas and how they are using those ideas. It requires students to regularly assess their own degree of understanding and skill at handling concepts or problems in a particular discipline. Felder et. al. include active learning on their recommendations for teaching methods that work. Among other things, Active Learning features quite prominently in Chickering and Gamson’s“Seven Principles for Good Practice”.
We will now proceed to examine in detail each of the above mentioned techniques for Active Learning and whether or not they result in any improvement in learning outcomes.
Problem Solving using Case Studies
It is an instructional method where real-life situation that a student might face are presented and used to provide the context and motivation for the learning. It typically involves significant amounts of self-directed learning on the part of the students. Several researchers tested the efficacy of this technique for improving learning outcomes and the general consensus seems to be in favour of Problem Solving.
Vernon and Blake looking at 35 studies from 1970 to 1992 for medical programs found that PBL produced a significant effective size (0.55) for improved student attitudes and opinions about their programs. Albanese and Mitchell similarly found that students and faculty generally prefer the Problem Solving approach.
Practice Learning
This technique is found to be most unpopular amongst the students. Nobody likes to take a test! However, science speaks differently. All the evidence points towards the fact that Practice Learning using techniques such as examination, term papers and quizzes is an effective technique for improving knowledge retention and enhance learning capabilities of students.
As early as 1909, Abbott’s research involving a hundred different experiments has yielded that practice testing enhances learning and retention. More recently, a research published in Psychological Science in Public Interestalso very strongly argued that practice learning is highly effective when compared to other learning techniques and almost doubles free recall in real life situations.
So, maybe after all, you do want to take that test and ace it too! :)
Mentoring
Mentoring or more popularly known as Internship, is a technique of learning involving one-on-one interaction with industry experts where they guide their mentees as to what works and what doesn’t when applying formalised knowledge to real life situations. Mentoring or internship has been quite popular amongst graduates for quite sometime now and hundreds flock continents every year in search of best mentoring opportunities with top firms. However, most of us look at these internships as a way of beautifying our CVs and hardly appreciate the value it adds for us.
Mentoring has time and again proven to be a great means to touch authentic context. Students generally form good attitude during their mentorship which helps in formation of a stable behaviour choice when facing matters in real-life situations. Mentoring also provides opportunities for students to communicate with other stakeholders, making students’ coded knowledge transfer into tacit knowledge. That means, if students can get a chance at getting mentored, they can actively sense the direction of integrating owned knowledge with context.
Experiential or Hands-On Learning
Learning facts (“what”–declarative knowledge) and learning to do something (“how”–procedural knowledge) are two different processes. Ryle (1994) said “If you expect students to use knowledge to solve any kind of problem, you must provide them with opportunities to practice the needed skills and receive feedback about their performance.
Several scientists have studied this proposition. A study conducted using Force Concept Inventory (FCI) by Hestenes (1995, 1992) shows that students in the interactive-engagement courses outperformed students in the traditional courses by 2 standard deviations (SDs). Burrowes compared learning outcomes in two sections of the same course taught by the same teacher. The results of this experiment were striking- the mean exam scores of the group in which students were taught using constructivist ideas were significantly higher than those of the other group and did better on questions that specifically tested their ability to “think like a scientist”. Messialis BGstrongly argues that active-participation component where students are motivated to “learn-by-doing” have has a powerful effect on improving knowledge retention and its application thereafter.
What Pragmatic Product Leader Program has to offer !
Building on the evidence provided above, we incorporated a variety of active learning components in our course. The components are designed especially to help imbibe the process of decision making, innovating, analysing, implementing, etc. with the aim of helping our students develop comprehensive ability to rethink, redesign, criticise and develop a 6th sense when it comes to building a successful project.
Pragmatic Product Leader Program offers its students a structured and well balanced pedagogy. We have curated a careful mix of formalized “book-ish”knowledge and active learning. To provide the best learning opportunities and environment for our students active learning is divided into the four sub components as mentioned in the article above.
In the image below I have summarised for you all that we offer at Pragmatic Product Leader Program. Hope it helps you make an informed choice!
You can Download the Complete Syllabus here.
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