Tags: : #🗺️ Links:: [[🏠 My Home]] # Educational Psychology MOC What is the purpose of good schooling? - Knowledge of material - Boost of non-cognitive skills like relationships and communication - Safety of students - Avoiding delinquent behavior - Helping students learn to fall in love with learning itself - Making students more open minded and deeper critical thinkers - Helping students find things they are passionate about What Are The Problems With School Right Now? - [[The game of school versus the game of learning]] - [[Dangerous lessons taught in school]] # Methods For Learning In The Classroom ### How To Make Learning Accessible TO Everyone: Universal Design For Learning **A rising tide lifts all boats.** Three pillars of UDL are: 1. Make things more engaging. 1. Personalize to students 2. Motivate and interest them 3. Students set their own goals 4. Students can choose their own means of engaging with an activity 5. Help students self regulate 2. Make things more representable 1. Provide multiple information modes of perception 2. Provide definitions for important language and symbols 3. Provide background knowledge and connections so people understand the information in context. 3. Provide more means of acting and expressing 1. Provide multiple means of expressing through text, video speech, presentation, or something else. 2. [[Scaffold your learning problems early on to reduce cognitive load]]. ### Explicit Instruction Explicit instruction includes a clear learning objective and ensures students understand these goals and associated expectations. It can be super useful to write these goals out. The beginning of the lesson should be engaging and attention grabbing so students care about what they are learning. It should point to background knowledge so they have something to connect the learnings to. You [[Scaffold your learning problems early on to reduce cognitive load]]. Throughout the lesson you logically sequence information in terms of complexity It's effective because it's: - Multi Modal - Personalized To The Student - Sequenced and laid out in a logical fashion based on complexity - Cognitive load reduction through scaffolding. The problems with explicit instruction are it doesn't promote exploration. ### Free Workshop Free workshop is a super unstructured workshop setting where students can create whatever they want every week. TAs cycle around the workshop making sure nobody is hurting themselves, supporting students in what they need, and teaching skills if students want it. The free workshop is incredibly effective at fostering intrinsic motivation and creativity, but it can be made more structured and effective by implementing sessions every week that include skill lessons. This way students who are interested in learning skills can come to those sessions and than implement those in the free workshops. It gives it more structure. ### 1. Jigsaw Method The Jigsaw method is a cooperative learning technique that breaks down a topic into several segments. Here's how it works: - **Group Formation**: The class is divided into small groups, each focusing on a different segment of the topic. - **Expert Groups**: Students from each group, focusing on the same segment, gather into 'expert groups' to discuss and become proficient in their respective segments. - **Reformation**: Students then return to their original groups, now as 'experts' of their segment, to educate their peers. - **Synthesis**: Finally, each group synthesizes the information from all its members, constructing a complete understanding of the topic. This method promotes interaction, reliance on peers for learning, and understanding from multiple perspectives, fostering a deep comprehension of the subject matter. ### 2. Cooperative Scripting Cooperative scripting is another interactive learning technique that involves students working in pairs to learn and understand a topic. This method typically follows a specific structure: - **Script Creation**: Students are divided into pairs and assigned different roles, such as summarizer and questioner. - **Learning Phase**: Each student studies the material separately. - **Teaching Phase**: They then come together, with one student summarizing the material and the other asking probing questions or clarifying doubts. - **Role Reversal**: The roles are reversed, and the process is repeated, ensuring both students engage actively with the material from both teaching and learning perspectives. This approach encourages active participation, critical thinking, and the ability to articulate and question concepts, enhancing understanding and retention. ### Project Based Learning Project-Based Learning is an instructional methodology that encourages students to learn and apply knowledge and skills through an engaging project. Here’s the general process: - **Project Initiation**: Students are presented with a problem, challenge, or question to explore. - **Inquiry and Investigation**: They engage in a rigorous, extended process of inquiry, research, and investigation related to the project topic. - **Application**: Students apply what they learn to design, create, and complete a project that addresses the initial problem, challenge, or question. - **Reflection**: Throughout and after the project, students reflect on their learning, the effectiveness of their solutions, and the processes they employed. - **Presentation**: The project culminates in a presentation or demonstration of the students’ work to an audience, which can help solidify their understanding and provide opportunities for feedback. PBL encourages depth over breadth, engaging learners in critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, and various forms of communication. It aims to prepare students for real-world challenges by making learning relevant and meaningful. Each of these methods aligns with the constructionist approach by promoting active, collaborative, and problem-based learning experiences that foster deeper understanding and skill development. Importantly, if groups are being assessed for learning, each individual in the group must contribute to the overall group score, otherwise some group members might take the brunt of the work just to get an overall great grade. This reminds me of the house system used in the PTYA in which each individual contributed to the homework assignment grades in the course. ### Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) **Description:** Inquiry-Based Learning emphasizes the student's role in the learning process and encourages them to ask questions, conduct investigations, and discover answers on their own. This approach fosters critical thinking and independent problem-solving skills. **When to use:** IBL is particularly effective in science education and any other discipline where the process of discovery is integral to learning. ### Flipped Classroom **Description:** In a flipped classroom, traditional learning environments are inverted. Students are introduced to learning material before class, and classroom time is used to deepen understanding through discussion and problem-solving activities facilitated by the teacher. **When to use:** This method is useful for maximizing classroom time for interactive discussions, especially in higher education or secondary school settings where students are more capable of self-directed learning. ### Problem-Based Learning (PBL) **Description:** Similar to project-based learning but often more focused on specific problems, this method involves students learning about a subject through the experience of solving an open-ended, real-world problem. **When to use:** Useful in professional fields like medicine, engineering, and business, where solving practical, real-world problems is a key component of the curriculum. # When To Use Each Method ### 1. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) **When to use:** UDL is particularly effective in diverse classrooms where students have varying abilities, learning styles, and backgrounds. It should be used when inclusivity and accessibility are priorities, and there's a need to accommodate a range of learning preferences and challenges. **Advantages:** - Ensures accessibility for all learners, including those with disabilities. - Supports a variety of learning styles and preferences. - Promotes student autonomy and engagement through choice and personalized learning paths. ### 2. Explicit Instruction **When to use:** This method is ideal when introducing new concepts, particularly complex ones, or when students have shown gaps in foundational knowledge. It’s also useful in settings where clarity and precision in understanding are required, such as in math or science subjects. **Advantages:** - Provides clear, direct teaching of skills and knowledge. - Structures information logically, helping students build on prior knowledge. - Reduces cognitive load, which is beneficial for novice learners. ### 3. Free Workshop **When to use:** Best suited for fostering creativity and intrinsic motivation, especially in subjects like art, music, or creative writing. It is also effective when students are more self-directed and when there is an emphasis on exploration and hands-on learning. **Advantages:** - Encourages creativity and student-led exploration. - Enhances intrinsic motivation by allowing students to pursue their interests. - Flexible structure can adapt to diverse learning needs. ### 4. Jigsaw Method **When to use:** Useful for encouraging collaboration and ensuring that all students participate in the learning process. It's particularly effective in humanities and social sciences where understanding diverse perspectives enhances comprehension. **Advantages:** - Promotes cooperative learning and builds communication skills. - Helps students become experts in their assigned segment, boosting confidence. - Ensures active participation and helps in synthesizing different viewpoints. ### 5. Cooperative Scripting **When to use:** Effective in situations where critical thinking and deep understanding are required. This method is particularly useful for subjects that benefit from discussion and debate, such as literature or history. **Advantages:** - Encourages detailed exploration of content. - Develops both interpersonal and communication skills. - Helps students articulate their understanding and query ambiguities. ### 6. Project-Based Learning (PBL) **When to use:** Ideal for long-term learning goals and when real-world relevance and application are important. PBL is particularly effective in interdisciplinary learning where students can integrate skills from various fields to solve complex problems. **Advantages:** - Encourages practical application of knowledge in real-world scenarios. - Enhances critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration skills. - Allows for in-depth investigation and sustained engagement with a topic. ### 7. Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) **When to use:** IBL is particularly effective in science education and any other discipline where the process of discovery is integral to learning. ### 8. Flipped Classroom **When to use:** This method is useful for maximizing classroom time for interactive discussions, especially in higher education or secondary school settings where students are more capable of self-directed learning. ### 9. Problem-Based Learning (PBL) **When to use:** Useful in professional fields like medicine, engineering, and business, where solving practical, real-world problems is a key component of the curriculum. ## Increasing Engagement And Intrinsic Motivation Presentation link to gamification applied to the classroom to increase engagement and intrinsic motivation: https://www.canva.com/design/DAGDbdJhnuw/T1Xj7VSUS_Zs_zzJ_uhWsw/edit?utm_content=DAGDbdJhnuw&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton ### How Can We Make Learning More Engaging? We can take insight from games which are super engaging by: - Goals: clear goals tied to a students purpose, other interests, and the real world. Stay in a learners [[Goldilocks zone]] if possible. - Rules: clear rules that create routine but also allow for some degree of flexibility. I love how Lawrence Yeo did this in Thinking In Stories by having specific names for activities which people knew how to do like a group hike or solo cave endeavor. - Feedback: fast, quality feedback that promotes a growth mindset through promoting effort over innate talent. - Voluntary participation: give students more choice in what they do. - Gameplay loop: combine the previous four things into an engaging cycle in the classroom that gives the students some degree of routine while also introducing surprises. - [[When gamification and education work]] Other methods of increasing engagement: - Use Stories - Use Bellringers - The 20/5 rule states for every 5 minutes of talking, we should try and have 20 minutes of an activity to keep people engaged. - Framing the learning as an adventure - Adding social aspects ### How Can We Make Learning More Intrinsically Motivating? We can take insight from games which are super intrinsically motivating by: - Autonomy: give students more control over what, where, when, why, with who, and how you do something. - Mastery: give more clear indications of how a student is improving at something. Give feedback in a way that promotes a growth mindset, look at the gain not the gap, and stay in a learners [[Goldilocks zone]]. - Purpose: show students how their learning is meaningful or a part of something greater than themselves. Other methods of boosting intrinsic motivation: - Promote a playful mindset. “Play is manipulation that satisfies curiosity. A game is a problem-solving activity, approached with a playful attitude.” - Jesse Schell - Teach students about intrinsic motivation - Making learning more fun - Teach kids how to set their own goals, especially mastery goals. - [[Process for creating games at the beginning of a learning experience|Have each student create their own game for the educational experience including goals, rules, and feedback.]] - Build self-efficacy by helping learners see the progress they are making on goals through visual representation. - Giving people a choice over what to learn, expectations for a class, etc. This creates [[Cognitive dissonance]] that motivates them to learn or follow the expectations. ## How To Build Student Agency Student agency is the degree of control, accountability, and ability to express their identity a student feels they have in the classroom. How can we build this? - Celebrate small wins and showcase student work. Celebrating wins builds a students self-efficacy. You get them to see their actions can lead to reward. Showcasing their work helps them realize it has value to others as well. - Have students give each other feedback and learn collaboration. This teaches students their classmates are people they can rely upon to learn. It shows them their feedback has value. - Give students autonomy, have them set goals for themselves at the beginning of the class or unit, then check in with them on how they are meeting their own goals. Making students create their own goals gives them agency over them. It also teaches them to make goals in the future. - Grit is too simplistic a way of thinking about student success. There are so many systemic factors that play into how people do in school. Both grit and systemic change are need to promote student success. ## How Can We Personalize Learning To The Group? It's essential you personalize your learning design to the group. Some people will like to be more competitive, some more cooperative. Some more physical, some not. Personalize learning to the students metaphors: - [[Our conceptual system is grounded in metaphor]] and [[The metaphors cultures or persons use shape how they create meaning]]. Therefore [[Great teachers try and understand the metaphors and concerns students have for better teaching]]. - Connect learnings to students outside life and interests. Perhaps with analogies. - Try to understand students unique [[Affordances]] and [[Constraints]]. ## How To Get Your Students To Respect And Like You Teachers are evaluated in the first 5 minutes on two variables: - Warmth - Competence You want to be able to create both. Because people don’t learn just from knowledge transfer. But also from affect. Great teachers create great affect. ## How To Manage Time In The Classroom Well - Have clear indications when transitions are happening - Have clear guidelines for when students can go to the bathroom and sharpen their pencil or do something else - Begin the lesson with something engaging rather than with announcements so that students are motivated to show up right on time. - When asking a question ask the whole group rather than an individual until a few seconds have gone by so everyone thinks about the answer in their head. - Instill specific routines and schedules for what to do and when: - Ring a bell to indicate transitions - Switch on and off the lights ## How To Navigate Questions In Class Inevitably people will have questions that might create tangents in your class. This can be both good and bad. It can be good because tangents help to connect material to the individual persons. One of the ways to prepare for this is to have flexible class material. If your learnings are too rigid it takes away from the ability to go down tangents during class time. However, it can also be bad when tangents go too far off material, or take too much time, or are brought up to avoid actual teaching by a mischievous student. ## How To Give Feedback During Learning - Feedback = how did your student do + how can they improve 1. Affirm what people did well. Effort, not talent. 2. Correct and direct: don't tell students the answer, bring them through their thinking process so they uncover the mistake themselves 3. Point out the process of the learning 4. Coaching students to critique their own efforts. [[A great coach makes themselves redundant]] ## Student Feedback On Teaching Methods ## Developing Emotional Intelligence And Fostering Mental Health In School ## Technologies Role In The Classroom - [[Technology often reduces the need for learning]] - [[Why banning phones in school is a bad idea]] ## Cultural Relevance: Supporting Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion In The Classroom ### How To Assess Learning - [[Assessment FOR learning]] ### [[How to be a great COE learning instructor]] ### How To Get Students Warmed To Each Other On First Meeting - [[Ice Breakers And Portables For Adult Learning]] ## Resources - [[Metaphors We Live By]] - [[How People Learn]] - [[Design for How People Learn]] ## Related MOCs ```dataview list from #🗺️ and [[]] and !outgoing([[]]) sort file.mtime desc ``` ## Related Concepts ```dataview table Status from [[]] and !outgoing([[]]) and !#🗺️ sort file.mtime desc ```