How People Learn Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded Edition (2000) / Chapter Skim
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11 Next Steps for Research
11 Next Steps for Research
Pages 248-284
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From page 248... ...
The paths through which research influences practice are depicted in Figure 11.1. To a limited extent, research directly influences classroom practce when teachers and researchers collaborate in design experiments, or when interested teachers incorporate ideas from research into their classroom practice.
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From page 249... ...
Teachers, administrators, and parents frequently encounter conflicting ideas about the nature of learning and its implications for effective teaching. Second, with the exception of the relatively small set of cases in which teachers and researchers work together on design experiments, the arrows between research and practice in Figure 11.1 are one-way.
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From page 250... ...
The facts that schools and classrooms are the focus and that enhanced practice and learning are the desired goals render the program of research no less important with respect to advancing the theoretical base for how people learn. Indeed, many of the advances described in this volume are the product of use-inspired research and development focused on solving problems of classroom practice.
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From page 251... ...
The findings presented in the preceding chapters and their implications need to be substantially elaborated and incorporated into curricula, instructional tools, and assessment tools before their impact will be felt in the classroom. It is not enough to know, for example, that subject-matter information must be tied to related concepts if deep understanding and transfer of learning are the goals.
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5. Extend the frontier of learning research by expanding the study of classroom practice.
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From page 253... ...
Moreover, the link between each of the arenas and the knowledge base flows in both directions. Efforts to align teaching materials, teacher education, administration, public policy, and public opinion with the knowledge base are part of an ongoing, iterative research effort in which the implementation of new ideas, teaching techniques, or forms of communication are themselves the subject of study.
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From page 254... ...
to identify existing educational materials that are aligned with the principles of learning suggested in earlier chapters and to develop and test new materials in areas of need; (b) to advance the knowledge base by significantly extending the work described herein to additional areas of curriculum, instructional techniques, and assessments that are in need of detailed analysis; and (c)
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From page 255... ...
First, it should identify examples of curriculum components, instructional techniques, and assessment tools that incorporate the principles of learning. Second, the explication of features that support or conflict with the principles of learning should be provided in sufficient detail and in a format that allows the report to serve as a learning device for those in the education field who choose and use teaching and assessment tools.
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From page 256... ...
In areas in which curriculum development has been weak, design and evaluate new curricula, with companion assessment tools, that teach and measure deep understanding. As an extension of project area 1 above, or in some cases as a substitute, the development and evaluation of new curriculum and assessment materials that reflect the principles of learning outlined herein should be undertaken.
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From page 257... ...
Formulate design principles for formative assessments that promote the development of coherent, well-organized knowledge. The goal of these assessments is to tap understanding rather than memory for procedures and facts.
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Companion assessment tools should be developed that measure understanding of the core concepts taught in the lessons. Multiple models of teaching the same unit in different school contexts are recommended.
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School administrators responsible for hiring and evaluating teachers need models of good practice that can inform their evaluations. · With some modified annotations, the lessons could inform parents about teaching techniques that promote learning for understanding.
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Conduct research on key conceptual frameworks, by discipline, for the units that are commonly taught in K-12 education. A key finding of the research reviewed in this volume is that deep understanding and the transfer of learning that is one of its hallmarks" requires that the subject matter being taught be tied to the key concepts or organizing principles that the discipline uses to understand that subject.
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From page 261... ...
The research teams should combine disciplinary experts with cognitive scientists, expert teachers, and curriculum developers. The range of topics covered in each disciplinary area should allow for exploration of the key concepts in the field as they arise in commonly covered course topics in the K-12 curriculum.
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Develop Tools for Effective Communication of the Principles of Learning as They Apply to Educational Materials 8. Develop an interactive communications site that provides information on curricula by field.
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, the extent to which it places information in the relevant conceptual framework, the extent to which curriculum modules can be reconfigured in ways that allow teachers to meet particular goals and needs, and the extent to which it encourages the development of metacognitive skills. Other useful information on the curriculum would include the extent and results of field-testing, the length of time it has been in use, the number of schools or school districts that have adopted it, the opportunities for teacher learning, and the amount and kind of support available to teachers using the curriculum.
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From page 264... ...
For teacher education and professional development programs to be aligned with the principles of learning, they need to prepare teachers to think about the enterprise of teaching as building on the existing knowledge base and preconceptions of their students, to teach skills for drawing out and working with existing understandings, and to continually assess the progress of students toward the goal of deep understanding. The programs need to provide for their students the opportunity to develop a deep understanding themselves of the subject matter they will teach and the ability to facilitate students' transfer of knowledge to related areas.
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But there are vastly different models of professional development, and relatively little is known about the amount and type that is required to significantly change teacher performance and student achievement. Existing research efforts along these lines need to be extended and built on.
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From page 266... ...
School administrators at the individual school and school district levels are responsible for facilitating teacher learning and evaluating teacher performance. If they are to support teachers' efforts to incorporate the principles of learning into classroom practice, they will need professional development opportunities that provide an understanding of the principles and their enactment in a classroom environment.
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Develop Tools for Effective Communication of the Principles of Learning to Teacher Education 14. Examine the efficacy of professional development activities.
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From page 268... ...
To prepare students in schools of education to put to work the scientific principles of how people learn, laboratory experience could provide the opportunity to test the principles, become familiar with their boundaries, and learn how to make them operational. The development of pilot pedagogical laboratories is therefore recommended.
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From page 269... ...
Faculty-directed course projects could develop evaluations of curricula in terms of the principles of learning and submit them to the interactive communications site described above (project area 8) for broad use.
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RESEARCH ON EDUCATION POLICY This volume suggests far-reaching reform of education. It has direct implications for what is taught in the classroom, how it is taught, the relationship between students and teachers, the content and role of assessments, and the preparation of those who undertake the daunting task of classroom teaching.
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From page 271... ...
Review state education standards and the assessment tools used to measure compliance through the lens of this volume. Fortynine states now have a set of education standards that apply to their schools, and most have or are developing assessment tools to hold school districts accountable for implementation.
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There is a problem, however, with what is being measured. As a first step in the process of rethinking educational testing, the committee recommends that assessment tools be designed and tested with the goal of measuring deep understanding, as well as the acquisition of factual knowledge.
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Conduct case study research of successful "scaling-up" of new curricula. School districts set a variety of policies that influence the environment in which teachers operate.
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The effort to extend the knowledge base in this area should be coupled with an effort to synthesize the research results, making them easily accessible to school communities interested in reform. Develop Tools for Effective Communication of the Principles In This Volume to Policy Makers 21.
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This volume develops many concepts and ideas that could inform parents about models of learning that are research based, thus influencing the criteria that parents use to judge classroom practice. But those ideas are embedded in a report that is not designed specifically to communicate to parents.
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BEYOND HOW PEOPLE LEARN The research and development agenda proposed thus far is focused largely on how the insights from this volume be incorporated into educational practice. How People Learn reviews a burgeoning literature that, taken collectively, provides the foundation for a science of learning.
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From page 277... ...
The research areas relevant to the science of learning are demonstratively broad, including cognitive development, cognitive science, developmental psychology, neuroscience, anthropology, social psychology, sociology, cross-cultural research, research on learning in subject areas such as science, mathematics, history, and research on effective teaching, pedagogy, and the design of learning environments. New technologies for assessing learning in ways that track the growth of learning, not just cumulative of facts, are needed.
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From page 278... ...
It is recommended that government agencies and research foundations explicitly support a wide variety of interdisciplinary collaborations in the learning sciences. Such work should include teachers.
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From page 279... ...
There are well-known cases of exceptional teaching by educators who, often without the help of educational researchers, have created innovative and successful classrooms, programs, curricula, and teaching techniques. It is recommended that case study research be conducted to investigate the principles of learning that underlie successful educational experiments.
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From page 280... ...
Group products can advance each member's understanding of a problem, or they can mask a lack of understanding by some. It is recommended that research be conducted by teams of cognitive scientists, developmental psychologists, curriculum developers, and teachers to investigate the potential benefits of collaborative learning in the classroom and the problems that must be addressed to make it beneficial for all students.
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From page 281... ...
This empirical insight has profound implications for the organization of education, teacher education, and curriculum development. Research to deepen understanding of the kinds of knowledge organizations that will best support particular kinds of activities is recommended.
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But far fewer are devoted to research advances, much less their alignment with educational materials, practices, or policies that are depicted in the web sites. The development and continuous improvement of a national communications forum for research knowledge on learning and teaching are recommended.
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To use the lens of How People Learn to evaluate the various facets of that system is in itself a daunting task. We propose in addition the development and testing of new classroom teaching tools, techniques of teacher and administrator training, further research on 283
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From page 284... ...
284 HOW PEOPLE LEARN, EXPANDED EDITION human learning, and applications of technology that could provide dynamic mechanisms for bringing advances in how people learn and how people teach into continual cycles of coordination and improvement. We believe the integration of these efforts holds the potential to bring research and practice together in the interest of improved education.
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