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Spruce up lectures to capture the interest of all students

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Spruce up lectures to capture the interest of all students

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Spruce up lectures to capture the interest of all students

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A guide to making lectures more interactive learning experiences that keep students interested

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Learning to learn and higher-order thinking: it’s not just what to learn but how to learn

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Through deconstructing the thought processes that occur during learning, students understand how they learn and therefore learn more effectively

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Boredom is the enemy of learning. Educators can minimise it, increase student engagement and allow deep learning to take place with these practical tips

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But spacing your learning requires advance planning. If you have the summer off, then now is the best time to plan for spaced practice in the Fall.
How should you space your learning?

Start planning early - the beginning of the semester, or even earlier. Set aside a bit of time every day, just for studying, even if your exams are months away. This may seem strange at first, if you are used to cramming right before an exam; but it's just a new habit that you will get used to if you persevere.

Review information from each class, but not immediately after class. A good way to do this is to reserve some time one day after each of your classes meet. For example, if you have classes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, you might review the information on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday respectively for each of those classes.

Spacing your learning doesn't mean you won't be studying at all right before the exam. You can still study up until the exam - but instead of only studying then, spread it out so that you're studying days and weeks before the exam as well. You'll spend less time and learn more, in the short-term and in the long-term.

What should you do during these short learning sessions?
It's important that you don't just sit down and re-read your notes. Instead, you should use effective learning strategies such as retrieval practice or elaboration.

After you study information from the most recent class, make sure to go back and study important older information to keep it fresh.

This may seem difficult and you may forget some information from day to day, but this is actually a good thing! You need to forget a little bit in order to benefit from spaced practice - see this guest post for an explanation.

Create small spaces (e.g., a few days) between your study sessions, and do a little bit at a time, so that it adds up!
"But, but...cramming works!"
If you're reading this and you're skeptical because cramming has worked just fine for you in the past, here's why. Cramming can, indeed, do exactly what it suggests - cram information into your mind right before an exam. However, there are at least three really big problems with this.

1. First, cramming actually takes more time. Think about it: if you learn more in the same amount of time spaced out (e.g., 5 hours in 1-hour increments compared to one 5-hour cram session), then you have to spend more time during the cramming session to get to the same level of learning.

2. Second, as quickly as you learned that information, you will then also forget it. You may do fine on the test, but all that extra time you spent during cramming? It will all have been wasted. If you had spaced your learning, you would forget much less after the test. No matter what you are learning - science, math, a foreign language - future learning will depend on previous learning. It is therefore very inefficient to forget everything you learned for one test, only to have to re-learn it again later along with new, more complicated information! This also applies to future classes, where it might be helpful to retain knowledge from a previous class.

3. Another reason why cramming is a bad idea is that it inevitably replaces sleep, which is very important for learning and also for your mental and physical health more generally. So, resolve to form a healthy habit today and plan to space your learning!

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This is the third post in a series designed to help students learn how to study effectively. You can find the first post here and the second post here. The purpose is to provide students with a resource that can help them take charge of their own learning. Today's ...

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The new question-of-the-week is:
What is "interleaving," and how do you practice it in the classroom?
The teaching and learning strategy of interleaving has been gaining more and more attention from researchers and educators.

Today, four educators discuss what it is and how it can be applied to classroom practice.

'Mix It Up'
Meg Riordan, Ph.D., is chief learning officer at The Possible Project, an out-of-school program that collaborates with youth to build entrepreneurial skills and mindsets and provides pathways to careers and long-term economic prosperity. She has been in the field of education for over 25 years as a middle and high school teacher, school coach, college professor, regional director of NYC Outward Bound Schools, and director of external research with EL Education: "Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better." - Maya Angelou What is interleaving?
Across the world, students generally engage in learning that looks like this: They are taught and practice one concept or skill at a time in blocks that form a sequence: AAABBBCCC. For instance, beginning writers may first practice identifying only nouns; then, after some targeted practice, students may shift to learning how to recognize verbs; then come adjectives. Or, a tennis player might focus on mastering her forehand again and again before building up to a backhand swing. This "one-skill-at-a time" approach-commonly called blocked or massed practice-emphasizes single-mindedness, searing learning into our minds or bodies, similar to creating muscle memory. It's a way to learn the fundamentals through continual repetition.

But what if we knew that lasting learning or mastery pointed to a different approach-one called interleaving, to "mix it up" (ABCABCABC) and helped learners learn more deeply by practicing combinations of concepts with each other? Learning like this means interspersing multiple (but related) concepts to encourage connections between ideas or skills. For instance, if students are learning to classify rocks and identify the difference between igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic, interleaving research points to mixing up examples of these rocks (ISMISMISMISM) instead of massing practice on igneous (IIII), then on sedimentary (SSSS), and then metamorphic (MMMM). And for athletes, to train muscles to adapt to different circumstances and improve reaction to various shots, the tennis player alternates forehands, backhands, and volleys-even if she hasn't quite yet mastered each individually.

Numerous studies across fields like mathematics (algebra and geometry), athletics (baseball and basketball), music, and medicine suggest that interleaving leads to key benefits for learners:

Interleaving trains the brain to traverse between concepts by creating different practices rather than relying on rote response or muscle memory.

Interleaving deepens long-term memory (brain and muscle) associations because mind and body are retrieving various responses.

Interleaving requires students to discriminate among problem types and select a problem-solving strategy.

How does interleaving transfer to classroom practice?
To be clear, interleaving doesn't mean dismissing the fundamentals or never employing blocked practice; instead, it means avoiding the kind of massed practice that creates thoughtless repetition. But how can educators strategically create opportunities for students to solve a mix of related problems versus solving blocks of just one kind of problem, especially when most textbooks and curriculum aren't intentionally designed in this way? Teachers can explore and integrate the following ideas that The Learning Agency Lab lifts up:

1. Shrink the change-select fewer practice problems:Most textbooks chunk blocked-practice opportunities of addition (++++), subtraction (-----), multiplication (xxxx), then division (////). Teachers will need to mix up these different problems to help students learn not just how but also when. Students will still learn the fundamentals of each, but teachers can modify class work that moves among topics; this means choosing fewer interleaved problems for students to practice.

2. Leverage station-based experiences: Teachers can introduce several related concepts at an introductory level and then engage learners in practicing these various concepts at stations. For instance, if studying volumetric problems of cones, pyramids, cubes, and spheres, teachers can provide students opportunities to rotate among different stations to practice various types of problems. This kind of practice is shown to improve learning and increase long-term proficiency.

3. Make learning more like life: Students experience the world in an interleaving manner, so it follows that they learn best in a similar way. Consider a volleyball game. Players don't just face a constant stream of spikes; they face spikes, sets, blocks, passes, serves, and digs. And what happens in a Makerspace? Students learn design thinking, prototype, practice creating on varied equipment, refine, and solve different problems along the way. Just like in real life.

Many of us were taught that dogged, singularly focused practice is the way to mastery, and our belief in this runs deep. But research indicates that gains during interleaving promote longer-term skill development and retention, plus more seamlessly transfer to other contexts. Like the tail end of Maya Angelou's quote above states, "... when you know better, you do better." Now that we know these ways of implementing learning, we can apply them to our practice and better support students.

Classroom Examples

Margaret Searle is the president of Searle Enterprises. She specializes in consulting with districts and schools on social-emotional learning, executive-function development, differentiated instruction, inclusive education, leadership-team development, and implementing RTI and MTSS. Look for her newest book, Solving Academic and Behavior Problems: A Strength-Based Guide for Teachers and Teams, coming out in September:

Which study scenario would you choose?

1) Practice sessions solving only multiplication problems, then only division problems (massed practice).

2) Practice doing multiplication and division problems together (interleaving).

Most people believe they do better practicing one thing at a time, but research shows something different. Massed practice produces quicker short-term results with less effort. In-depth learning, however, takes place when the brain is forced to work harder, as it does when using the technique called interleaving.

Interleaving is studying by mixing different topics (or practice methods) to strengthen long-term memory of the material. For example, let's say you and I play tennis equally well and are preparing for a tournament. My coach works exclusively on my forehand one day and only on my backhand the next day. Your coach uses interleaving practice, meaning you work on both forehand and backhand both days, never knowing which type of shot is coming at you. Research shows that you are more likely to improve than I, because your practice requires more mental effort and mimics the real game. During practice sessions, you experience more frustration, but your results will be better.

Interleaving improves your ability to transfer new skills to unfamiliar situations, but you cannot transfer what you don't understand in the first place. It takes massed practice during initial learning and then interleaving to solidify deeper learning.

Some classroom examples would be:

Finding areas of squares, circles, and rectangles all in the same practice session rather than just working with one type of figure at a time. This forces active processing of which technique to use for each problem.

Comparing two or three branches of government for similarities and differences rather than simply studying one branch at a time. This helps students see patterns.

Instead of studying different types of plants and then different growing conditions, focus on which conditions work best for which types of plants. This pushes students to apply knowledge rather than simply take it in.

Analyze two authors' approaches to character or plot development and encourage students to decide which techniques apply to their own writing, thus making the analysis more meaningful.

Use multiple ways of studying frequently mixed-up words like: affect and effect, miosis and mitosis, allusion and illusion. Using illustrations, paraphrasing of definitions and words in context makes meanings stick more efficiently than simply memorizing definitions.

Neither massed practice nor interleaving alone results in deep mastery. It takes both. First learn the basics of the topic with lots of repetition to stabilize the concept with massed practice. Then mix that concept with others to apply and deepen learning using the interleaving approach. This in-depth processing makes long-term memory solid, problem solving easier, and mastery improve.

Restaurant Cooking

Jen Schwanke has served as a teacher and administrator at the elementary and middle school levels for 20 years. She is the author of the book, You're the Principal! Now What? Strategies and Solutions for New School Leaders, published by ASCD:

I waitressed my way through college. To make rent, I picked up some extra hours in the restaurant's prep kitchen. What a gift those years of early-morning shifts have turned out to be: I learned to cook efficiently and well. I can plan ingredients for many dishes; chop, stir, and mix simultaneously; understand how proteins and produce cook differently; and plate the finished meals to make them look very, very pretty.

I didn't learn to cook by spending a couple weeks on the onion, then a couple weeks on the carrot, then a few more weeks on the garlic. Had I learned that way, I'd only just now be getting to the broth. I certainly wouldn't be throwing together an entire vat of soup for dinner without even thinking about it.

Learning in isolation may seem wise-who can argue with the idea of mastering one concept before moving on to another?-but in practice it's quite problematic. It's slow, for one thing. It's tedious, too. It can cause students to throw their hands up in despair because I don't understand, or I can't do it, or it's too hard, or this is stupid.

Interleaving lets students mix up a bunch of stuff. Subject, topics, disciplines, even levels of mastery can all be stirred together to create an end project that's pretty awesome. This is why I love project-based learning. It's why I love units with multiple, varying, dynamic opportunities for students. It's why I love choice and giving students the opportunity to showcase their learning in unique ways. It's why internships work.

Practicing interleaving in the classroom can be done by backing up, letting go of restrictions, reevaluating our preconceived notions of how it should look. It's asking students, "What else?" "How so?" "What's missing?" "What is interesting about this?" "What do you think?" It's letting the students drive. It's sharing ideas with colleagues and relying on insight from others. It's opening our own eyes and letting our students provide the questions-and the answers.

I know a language arts teacher who launched a standard lesson about narrative writing. With an open mind to interleaving, she followed suggestions, ideas, and leadership from her students and was soon requesting a bus to take her class to a nursing home to read their narratives to residents. They interviewed the residents for ideas for a historical narrative, which they planned to weave into a Reader's Theater about living through the aftermath of World War II. They came with a mobile snack bar, selling small items for a marginal profit, which was donated to a local charity. They recorded themselves explaining the project and provided a podcast of the experience for others.

And there you go: reading, writing, listening, speaking, communicating, technology, economics, organization, planning, marketing, charity, and community. Was the unit about narrative writing? Well, sure, I suppose. But it was so much more. It was interleaving. And the students would never, ever forget it.

'Establishing Connections'
Vivian Micolta Simmons was born in Colombia and has been in the U.S. for seven years. She has been a teacher for 14 years and is currently working as a ESL/DLI lead teacher for the Iredell-Statesville schools in N.C.:
Whenever you hear the word interleaving, think about multiple subjects or topics that are mixed to improve learning. For instance, if you have taken Praxis tests like Middle School ELA 5047 or High School ELA 5038, you had the chance to practice interleaving. There are many topics simultaneously brought to your attention. Taking those tests has been one of the hardest things I've done but one of the best ways to recall information in different areas. Reading, writing process, vocabulary usage, best classroom practices, teaching ELs, figurative language, types of sentences, poetry, books, and authors, among others, are the kind of topics you will find in the test.

Establishing connections among different topics, like with this strategy, forces our brains to continually retrieve and recall information, giving us the chance to differentiate or discriminate information.

In the classroom, I have had the chance to include several topics in a lesson. For example, when previewing vocabulary, we are not only checking for a definition but also practicing spelling and phonemic awareness. After reading the text, we can test for comprehension with a quick 10-question multiple-choice quiz and throw in a math task when asking: How many points will you get if you answer a question correctly? That will immediately help students retrieve their knowledge on math arrays or equal groups; a math mini-lesson has taken place in an ESL class, hence interleaving knowledge.

If you wish to learn some more, check out this informational video. I find it concise and meaningful.

Thanks to Meg, Margaret, Jen, and Vivian for their contributions!

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.

Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at lferlazzo@epe.org. When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it's selected or if you'd prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

You can also contact me on Twitter at @Larryferlazzo.

Education Week has published a collection of posts from this blog, along with new material, in an e-book form. It's titled Classroom Management Q&As: Expert Strategies for Teaching.
Just a reminder; you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email (The RSS feed for this blog, and for all Ed Week articles, has been changed by the new redesign-new ones are not yet available). And if you missed any of the highlights from the first nine years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below. I am also creating a Twitter list including all contributors to this column.

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The What, Why, and How Of 'Interleaving' (Opinion)

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The new question-of-the-week is: What is "interleaving," and how do you practice it in the classroom? The teaching and learning strategy of interleaving has been gaining more and more attention from researchers and educators. Today, four educators discuss what it is and how it can be applied to classroom practice.

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Encouraging active learning in large class teaching

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Ideas to encourage student participation for those involved in teaching large classes

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Learning objectives

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How do staff use the voice and how do they communicate responses?

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How do staff use the voice and how do they communicate responses?

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How do staff use the voice and how do they communicate responses?

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What are some examples of student voice and how it influenced change?

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What are some examples of student voice and how it influenced change?

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What are some examples of student voice and how it influenced change?

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How to use the 'motivation and engagement wheel' to keep students on board

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How to use the 'motivation and engagement wheel' to keep students on board

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No university or college educator would dispute the important role of motivation in their students' academic development. Motivation is alive and well - or unwell - in every student and every class, from undergraduate to doctoral level. Motivation is also generally easy to recognise; it's pretty obvious when a student is motivated and when a student is not.

But from here, things get murky. Is motivation one thing, or many things? Is it all good, or are there negative aspects to motivation? How do we assess students' motivation? How do we sustain motivated students? How do we support unmotivated students?

The motivation and engagement wheel

More than 20 years ago, I developed the "motivation and engagement wheel" (below) as a way to represent the major parts of seminal motivation theories in educational psychology. The aim was to develop a model that could be easily communicated by educators to students, be readily understandable by students, help educators and students separate the helpful from the unhelpful, and be a basis for measuring students' motivation as well as a source for targeted and concrete help for students.

Motivation and Engagement Wheel (reproduced with permission)

The wheel has four overarching themes, each comprising specific motivation (and engagement) factors. I have sometimes referred to these as the "good" (positive motivation and engagement), the "bad" (negative motivation) and the "ugly" (negative engagement) of motivation. This is because the positive motivation and engagement factors generally yield benefits for students' academic development (for example, learning and achievement), the negative motivation factors tend to impede students' academic development and the negative engagement factors tend to have markedly adverse effects on students' academic development.

How do we boost the good and reduce the bad and the ugly?

Students' motivation can be improved and sustained. There are a few steps involved. The first is knowing that motivation is multidimensional and knowing its key components - the wheel is helpful for this.

The second step is knowing where a student sits on each part of the wheel. This can be ascertained informally through getting to know the student a little better and observing how they go about their studies. It could involve having a conversation with the student about where they think they sit on the wheel, or a discussion with other educators who know the student. It could even involve formal assessment of the student using a survey tool such as the motivation and engagement scale that I developed and validated to assess students on each part of the wheel.

The third step is to decide what specific components of the wheel will be the focus of educational support. This will in large part depend on the previous (second) step and initially will focus on just one or two components of the wheel, as it is important that educational support is focused and achievable. If several parts of the wheel need attention, educators may choose to focus on "low-hanging fruit" (a part where quick success can be achieved), a part of the wheel that the student is interested in or a part that is a significant and immediate barrier to the student's academic functioning.

The fourth step is to implement strategies that are proven to effectively address the specific component of the wheel. To give a sense of sample strategies, I will select one "good", one "bad", and one "ugly" part. In guiding my selection, I will focus on parts of the wheel that I believe should be on educators' watchlist in the age of Covid: valuing (good), uncertain control (bad) and disengagement (ugly).

A motivation watchlist in the age of Covid-19

"Valuing" is how much students believe that what they learn at university is useful, relevant, important and interesting. In numerous ways, Covid-19 has put students' valuing of university under pressure. For example, students may question the usefulness of engaging with and learning at university if there is a chance that assessment tasks may be cancelled, classes are called off or they start worrying about the jobs they are studying for (such as jobs in the arts or tourism that are under threat, or jobs in front-line health where essential workers are under huge stress).

"Uncertain control" is when students do not feel a great deal of agency or influence in their university studies, they develop a view that their efforts will not lead to desired outcomes or they feel a sense of helplessness in their academic life. Covid has presented students with all sorts of external pressures that are beyond their control. There has been a lot of external "stuff" piling up on students such as lockdown, isolation, illness, rapid shifts in and out of remote learning and insecure work. This can reduce their sense of personal control and agency.

Disengagement is when students give up and detach from university, reduce their efforts and withdraw their participation. There are typically many factors that play into disengagement, but as relevant to this discussion, low valuing and uncertain control are two potential culprits. When a student sees no relevance and usefulness in university and when they genuinely believe they have little or no control over their academic life, is it any wonder they are at risk of disengagement?

Bringing these ideas together, a couple of practical strategies are indicated.

One is to bring greater certainty and control into students' academic lives, so they can be confident that their efforts are worth it. For example, amid the uncertainty of Covid, educators might emphasise three parts of students' lives that they do control: effort (how hard they try), strategy (the way they try, such as how they present their work, study strategies they use and so on) and attitude (what they think about themselves, their instructor).

Another is to develop alternative ways students can value university. For example, if the usefulness of a subject is difficult to demonstrate, educators can harness what is referred to as "intrinsic" value such as setting a fun activity, arousing students' curiosity, injecting some humour into the lesson and bringing some variety into content, assessment and teaching methods.
Andrew J. Martin If you found this interesting and want advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the THE Campus newsletter. is Scientia professor and professor of educational psychology in the School of Education at UNSW Sydney, Australia.

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How to use the 'motivation and engagement wheel' to keep students on board

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No university or college educator would dispute the important role of motivation in their students' academic development. Motivation is alive and well - or unwell - in every student and every class, from undergraduate to doctoral level. Motivation is also generally easy to recognise; it's pretty obvious when a student is motivated and when a student is not.

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You said, we did, now what? Does student voice need a rethink?

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You said, we did, now what? Does student voice need a rethink?

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UK higher education institutions (HEIs) spend a lot of time and energy demonstrating that they are invested in the "student voice". Largely, this means setting up systems where students can give feedback on their courses. The fruits of this labour are often publicised in "you said, we did" communications in end-of-year reports, handbooks for incoming students and departmental poster campaigns.

The pitfalls of such strategies are widely documented. Common concerns include limited engagement from the larger student body, meaning that only certain voices get heard, and discrimination against tutors when the process becomes marred by bias. We cannot cover every criticism levelled at student voice initiatives here, so instead we wish to draw attention to a particular concern we share over the "you said, we did" ethos.

What do we mean by the "you said, we did" ethos? This refers to the increasing emphasis we see on formal communication channels where students are encouraged to give their views on teaching and learning for university management to act upon with maximum efficiency.

Feedback surveys measuring student satisfaction and staff-student consultation meetings are attractive here because the issues students face can be quickly distilled down to action points for future developments. A key risk that comes with such mechanisms, however, is the tendency towards changes that can be easily packaged and publicised rather than those that demand time, resources and deeper consideration. A specific example here would be the increasing expectation that tutors make recorded lecture content available to students.

The provision of recorded lecture content is an interesting but complex issue in HE. While students often say they value having access to such content to prepare and revise, it is undeniable that much additional effort is required from tutors to make this possible. At the same time, it would be difficult for tutors to deny that such content can have value in breaking down barriers for students who might not otherwise have fair access to the curriculum.

From the confines of the "you said, we did" ethos, a university might be tempted to guarantee that a certain amount of tutor-generated lecture content will be recorded for every module and made available for students to access online "on demand". However, we argue that a rush to provide students with neatly packaged sets of solutions to the challenges they face may actually limit more creative classroom engagements between tutors and students that might help them pioneer their own useful practices. Here, with the example of recorded lectures in mind, we suggest three alternative ways in which the undoubted power of the student voice might be more effectively harnessed:

1. Consensus-building through the development of shared understanding between tutors and students
If students do not understand why some of their classes are in-person only while others are pre-recorded, then requests to engage with one format instead of another may seem arbitrary. If students have an opportunity to discuss why certain content is pre-recorded (for example, it is essential for assessment revision) while other content is delivered in-person (for example, to permit more sensitive classroom discussions), then they are more likely to consider the educational value of certain formats when communicating their views on their learning experiences. We suggest that tutors invest in communicating the reasons they have for adopting certain learning and teaching practices from the outset.

2. Spaces where students and tutors can engage in playful activities that push the boundaries of the established curriculum
If a key focus of recorded lectures remains confined to standardising the amount of content students receive (contact hours), this sidelines opportunities for students to become involved in content generation themselves. Whereas supporting students to engage in more open-ended activities - such as curating playlists of guest talks, lectures and documentaries - can represent a valuable opportunity for students to make deeper personal connections to the curriculum, which, in turn, may inspire their tutors' future practice.

3. Clarifying the challenges; raising the important questions
Students may express dissatisfaction if recorded lectures are discontinued in favour of on-campus-only delivery. While it might be tempting to dismiss such views, especially in cases where students had previously expressed a preference for on-campus delivery, we argue that expressions of discontent can represent a useful starting point for further deliberations. Supporting students to craft follow-up questions based on the issues they have raised with tutors represents a useful step towards negotiating future practices of what "inclusive" education may look like. After all, there are still many important debates to be had about the value and limits of pre-recorded lecture content.

We have used but a single example to demonstrate how HE practice in relation to student voice can break free from the current confines of the "you said, we did" ethos and move towards a deeper engagement. Student voice would be better served by accepting that neither tutors nor students are endlessly manipulable by feedback surveys, consultation processes and action plans. This is by no means a sustainable way of working. Instead, we should engage more seriously with the idea that student voice is not just something that happens after interactions with tutors outside the classroom but is something that can also be generated through relationships that are built between tutors and students within shared learning encounters.
Claire Kinsella is a lecturer in education at Leeds Beckett University. She specialises in social and psychological aspects of learner engagement. Linda Kaye is a reader in psychology in the department of psychology at Edge Hill University. She specialises in cyberpsychology, which broadly relates to the psychology of online behaviour. If you found this interesting and want advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the THE Campus newsletter.

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You said, we did - now what? Why student voice initiatives need a rethink

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UK higher education institutions (HEIs) spend a lot of time and energy demonstrating that they are invested in the "student voice". Largely, this means setting up systems where students can give feedback on their courses. The fruits of this labour are often publicised in "you said, we did" communications in end-of-year reports, handbooks for incoming students and departmental poster campaigns.

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Managing Behaviour for Learning Q&A 1 (with Tom Bennett) | November 2019 | Online CPD

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Building a taxonomy for digital learning

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Building a taxonomy for digital learning

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Discipline in the Higher Education classroom

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Discipline in the Higher Education classroom

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We are cognitive psychological scientists interested in research on education. Our main research focus is on the science of learning. (Hence, "The Learning Scientists"!). Our Vision is to make scientific research on learning more accessible to students, teachers, and other educators.

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Blended learning: a new normal for Higher Education

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Blended learning: a new normal for Higher Education

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The second series of The Internationalist podcast from the ACU explores how the work of universities is being changed by the digital revolution, and how they can use their position to confront the challenges posed by digital technology. With thanks to Professor Jackson Too, Ag. Deputy Commission Secretary of the Commission of University Education, Kenya, Dr Luz Longsworth, Pro-Vice Chancellor and Principal of the University of West Indies (UWI) Open Campus, Jamaica, and Christine Koine, a first-year information science student at Kenyatta University, Kenya for their contributions and ideas in the fourth episode, many of which are outlined below.

The digital revolution is shifting the landscape of higher education - and nowhere has the impact been greater than in teaching. Even before the pandemic, blended learning - a pedagogical approach combining face-to-face teaching with online course delivery - had been steadily gaining traction due to its cost-effectiveness and flexibility.

A year after COVID-19 shuttered campuses around the globe, universities have already invested a great deal in technology-mediated teaching and learning. As we begin to imagine the post-pandemic campus, will universities retain some elements of online learning going forward? Will blended learning be the new normal?
Why blended learning?
Professor Jackson Too and Dr Luz Longsworth agree that blended learning offers opportunities for universities to diversify teaching and expand student access by reducing the need to travel.

There is also increasing evidence that blended pedagogy has inherent benefits for the learner. Describing her experience as a student at Kenyatta University, Christine Koine says that blended learning is a much more engaging approach compared to face-to-face lectures, and has enabled her to develop more independence as a learner.

Just as technology has transformed the way students learn, it has also changed what lecturers teach. Professor Too explains that blended learning platforms enable academics to produce locally relevant teaching materials, which can easily be shared with other universities via online platforms. In east Africa, the Partnership for Enhanced and Blended Learning (PEBL) - a pilot programme led by the ACU and supported by the UK FCDO's SPHEIR - supports academics from Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya to develop and share online teaching material geared to the needs and interests of students in the region. In the long term, this can decrease universities' reliance on teaching content produced in entirely different sociopolitical contexts.

However, blended learning is not as simple as uploading existing courses online. A successful blended programme requires adequate infrastructure and connectivity, technical training for staff and students, and robust quality assurance frameworks. These processes are complex and challenging, particularly for smaller, resource-strapped universities experiencing high staff turnover rates.

Then there is the question of hesitance from both students and teachers to embrace technology. Professor Too points to the simple fact that not everyone is comfortable with technology or has regular access to it, and this lack of familiarity often translates into lower confidence in the idea of a blended course. This is a familiar challenge for Dr Longsworth at the University of West Indies' Open Campus, where she has observed a widely held perception that programmes with online elements are inferior to traditional in-person courses.

But for UWI, a federal university comprising 17 countries, online platforms open doors for people across the Caribbean to access university education. Dr Longsworth describes how a combination of comprehensive pedagogical training for all faculty members, and the standardisation of quality assurance frameworks for both online and in-person courses, ultimately helped shift mindsets to embrace blended and online programmes.
Looking ahead: the future-proof university
In a world where technology touches upon virtually all aspects of the human experience, universities are not siloed. They must keep evolving to prepare graduates to succeed in the modern world of work, and this includes changing what is taught - and how it is taught.

Both Professor Too and Dr Longsworth agree that blended learning is not just the new normal - but also a new imperative for universities to become truly future-proof.

In Kenya, Professor Too is looking forward to a future where blended learning will become widespread. COVID-19 has resulted in a marked increase of interest in blended learning, with more academic staff and educational developers in the region looking to innovate and embrace technology. They are also paying closer attention to initiatives such as PEBL, which supports a growing regional network of blended learning experts.

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Blended learning: a new normal for higher education?

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The second series of The Internationalist podcast from the ACU explores how the work of universities is being changed by the digital revolution, and how they can use their position to confront the challenges posed by digital technology. With thanks to Professor Jackson Too, Ag.

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Introduction

"It's definitely been a transformative time, with irrevocable changes being made to offer enhanced blended learning"

Sarah Davies, director of the Bristol Institute for Learning and Teaching

Blended learning is a combination of in-person activities and digital tools and resources designed to deliver the best possible learning experience.

The use of learning tools can occur before, during or after an in-person session and support a variety of pedagogic purposes. The blended component, for example, might aim to extend the time students spend on a task, develop their information literacy skills, stimulate their interest before a class, or enable them to work at their own pace afterwards.

The term suggests careful and deliberate integration of online and in-person activities.

Impact of blended learning

A well-developed offering and programme of blended learning can:

Enhance the student experience

Potentially improve student outcomes

Widen participation

Improve accessibility and inclusion

However there are also risks as parts of the course are moved online that could result in:

Loss of community and cohort cohesion

Challenges of reconciling the inconsistent experience resulting from the differences between the physical and virtual student experience

Impact on connectivity and bandwidth on the experience

Poor student experience due to insufficient skills and capabilities across staff and students

Overview of blended learning in the sector

Universities are in a continual process of planning and delivering programmes of study. The landscape has now fundamentally changed and universities are looking to mitigate risks, ensure continued high-quality provision and a positive student experience while ensuring continuity of service through uncertain times.

Effective use of digital technology is seen as fundamental in helping to ensure continuity of learning, and engaging positively with students.

In 2020/1, universities across the UK are deploying a range of hybrid curriculum models, inviting students to participate in a combination of in-person and online learning. Working in this way requires specific skills for both learners and staff and a well-planned, blended learning programme which effectively integrates a range of techniques and resources.

Simply moving content online is not sufficient, though staff may instinctively feel more comfortable with simply automating their established styles of delivery and content. Translating established techniques onto new platforms without altering design and delivery is not enough. It requires real transformation, which demands an adjustment in thinking and sufficient staff comfort and confidence to shift to new ways of delivering blended learning.

When deploying a hybrid mode of blended learning, the course and programme is responsive to changes in the landscape and environment. Sessions can be switched from one mode to another; sessions can move to or from online or a physical location.

Hybrid modes allow universities to clarify with prospective students about their experience and how learning and teaching could potentially change. It helps staff plan their teaching and assessments to take into account the environment and changes to the situation.

"We're using the term 'hybrid'. In the same way that hybrid car has a mechanical engine and an electric motor, where you use each depending on journey you are taking, you'll potentially have an on campus or online experience which will reflect your learning journey (but maximise benefits of both). "

Simon Thomson, Director of the Centre for Innovation in Education, University of Liverpool

The higher education landscape has changed, and will continue to change, meaning existing models of blended learning may not be appropriate or practical. Universities will need to reflect not just on how blended learning can be used to deliver modules, but how existing blended learning curriculum models will need to be adjusted to fit this new future.

A vision for blended learning

Effective blended programmes are focused on the learning experience and outcomes before considering the technology. As with physically presented learning, blended and online programmes have clear aims, objectives and assessment points. Effective blended learning emphasises active participation over consumption of "content".

Blended learning action plan

A wide range of elements need to be considered to support effective blended learning programmes:

Do you have a clear understanding of what 'good' blended learning looks like, including how this aligns with requirements for learning, teaching, assessment, and quality assurance? How is this understanding communicated and shared within your institution?

Have you identified your aims and what success will look like in terms of the use of blended learning within your institution (and/or for individual programmes or specific groups of students)?

How will blended learning look in the short term and how will it look in the short term, medium term and long term?

What digital and pedagogical skills are required by staff to design, develop and deliver blended learning programmes? How will you ensure that staff not only have the technical skills, but also have the knowledge and understanding to design pedagogically sound programmes?

Have institutional policies (eg , online safety, accessibility, inclusion, complaints and wellbeing) been updated to reflect the change in how courses are delivered?

Recommendations

Universities should ensure they have strategies for maintaining high levels of student motivation and engagement as a core feature of the technology-enhanced learning experience.

Exemplars

The University of Northampton started from a strong position. Since 2014 it had been moving towards its current institutional approach to learning and teaching: active blended learning.

While never perceived as a large-scale online learning or distance learning strategy for campus-based Northampton, successful active blended learning does rely on fluent, purposeful and thoughtful use of technologies for learning, which stood the university in good stead when lockdown hit in March 2020. As a result, much of the teaching that took place was well planned rather than a rushed emergency response.

Teachers found that, thanks to the work they had done in the past few years around active blended learning, they were able to apply those lessons in the context of an unexpected scenario like this and do so quickly. There are also challenges around community building.

One of the benefits of the crisis occurring when it did was that, in most cases, tutors and learners knew each other and they already had an element of trust built in. With first year students arriving in September, new relationships and sense of cohesion and belonging will need to be built from scratch in an environment with limited face-to-face contact time.
Read more about how University of Northampton went from offline to online without interruption.
Help and support

There are many ways in which Jisc and others can support and help you in transforming the student experience though the use of blended learning and supporting digital technologies.

Advice and guidance

Training

Consultancy

Services

Edtech insights

Digital learning rebooted - this report highlights a range of responses from UK universities, ranging from trailblazing efforts at University of Northampton with its embedded 'active blended learning' approach, to innovation at Coventry University which is transforming each module in partnership with learning experience platform Aula

Learning and teaching reimagined

This primer has been designed to be used with other resources created as part of the learning and teaching reimagined initiative.

Explore more on this topic

Learning and teaching

Organisational change

About the author

Head of higher education and student experience, Jisc

As Jisc's head of higher education and student experience, I coordinate Jisc's overall strategy for HE learning, teaching and student experience and have lead responsibility for promoting the total programme and value and impact of all HE learning, teaching and student experience products and services delivered by Jisc.

I lead the ongoing review of Jisc's HE learning and teaching strategy, positioning this work within the organisation's overall strategy I ensure that Jisc's portfolio of activity in this area remains in line with Jisc's HE learning and teaching priorities and work closely with colleagues to develop Jisc's understanding of the value and impact of all of our HE learning, teaching and student experience activities.

As head of higher education and student experience, I am also responsible for framing how current and future challenges in this area can be resolved by technological innovation and translating the key insights into actionable innovation pipelines that deliver real impact. I manage the monitoring of national and regional HE learning, teaching and student experience customer and funder priorities, and work with Jisc account managers to examine the value ascribed by customers to Jisc products and services in this area, the join up of intelligence from funders and customers and the internal sharing of this, as appropriate.

I also manage the process of directorates identifying and mapping operational activities to our HE learning, teaching and student experience priorities, and the tracking and measuring of impact, highlighting gaps, challenging work if it is not aligned to priorities and identify emerging opportunities as these materialise.

0117 450 0425

@jamesclay

james.clay@jisc.ac.uk

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A primer created for university leaders as part of the learning and teaching reimagined initiative. Introduction[#pullquote#]"It's definitely been a transformative time, with irrevocable changes being made to offer enhanced blended learning"Sarah Davies, director of the Bristol Institute for Learning and Teaching[#endpullquote#]Blended learning is a combination of in-person

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Share lectures with video before class, and dedicate class time to activity and discussion. At first, the flipped classroom sounds fairly straightforward.

Looking closer, however, it soon becomes clear that from this basic premise springs many unique and interesting forms.

We are highlighting 16 examples of flipped classrooms in action, teaching students ranging from elementary scholars to doctoral candidates. Most surprising in all those examples? The sheer amount of variety - everything from teaching styles, information resources, student interaction, and more is tailored to the needs of the coursework.

Flipped Classroom Examples

Many of the examples illustrate unique models of how a teacher can invert their class. Is one of those flipped concepts right for your classroom? Let's take a look at each:

1. The Standard Inverted Classroom

Students are assigned the "homework" of watching video lectures and reading any materials relevant to the next day's class. During class time, students practice what they've learned through traditional schoolwork, with their teachers freed up for additional one-on-one time.

2. The Discussion-Oriented Flipped Classroom

Teachers assign lecture videos, as well as any other video or reading related to the day's subject - think TED Talks, YouTube videos, and other resources. Class time is then devoted to discussion and exploration of the subject. This can be an especially useful approach in subjects where context is everything such as history, art, or English.

3. The Demonstration-Focused Flipped Classroom

Especially for those subjects that require students to remember and repeat activities exactly - think chemistry, physics, and just about every math class - it is most helpful to have a video demonstration to be able to rewind and re-watch. In this model, the teacher uses screen recording software to demonstrate the activity in a way that allows students to follow along at their own pace.

4. The Faux-Flipped Classroom

The faux-flipped classroom is perfect for younger students for whom actual homework might not yet be appropriate. This flipped classroom model instead has those students watch lecture video in class - giving them the opportunity to review materials at their own pace, with the teacher able to move from student to student to offer whatever individual support each young learner needs.

5. The Group-Based Flipped Classroom

This model adds a new element to help students learn - each other. The class starts the same way others do, with lecture videos and other resources shared before class. The shift happens when students come to class, teaming up to work together on that day's assignment. This format encourages students to learn from one another and helps students to not only learn the what the right answers are but also how to actually explain to a peer why those answers are right.

6. The Virtual Flipped Classroom

For older students and in some courses, the flipped classroom can eliminate the need for classroom time at all. Some college and university professors now share lecture videos for student viewing, assign and collect work via online learning management systems, and simply require students to attend office hours or other regularly scheduled time for brief one-on-one instruction based on that individual student's needs.

7. Flipping The Teacher

All the video created for a flipped classroom doesn't have to begin and end with the teacher. Students too can make use of video to better demonstrate proficiency. Assign students to their record practice role-play activities to show competency, or ask each to film themselves presenting a new subject or skill as a means to "teach the teacher".

Keep in mind that every classroom is different, with different levels of access to technology, different levels of motivation on the part of the students, and different technological know-how on the part of the instructors. In addition, teachers must re-learn how to act as the "guide on the side" rather than the "sage on the stage"-and that takes time.

However, whenever the shift does occur, many experts believe the benefits of the flipped classroom are well worth the effort. According to LearnDash, 9 out of 10 teachers noticed a positive change in student engagement since flipping their classroom (up 80% from 2012), while 71% of teachers indicated that grades of their students have improved since implementing a flipped classroom strategy.

The Practical Guide to Flipping Your Classroom

Take a deeper look into the flipped classroom evolution, including the foundational strategy and early results that have so many teachers excited, in our white paper, The Practical Guide to Flipping Your Classroom.

In it, we discuss the five most important flipped classroom technologies schools should consider when researching or implementing the inverted classroom, including:

How to make videos easily available, consistently and securely

How to enable teachers to record video in any location

Ensuring instructors can record anything, no matter how complex

Ensuring students can watch videos anytime, anywhere, on any device

Ensuring students can find any topic in any video when needed

Download your free copy today!

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7 Unique Flipped Classroom Examples: Which Approach Is Best for You?

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Share lectures with video before class, and dedicate class time to activity and discussion. At first, the flipped classroom sounds fairly straightforward. Looking closer, however, it soon becomes clear that from this basic premise springs many unique and interesting forms. We are highlighting 16 examples of flipped classrooms in action, teaching students ranging from elementary scholars to doctoral candidates.

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The differences between blended learning and the flipped classroom

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The differences between blended learning and the flipped classroom

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The Differences Between Blended Learning and the Flipped Classroom

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The age of technology has begun to transform how we think about classroom teaching. Terms like “blended learning” and “flipped classroom” are becoming more familiar, but the similarities and differences between these two systems are not always clear.

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The Flipped Classroom Model has been around Higher Education for a number of years. It has many loyal followers but has not yet been widely adopted at the University of Sussex. In this post we'll look at what Flipped Learning is and why it has garnered such interest from the education community. We'll also look at strategies to make it work in practice.

What is Flipped Learning?

Flipped learning is usually defined in contrast to the 'traditional' model of teaching, where you introduce your students to new material in class through didactic lectures and the students then complete practice exercises independently. In the Flipped model you present your students with new concepts prior to class, often through videos, then use class time for more active approaches, setting practical tasks and supporting students to consolidate and build-upon the prior learning (Bishop & Verleger 2013).

Why flip?

The Flipped Model brings with it a number of benefits:

Active, practical sessions. The traditional lecture format tends towards a passive experience for students. Studies such as that by Prince (2004) suggest that using ' active learning' techniques in-class improves outcomes.

Student paced. Providing pre-class activities allows students to work at their own pace and reduce cognitive load (Hamdan, et al 2013). This can be of particular benefit to students with specific learning difficulties.

Independence. O'Flaherty and Phillips (2015) point to the 'potential to enable teachers to cultivate critical and independent thought in their students'. Activities which provide students with feedback help them to identify their own strengths and weaknesses.

Tailoring teaching. Using online activities prior to class has the additional advantage of giving you feedback about your students. You can find out about misconceptions prior to class and adjust your in-class teaching accordingly.

How to Flip your classroom.

Planning how to Flip your class is important. Bloom's Taxonomy, provides a handy framework for helping to choose what to do prior to class and what to do in-class, ensuring a logical progression (Gilboy, et al 2015). Pre-class objectives may correspond to the lower tiers of the taxonomy with a focus on memorising and understanding, recalling the relevant vocabulary and how it relates to the basic concepts, while the higher levels may be better tackled in class with the support of the teacher.

Bloom's taxonomy Verbs from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bloom%E2%80%99s_Taxonomy_Verbs.png

Set clear expectations from the start. Make sure your students know what you expect them to do ahead of class and how this will benefit them.

Once you've decided what to present pre-class, you can save time by reusing existing online resources. There are a number of places to look, from YouTube to more local or specifically HE content on Canvas Commons.

Be strategic and don't spend lots of time on subjects which are likely to change frequently. There are a whole host of tools you can use to create activities from Canvas Quizzes to Quizlet Flashcards, or screen captured, video presentations. Contact tel@sussex.ac.uk for guidance.

The challenge that teaching staff often bring up first with the Flipped model is: 'How can I be sure my students will do the pre-class activities?' Motivating the students is key.

There is some evidence that students perform better with video as opposed to reading activities (Lee & Choi, 2019). Keep activities short and focused and be up front about how long each activity will take, for example 'Watch this 10 minute video on X'. Pairing or grouping students in-class can also help to reduce the impact of any who have not prepared.

If you're finding your students just don't respond to the pre-class activities you could try a variation on the model such as the in-class flip.

As mentioned before, making the classroom section as active as possible is at the core of this approach. The Active Learning Network (ALN) is a group of interested educators who explore using active approaches in their teaching. Sussex colleagues run regular ALN events so do look out for them. You can find a number of active learning strategies on The Berkley Center for Teaching & Learning website.

5 tips to flip

We collected some tips from University of Sussex Flipped Learning practitioners, Dr Wendy Garnham, Susan Smith, Professor Andy Field and Dr Jennifer Mankin.

1. Keep activities short.
Susan Smith, from the University of Sussex Business School has refined her pre-class videos down to around 3-4 minutes.

2. Plan how your pre-class activities lead into the in-class activities.
Susan also stresses the need for the class time to build upon what has been learnt pre-class.

3. Vary the types of activity.
Wendy Garnham from the School of Psychology raises the importance of variety (not just videos) to keep students interest.

4. Keep resources in an easily editable format.
Creating resources can take time. Wendy recommends using online services such as Google docs because they are easy to update.

5. Use quizzes to motivate students.
Andy Field and Jennifer Mankin from the School of Psychology use quizzes at the beginning of their class sessions to ensure that students complete the pre-class activities. Since the move to Flipped Learning they've also seen an improvement in attendance.

Even if you choose not to apply the Flipped Model to all of your teaching, there are some useful elements that you can employ to engage your students prior to class and make the best use of precious class time.

Do get in touch with your School Learning Technologist via tel@sussex.ac.uk for further ideas and support.

References

Bishop, J. L., & Verleger, M. A. (2013). 'The flipped classroom: a survey of the research'. ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Available at: https://peer.asee.org/22585 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (Accessed: 11 March 2019)

Gilboy, M.B., Heinerichs S., Pazzaglia, G. (2015), 'Enhancing Student Engagement Using the Flipped Classroom', Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, Volume 47, Issue 1, January-February 2015, Pages 109-114, Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2014.08.008 (Accessed:09 April 2019)

Hamdan, N., McKnight, P., McKnight, K. and Arfstrom, K. (2013) A Review of Flipped Learning [Internet]. Available at: https://flippedlearning.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/LitReview_FlippedLearning.pdf (Accessed:09 April 2019)

Lee, J. and Choi, H. (2019), 'Rethinking the flipped learning pre‐class: Its influence on the success of flipped learning and related factors'. Br J Educ Technol, 50: 934-945. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12618 (Accessed: 11 March 2019)

O'Flaherty, Jacqueline, Phillips, Craig (2015), 'The use of flipped classrooms in higher education: A scoping review', The Internet and Higher Education, 04/2015, Vol.25, C, pp.85-95 Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2015.02.002 (Accessed:09 April 2019)

Prince, M. (2004) 'Does Active Learning Work? A Review of the Research', Journal of Engineering Education 93:223-231 · July 2004, Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2004.tb00809.x (Accessed:09 April 2019)

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Tips to Flip - Technology Enhanced Learning

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The Flipped Classroom Model has been around Higher Education for a number of years. It has many loyal followers but has not yet been widely adopted at the University of Sussex. In this post we'll look at what Flipped Learning...Read more ›

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The power of cold calling and wait times

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The power of cold calling and wait times

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My colleague Bradley Busch and his colleagues at Inner Drive recently posted this outstanding illustration of the way combining Cold Call with Wait Time and "timing the name"-that is, not identifying whom you are calling on until after the question is asked and students have had time to think-can boost the amount of student thinking. (Bradley's illustration is based on another great visualization, originally by Luke Tayler).

This is important in several areas of questioning but it is-Bradley points out-especially effective when using retrieval practice.

Here's that thoroughly excellent illustration:

The only way the illustration could be any better would be if there was a video to go with it. And well, that's where I can help. So here's a great video of the always outstanding Denarius Frazier using Cold call + Wait Time to make student retrieval practice especially effective.

Some things you'll probably notice:

1) The warm inviting tone (and smile) Denarius uses to start the retrieval practice.

2) The Wait Time that ensures everyone things through the answer.

3) The Cold Call (Question. Pause. Name)

4) The Turn and Talk he uses when one student answers wrong to ensure that everyone practices that question-and to divert any negative attention from that student.

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Combining Cold Call and Wait Time- A Video to Go with the Great illustration - Teach Like a Champion

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My colleague Bradley Busch and his colleagues at Inner Drive recently posted this outstanding illustration of the way combining Cold Call with Wait Time and "timing the name"-that is, not identifying whom you are calling on until after the question is asked and students have had time to think-can boost the amount of student thinking.

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Dynamic visual engagement design pricniples

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Dynamic visual engagement design pricniples

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Visual Design Principles

In this article, I discuss the key takeaways from one of the presentations given at LearnFlux in June 2022. This excerpt helps cultivate the ability to design dynamic visual assets that promote engagement and stimulate learning.

There are several fundamental visual design elements that should be considered while building and developing since they affect learning. This article will concentrate on the 5 fundamental principles of visual design. They are the following.

1. Simplicity

Always make things as basic as possible in design, and do so by asking yourself, "Is it okay, have we reduced this down to what's most important to produce that efficient experience?" Simplicity is essential. There is a famous quotation on design simplicity-"A designer knows that they have achieved perfection, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

This is a fantastic idea since we want to be able to create simplified, efficient learning experiences. Get in, learn what you need to know, and get out as soon as possible.

2. Contrast

In design elements, contrast is vital. But, given a choice between photos A and B below, which do you think is the most effective?

The first thing you notice is that the display appears somewhat fuzzy. Contrast is critical for both effective impact and visual accessibility. Consider the relevance of color blindness in persons studying in diverse situations, such as on a phone or tablet.

3. Repetition

Which of the illustrations below do you think is most powerful?

Due to its cleanliness, image B performs better when the idea of repetition is considered. While your brain tries to make sense of what's happening, why they're scattered, and what that means, image B is easier to comprehend than image A. Our brains are so quick to try to make sense of things that if repetition is incorporated into our visual designs, we can reduce the stress of trying to make sense of things and make the brain more attentive to what it should be learning.

4. Alignment

Which image would you say is more effective in this case?

The image on the right!

Alignment is the subsequent step. Design elements should have alignment, repetition, and contrast. The brain can process information more readily when things are aligned rather than when they are more dispersed.

5. Proximity

Examine the accompanying picture of apples and oranges in comparison. Which one do you think is the more powerful image?

Image A, correct? The reason is proximity. Here, we're attempting to convey that apples and oranges are distinct from one another, and image A achieves it more succinctly than image B.

Other Visual Design Principles

The other visual design principles which can be used to create high-impact learning and performance support solutions are:

1. Coherence: Removing extraneous words, pictures, and sounds. Remember, less is more! Learning is diminished when interesting, but irrelevant words, pictures, sound, and music are added to a multimedia presentation.

2. Image: It is not necessary to include an image of the speaker (narrator) onscreen.

3. Modality: Graphics, images, and animations are more effective when they are explained through narration rather than onscreen text.

4. Multimedia: Words and pictures are more effective than words alone. However, having images that are merely "decorative" is not helpful.

5. Personalization: A conversational tone (for a speaker or narrator) is more effective than a formal style.

6. Practice: Structured activities and interactions that are job-context-relevant improve learning and transfer back to the job.

7. Pre-training: Make sure to communicate the names and characteristics of the main concepts.

8. Redundancy: Graphics and images should be explained by audio narration alone rather than audio narration and on-screen text.

9. Segmenting: Present content, activities, and interactions in leaner-paced segments rather than as a continuous unit.

Big Picture

Consider applying the tenets of these principles to any visual while designing to make that visual have a far more significant impact on learning. These visual concepts are crucial; luckily, there is an easy-to-remember acronym: SCRAP (Simplicity, Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity). It is important to remember these concepts while creating dynamic images. If you pay great attention to these design principles, you will significantly increase your learning impact.

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Dynamic Visual Engagement Design Principles

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In this article, I discuss the key takeaways from one of the presentations given at LearnFlux in June 2022. This excerpt helps cultivate the ability to design dynamic visual assets that promote engagement and stimulate learning. There are several fundamental visual design elements that should be considered while building and developing since they affect learning.

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How teachers adapt problem based learning

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How teachers adapt problem based learning

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University of Cumbria - Guide to Problem Based Learning

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University of Cumbria - Guide to Problem Based Learning

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Your guide to PBL

The following paper originally appeared in the ESCalate ITE Help Directory Andrew Ginty, St Martin's College (University of Cumbria) This guide outlines the approach of problem based learning as a teaching methodology. It draws on the literature from the medical sciences to describe the roles of students, tutors and faculty teams.

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Problem Based Learning | University of Cumbria

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Your guide to PBL The following paper originally appeared in the ESCalate ITE Help Directory Andrew Ginty, St Martin's College (University of Cumbria) This guide outlines the approach of problem based learning as a teaching methodology.

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Teaching and Learning Problem Based Learning

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Teaching and Learning Problem Based Learning

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Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is a teaching method in which complex real-world problems are used as the vehicle to promote student learning of concepts and principles as opposed to direct presentation of facts and concepts. In addition to course content, PBL can promote the development of critical thinking skills, problem-solving abilities, and communication skills. It can also provide opportunities for working in groups, finding and evaluating research materials, and life-long learning (Duch et al, 2001).

PBL can be incorporated into any learning situation. In the strictest definition of PBL, the approach is used over the entire semester as the primary method of teaching. However, broader definitions and uses range from including PBL in lab and design classes, to using it simply to start a single discussion. PBL can also be used to create assessment items. The main thread connecting these various uses is the real-world problem.

Any subject area can be adapted to PBL with a little creativity. While the core problems will vary among disciplines, there are some characteristics of good PBL problems that transcend fields (Duch, Groh, and Allen, 2001):

The problem must motivate students to seek out a deeper understanding of concepts.

The problem should require students to make reasoned decisions and to defend them.

The problem should incorporate the content objectives in such a way as to connect it to previous courses/knowledge.

If used for a group project, the problem needs a level of complexity to ensure that the students must work together to solve it.

If used for a multistage project, the initial steps of the problem should be open-ended and engaging to draw students into the problem.

The problems can come from a variety of sources: newspapers, magazines, journals, books, textbooks, and television/ movies. Some are in such form that they can be used with little editing; however, others need to be rewritten to be of use. The following guidelines from The Power of Problem-Based Learning (Duch et al, 2001) are written for creating PBL problems for a class centered around the method; however, the general ideas can be applied in simpler uses of PBL:

Choose a central idea, concept, or principle that is always taught in a given course, and then think of a typical end-of-chapter problem, assignment, or homework that is usually assigned to students to help them learn that concept. List the learning objectives that students should meet when they work through the problem.

Think of a real-world context for the concept under consideration. Develop a storytelling aspect to an end-of-chapter problem, or research an actual case that can be adapted, adding some motivation for students to solve the problem. More complex problems will challenge students to go beyond simple plug-and-chug to solve it. Look at magazines, newspapers, and articles for ideas on the story line. Some PBL practitioners talk to professionals in the field, searching for ideas of realistic applications of the concept being taught.

The problem needs to be introduced in stages so that students will be able to identify learning issues that will lead them to research the targeted concepts. The following are some questions that may help guide this process:

What will the first page (or stage) look like? What open-ended questions can be asked? What learning issues will be identified?

How will the problem be structured?

How long will the problem be? How many class periods will it take to complete?

Will students be given information in subsequent pages (or stages) as they work through the problem?

What resources will the students need?

What end product will the students produce at the completion of the problem?

Write a teacher's guide detailing the instructional plans on using the problem in the course. If the course is a medium- to large-size class, a combination of mini-lectures, whole-class discussions, and small group work with regular reporting may be necessary. The teacher's guide can indicate plans or options for cycling through the pages of the problem interspersing the various modes of learning.

The final step is to identify key resources for students. Students need to learn to identify and utilize learning resources on their own, but it can be helpful if the instructor indicates a few good sources to get them started. Many students will want to limit their research to the Internet, so it will be important to guide them toward the library as well.

The method for distributing a PBL problem falls under three closely related teaching techniques: case studies, role-plays, and simulations. Case studies are presented to students in written form. Role-plays have students improvise scenes based on character descriptions given. Today, simulations often involve computer-based programs. Regardless of which technique is used, the heart of the method remains the same: the real-world problem.

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Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is a teaching method in which complex real-world problems are used as the vehicle to promote student learning of concepts and principles as opposed to direct presentation of facts and concepts. In addition to course content, PBL can promote the development of critical thinking skills, problem-solving abilities, and communication skills.

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Problem Library: 116

Crossed Circuits
Two roommates argue about each others use of energy. Which roommate should pay a utility premium? How much extra?

Watson, George

Physics and Astronomy

1 Hour or Less

Introductory (non-majors)

What Is the Cause of This Swelling and Why Am I Short of Breath When I Exercise?
"Joan is a corporate lawyer for a Fortune-500 company. She has been physically active her entire life.
Lately Joan has. . .

Tallitsch, Robert

Biological Sciences

1 Hour or Less

Intermediate (majors and non-majors)

The Fastest Man in the World
This problem introduces students to speed and acceleration.

Duch, Barbara

Physics and Astronomy

3-6 hours

Introductory (non-majors)

Pass the Buffer-in
A student needing to prepare a pH 7.5 buffer must decide whether an unlabeled recipe will do the job.

Groh, Susan

Chemistry

1-3 Hours

Introductory (majors and non-majors)

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DISCIPLINEAdd Filter "Collapse " Biological Sciences Biotechnology Chemistry Accounting Aviation Science Business Administration Chemistry and Bi...

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The open resource bank for interactive teaching

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The open resource bank for interactive teaching

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Writing for a public audience when blogging can encourage pupils in their language(ta) development and offers opportunities for ICT mediated assessment(ta) including peer assessment(ta) for example via the use of the 'comment' features. Still a popular approach to language teaching, and still underused, blogs(tool) offer the easiest of ways to publish school news or lab discoveries or whatever winds me up today. Blogging websites allow video and photos to be included alongside text. For example, underneath each post is a comment button which gets feedback - but you can control what happens with a setting.

Each of the blogging web sites below offer an overwhelming range of features. All of them generate a 'feed' (RSS feed) where a reader can subscribe to new posts. The RSS is used to alert your readership of new articles, rather than have them re-visit a site that does not change. Services that offer blogging include, BLOGGER (www.blogger.com); WORDPRESS (www.wordpress.org) and TYPEPAD (www.typepad.com).

Data logging tools provide opportunity to engage pupils in the scientific method(ta) and higher order(ta) reasoning(ta) and problem solving over data collection and analysis. They can be used collaboratively(ta) or individually in inquiry(ta) based learning. Data logging is the process of recording measurements from sensors. A weather station pretty well fits this definition. The station captures readings from sensing devices and it may also display what is happening right now. The station offers a better way to study the world. While many people would say that measuring with technology is more accurate; more modern or 'the way to go', the real benefits are the important advantages for learning. Some are less than obvious:

You can monitor extremely fast or tediously slow events. Thus you can now investigate a whole range of things you would have needed to overlook.

You can design and make equipment to solve problems for 'technology or D&T' projects.

You can measure tiny changes with precision - for example to find out whether wearing white clothes could offer comfort on a hot day. The measured difference between black and white clothes is slight, by the way.

You can see results appear live and immediately, get a tacit understanding for what's happening. This incidentally lets you modify your experiment when you see readings going awry.

You can gain data to analyse, evaluate and test hypotheses, much as the science and maths curriculum require.

In short data logging offers ways to do core science experiments, such as studying insulating materials; or acceleration of a trolley on a ramp; or electromagnetic induction. But it also offers a strategy to promote good investigative science in schools.

Data Handling:

When you first come to use the technology like this, using the technology to take the science further, using it to quantify differences; to derive data and to model it, may well seem a long step ahead. However, making use of data so conveniently collected, really deserves to happen in mainstream teaching. When you see the need, it will help to know there are data handling packages designed for use with data collected from sensors. One might imagine that a spreadsheet could handle this - however, these data handling packages can take readings at points on a graph; calculate net changes; calculate graph areas; plot a rate of change against time; fit this to a model and more.

File sharing allows online collaboration(ta). Some services (including Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft's SkyDrive, and so on) allow collaborative(tool) document editing - syncronous editing of documents 'in the cloud'. This can be useful for working together on a shared space, and can sometimes be useful even within the same classroom for using documents to orchestrate dialogic teaching(ta) and high quality dialogue(ta). DROPBOX (dropbox.com) is like a web site with folders where you can store and share files(tool). As a result there's less concern about forgetting your memory stick - though it's an idea to use both. If you install an desktop app on your computer desktop or mobile device, the files will synchronise in each place. You will also find a link to your public folder - by emailing that link to students, you have a simple way to share notes(tool) or homework files.

Enquiry blogger is a set of plugins for the blogging(tool) platform WordPress. Users are asked to tag their posts on an inquiry(ta) project, and these tags can be analysed and visualised(ta) to support student progress through their project. Consider a scenario where a class works on their individual blogs(tool) but also use this tool to categorise their posts. Using it they may express how they are doing. The resulting blog displays a diagram to show how many times each category has been used by learners. Colours show which categories are most popular and a click takes the user to those posts. This is a set of plugin tools that can be added to Wordpress. Developed by the Open University Knowledge Media Institute, and University of Bristol's Centre for Systems Learning & Leadership. Another plugin in this set will generate blogs for a whole cohort. EnquiryBlogger is at http://learningemergence.net/tools/enquiryblogger/

Narrative animation tools afford opportunity to setup questioning(ta) and visualisation(ta) through the use of multimedia. By recording an explanation, teachers can replay it many times in the lesson, observing the students and editing markup on an IWB (see e.g. [1]) for a shared dialogic(ta) space for thinking. First sights of XTRANORMAL ( http://www.xtranormal.com/) character animation(tool) tool may deceive that this is for learning languages. However, XTRANORMAL enables students to make narratives(ta) and conversations that explain almost any topic. We have seen it used to handle a question and answer session on student options. Animation is edited on a timeline. Voice can be added by talking or typing.

Creating posters - and especially online multimedia canvases - encourages pupils to select relevant information, and use mathematical thinking(ta)/scientific thinking(ta) and language(ta) to explain an issue. GLOGSTER ( http://edu.glogster.com/) is like an onscreen poster(tool) where you can add music, photos, videos to perhaps record an event. The onscreen posters can be published on social sites and more. A teacher account provides a login with class management.

Poll(tool) tools can be used for quick assessment(ta) or questioning(ta) in and outside of the classroom. They can also be used to allow pupils to give feedback. Using online polls can be useful for assessment outside of class. Within the classroom it can sometimes be useful to allow voting if you have access to ICT to support online methods for: 1) capturing data; 2) many quick questions; 3) private feedback if it's a sensitive topic, or some pupils are reluctant to respond normally; 4) the ability to return to questions, either at a later date, or as discussion points to discuss the answers given. If you need to ask a question(tool) to get feedback "kwiqpoll.com" lets you write a poll question and circulate it as a link to a class. It is so quick to use, there's plenty of opportunity to do so.

Online writing tools can be used to encourage pupils to engage their subject specific language(ta) to writeup work, share it, and add multimedia. PENZU www.penzu.com offers means to keep an online note(tool)book, and it actually looks much like a paper version, It can be used to keep a personal journal. Photographs can be added, quite straightforward to use and the attractive results may well encourage some students to use it to write up work.

Poll(tool) tools can be used for quick assessment(ta) or questioning(ta) in and outside of the classroom. They can also be used to allow pupils to give feedback. Using online polls can be useful for assessment outside of class. Within the classroom it can sometimes be useful to allow voting if you have access to ICT to support online methods for: 1) capturing data; 2) many quick questions; 3) private feedback if it's a sensitive topic, or some pupils are reluctant to respond normally; 4) the ability to return to questions, either at a later date, or as discussion points to discuss the answers given. POLL EVERYWHERE (polleverywhere.com) replaces physical voting hardware with voting via a web page or SMS texting. It was designed to gather live responses to a TV show but it may work also to gain feedback in teaching situations.

QR codes can be used to embed links to further information in visualisations(ta), perhaps making use of corridor displays to link to wikipedia pages on current topics. QR CODE GENERATOR allows you to make the 2D patterns most often used in advertising or retailing. A QR code may contain a page of text; a link to a web page or photo or all your contact details. When you have made the code, a mobile device with an app, such as Google Goggles, is used to read it.

You could for example use QR code(tool) patterns to offer information of objects in a display cabinet, or make use of the time pupils spend queuing in the corridor, put a QR code(tool) with useful facts on the classroom door. The gain is that you can get data into a mobile device, and possibly a student too, without typing. The QR code can get a phone number ready to dial; create a text message; put a date in your diary or show you a place on a map. A link below offers classroom ideas.

A tool for encouraging synchronous dialogue(ta) and a means for assessment(ta). TodaysMeet.com offers an easy way to gain feedback(tool). You set up a 'room' and send everyone the link to it so they can type their comments or engage in 'chat(tool)'. Todaysmeet can be used at a moment's notice as seemingly membership is unnecessary. This tool could be used in a lesson to encourage effective dialogue using Ground Rules and in turn assessment.

Vuvox can be used to create a visualisation(ta) of multimedia in a more dynamic way than powerpoint, to interact with a linear visualisation(ta) for example in a timeline. VUVOX ( www.vuvox.com) is a tool to make presentations(tool) such as photo collages that display as panoramas(tool) with hot-spots. Imagine VUVOX as a way to make a set of Powerpoint slides that scroll across the screen. You can add a wide range of media and interactivity to the panoramic result.

Creating a website is a great way for pupils to take ownership of their learning, think about e-skills and e-safety, and how to explain their ideas to an audience. Websites can provide a space for pupils to reason(ta) about a problem and share their ideas in a collaborative(ta) setting, while engaging their language(ta) skills. WEEBLY (education.weebly.com) is a way for a class to make a project website(tool). Students have various ways to add multimedia to their sites which may help them express themselves. This happens on the web site, which firstly eases many technicalities to do with web publishing. Secondly, since Weebly allows students to work from home, as cosmetic adjusting of web sites would while away class time.

The education section of this tool allows students to work inside a protected portal away from the public internet. Having a safe space, under teacher control, where they can include pictures (an e-safety issue) is often advised.

Encourage your pupils to collaborate(tool) and engage in peer assessment(ta) by editing each other's work WIKISPACES (www.wikispaces.com) allows you to make a website like Wikipedia. The wiki 'concept' is core to sharing knowledge. You can write your own information pages and that doesn't mean writing a whole encyclopaedia. Unlike writing a blog post, where you would see people's opinions in a list below, what you type into a 'wiki' can be rewritten by others and edited mercilessly. (And that can be a measure of something very good going on in a class).

Your choice of topic could be as wide as providing notes for an entire course or providing a space for the class to record experience of a field trip. The general idea is the last person to edit a page thinks they've the last word - which may take some getting used to. 'Wiki-bullying' could happen, but with that in mind, you could encourage your pupils to collaborate(tool) by editing each other's work and so engage in peer assessment(ta). Incidentally, to help that collaboration, there are ways to have more than one person edit a page at once.

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Writing for a public audience when blogging can encourage pupils in their language(ta) development and offers opportunities for ICT mediated assessment(ta) including peer assessment(ta) for example via the use of the 'comment' features. Still a popular approach to language teaching, and still underused, blogs(tool) offer the easiest of ways to publish school news or lab discoveries or whatever winds me up today.

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Using cognitive science to improve classroom practice

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Using cognitive science to improve classroom practice

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Cognitive science is becoming the cornerstone for understanding how students learn and is revolutionising the way we are teaching pupils, both in primary and secondary.

It has also underpinned the development of the new Ofsted frameworks for schools, initial teacher training providers and, from this September, the Early Career Framework. And rightly so: the techniques informed by cognitive science are evidence-based and proven.

Some schools are just kick- starting their incorporation of cognitive load theory (Sweller, 1988) into their teaching and learning visions, whereas other schools have embedded the principles fully.

So, here are some key questions to consider: What is cognitive science and cognitive load theory? Do you need to use it when you teach? Exactly how do you use it when you teach?

T he beauty of cognitive load theory is that there is a wealth of research evidence showing why we should be using the techniques informed by them. Indeed, Professor Dylan Wiliam famously tweeted in 2017 that "Sweller's cognitive load theory is the single most important thing for teachers to know". Here I want to look at some of the techniques we should be implementing in every classroom in order to take this into account.
Cognitive science
So, cognitive science is understanding how the structure and functions of the brain affect our ability to learn. It is a branch of science that considers brain architecture when thinking about how to embed learning into the minds of our students. To this end, human cognition can be broadly divided into our working memory (also called short-term memory) and our long-term memory.

Working memory is when you are receiving new information and it has limits. Do you remember Kim's Game from when you were a child? You were presented with a tray of objects, given 30 seconds to memorise as many as you could before the tray was covered. Or The Generation Game, a TV gameshow where the final task was remembering objects on a conveyor belt.

Well, the capacity of the working memory is roughly five to seven objects from that tray or conveyer belt, many more can be a struggle.

But what about long-term memory? Well, can you recite the words from your favourite pop song from when you were young? It can be strange when you get older and haven't heard a song for 20 years but find yourself singing along. How are you able to recall something you have not thought about for so long?

The answer is this: "Memory is the residue of thought." This is my favourite line from Daniel T Willingham's Why Don't Students Like School? (2009).

That song you practised and heard many times over got embedded into your long-term memory. Teaching happens in time; learning happens over time. Which brings us to the next really important point...
Your long-term memory is infinite
If we think about things many times and activate the neurons in our brain to retrieve the information, then we can store an untold amount of information. I love this fact because it proves that, while there will still be some differences, all of us are indeed able to take on new knowledge and learn new things, if only we practise. What a great thing to be able to stand in front of your students and say.

So what strategies should you use? You have probably heard of the Principles of Instruction (Rosenshine, 2012). The first principle is that you should start with a short review of previous learning. This has taken on the name retrieval practice, alongside interleaving and spaced practice.

Retrieval practice is low-stakes assessment of prior learning. Interleaving is where you include learning from a variety of topics, and spaced practice is where you allow students "forgetting time" (say two weeks) before coming back to the topic and asking some similar questions. Retrieval practice should happen every lesson. The biggest resistance you will get is teachers worrying about how they cover their curriculum if lesson time is given over to these reviews.
Let's justify that
Think back to when you first started learning to drive. That moment when you sat in the car and the instructor started explaining the functions of the pedals, switches and levers. Now you can probably happily sing, chat and plan your day while driving because all the practice you did has shifted the learning to the long-term memory.

Now consider when you first drove abroad for the first time: there would have been a short interlude where you were again cognitively overloaded but because of your foundational driving knowledge, you were able to acquire the new skills very quickly.

The point is this: new knowledge can be easily added to strong foundational knowledge that has been practised many times, so we should actively encourage teachers to keep revisiting that foundational knowledge in order for students to assimilate new knowledge. The students' increased confidence means you can still get full coverage of the curriculum.

Cognitive scientists will call this building schema: the more we have practised recalling knowledge and ensuring it is embedded, the more we can add further knowledge, then create links between those firm banks of information which in turn allows you to add yet more knowledge.

This is why there may be an educational gap that gets harder to close as students get older. Those students with parents who invest time in using a large vocabulary, counting when their child climbs stairs, reading to them every night and so on often create strong foundational knowledge for formal schooling to build on.

There is likely to be a gap with the children who did not, unfortunately, receive this rich start in life. These children may find schooling extremely difficult and often feel too far out of their comfort zones right into their panic zones, and so they disengage from school.

This is essentially because they didn't get all the practising opportunities afforded to their peers, meaning new knowledge did not have the foundations required in order to build schema.
But there is hope
With our understanding of long-term memory, you can just practise, practise, practise with your students and prove to them the infinite capacity of the mind.

Retrieval practice can be a low-tech, quick-fire set of questions, it can be a brain dump of " write everything you know about...", or it can be "write a question for something you want to know about each of these previous five topics".

The internet is full of templates you can use but my advice is to keep it simple. Writing questions that you know your class have struggled with and need to go over is the best personalised approach for your students.

It is only worthwhile doing retrieval practice if you know which questions students are getting right or wrong. As you go through each question, tell the students it doesn't matter if they got it wrong as you are just going to reteach and revisit until they can remember and then get them to raise their hands.

Do this for each question and scan the room. If they are all getting the same question wrong, teach them the answer and put the question in again tomorrow or the next lesson. If the majority are getting it right, leave it out for a few weeks and then reintroduce it.

For those that got it wrong, go and have a quick word once the rest of the students are doing an independent task. If it is an unequal split, keep the question in until the majority are getting it right.
Dual-coding
Another fabulous teaching technique that takes account of cognitive load theory is dual-coding.

Although there are no such things as learning styles, there are certainly different ways our brain can receive information, for example through the visual stream or the auditory stream. This does have the potential to be cognitively overloading, but if we present the information slowly step-by-step - drawing and teaching orally the concept or idea then the working memory is not over loaded.

You do not need to be an artist to dual-code effectively. All you need is to add small pieces of information at a time (another of Rosenshine's principles). Visualisers or graphics tablets will allow your teachers to do this. See Adam Boxer's 2020 ResearchED video on YouTube for a great workshop on dual-coding.

Dr Kelly Woodford-Richens is d irector of Basingstoke Alliance SCITT. Her book Using Cognitive Science in the Classroom, which has been edited by NASBTT e xecutive d irector Emma Hollis and published by Critical Publishing as part of the Essential Guides for Early Career Teachers series, will be out later this year: www.criticalpublishing.com
Further information & resources

Boxer: Dual coding for teachers who can't draw: Teacher's explanations, ResearchED, April 2020: www.youtube.com/watch?v=16SBht2iF_k

DfE: Early Career Framework: www.early-career-framework.education.gov.uk

Rosenshine: Principles of Instruction: Research-based strategies that all teachers should know, American Educator, Spring 2012: http://bit.ly/2ZpbIqW

Sweller: Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning, Cognitive Science, Vol 12, 1988: http://bit.ly/32B1Rk9 (see also Paas, Renkl & Sweller: Cognitive load theory and instructional design: Recent developments, Educational Psychologist, Vol 38, 2003: http://bit.ly/35JRNqY)

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Using cognitive science to improve classroom practice

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Cognitive science is becoming the cornerstone for understanding how students learn and is revolutionising the way we are teaching pupils, both in primary and secondary. It has also underpinned the development of the new Ofsted frameworks for schools, initial teacher training providers and, from this September, the Early Career Framework.

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What is dual coding and why is it so important for teachers to know?

Every teacher disseminates knowledge, but very few have ever been taught how best to impart knowledge effectively so that pupils can understand and apply it. Having the awareness of what dual coding can do, will make you a better teacher.

First hypothesized by Allan Paivio in 1971, Dual Coding Theory - a theory of cognition and how we think - uses the idea that the formation of mental images aids in learning. Put simply, the use of verbal and visual information - not learning styles.

Dual coding and learning styles sound similar but are not quite the same thing. While dual coding has scientific evidence backing its use, learning styles has been repeatedly tested and shown not to improve learning. ( The Learning Scientists)

When did you first start using visuals in your teaching?

I first became interested in academic research about 15 years ago when I completed my masters degree; today observing how education dialogue across England was shaping the teaching profession. Dual coding strategies started to influence how I thought classroom effectiveness was best-received and the way in which I worked as a school leader; evolving from the classroom into resources and materials made available on this website.

About five or six years ago, I discovered the work of four, female cognitive scientists working under the name The Learning Scientists. As a vice principal leading whole-school teaching and learning, their research and scientific principles came at just about the right time when teacher workload and wellbeing started to receive national recognition as a serious issue for English education in 2013.

We have come along way in this time, but we cannot assume that the issue of workload has been eradicated. Think 'busy', then also add another insurmountable number of tasks on top of your regular day job. This is the default mode for a teacher: A never-ending juggling act made worse in surviving in a toxic school.

It is important for all teachers and school leaders to streamline their thought processes and expectations in order to work more effectively. For the classroom teacher, this process is essential and even more critical to achieving effective content delivery, especially when given a short amount of time to plan and deliver meaningful lessons day-to-day. For school leaders, rather than demand endless paper-trails to prove teacher-effectiveness, instead, develop a teacher's repertoire by immersing them in cognitive science principles which will improve classroom delivery no-end.

Today, research continues to form important dialogue as a blogger and author and has since to immerse itself into my training sessions with teachers across the U.K.

How do you think the use of dual coding supports your teaching?

Dual coding as a process has become a daily habit for me when planning and delivering content-information. I find myself more immersed in cognitive science, coaching and presentation techniques to ensure I utilise my skills to greatest effect. For many years I have worked on the basis of a simple metric: 'What? Why? How? What if?' to underpin any planning process for classroom teaching, writing and teacher training delivery. At a deeper level, I now think more conscientiously about the information I am sharing and how I should present it. Note, this also includes non-verbal communication - literally and visually.

Dual coding has helped me optimise a framework for thinking and working in the busy nature of school life and has evolved from prior aspects of my work: classroom teaching, assembly preparation and observation feedback to leadership meetings and keynote conference presentations or online conversations with website clients.

What aspect of dual coding would you like to develop?

Reflecting on the 15,000 teachers I have worked with over the past two years, as more and more schools use and adapt some of my teaching and learning approaches, I intend to reflect deeply on my experiences of using dual coding and how this shapes my work.

I firmly believe that teachers need to do less, not more, to work more effectively. This is achieved through greater awareness of cognitive science and how various methodologies impact on teaching and learning. I have every intention to continue using dual coding, adapting the techniques to tweak content and delivery in a much more effective and meaningful manner.

In the future, I hope that schools develop a dual coding framework to support their teachers to think more cognitively about their work, considering spatial and verbal working memory as well as how these translate into classroom resources for pupils and how this information influences their teaching style.

My visual process

Over the last ten years, the 5 Minute Lesson Plan template has helped shape national policy and continues to help new teachers across the world lessen the burden of paperwork, whilst also supporting lesson planning as a cognitive process.

The 5 Minute Lesson Plan and its success are not just down to the visuals used to support planning as a thought process, but how the visual information helps steer thinking from 'doing towards learning' following a simple set of 'What? Why? How? What if? 'principles.

The use of text and images not only supports the individual but the process of combining verbal materials with visual materials, supporting teachers to think better about what pupils need to learn in the busy nature of school life. It has since evolved into 35 other incarnations and exceeds over 1 million downloads.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

This is the chapter that never made it to the final cut of Oli Cav's new book on Dual Coding. I was simply too late to respond. It looks like a great book and this is my draft chapter contribution on the topic.

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What is Dual Coding Theory Mean For Educators? by @TeacherToolkit

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What is dual coding and why is it so important for teachers to know? Every teacher disseminates knowledge, but very few have ever been taught how best to impart knowledge effectively so that pupils can understand and apply it. Having the awareness of what dual coding can do, will make you a better teacher.

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Learn To Study Using…Interleaving — The Learning Scientists

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This is the fourth in a series of six posts designed to help students learn how to study effectively. The purpose is to provide students with a resource that can help them take charge of their own learning. So far, we have posted on…

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Celebrate women in STEM by citing women in STEM

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What is retrieval practice? – Retrieval Practice

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Retrieval practice is a strategy in which bringing information to mind enhances and boosts learning. Deliberately recalling information forces us to pull our knowledge “out” and examine what we know.

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Cognitive Science approaches in the classroom

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Cognitive Science approaches in the classroom

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Cite this guide: Brame, C. (2016). Active learning. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [todaysdate] from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/active-learning/.

What is it?

In their seminal work Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom, compiled in 1991 for the Association for the Study of Higher Education and the ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education, Bonwell and Eison defined strategies that promote active learning as "instructional activities involving students in doing things and thinking about what they are doing" (Bonwell and Eison, 1991). Approaches that promote active learning focus more on developing students' skills than on transmitting information and require that students do something-read, discuss, write-that requires higher-order thinking. They also tend to place some emphasis on students' explorations of their own attitudes and values.

This definition is broad, and Bonwell and Eison explicitly recognize that a range of activities can fall within it. They suggest a spectrum of activities to promote active learning, ranging from very simple (e.g., pausing lecture to allow students to clarify and organize their ideas by discussing with neighbors) to more complex (e.g., using case studies as a focal point for decision-making). In their book Scientific Teaching, Handelsman, Miller and Pfund also note that the line between active learning and formative assessment is blurry and hard to define; after all, teaching that promotes students' active learning asks students to do or produce something, which then can serve to help assess understanding (2007).

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and the Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE) provides a very simple definition: active learning involves "students' efforts to actively construct their knowledge." This definition is supplemented by the items that the AUSSE uses to measure active learning: working with other students on projects during class; making a presentation; asking questions or contributing to discussions; participating in a community-based project as part of a course; working with other students outside of class on assignments; discussing ideas from a course with others outside of class; tutoring peers (reported in Carr et al., 2015).

Freeman and colleagues collected written definitions of active learning from >300 people attending seminars on active learning, arriving at a consensus definition that emphasizes students' use of higher order thinking to complete activities or participate in discussion in class (Freeman et al., 2014). Their definition also notes the frequent link between active learning and working in groups.

Thus active learning is commonly defined as activities that students do to construct knowledge and understanding. The activities vary but require students to do higher order thinking. Although not always explicitly noted, metacognition-students' thinking about their own learning-is an important element, providing the link between activity and learning.

What's the theoretical basis?

Constructivist learning theory emphasizes that individuals learn through building their own knowledge, connecting new ideas and experiences to existing knowledge and experiences to form new or enhanced understanding (Bransford et al., 1999). The theory, developed by Piaget and others, posits that learners can either assimilate new information into an existing framework, or can modify that framework to accommodate new information that contradicts prior understanding. Approaches that promote active learning often explicitly ask students to make connections between new information and their current mental models, extending their understanding. In other cases, teachers may design learning activities that allow students to confront misconceptions, helping students reconstruct their mental models based on more accurate understanding. In either case, approaches that promote active learning promote the kind of cognitive work identified as necessary for learning by constructivist learning theory.

Active learning approaches also often embrace the use of cooperative learning groups, a constructivist-based practice that places particular emphasis on the contribution that social interaction can make. Lev Vygotsky's work elucidated the relationship between cognitive processes and social activities and led to the sociocultural theory of development, which suggests that learning takes place when students solve problems beyond their current developmental level with the support of their instructor or their peers (Vygotsky 1978). Thus active learning approaches that rely on group work rest on this sociocultural branch of constructivist learning theory, leveraging peer-peer interaction to promote students' development of extended and accurate mental models.

Is there evidence that it works?

The evidence that active learning approaches help students learn more effectively than transmissionist approaches in which instructors rely on "teaching by telling" is robust and stretches back more than thirty years (see, for example, Bonwell and Eison, 1991). Here, we will focus on two reports that review and analyze multiple active learning studies.

Freeman and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis of 225 studies comparing "constructivist versus exposition-centered course designs" in STEM disciplines (Freeman et al., 2014). They included studies that examined the design of class sessions (as opposed to out-of-class work or laboratories) with at least some active learning versus traditional lecturing, comparing failure rates and student scores on examinations, concept inventories, or other assessments. They found that students in traditional lectures were 1.5 times more likely to fail than students in courses with active learning (odds ratio of 1.95, Z = 10.4, P<<0.001). Further, they found that on average, student performance on exams, concept inventories, or other assessments increased by about half a standard deviation when some active learning was included in course design (weighted standardized mean difference of 0.47, Z = 9.781, P<<0.001). These results were consistent across disciplines: they observed no significant difference in the effects of active learning in biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering, geology, math, physics, and psychology courses. They performed two analyses examining the possibility that the results were due to a publication bias (i.e., a bias toward publishing studies with larger effects), finding that there would have to be a large number of unpublished studies that observed no difference between active learning and lecturing to negate their findings: 114 reporting no difference on exam or concept inventory performance and 438 reporting no difference in failure rate. The authors conclude that the evidence for the benefits of active learning are very strong, stating that, "If the experiments analyzed here had been conducted as randomized controlled trials of medical interventions, they may have been stopped for benefit-meaning that enrolling patients in the control condition might be discontinued because the treatment being tested was clearly more beneficial."

These results support other, earlier reviews (e.g., Hake, 1998; Prince, 2004; Springer et al., 1999). In one such review, Ruiz-Primo and colleagues examined published studies examining the effects of active learning approaches in undergraduate biology, chemistry, engineering and physics courses (Ruiz-Primo et al., 2011). They identified 166 studies that reported an effect size when comparing the effects of an innovation (i.e., active learning approaches) to traditional instruction that did not include the innovation. Overall, they found that inclusion of the active learning approaches improved student outcomes (mean effect size = 0.47), although there are important caveats to consider. First, the authors coded the active learning activities as conceptually oriented tasks, collaborative learning activities, technology-enabled activities, inquiry-based projects, or some combination of those four categories, and important differences existed within the categories (for example, technology-assisted inquiry-based projects on average did not produce positive effects). Second, more than 80% of the studies included were quasi-experimental rather than experimental, and the positive benefits (average effect size = 0.26) were lower for the experimental studies in which students were randomly assigned to a treatment group. Finally, many of the studies did not control for pre-existing knowledge and abilities in the treatment groups. Nonetheless, the review does provide qualified support for the inclusion of active learning approaches in instruction.

While the two reviews reported focus on STEM disciplines and no similar reviews exist for the humanities and social sciences, the bulk of the evidence suggests that active learning approaches are effective across disciplines (Ambrose et al, 2010; Bonwell and Eison, 1991; Chickering and Gamson, 1987).

Why is it important?

In addition to the evidence that active learning approaches promote learning for all students, there is some evidence that active learning approaches are an effective tool in making classrooms more inclusive. Haak and colleagues examined the effects of active learning for students in the University of Washington's Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) who were enrolled in an introductory biology course (Haak et al., 2011). Students in the EOP are educationally or economically disadvantaged, are typically the first in their families to attend college, and include most underrepresented minority students at the University of Washington. Previous work had demonstrated that the researchers could predict student grades in the introductory biology course based on their college GPA and SAT verbal score; students in the EOP had a mean failure rate of ~22% compared to a mean failure rate of ~10% for students not in the EOP. When multiple highly structured approaches to promote active learning were incorporated into the introductory biology course, all students in the course benefited, but students in the EOP demonstrated a disproportionate benefit, reducing the achievement gap to almost half of the starting level. Given the pressing need to make U.S. college classrooms more inviting and productive spaces for students from all backgrounds, these results provide another compelling reason to incorporate active learning approaches into course design.

Lorenzo, Crouch, and Mazur also investigated the impact of active learning approaches on the difference in male and female performance in introductory physics classes (2006). They found that inclusion of active engagement techniques benefited all students, but had the greatest impact on female students' performance. In fact, when they included a "high dose" of active learning approaches, the gender gap was eliminated. This result supports earlier work suggesting that women particularly benefit from active learning approaches (Laws et al., 1999; Schneider, 2001).

What are techniques to use?

Brief, easy supplements for lectures

The Pause Procedure - Pause for two minutes every 12 to 18 minutes, encouraging students to discuss and rework notes in pairs. This approach encourages students to consider their understanding of the lecture material, including its organization. It also provides an opportunity for questioning and clarification and has been shown to significantly increase learning when compared to lectures without the pauses. (Bonwell and Eison, 1991; Rowe, 1980; 1986; Ruhl, Hughes, & Schloss, 1980)

Retrieval practice-Pause for two or three minutes every 15 minutes, having students write everything they can remember from preceding class segment. Encourage questions. This approach prompts students to retrieve information from memory, which improves long term memory, ability to learn subsequent material, and ability to translate information to new domains. (Brame and Biel, 2015; see also the CFT's guide to test-enhanced learning)

Demonstrations -Ask students to predict the result of a demonstration, briefly discussing with a neighbor. After demonstration, ask them to discuss the observed result and how it may have differed from their prediction; follow up with instructor explanation. This approach asks students to test their understanding of a system by predicting an outcome. If their prediction is incorrect, it helps them see the misconception and thus prompts them to restructure their mental model.

Think-pair-share-Ask students a question that requires higher order thinking (e.g., application, analysis, or evaluation levels within Bloom's taxonomy). Ask students to think or write about an answer for one minute, then turn to a peer to discuss their responses for two minutes. Ask groups to share responses and follow up with instructor explanation. By asking students to explain their answer to a neighbor and to critically consider their neighbor's responses, this approach helps students articulate newly formed mental connections.

Peer instruction with ConcepTests-This modification of the think-pair-share involves personal response devices (e.g., clickers). Pose a conceptually based multiple-choice question. Ask students tothink about their answer and vote on a response before turning to a neighbor to discuss. Encourage students to change their answers after discussion, if appropriate, and share class results by revealing a graph of student responses. Use the graph as a stimulus for class discussion. This approach is particularly well-adapted for large classes and can be facilitated with a variety of tools (e.g., Poll Everywhere, TopHat, TurningPoint). More information is available in the CIRTL MOOC An Introduction t o Evidence-Based College STEM Teaching. (Fagen et al., 2002; Crouch and Mazur, 2001)

Minute papers -Ask students a question that requires them to reflect on their learning or to engage in critical thinking. Have them write for one minute. Ask students to share responses to stimulate discussion or collect all responses to inform future class sessions. Like the think-pair-share approach, this approach encourages students to articulate and examine newly formed connections. (Angelo and Cross, 1993; Handelsman et al., 2007)

Activities to replace some lecture

Strip sequence -Give students the steps in a process on strips of paper that are jumbled; ask them to work together to reconstruct the proper sequence. This approach can strengthen students' logical thinking processes and test their mental model of a process. (Handelsman et al., 2007) An example from Aarhus University is provided below.

Concept map-Concept maps are visual representations of the relationships between concepts. Concepts are placed in nodes (often, circles), and the relationships between indicated by labeled arrows connecting the concepts. To have students create a concept map, identify the key concepts to be mapped in small groups or as a whole class. Ask students to determine the general relationship between the concepts and to arrange them two at a time, drawing arrows between related concepts and labeling with a short phrase to describe the relationship. By asking students to build an external representation of their mental model of a process, this approach helps students examine and strengthen the organization within the model. Further, it can emphasize the possibility of multiple "right" answers. More information and a tool to do online concept mapping can be found at the Institute for Human & Machine Cognition. (Novak and Canas, 2008) An example is shown below.

Mini-maps. Mini-maps are like concept maps, but students are given a relatively short list of terms (usually 10 or fewer) to incorporate into their map. To use this approach, provide students a list of major concepts or specific terms and ask them to work in groups of two or three to arrange the terms in a logical structure, showing relationships with arrows and words. Ask groups to volunteer to share their mini-maps and clarify any confusing points. Mini-maps have many of the same strengths as concept maps but can be completed more quickly and thus can serve as part of a larger class session with other learning activities. (Handelsman et al., 2007)

Categorizing grids. Present students with a grid made up of several important categories and a list of scrambled terms, images, equations, or other items. Ask students to quickly sort the terms into the correct categories in the grid. Ask volunteers to share their grids and answer questions that arise. This approach allows students to express and thus interrogate the distinctions they see within a field of related items. It can be particularly effective at helping instructors identify misconceptions. (Angelo and Cross, 1993)

Student-generated test questions. Provide students with a copy of your learning goals for a particular unit and a figure summarizing Bloom's taxonomy (with representative verbs associated with each category). Challenge groups of students to create test questions corresponding to your learning goals and different levels of the taxonomy. Consider having each group share their favorite test question with the whole class or consider distributing all student-generated questions to the class as a study guide. This approach helps students consider what they know as well as implications of the instructor's stated learning goals. (Angelo and Cross, 1993)

Decision-making activities. Ask students to imagine that they are policy-makers who must make and justify tough decisions. Provide a short description of a thorny problem, ask them to work in groups to arrive at a decision, and then have groups share out their decisions and explain their reasoning. This highly engaging technique helps students critically consider a challenging problem and encourages them to be creative in considering solutions. The "real-world" nature of the problems can provide incentive for students to dig deeply into the problems. (Handelsman et al., 2007)

Content, form, and function outlines. Students in small groups are asked to carefully analyze a particular artifact-such as a poem, a story, an essay, a billboard, an image, or a graph-and identify the "what" (the content), the "how" (the form), and the function (the why). This technique can help students consider the various ways that meaning is communicated in different genres. (Angelo and Cross, 1993)

Case-based learning. Much like decision-making activities, case-based learning presents students with situations from the larger world that require students to apply their knowledge to reach a conclusion about an open-ended situation. Provide students with a case, asking them to decide what they know that is relevant to the case, what other information they may need, and what impact their decisions may have, considering the broader implications of their decisions. Give small groups (3-5) of students time to consider responses, circulating to ask questions and provide help as needed. Provide opportunities for groups to share responses; the greatest value from case-based learning comes from the complexity and variety of answers that may be generated. More information and collections of cases are available at the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science and World History Sources.

Discussion techniques

Many faculty members dispense with lecture altogether, turning to discussion to prompt the kinds of thinking needed to build understanding. Elizabeth Barkley provides a large collection of discussion techniques focused on different learning goals, ranging from lower level to higher level thinking (Barkley, 2010). The CFT's Joe Bandy has summarized some of the most useful of these techniques.

Other approaches

There are other active learning pedagogies, many of which are highly structured and have dedicated websites and strong communities. These include team-based learning (TBL), process-oriented guided inquiry learning (POGIL), peer-led team learning, and problem-based learning (PBL). Further, the flipped classroom model is based on the idea that class time will be spent with students engaged in active learning.

How should you get started?

Start small, start early, and start with activities that pose low risk for both instructors and students. The Pause Procedure, retrieval practice, minute papers, and the think-pair-share technique provide easy entry points to incorporating active learning approaches, requiring the instructor to change very little while providing students an opportunity to organize and clarify their thinking. As you begin to incorporate these practices, it's a good idea to explain to your students why you're doing so; talking to your students about their learning not only helps build a supportive classroom environment, but can also help them develop their metacognitive skills (and thus their ability to become independent learners).

As you consider other active learning techniques to use, use the " backwards design" approach: begin by identifying your learning goals, think about how you would identify whether students had reached them (that is, how you might structure assessment), and then choose an active learning approach that helps your students achieve those goals. Students typically have positive responses to active learning activities that are meaningful, appropriately challenging, and clearly tied to learning goals and assessments (see, for example, Lumpkin et al., 2015). Finally, consult colleagues within your department and the Center for Teaching for help and feedback as you design and implement active learning approaches.

Other sources of information

There are many great sites that provide examples of active learning activities. Here is a sampling:

References

Ambrose, S.A., Bridges, M.W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M.C., Norman, M.K., and Mayer, R.E. (2010). How learning works: seven research-based principles for smart teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Angelo, T.A. and Cross, K.P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: a handbook for college teachers. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Barkley, E. (2010). Student engagement techniques: a handbook for college faculty. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Bonwell, C. C., and Eison, J.A. (1991). Active learning: creating excitement in the classroom. ASH#-ERIC Higher Education Report No. 1, Washington, D.C.: The George Washington University, School of Education and Human Development.

Brame, C.J. and Biel, R. (2015). Test-enhanced learning: the potential for testing to promote greater learning in undergraduate science courses. CBE Life Sciences Education, 14, 1-12.

Bransford, J.D., Brown, A.L., and Cocking, R.R. (Eds.) (1999). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

Carr, R., Palmer, S., and Hagel, P. (2015). Active learning: the importance of developing a comprehensive measure. Active Learning in Higher Education 16, 173-186.

Chickering, A.W. and Gamson, Z.F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin March 1987, 3-7

Crouch, C.H. and Mazur, E. (2001). Peer instruction: ten years of experience and results. Am. Journal of Physics 69, 970-977.

Fagen, A.P., Crouch, C.H., and Mazur, E. (2002). Peer instruction: results from a range of classrooms. Physics Teacher 40, 206-209.

Freeman, S., Eddy, S.L., McDonough, M., Smith, M.K., Okoroafor, N., Jordt, H., and Wenderoth, M.P. (2014). Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 111, 8410-8415.

Haak, D.C., HilleRisLambers, J., Pitre, E., and Freeman, S. (2011). Increased structure and active learning reduce the achievement gap in introductory biology. Science 332, 1213-1216.

Hake, R. (1998). Interactive-engagement versus traditional methods: A six-thousand-student survey of mechanics test data for introductory physics courses. American Journal of Physics 66, 64-74.

Handelsman, J., Miller, S., and Pfund, C. (2007). Scientific teaching. New York: W.H. Freeman.

Hyman, R.T. (1980). Improving discussion leadership. New York: Columbia University Teachers College Press.

Laws, P., Rosborough P, and Poodry, F. (1999).Women's responses to an activity-based introductory physics program. American Journal of Physics 67, S32-S37.

Lorenzo, M., Crouch, C.H., Mazur, E. (2006). Reducing the gender gap in the physics classroom. American Journal of Physics 74, 118-122.

Lumpkin, A., Achen, R., and Dodd,R. (2015). Student perceptions of active learning. College Student Journal 49, 121-133.

Novak, J.D. and Canas, A.J. (2008). The theory underlying concept maps and how to construct and use them. Technical Report IHMC CmapTools 2006-01 Rev 2008-01 (retrieved from http://cmap.ihmc.us/docs/theory-of-concept-maps).

Prince, M. (2004). Does active learning work? A review of the research. Journal of Engineering Education 93, 223-231.

Rowe, M.B. (1980). Pausing principles and their effects on reasoning in science. In Teaching the Sciences, edited by F. B. Brawer. New Directions for Community Colleges No. 31. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Ruhl, K., Hughes, C.A., and Schloss, P.J. (1987). Using the Pause Procedure to enhance lecture rcall. Teacher Education and Special Education 10, 14-18.

Ruiz-Primo, M.A., Briggs, D., Iverson, H., Talbot, R., Shepard, L.A. (2011). Impact of undergraduate science course innovations on learning. Science 331, 1269-1270.

Schneider, M. (2001). Encouragement of women physics majors at Grinnell College: A case study. Phys. Teach. 39, 280-282.

Springer, L., Stanne, M.E., Donovan, S.S. (1999). Effects of small-group learning on undergraduates in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology. Rev. Educ. Res. 69, 21-51.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

This teaching guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

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by Cynthia J. Brame Print Version Cite this guide: Brame, C. (2016). Active learning. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [todaysdate] from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/active-learning/. What is it? What's the theoretical basis? Is there evidence that it works? Why is it important? What are techniques to use? How should you get started?

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What is active learning?

Active learning is a process that has student learning at its centre. Active learning focuses on how students learn, not just on what they learn. Students are encouraged to 'think hard',
rather than passively receive information from the teacher. Research shows us that it is not possible to transmit understanding to students by simply telling them what they
need to know. Instead, teachers need to make sure that they challenge their students' thinking. With active learning, students play an important part in their own learning process.
They build knowledge and understanding in response to opportunities provided by their teacher.
What is your definition of active learning? Transcript
Listen to these teachers giving their personal definitions. How
do their definitions compare with yours?
In the rest of this unit we will look at the basics of active learning in more detail. We will look at the theory behind active learning, discuss the benefits of an active learning approach
and discover some practical examples. We will also hear from experienced teachers, who will be sharing their ideas.

Throughout the unit we will ask you reflective questions that will help you to think about how you can apply active learning in your lessons.

At the end of the unit there is a glossary of key words and phrases.
Transcript
What is the theory behind active learning?

Active learning is based on a theory called constructivism. Constructivism emphasises the fact that learners construct or build their own understanding. Constructivists argue that learning is a process of 'making meaning'. Learners develop their existing knowledge and understanding in order to achieve deeper levels of understanding. This means that learners are more able to analyse, evaluate and synthesise ideas (thus achieving the higher order skills of Bloom's Taxonomy). Skilled teachers make these deeper levels of understanding more possible by providing learning environments, opportunities, interactions, tasks and instruction that foster deep learning.

The theory of 'social constructivism' says that learning happens mainly through social interaction with others, such as a teacher or other students. One social constructivist, Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934), developed the idea of the Zone of Proximal Development. This zone lies between what a learner can achieve alone and what a learner can achieve with their teacher's expert guidance. Skilled teachers focus learning activities in this zone. Skilled teachers scaffold learning by providing guidance and support that challenges students based on their current ability. This helps students to develop their understanding in stages.

Skilled teachers also provide rich feedback using Assessment for learning (AFL). Skilled teachers use AFL to help students to understand two things: firstly their current strengths and weaknesses and secondly what they need to do to improve. AFL activities are sometimes based on formal assessments. However, AFL can also be based on many types of informal assessment which can include peer assessment, where students assess each other.

Active learning also links to other theories of learning:

Learning should be relevant and within a meaningful context.
This idea was developed by the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). It influenced numerous educators in the early 20th century such as John Dewey (1859-1952) and Maria Montessori (1870-1952). The main idea is that we learn best when we can see the usefulness of what we learn and connect it to the real world.

Learning is developmental.
Learning experiences for young people should be appropriate to their level of development. Some of this is linked to their age, although development level and age are not always the same thing.

What are the benefits of active learning?

Active learning helps students to become 'lifelong learners'
In an active learning approach, learning is not only about the content, but is also about the process. Active learning develops students' autonomy and their ability to learn. Active learning gives students greater involvement and control over their learning. This means that students are better able to continue learning once they have left school and college.

Active learning encourages success
Cambridge examinations do not simply test recall of knowledge. Successful candidates draw on their understanding in order to evaluate and synthesise ideas. Therefore, Cambridge programmes and qualifications are best taught using an active learning approach. Encouraging active learning helps students to achieve higher grades, based on their enhanced skills and understanding.

Because active learning encourages students to take a central role in their own learning, it prepares them better for both higher education and for the workplace. Analytical skills also help students to be better at problem solving and applying their knowledge. Universities and employers value this.

Active learning is engaging and intellectually exciting
An active learning approach encourages all students to stay focused on their learning, which will often give them greater enthusiasm for their studies. Teachers also find that they enjoy the level of academic discussion with their students which an active learning approach encourages.

Listen to these educators giving their views on the benefits of active learning for their students. Which of the benefits are most relevant to your students?

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Active learning is a process that has student learning at its centre. Active learning focuses on how students learn, not just on what they learn. Students are encouraged to 'think hard',rather than passively receive information from the teacher. Research shows us that it is not possible to transmit understanding to students by simply telling them what theyneed to know.

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There has been lots of talk about mastery since the first draft of the national curriculum was published. We need not be too precious as it was clearly being talked about in the 16th century.
"If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all."
Michelangelo

Beyond Levels

Although not new, it is a term that has made it into our professional vocabulary only relatively recently. Perhaps this is because in our previous world of 'levels' we were less focused on mastery and more focused on 'moving on'. That is the very point for the removal of levels. The government talked explicitly about the needs to develop greater depth in learning over progression which did not cement deep understanding.

Lifting the Lid on Mastery

There is no single established view or definition when it comes to mastery and this blog is not intended to give one. The purpose here is to spark thoughts and discussions to deepen professional dialogue.

Perhaps, mastery is connected with the already used concepts of shallow and deep learning. Where does mastery fit with these?

Work with a great many school leaders suggest the following as possibilities:

A useful model when debating and discussing mastery is the psychological model which was developed to depict the stages one goes through in developing competence to mastery standard.

In order to make this meaningful for teachers, it is worth narrowing the discussion down to consider mastery in a specific area to start with. For example, what could mastery look like in mathematics in Year 2? Are there similarities to reading in Year 2?

Some people have tried to develop mastery statements for each objective in the national curriculum. As stated, there are no rights or wrongs. However, if we are not careful, we end up back with 'levels' and seem to have gone full circle.

Having considered what mastery might look like, you could ask whether mastery is about a subject or an approach to learning. For a child to master something, it seems that they may need to be able to 'break the mould' and take their learning beyond the norm.

Work with many school leaders suggests that mastery may be about some characteristics which we may be able to spot in children, for example:

Complete independence in using a concept, skills or knowledge

Fluency in the application of a concept, skills or knowledge

Ability to apply learning across subject boundaries

Consistency in application over a period of time

Ability to apply without reminders or pre-teaching

Ability to explain connections with other learning

Evidence of resilience in applying their learning

Ability to teach to another

Is it worth a conversation with your colleagues about what mastery means in your school? If you start to know what it looks like for you, surely you are more able to plan for this in teaching and learning.

Regardless of whether mastery as a term is used in government publications, even a brief consideration of the notion of mastery seems to suggest it is no bad thing for children to be heading for it!

The Glass Ceiling of Differentiation

Having considered mastery, a set of other questions and considerations may come into play. For many, the whole issues of differentiation is the next obvious discussion point. Differentiation has long been a topic of consideration and discussion, often identified by inspectors as an area for improvement. In many classrooms, children are grouped by ability and maybe referred to planning as HAPs, AAPs and LAPs. Is this an outdated notion? If we want children to aim for mastery in their learning, is this view of differentiation old fashioned?

A key question for all teachers and school leaders is, 'Does differentiation in your classroom or school accelerate learning or limit learning?'

There are clearly many ways to differentiate learning and an expert teacher implicitly incorporates this into their planning and execution of teaching. With the notion of end of year expectations and mastery, we must consistently ask whether classroom differentiation is imposing a glass ceiling on expectations.

Planning with Differentiation

Many teachers are experimenting with a different way of organising learning, but often not a radically different way of planning.

In one classroom, the teacher plans for her differentiated groups. The groups are set by the teacher and she plans tasks of different cognitive ability. The children undertake these tasks and the year progresses.

In a second classroom, the teacher plans differentiated tasks. The difference here is that children decide their learning tasks. They know there there are tasks with different levels of challenge. Children need to be able to articulate why they have chosen a specific task. In this classroom, children do not sit in differentiated group but in mixed ability groups.

What is the impact of these two models?

In classroom one, the children are confined by a fixed view of ability at a point in time. There is a view that they will be the same ability in all areas of the curriculum with, for example, mathematics. The children work to the level set but struggle to show they can exceed expectations. They see only children who are working at the same stage or level of learning.

In classroom two, children develop greater autonomy and independence because they evaluate and choose their own level of learning. In itself, this is a useful piece of assessment information for the teacher. Children sit with peers who are undertaking different learning tasks so can start to evaluate and challenge themselves. This model allows for children who have strengths and weaknesses in different areas of the curriculum.

As with most things in school, there is never a 100% right or wrong way, but there are nearly always possibilities.
"If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got"
Henry Ford

So if you want the best for your children and you want them to work towards mastery, how are you lifting the lid on learning in your classroom?

Continue the Conversation

You can browse more on mastery through Focus Education's website or read a review from @Ezzy_Moon via UKedchat of my Mastery & Depth book here. As ever, Focus Education is available for questions, comments and suggestions: email us using our contact form on the website or give us a call on 01457 821 818.

Related Publications

Writing at Greater Depth

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What Does Mastery Look Like? | Focus Education

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There has been lots of talk about mastery since the first draft of the national curriculum was published. We need not be too precious as it was clearly being talked about in the 16th century. "If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all."

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The difference between instrumental and relational understanding

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The difference between instrumental and relational understanding

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I recently found this article written by Richard Skemp that Gary Davis (@republicofmath) highlighted on his blog . I recommend reading the whole article. Skemp describes the difference between instrumental and relational understanding, and how the word understanding is used by different people to mean different types of understanding. He also makes the observation that what we call mathematics is in fact taught in two very distinct ways. Skemp uses an analogy to try and explain the difference between relational and instrumental knowledge which I would like to explore.

Imagine you are navigating a park, and you learn from someone else some specific paths to follow in the park. You move back and forth along the paths, and learn how to get from point A to B in the park, and you may even be able to move quickly from point A to B. Eventually, you add more points to your list of locations to which you know how to navigate. Step off any of your known paths though, and you are quickly completely lost, and you might even develop a fear of accidentally losing your way. You never really develop an overall understanding of what the park looks like, and you may even not know about other connections between the points you know. This is instrumental understanding.

Imagine that instead of navigating the park by specific paths shown to you, you get to wander all over the park. For some parts of the park you may be guided, through other parts of the park, you wander aimlessly. In time, you develop an overall picture of the park. You might discover the shortest paths between two points, and you might not, but you would understand the overall structure of the park, and how each point in the park is related to each other point. If someone showed you a short-cut in the park, you'd probably understood why it worked, and why it was faster than your meandering path. You wouldn't worry about stepping off the path though, since even if you get lost, you'd be able to use your overall understanding to come to a place you know. This is relational understanding.

Here's Richard Skemp's description of the analogy.
"The kind of learning which leads to instrumental mathematics consists of the learning of an increasing number of fixed plans, by which pupils can find their way from particular starting points (the data) to required finishing points (the answers to the questions). The plan tells them what to do at each choice point, as in the concrete example. And as in the concrete example, what has to be done next is determined purely by the local situation. (When you see the post office, turn left. When you have cleared brackets, collect like terms.) There is no awareness of the overall relationship between successive stages, and the final goal. And in both cases, the learner is dependent on outside guidance for learning each new 'way to get there'.
In contrast, learning relational mathematics consists of building up a conceptual structure (schema) from which its possessor can (in principle) produce an unlimited number of plans for getting from any starting point within his schema to any finishing point. (I say 'in principle' because of course some of these paths will be much harder to construct than others.) This kind of learning is different in several ways from instrumental learning." ~ Richard Skemp, Mathematics Teaching, 77, 20-26, (1976)

Instrumental understanding is really useful when you have to know how to do a specific task quickly, and aren't too concerned about how this task fits into other similar tasks. Relational understanding is useful when you want to explore ideas further, are unconcerned about your destination, and are more concerned with the process.

Unfortunately, our system tends to favour instrumental understanding too much. While it is useful to be able to get from point A to point B quickly, if one is not aware of one's surroundings, and doesn't get to enjoy the scenery, it hardly makes the trip worthwhile.

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I recently found this article written by Richard Skemp that Gary Davis (@republicofmath) highlighted on his blog . I recommend reading the whole article. Skemp describes the difference between instrumental and relational understanding, and how the word understanding is used by different people to mean different types of understanding.

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Learning Strategies: a synthesis and conceptual model

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Learning Strategies: a synthesis and conceptual model

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Review Article | Open

npj Science of Learning 1, Article number: 16013 (2016)

doi:10.1038/npjscilearn.2016.13

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A model of learning

The model comprises the following components: three inputs and three outcomes; student knowledge of the success criteria for the task; three phases of the learning process (surface, deep and transfer), with surface and deep learning each comprising an acquisition phase and a consolidation phase; and an environment for the learning ( Figure 1). We are proposing that various learning strategies are differentially effective depending on the degree to which the students are aware of the criteria of success, on the phases of learning process in which the strategies are used, and on whether the student is acquiring or consolidating their understanding. The following provides an overview of the components of the model (see reference 11 for a more detailed explanation of the model).

Figure 1

A model of learning.

Input and outcomes

The model starts with three major sources of inputs: the skill, the will and the thrill. The 'skill' is the student's prior or subsequent achievement, the 'will' relates to the student's various dispositions towards learning, and the 'thrill' refers to the motivations held by the student. In our model, these inputs are also the major outcomes of learning. That is, developing outcomes in achievement (skill) is as valuable as enhancing the dispositions towards learning (will) and as valuable as inviting students to reinvest more into their mastery of learning (thrill or motivations).

The skill

The first component describes the prior achievement the student brings to the task. As Ausubel 12 claimed 'if I had to reduce all of educational psychology to just one principle, I would say this 'The most important single factor influencing learning is what the leaner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him accordingly. Other influences related to the skills students bring to learning include their working memory, beliefs, encouragement and expectations from the student's cultural background and home.

The will

Dispositions are more habits of mind or tendencies to respond to situations in certain ways. Claxton 13 claimed that the mind frame of a 'powerful learner' is based on the four major dispositions: resilience or emotional strength, resourcefulness or cognitive capabilities, reflection or strategic awareness, and relating or social sophistication. These dispositions involve the proficiency to edit, select, adapt and respond to the environment in a recurrent, characteristic manner. 14 But dispositions alone are not enough. Perkins et al. 15 outlined a model with three psychological components which must be present in order to spark dispositional behaviour: sensitivity-the perception of the appropriateness of a particular behaviour; inclination-the felt impetus toward a behaviour; and ability-the basic capacity and confidence to follow through with the behaviour.

The thrill

There can be a thrill in learning but for many students, learning in some domains can be dull, uninviting and boring. There is a huge literature on various motivational aspects of learning, and a smaller literature on how the more effective motivational aspects can be taught. A typical demarcation is between mastery and performance orientations. Mastery goals are seen as being associated with intellectual development, the acquisition of knowledge and new skills, investment of greater effort, and higher-order cognitive strategies and learning outcomes. 16 Performance goals, on the other hand, have a focus on outperforming others or completing tasks to please others. A further distinction has been made between approach and avoidance performance goals. 17,​18,​19 The correlations of mastery and performance goals with achievement, however, are not as high as many have claimed. A recent meta-analysis found 48 studies relating goals to achievement (based on 12,466 students), and the overall correlation was 0.12 for mastery and 0.05 for performance goals on outcomes. 20 Similarly, Hulleman et al. 21 reviewed 249 studies ( N=91,087) and found an overall correlation between mastery goal and outcomes of 0.05 and performance goals and outcomes of 0.14. These are small effects and show the relatively low importance of these motivational attributes in relation to academic achievement.

An alternative model of motivation is based on Biggs 22 learning processes model, which combines motivation (why the student wants to study the task) and their related strategies (how the student approaches the task). He outlined three common approaches to learning: deep, surface and achieving. When students are taking a deep strategy, they aim to develop understanding and make sense of what they are learning, and create meaning and make ideas their own. This means they focus on the meaning of what they are learning, aim to develop their own understanding, relate ideas together and make connections with previous experiences, ask themselves questions about what they are learning, discuss their ideas with others and compare different perspectives. When students are taking a surface strategy, they aim to reproduce information and learn the facts and ideas-with little recourse to seeing relations or connections between ideas. When students are using an achieving strategy, they use a 'minimax' notion-minimum amount of effort for maximum return in terms of passing tests, complying with instructions, and operating strategically to meet a desired grade. It is the achieving strategy that seems most related to school outcomes.

Success criteria

The model includes a prelearning phase relating to whether the students are aware of the criteria of success in the learning task. This phase is less about whether the student desires to attain the target of the learning (which is more about motivation), but whether he or she understands what it means to be successful at the task at hand. When a student is aware of what it means to be successful before undertaking the task, this awareness leads to more goal-directed behaviours. Students who can articulate or are taught these success criteria are more likely to be strategic in their choice of learning strategies, more likely to enjoy the thrill of success in learning, and more likely to reinvest in attaining even more success criteria.

Success criteria can be taught. 23,24 Teachers can help students understand the criteria used for judging the students' work, and thus teachers need to be clear about the criteria used to determine whether the learning intentions have been successfully achieved. Too often students may know the learning intention, but do not how the teacher is going to judge their performance, or how the teacher knows when or whether students have been successful. 25 The success criteria need to be as clear and specific as possible (at surface, deep, or transfer level) as this enables the teacher (and learner) to monitor progress throughout the lesson to make sure students understand and, as far as possible, attain the intended notions of success. Learning strategies that help students get an overview of what success looks like include planning and prediction, having intentions to implement goals, setting standards for judgement success, advance organisers, high levels of commitment to achieve success, and knowing about worked examples of what success looks like. 23

Environment

Underlying all components in the model is the environment in which the student is studying. Many books and internet sites on study skills claim that it is important to attend to various features of the environment such as a quiet room, no music or television, high levels of social support, giving students control over their learning, allowing students to study at preferred times of the day and ensuring sufficient sleep and exercise.

The three phases of learning: surface, deep and transfer

The model highlights the importance of both surface and deep learning and does not privilege one over the other, but rather insists that both are critical. Although the model does seem to imply an order, it must be noted that these are fuzzy distinctions (surface and deep learning can be accomplished simultaneously), but it is useful to separate them to identify the most effective learning strategies. More often than not, a student must have sufficient surface knowledge before moving to deep learning and then to the transfer of these understandings. As Entwistle 26 noted, 'The verb 'to learn' takes the accusative'; that is, it only makes sense to analyse learning in relation to the subject or content area and the particular piece of work towards which the learning is directed, and also the context within which the learning takes place. The key debate, therefore, is whether the learning is directed content that is meaningful to the student, as this will directly affect student dispositions, in particular a student's motivation to learn and willingness to reinvest in their learning.

A most powerful model to illustrate this distinction between surface and deep is the structure of observed learning outcomes, or SOLO, 27,28 as discussed above. The model has four levels: unistructural, multistructural, relational and extended abstract. A unistructural intervention is based on teaching or learning one idea, such as coaching one algorithm, training in underlining, using a mnemonic or anxiety reduction. The essential feature is that this idea alone is the focus, independent of the context or its adaption to or modification by content. A multistructural intervention involves a range of independent strategies or procedures, but without integrating or orchestration as to the individual differences or demands of content or context (such as teaching time management, note taking and setting goals with no attention to any strategic or higher-order understandings of these many techniques). Relational interventions involve bringing together these various multistructural ideas, and seeing patterns; it can involve the strategies of self-monitoring and self-regulation. Extended abstract interventions aim at far transfer (transfer between contexts that, initally, appear remote to one another) such that they produce structural changes in an individual's cognitive functioning to the point where autonomous or independent learning can occur. The first two levels (one then many ideas) refer to developing surface knowing and the latter two levels (relate and extend) refer to developing deeper knowing. The parallel in learning strategies is that surface learning refers to studying without much reflecting on either purpose or strategy, learning many ideas without necessarily relating them and memorising facts and procedures routinely. Deep learning refers to seeking meaning, relating and extending ideas, looking for patterns and underlying principles, checking evidence and relating it to conclusions, examining arguments cautiously and critically, and becoming actively interested in course content (see reference 29).

Our model also makes a distinction between first acquiring knowledge and then consolidating it. During the acquisition phase, information from a teacher or instructional materials is attended to by the student and this is taken into short-term memory. During the consolidation phase, a learner then needs to actively process and rehearse the material as this increases the likelihood of moving that knowledge to longer-term memory. At both phases there can be a retrieval process, which involves transferring the knowing and understanding from long-term memory back into short-term working memory. 30,31

Acquiring surface learning

In their meta-analysis of various interventions, Hattie et al. 32 found that many learning strategies were highly effective in enhancing reproductive performances (surface learning) for virtually all students. Surface learning includes subject matter vocabulary, the content of the lesson and knowing much more. Strategies include record keeping, summarisation, underlining and highlighting, note taking, mnemonics, outlining and transforming, organising notes, training working memory, and imagery.

Consolidating surface learning

Once a student has begun to develop surface knowing it is then important to encode it in a manner such that it can retrieved at later appropriate moments. This encoding involves two groups of learning strategies: the first develops storage strength (the degree to which a memory is durably established or 'well learned') and the second develops strategies that develop retrieval strength (the degree to which a memory is accessible at a given point in time). 33 'Encoding' strategies are aimed to develop both, but with a particular emphasis on developing retrieval strength. 34 Both groups of strategies invoke an investment in learning, and this involves 'the tendency to seek out, engage in, enjoy and continuously pursue opportunities for effortful cognitive activity. 35 Although some may not 'enjoy' this phase, it does involve a willingness to practice, to be curious and to explore again, and a willingness to tolerate ambiguity and uncertainty during this investment phase. In turn, this requires sufficient metacognition and a calibrated sense of progress towards the desired learning outcomes. Strategies include practice testing, spaced versus mass practice, teaching test taking, interleaved practice, rehearsal, maximising effort, help seeking, time on task, reviewing records, learning how to receive feedback and deliberate practice (i.e., practice with help of an expert, or receiving feedback during practice).

Acquiring deep learning

Students who have high levels of awareness, control or strategic choice of multiple strategies are often referred to as 'self-regulated' or having high levels of metacognition. In Visible Learning, Hattie 36 described these self-regulated students as 'becoming like teachers', as they had a repertoire of strategies to apply when their current strategy was not working, and they had clear conceptions of what success on the task looked like. 37 More technically, Pintrich et al. 38 described self-regulation as 'an active, constructive process whereby learners set goals for their learning and then attempt to monitor, regulate and control their cognition, motivation and behaviour, guided and constrained by their goals and the contextual features in the environment'. These students know the what, where, who, when and why of learning, and the how, when and why to use which learning strategies. 39 They know what to do when they do not know what to do. Self-regulation strategies include elaboration and organisation, strategy monitoring, concept mapping, metacognitive strategies, self-regulation and elaborative interrogation.

Consolidating deep learning

Once a student has acquired surface and deep learning to the extent that it becomes part of their repertoire of skills and strategies, we may claim that they have 'automatised' such learning-and in many senses this automatisation becomes an 'idea', and so the cycle continues from surface idea to deeper knowing that then becomes a surface idea, and so on. 40 There is a series of learning strategies that develop the learner's proficiency to consolidate deeper thinking and to be more strategic about learning. These include self-verbalisation, self-questioning, self-monitoring, self-explanation, self-verbalising the steps in a problem, seeking help from peers and peer tutoring, collaborative learning, evaluation and reflection, problem solving and critical thinking techniques.

Transfer

There are skills involved in transferring knowledge and understanding from one situation to a new situation. Indeed, some have considered that successful transfer could be thought as synonymous with learning. 41,42 There are many distinctions relating to transfer: near and far transfer, 43 low and high transfer, 44 transfer to new situations and problem solving transfer, 5 and positive and negative transfer. 45 Transfer is a dynamic, not static, process that requires learners to actively choose and evaluate strategies, consider resources and surface information, and, when available, to receive or seek feedback to enhance these adaptive skills. Reciprocal teaching is one program specifically aiming to teach these skills; for example, Bereiter and Scardamalia 46 have developed programs in the teaching of transfer in writing, where students are taught to identify goals, improve and elaborate existing ideas, strive for idea cohesion, present their ideas to groups and think aloud about how they might proceed. Similarly, Schoenfeld 47 outlined a problem-solving approach to mathematics that involves the transfer of skills and knowledge from one situation to another. Marton 48 argued that transfer occurs when the learner learns strategies that apply in a certain situation such that they are enabled to do the same thing in another situation when they realise that the second situation resembles (or is perceived to resemble) the first situation. He claimed that not only sameness, similarity, or identity might connect situations to each other, but also small differences might connect them as well. Learning how to detect such differences is critical for the transfer of learning. As Heraclitus claimed, no two experiences are identical; you do not step into the same river twice.

Overall messages from the model

There are four main messages to be taken from the model. First, if the success criteria is the retention of accurate detail (surface learning) then lower-level learning strategies will be more effective than higher-level strategies. However, if the intention is to help students understand context (deeper learning) with a view to applying it in a new context (transfer), then higher level strategies are also needed. An explicit assumption is that higher level thinking requires a sufficient corpus of lower level surface knowledge to be effective-one cannot move straight to higher level thinking (e.g., problem solving and creative thought) without sufficient level of content knowledge. Second, the model proposes that when students are made aware of the nature of success for the task, they are more likely to be more involved in investing in the strategies to attain this target. Third, transfer is a major outcome of learning and is more likely to occur if students are taught how to detect similarities and differences between one situation and a new situation before they try to transfer their learning to the new situation. Hence, not one strategy may necessarily be best for all purposes. Fourth, the model also suggests that students can be advantaged when strategy training is taught with an understanding of the conditions under which the strategy best works-when and under what circumstance it is most appropriate.

The current study

The current study synthesises the many studies that have related various learning strategies to outcomes. This study only pertains to achievement outcomes (skill, on the model of learning); further work is needed to identify the strategies that optimise the dispositions (will) and the motivation (thrill) outcomes. The studies synthesised here are from four sources. First, there are the meta-analyses among the 1,200 meta-analyses in Visible Learning that relate to strategies for learning. 36,49,50 Second, there is the meta-analysis conducted by Lavery 51 on 223 effect-sizes derived from 31 studies relating to self-regulated learning interventions. The third source is two major meta-analyses by a Dutch team of various learning strategies, especially self-regulation. And the fourth is a meta-analysis conducted by Donoghue et al. 52 based on a previous analysis by Dunlosky et al. 53

The data in Visible Learning is based on 800 meta-analyses relating influences from the home, school, teacher, curriculum and teaching methods to academic achievement. Since its publication in 2009, the number of meta-analyses now exceeds 1,200, and those influences specific to learning strategies are retained in the present study. Lavery 51 identified 14 different learning strategies and the overall effect was 0.46-with greater effects for organising and transforming (i.e., deliberate rearrangement of instructional materials to improve learning, d=0.85) and self-consequences (i.e., student expectation of rewards or punishment for success or failure, d=0.70). The lowest effects were for imagery (i.e., creating or recalling vivid mental images to assist learning, d=0.44) and environmental restructuring (i.e., efforts to select or arrange the physical setting to make learning easier, d=0.22). She concluded that the higher effects involved 'teaching techniques' and related to more 'deep learning strategies', such as organising and transforming, self-consequences, self-instruction, self-evaluation, help-seeking, keeping records, rehearsing/memorising, reviewing and goal-setting. The lower ranked strategies were more 'surface learning strategies', such as time management and environmental restructuring.

Of the two meta-analyses conducted by the Dutch team, the first study, by Dignath et al. 9 analysed 357 effects from 74 studies ( N=8,619). They found an overall effect of 0.73 from teaching methods of self-regulation. The effects were large for achievement (elementary school, 0.68; high school, 0.71), mathematics (0.96, 1.21), reading and writing (0.44, 0.55), strategy use (0.72, 0.79) and motivation (0.75, 0.92). In the second study, Donker et al. 54 reviewed 180 effects from 58 studies relating to self-regulation training, reporting an overall effect of 0.73 in science, 0.66 in mathematics and 0.36 in reading comprehension. The most effective strategies were cognitive strategies (rehearsal 1.39, organisation 0.81 and elaboration 0.75), metacognitive strategies (planning 0.80, monitoring 0.71 and evaluation 0.75) and management strategies (effort 0.77, peer tutoring 0.83, environment 0.59 and metacognitive knowledge 0.97). Performance was almost always improved by a combination of strategies, as was metacognitive knowledge. This led to their conclusion that students should not only be taught which strategies to use and how to apply them (declarative knowledge or factual knowledge) but also when (procedural or how to use the strategies) and why to use them (conditional knowledge or knowing when to use a strategy).

Donoghue et al. 52 conducted a meta-analysis based on the articles referenced in Dunlosky et al. 53 They reviewed 10 learning strategies and a feature of their review is a careful analysis of possible moderators to the conclusions about the effectiveness of these learning strategies, such as learning conditions (e.g., study alone or in groups), student characteristics (e.g., age, ability), materials (e.g., simple concepts to problem-based analyses) and criterion tasks (different outcome measures).

In the current study, we independently assigned all strategies to the various parts of the model-this was a straightforward process, and the few minor disagreements were resolved by mutual agreement. All results are presented in Appendix 1.

There are 302 effects derived from the 228 meta-analyses from the above four sources that have related some form of learning strategy to an achievement outcome. Most are experimental-control studies or pre-post studies, whereas some are correlations ( N=37). There are 18,956 studies (although some may overlap across meta-analyses). Only 125 meta-analyses reported the sample size ( N=11,006,839), but if the average (excluding the outlier 7 million from one meta-analysis) is used for the missing sample sizes, the best estimate of sample size is between 13 and 20 million students.

The average effect is 0.53 but there is considerable variance ( Figure 2), and the overall number of meta-analyses, studies, number of people (where provided), effects and average effect-sizes for the various phases of the model are provided in Table 1. The effects are lowest for management of the environment and 'thrill' (motivation), and highest for developing success criteria across the learning phases. The variance is sufficiently large, however, that it is important to look at specific strategies within each phase of the model.

Figure 2

The average and the distribution of all effect sizes.

Synthesis of the input phases of the model

The inputs: skills

There are nine meta-analyses that have investigated the relation between prior achievement and subsequent achievement, and not surprisingly these relations are high ( Table 2). The average effect-size is 0.77 (s.e.=0.10), which translates to a correlation of 0.36-substantial for any single variable. The effects of prior achievement are lowest in the early years, and highest from high school to university. One of the purposes of school, however, is to identify those students who are underperforming relative to their abilities and thus to not merely accept prior achievement as destiny. The other important skill is working memory-which relates to the amount of information that can be retained in short-term working memory when engaged in processing, learning, comprehension, problem solving or goal-directed thinking. 55 Working memory is strongly related to a person's ability to reason with novel information (i.e., general fluid intelligence. 56

The inputs: will

There are 28 meta-analyses related to the dispositions of learning from 1,304 studies and the average effect-size is 0.48 (s.e.=0.09; Table 3). The effect of self-efficacy is highest ( d=0.90), followed by increasing the perceived value of the task ( d= 0.46), reducing anxiety ( d=0.45) and enhancing the attitude to the content ( d=0.35). Teachers could profitably increase students' levels of confidence and efficacy to tackle difficult problems; not only does this increase the probability of subsequent learning but it can also help reduce students' levels of anxiety. It is worth noting the major movement in the anxiety and stress literature in the 1980s moved from a preoccupation on understanding levels of stress to providing coping strategies-and these strategies were powerful mediators in whether people coped or not. 57 Similarly in learning, it is less the levels of anxiety and stress but the development of coping strategies to deal with anxiety and stress. These strategies include being taught to effectively regulate negative emotions; 58 increasing self-efficacy, which relates to developing the students conviction in their own competence to attain desired outcomes; 59 focusing on the positive skills already developed; increasing social support and help seeking; reducing self-blame; and learning to cope with error and making mistakes. 60 Increasing coping strategies to deal with anxiety and promoting confidence to tackle difficult and challenging learning tasks frees up essential cognitive resources required for the academic work.

There has been much discussion about students having growth-or incremental-mindsets (human attributes are malleable not fixed) rather than fixed mindsets (attributes are fixed and invariant). 61 However, the evidence in Table 3 ( d=0.19) shows how difficult it is to change to growth mindsets, which should not be surprising as many students work in a world of schools dominated by fixed notions-high achievement, ability groups, and peer comparison.

The inputs: thrill

The thrill relates to the motivation for learning: what is the purpose or approach to learning that the student adopts? Having a surface or performance approach motivation (learning to merely pass tests or for short-term gains) or mastery goals is not conducive to maximising learning, whereas having a deep or achieving approach or motivation is helpful ( Table 4). A possible reason why mastery goals are not successful is that too often the outcomes of tasks and assessments are at the surface level and having mastery goals with no strategic sense of when to maximise them can be counter-productive. 62 Having goals, per se, is worthwhile-and this relates back to the general principle of having notions of what success looks like before investing in the learning. The first step is to teach students to have goals relating to their upcoming work, preferably the appropriate mix of achieving and deep goals, ensure the goals are appropriately challenging and then encourage students to have specific intentions to achieve these goals. Teaching students that success can then be attributed to their effort and investment can help cement this power of goal setting, alongside deliberate teaching.

The environment

Despite the inordinate attention, particularly by parents, on structuring the environment as a precondition for effective study, such effects are generally relatively small ( Table 5). It seems to make no differences if there is background music, a sense of control over learning, the time of day to study, the degree of social support or the use of exercise. Given that most students receive sufficient sleep and exercise, it is perhaps not surprising that these are low effects; of course, extreme sleep or food deprivation may have marked effects.

Knowing the success criteria

A prediction from the model of learning is that when students learn how to gain an overall picture of what is to be learnt, have an understanding of the success criteria for the lessons to come and are somewhat clear at the outset about what it means to master the lessons, then their subsequent learning is maximised. The overall effect across the 31 meta-analyses is 0.54, with the greatest effects relating to providing students with success criteria, planning and prediction, having intentions to implement goals, setting standards for self-judgements and the difficulty of goals ( Table 6). All these learning strategies allow students to see the 'whole' or the gestalt of what is targeted to learn before starting the series of lessons. It thus provides a 'coat hanger' on which surface-level knowledge can be organised. When a teacher provides students with a concept map, for example, the effect on student learning is very low; but in contrast, when teachers work together with students to develop a concept map, the effect is much higher. It is the working with students to develop the main ideas, and to show the relations between these ideas to allow students to see higher-order notions, that influences learning. Thus, when students begin learning of the ideas, they can begin to know how these ideas relate to each other, how the ideas are meant to form higher order notions, and how they can begin to have some control or self-regulation on the relation between the ideas.

Synthesis of the learning phases of the model

Acquiring surface learning

There are many strategies, such as organising, summarising, underlining, note taking and mnemonics that can help students master the surface knowledge ( Table 7). These strategies can be deliberately taught, and indeed may be the only set of strategies that can be taught irrespective of the content. However, it may be that for some of these strategies, the impact is likely to be higher if they are taught within each content domain, as some of the skills (such as highlighting, note taking and summarising) may require specific ideas germane to the content being studied.

While it appears that training working memory can have reasonable effects ( d=0.53) there is less evidence that training working memory transfers into substantial gains in academic attainment. 63 There are many emerging and popular computer games that aim to increase working memory. For example, CogMed is a computer set of adaptive routines that is intended to be used 30-40 min a day for 25 days. A recent meta-analysis (by the commercial owners 64) found average effect-sizes (across 43 studies) exceed 0.70, but in a separate meta-analysis of 21 studies on the longer term effects of CogMed, there was zero evidence of transfer to subjects such as mathematics or reading 65. Although there were large effects in the short term, they found that these gains were not maintained at follow up (about 9 months later) and no evidence to support the claim that working memory training produces generalised gains to the other skills that have been investigated (verbal ability, word decoding or arithmetic) even when assessment takes place immediately after training. For the most robust studies, the effect of transfer is zero. It may be better to reduce working memory demands in the classroom. 66

Consolidating surface learning

The investment of effort and deliberate practice is critical at this consolidation phase, as are the abilities to listen, seek and interpret the feedback that is provided ( Table 8). At this consolidation phase, the task is to review and practice (or overlearn) the material. Such investment is more valuable if it is spaced over time rather than massed. Rehearsal and memorisation is valuable-but note that memorisation is not so worthwhile at the acquisition phase. The difficult task is to make this investment in learning worthwhile, to make adjustments to the rehearsal as it progresses in light of high levels of feedback, and not engage in drill and practice. These strategies relating to consolidating learning are heavily dependent on the student's proficiency to invest time on task wisely, 67 to practice and learn from this practice and to overlearn such that the learning is more readily available in working memory for the deeper understanding.

Acquiring deeper learning

Nearly all the strategies at this phase are powerful in enhancing learning ( Table 9). The ability to elaborate and organise, monitor the uses of the learning strategies, and have a variety of metacognitive strategies are the critical determinants of success at this phase of learning. A major purpose is for the student to deliberately activate prior knowledge and then make relations and extensions beyond what they have learned at the surface phase.

Consolidating deep learning

At this phase, the power of working with others is most apparent ( Table 10). This involves skills in seeking help from others, listening to others in discussion and developing strategies to 'speak' the language of learning. It is through such listening and speaking about their learning that students and teachers realise what they do deeply know, what they do not know and where they are struggling to find relations and extensions. An important strategy is when students become teachers of others and learn from peers, as this involves high levels of regulation, monitoring, anticipation and listening to their impact on the learner.

There has been much research confirming that teaching help-seeking strategies is successful, but how this strategy then works in classrooms is more complex. Teachers have to welcome students seeking help, and there needs to be knowledgeable others (e.g., peers) from whom to seek the help-too often students left in unsupported environments can seek and gain incorrect help and not know the help is incorrect. 68 Ryan and Shin 69 also distinguished between adaptive help seeking (seeking help from others, such as an explanation, a hint, or an example, that would further learning and promote independent problem solving in the future) and expedient help seeking (seeking help that expedites task completion, such as help that provides the answer and is not focused on learning). They showed that adaptive help seeking from peers declines and expedient help seeking increases during early adolescence. Further, increases in expedient help seeking were associated with declines in achievement but changes in adaptive help seeking were unrelated to achievement. The key is for teachers to teach adaptive help seeking, to ensure the help is dependable and correct and to see this more of a student than a teacher skill. Help seeking needs to be welcomed before it can have an effect.

Transfer

The transfer model promoted by Marton 48 seems to be supported in that a key in teaching for transfer involves understanding the patterns, similarities and differences in the transfer before applying the strategies to new task ( Table 11). Marton argued that transfer occurs when students learn strategies that apply in a certain situation such that they are enabled to do the same thing in another situation to the degree that they realise how the second situation does (or does not) resemble the first situation. It is learning to detect differences and similarities that is the key that leads to transfer of learning.

Discussion and Conclusions

There is much debate about the optimal strategies of learning, and indeed we identified >400 terms used to describe these strategies. Our initial aim was to rank the various strategies in terms of their effectiveness but this soon was abandoned. There was too much variability in the effectiveness of most strategies depending on when they were used during the learning process, and thus we developed the model of learning presented in this article. Like all models, it is a conjecture, it aims to say much and it is falsifiable. The efficacy of any model can be seen as an expression of its capacity to generate a scalable solution to a problem or need in ways that resolve more issues than prevailing theories or approaches. 70 The model posits that learning must be embedded in some content (something worth knowing) and thus the current claims about developing 21st century skills sui generis are most misleading. These skills often are promoted as content free and are able to be developed in separate courses (e.g., critical thinking, resilience). Our model, however, suggests that such skills are likely to be best developed relative to some content. There is no need to develop learning strategy courses, or teach the various strategies outside the context of the content. Instead, the strategies should be an integral part of the teaching and learning process, and can be taught within this process.

The model includes three major inputs and outcomes. These relate to what the students bring to the learning encounter (skill), their dispositions about learning (will) and their motivations towards the task (thrill). The first set of strategies relate to teaching students the standards for what is to be learned (the success criteria). We propose that effective learning strategies will be different depending on the phase of the learning-the strategies will be different when a student is first acquiring the matters to be learnt compared with when the student is embedding or consolidating this learning. That is, the strategies are differentially effective depending on whether the learning intention is surface learning (the content), deep learning (the relations between content) or the transfer of the skills to new situations or tasks. In many ways this demarcation is arbitrary (but not capricious) and more experimental research is needed to explore these conjectures. Further, the model is presented as linear whereas there is often much overlap in the various phases. For example, to learn subject matter (surface) deeply (i.e., to encode in memory) is helped by exploring and understanding its meaning; success criteria can have a mix of surface and deep and even demonstrate the transfer to other (real world) situations; and often deep learning necessitates returning to acquire specific surface level vocabulary and understanding. In some cases, there can be multiple overlapping processes. A reviewer provided a clear example: in learning that the internal angles of a quadrilateral add up to 360°, this might involve surface learning, which then requires rehearsal to consolidate, some self-questioning to apply, some detection of similarities to then work out what the internal angles of a hexagon might be, and spotting similarities to the triangle rule. There may be no easy way to know the right moment, or no easy demarcation of the various phases. The proposal in this paper is but a 'model' to help clarify the various phases of learning, and in many real world situations there can be considerable overlap.

We have derived six sets of propositions from our conceptual model of learning and the results of our meta-synthesis of research on learning strategies. The first set relates to the differential role played by what students bring to and take from the learning encounter-the inputs and outcomes. Second, there are some strategies that are more effective than others-but their relative effectiveness depends on the phase in the model of learning in which they take place. Third is the distinction between surface learning, deep learning and the transfer of learning. The fourth set relates to the skills of transfer, the fifth to how the model of learning can be used to resolve some unexpected findings about the effectiveness of some strategies, and the sixth set discusses the question 'what is learning?'.

The intertwining role of skill, will, and thrill

Our first set of claims relates to the differential role of what students bring to and take from the learning encounter. Rather than arguing that many factors contribute to achievement (an important but sometimes the only privileged outcome of learning), we are promoting the notion that the skill, will and thrill can intertwine during learning and that these three inputs are also important outcomes of learning-the aim is to enhance the will (e.g., the willingness to reinvest in more and deeper learning), the thrill (e.g., the emotions associated with successful learning, the curiosity and the willingness to explore what one does not know) and the skills (e.g., the content and the deeper understanding). The relation between the thrill, will and skill can vary depending on the student and the requirements of the task. Certainly, negative emotions, such as those induced by fear, anxiety, and stress can directly and negatively affect learning and memory. Such negative emotions block learning: 'If the student is faced with sources of stress in an educational context which go beyond the positive challenge threshold-for instance, aggressive teachers, bullying students or incomprehensible learning materials whether books or computers-it triggers fear and cognitive function is negatively affected. 71 Our argument is that learning can lead to enhanced skills, dispositions, motivations and excitements that can be reinvested in learning, and can lead to students setting higher standards for their success criteria. When skill, will, and thrill overlap, this should be considered a bonus; developing each is a worthwhile outcome of schooling in its own right.

It is all in the timing

Our second set of claims is that while it is possible to nominate the top 10 learning strategies the more critical conclusion is that the optimal strategies depend on where in the learning cycle the student is located. This strategic skill in using the strategies at the right moment is akin to the message in the Kenny Rogers song-you need to 'know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em'. For example, when starting a teaching sequence, it is most important to be concerned that students have confidence they can understand the lessons, see value in the lessons and are not overly anxious about their skills to be mastered. Providing them early on with an overview of what successful learning in the lessons will look like (knowing the success criteria) will help them reduce their anxiety, increase their motivation, and build both surface and deeper understandings.

To acquire surface learning, it is worthwhile knowing how to summarise, outline and relate the learning to prior achievement; and then to consolidate this learning by engaging in deliberate practice, rehearsing over time and learning how to seek and receive feedback to modify this effort. To acquire deep understanding requires the strategies of planning and evaluation and learning to monitor the use of one's learning strategies; and then to consolidate deep understanding calls on the strategy of self-talk, self-evaluation and self-questioning and seeking help from peers. Such consolidation requires the learner to think aloud, learn the 'language of thinking', 72 know how to seek help, self-question and work through the consequences of the next steps in learning. To transfer learning to new situations involves knowing how to detect similarities and differences between the old and the new problem or situations.

We recommend that these strategies are developed by embedding them into the cycle of teaching rather than by running separate sessions, such as 'how to learn' or study skills courses. There is a disappointing history of educational programs aimed at teaching students how to learn. 30,73,74 Wiliam 75 made this case for why teaching these learning strategies (e.g., critical thinking) out of context is unlikely to develop a generic skill applicable to many subjects. He noted that in a 'mathematics proof, critical thinking might involve ensuring that each step follows from the previous one (e.g., by checking that there has not been a division by zero). In reading a historical account, critical thinking might involve considering the author of the account, the potential biases and limitations that the author may be bringing to the account, and what other knowledge the reader has about the events being described. The important point here is that although there is some commonality between the processes in mathematics and history, they are not the same. Developing a capacity for critical thinking in history does not make one better at critical thinking in mathematics. For all of the apparent similarities, critical thinking in history and critical thinking in mathematics are different, and they are developed in different ways'. Many others have noted that metacognition is not knowledge-free but needs to be taught in the context of the individual subject areas. 76,77 Perkins 78 also noted that there is a certain art to infusing the teaching of thinking into content learning. Sometimes, 'teachers think it is enough simply to establish a generally thoughtful atmosphere in a classroom, with regular expectations for thinking critically and creatively...teaching for know-how about learning to learn is a much more time-consuming enterprise than teaching for just learning the ideas... Building active know-how requires much more attention'.

Another aspect to consider is the difference, identified in the model, between being first exposed to learning and the consolidation of this learning. This distinction is far from novel. Shuell, 79 for example, distinguished between initial, intermediate, and final phases of learning. In the initial phase, the students can encounter a 'large array of facts and pieces of information that are more-or-less isolated conceptually... there appears to be little more than a wasteland with few landmarks to guide the traveller on his or her journey towards understanding and mastery'. Students can use existing schema to make sense of this new information, or can be guided to have more appropriate schema (and thus experience early stages of concept learning and relation between ideas) otherwise the information may remain as isolated facts, or be linked erroneously to previous understandings. At the intermediate phase, the learner begins to see similarities and relationships among these seemingly conceptually isolated pieces of information. 'The fog continues to lift but still has not burnt off completely'. During the final phase, the knowledge structure becomes well integrated and functions more autonomously, and the emphasis is more on performance or exhibiting the outcome of learning.

Horses for courses: matching strategies with phases

The third set of claims relates to the distinction between surface, deep, and transfer of learning. Although not a hard and fast set of demarcations, surface learning refers more to the content and underlying skills; deep learning to the relationships between, and extensions of, ideas; and transfer to the proficiency to apply learning to new problems and situations. During the surface learning phase, an aim is to assist students to overlearn certain ideas and thus reduce the needs of their working memory to work with these new facts when moving into the deeper understanding phase. Note, for example, that Marton et al. 80 made an important distinction between memorising without understanding first and called this rote memorisation (which has long term effect), and memorisation when you have understood and called this meaningful memorisation (which can be powerful). The evidence in the current study supports this distinction.

It is when students have much information, or many seemingly unrelated ideas, that the learning strategies for the deep phase are optimally invoked. This is when they should be asked to integrate ideas with previous schema or modify their previous schema to integrate new ideas and ways of thinking. The key to this process is first gaining ideas-a fact often missed by those advocating deeper thinking strategies when they try to teach these skills prior to developing sufficient knowledge within the content domain. The students need to first have ideas before they can relate them. The model does not propose discarding the teaching or learning skills that have been developed to learn surface knowing, but advocates the benefits of a more appropriate balance of surface and deeper strategies and skills that then lead to transfer. The correct balance of surface to deep learning depends on the demands of the task. It is likely that more emphasis on surface strategies is probably needed as students learn new ideas, moving to an emphasis on deeper strategies as they become more proficient.

Pause and reflect: detecting similarities and differences

The fourth set of claims relate to the skills of transfer, and how important it is to teach students to pause and detect the similarities and differences between previous tasks and the new one, before attempting to answer a new problem. Such transfer can be positive, such as when a learner accurately remembers a learning outcome reached in a certain situation and appropriately applies it in a new and similar situation, or negative, such as when a learner applies a strategy used successfully in one situation in a new situation where this strategy is not appropriate. Too many (particularly struggling) students over-rehearse a few learning strategies (e.g., copying and highlighting) and apply them in situations regardless of the demands of new tasks. Certainly, the fundamental skill for positive transfer is stopping before addressing the problem and asking about the differences and similarities of the new to any older task situation. This skill can be taught.

This ability to notice similarities and differences over content is quite different for novices and experts 81,82 and we do not simply learn from experience but we also learn to experience. 83 Preparation for future learning involves opportunities to try our hunches in different contexts, receive feedback, engage in productive failure and learn to revise our knowing based on feedback. The aim is to solve problems more efficiently, and also to 'let go' of previously acquired knowledge in light of more sophisticated understandings-and this can have emotional consequences: 'Failure to change strategies in new situations has been described as the tyranny of success'. 84 It is not always productive for students to try the same thing that worked last time. Hence there may need to be an emphasis on knowledge-building rather than knowledge-telling, 85 and systematic inquiry based on theory-building and disconfirmation rather than simply following processes for how to find some result.

Why some strategies do not work

The fifth set of claims relate to how the model can be used to resolve some of the unexpected findings about the impact of various teaching methods. In Visible Learning, 36 it was noted that many programs that seem to lead to developing deeper processing have very low effect sizes (e.g., inquiry based methods, d=0.31; problem-based learning, d=0.15). For example, there have been 11 meta-analyses relating to problem-based learning based on 509 studies, leading to an average small effect ( d=0.15). It hardly seems necessary to run another problem-based program (particularly in first-year medicine, where four of the meta-analyses were completed) to know that the effects of problem-based learning on outcomes are small. The reason for this low effect seems to be related to using problem-based methods before attaining sufficient surface knowledge. When problem-based learning is used in later medical years, the effects seem to increase. Albanese and Mitchell 86 claimed that increased years of exposure to medical education increases the effect of problem-based learning. They argued that lack of experience (and lack of essential surface knowledge) leads the student to make more errors in their knowledge base, add irrelevant material to their explanations and engage in backward reasoning (from the unknown to the givens), whereas experts engaged in forward reasoning (also see references 87, 88). Walker et al. 89 also noted that novice problem-based learning students tended to engage in far more backward-driven reasoning, which results in more errors during problem solving and may persist even after the educational intervention is complete. It is likely that problem-based learning works more successfully when students engage in forward reasoning and this depends on having sufficient content knowledge to make connections.

Deep understanding in problem-based learning requires a differentiated knowledge structure, 90 and this may need to be explicitly taught-as there is no assumption that students will see similarities and differences in contexts by themselves. There is a limit to what we can reasonably expect students to discover, and it may require teaching students to make predictions based on features that were told to them and that they may not notice on their own. Deliberate teaching of these surface features can offer a higher level of explanation that would be difficult or time consuming to discover. A higher level explanation is important because it provides a generative framework that can extend one understanding beyond the specific cases that have been analysed and experienced. On the other hand, the problems need not be too overly structured, as then students do not gain experience of searching out conceptual tools or homing in on particular cases of application. 78

Another example of the different requirements of surface and deep learning is the effect of asking students to explore errors and misconceptions during their learning. Using meta-analysis, Keith and Frese 91 found that the average effect of using these strategies when the outcome was surface learning was −0.15 and when the outcome was deep learning and far transfer to new problems, it was 0.80.

So: what is learning?

The sixth set of claims relate to the notion of 'what is learning?'. The argument in this article is that learning is the outcome of the processes of moving from surface to deep to transfer. Only then will students be able to go beyond the information given to 'figure things out', which is one of the few untarnishable joys of life. 92 One of the greatest triumphs of learning is what Perkins 78 calls 'knowing one's way around' a particular topic or 'playing the whole game' of history, mathematics, science or whatever. This is a function of knowing much and then using this knowledge in the exploration of relations and to make extensions to other ideas, and being able to know what to do when one does not know what to do (the act of transfer).

Concluding comments

Like all models, the one proposed in this article invites as many conjectures and directions for further research as it provide a basis for interpreting the evidence from the meta-synthesis. It helps make sense of much of the current literature but it is speculative in that it also makes some untested predictions. There is much solace in Popper's 93 claim that 'Bold ideas, unjustified anticipations, and speculative thought, are our only means for interpreting nature: our only organon, our only instrument, for grasping her. And we must hazard them to win our prize. Those among us who are unwilling to expose their ideas to the hazard of refutation do not take part in the scientific game.' Further research is needed, for example, to better understand the optimal order through the various phases; there may be circumstances where it may be beneficial to learn the deeper notions before developing the surface knowledge. It is highly likely that as one develops many ideas and even relates and extends them, these become 'ideas' and the cycle continues. 94 We know much, but we need to know much more, and in particular we need to know how these many learning strategies might be better presented in another competing model. Such testing of a bold model and making predictions from models is, according to Popper, how science progresses.

Further research is needed that asks whether the distinction between the acquisition and the consolidation of learning is a distinctive difference, a melding from one to the other or whether both can occur simultaneously. If there is a difference, then more research on ascertaining the best time to move from acquisition to consolidation would be informative. Similarly, there is no hard rule in the model of a sequence from surface to deep to transfer. In some ways, teaching the strategies of knowing what success looks like upfront implies an exposure to both surface and deep learning. Also, the many arguments (but surprisingly there is a lack of evidence) for the popular notions of flipped classrooms could be supported with more evidence of introducing the success criteria upfront to students. A typical flipped lesson starts with students accessing online video lectures or resources prior to in-class sessions so that students are prepared to participate in more interactive and higher-order activities such as problem solving, discussions and debates. 95 The most needed research concerns transfer-the variation theory of Marton, 48 the claims by Perkins 78 and others need more focused attention and the usual (and often unsubstantiated) claims that doing x will assist learning y should come back as a focus of learning sciences.

We are proposing that it is worthwhile to develop the skill, will and thrill of learning, and that there are many powerful strategies for learning. Students can be taught these strategies (declarative knowledge), how to use them (procedural knowledge), under what conditions it may be more or less useful to apply them (conditional knowledge) and how to evaluate them. It may be necessary to teach when best to use these strategies according the nature of the outcomes (surface and deep), according to the timing of learning (first acquiring and then consolidating learning) and to teach the skill of transferring learning to new situations. We need to think in terms of 'surface to deep' and not one alone; we need to think in terms of developing dispositions, motivations and achievement, and not one alone. This invites considering multiple outcomes from our schools. Singapore, 96 for example, is now committed to developing an educational system which will produce young people who have the moral courage to stand up for what is right; pursue a healthy lifestyle and have an appreciation of aesthetics; are proud to be Singaporeans; are resilient in the face of difficulty, innovative and enterprising; are purposeful in the pursuit of excellence; are able to collaborate across cultures; and can think critically and communicate persuasively. Academic achievement is but one desirable learning outcomes of many.

Another important message is that developing a few learning strategies may not be optimal. The failure to change strategies in new situations has been described as the tyranny of success; 84 and the current meta-synthesis suggests that choosing different strategies as one progresses through the learning cycle (from first exposure to embedding, from surface to deep to transfer) demands cognitive flexibility. It may not be the best option for students to use the same strategies that worked last time, as when the context is changed the old strategies may no longer work.

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Acknowledgements

The Science of Learning Research Centre is a Special Research Initiative of the Australian Research Council. Project Number SR120300015. We thank the following for critiquing earlier drafts of this article: Dan Willingham, Jason Lodge, Debra Masters, Rob Hester, Jared Horvath and Luke Rowe.

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Science of Learning Research Centre, Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, Carlton, VIC, Australia

John A C Hattie

& Gregory M Donoghue

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The authors contributed equally to the project and writing of this paper.

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Correspondence to John A C Hattie.

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Altmetric: 607 Views: 28,785 Citations: 1 More detail Review Article | Open npj Science of Learning 1, Article number: 16013 (2016) doi:10.1038/npjscilearn.2016.13 Download Citation Received: Revised: Accepted: Published online: The model comprises the following components: three inputs and three outcomes; student knowledge of the success criteria for the task; three phases of the learning process (surface, deep and transfer), with surface and deep learning each comprising an acquisition phase and a consolidation phase; and an environment for the learning ( Figure 1).

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