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Constructivism Learning Theory & Philosophy of Education

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Constructivism is a learning theory that emphasizes the active role of learners in building their own understanding. Rather than passively receiving information, learners reflect on their experiences, create mental representations, and incorporate new knowledge into

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3. Schemas

Piaget claimed that knowledge cannot simply emerge from sensory experience; some initial structure is necessary to make sense of the world.

According to Piaget, children are born with a very basic mental structure (genetically inherited and evolved) on which all subsequent learning and knowledge are based.

Schemas are the basic building blocks of such cognitive models, and enable us to form a mental representation of the world.

Piaget (1952, p. 7) defined a schema as: "a cohesive, repeatable action sequence possessing component actions that are tightly interconnected and governed by a core meaning."

In more simple terms, Piaget called the schema the basic building block of intelligent behavior - a way of organizing knowledge. Indeed, it is useful to think of schemas as "units" of knowledge, each relating to one aspect of the world, including objects, actions, and abstract (i.e., theoretical) concepts.

Wadsworth (2004) suggests that schemata (the plural of schema) be thought of as "index cards" filed in the brain, each one telling an individual how to react to incoming stimuli or information.

When Piaget talked about the development of a person's mental processes, he was referring to increases in the number and complexity of the schemata that a person had learned.

When a child's existing schemas are capable of explaining what it can perceive around it, it is said to be in a state of equilibrium, i.e., a state of cognitive (i.e., mental) balance.

Operations are more sophisticated mental structures which allow us to combine schemas in a logical (reasonable) way.

As children grow they can carry out more complex operations and begin to imagine hypothetical (imaginary) situations.

Apart from the schemas we are born with schemas and operations are learned through interaction with other people and the environment.

Piaget emphasized the importance of schemas in cognitive development and described how they were developed or acquired.

A schema can be defined as a set of linked mental representations of the world, which we use both to understand and to respond to situations. The assumption is that we store these mental representations and apply them when needed.

Examples of Schemas

A person might have a schema about buying a meal in a restaurant. The schema is a stored form of the pattern of behavior which includes looking at a menu, ordering food, eating it and paying the bill.

This is an example of a schema called a "script." Whenever they are in a restaurant, they retrieve this schema from memory and apply it to the situation.

The schemas Piaget described tend to be simpler than this - especially those used by infants. He described how - as a child gets older - his or her schemas become more numerous and elaborate.

Piaget believed that newborn babies have a small number of innate schemas - even before they have had many opportunities to experience the world. These neonatal schemas are the cognitive structures underlying innate reflexes. These reflexes are genetically programmed into us.

For example, babies have a sucking reflex, which is triggered by something touching the baby's lips. A baby will suck a nipple, a comforter (dummy), or a person's finger. Piaget, therefore, assumed that the baby has a "sucking schema."

Similarly, the grasping reflex which is elicited when something touches the palm of a baby's hand, or the rooting reflex, in which a baby will turn its head towards something which touches its cheek, are innate schemas. Shaking a rattle would be the combination of two schemas, grasping and shaking.

4. The Process of Adaptation

Piaget also believed that a child developed as a result of two different influences: maturation, and interaction with the environment. The child develops mental structures (schemata) which enables him to solve problems in the environment.

Adaptation is the process by which the child changes its mental models of the world to match more closely how the world actually is.

Adaptation is brought about by the processes of assimilation (solving new experiences using existing schemata) and accommodation (changing existing schemata in order to solve new experiences).

The importance of this viewpoint is that the child is seen as an active participant in its own development rather than a passive recipient of either biological influences (maturation) or environmental stimulation.

When our existing schemas can explain what we perceive around us, we are in a state of equilibration. However, when we meet a new situation that we cannot explain it creates disequilibrium, this is an unpleasant sensation which we try to escape, and this gives us the motivation to learn.

According to Piaget, reorganization to higher levels of thinking is not accomplished easily. The child must "rethink" his or her view of the world. An important step in the process is the experience of cognitive conflict.

In other words, the child becomes aware that he or she holds two contradictory views about a situation and they both cannot be true. This step is referred to as disequilibrium.

Jean Piaget (1952; see also Wadsworth, 2004) viewed intellectual growth as a process of adaptation (adjustment) to the world. This happens through assimilation, accommodation, and equilibration.

To get back to a state of equilibration, we need to modify our existing schemas to learn and adapt to the new situation.

This is done through the processes of accommodation and assimilation. This is how our schemas evolve and become more sophisticated. The processes of assimilation and accommodation are continuous and interactive.

5. Assimilation

Piaget defined assimilation as the cognitive process of fitting new information into existing cognitive schemas, perceptions, and understanding. Overall beliefs and understanding of the world do not change as a result of the new information.

Assimilation occurs when the new experience is not very different from previous experiences of a particular object or situation we assimilate the new situation by adding information to a previous schema.

This means that when you are faced with new information, you make sense of this information by referring to information you already have (information processed and learned previously) and trying to fit the new information into the information you already have.

Examples

1. Imagine a young child who has only ever seen small, domesticated dogs. When the child sees a cat for the first time, they might refer to it as a "dog" because it has four legs, fur, and a tail - features that fit their existing schema of a dog.

2. A person who has always believed that all birds can fly might label penguins as birds that can fly. This is because their existing schema or understanding of birds includes the ability to fly.

3. A 2-year-old child sees a man who is bald on top of his head and has long frizzy hair on the sides. To his father's horror, the toddler shouts "Clown, clown" (Siegler et al., 2003).

4. If a baby learns to pick up a rattle he or she will then use the same schema (grasping) to pick up other objects.

6. Accommodation

Accommodation: when the new experience is very different from what we have encountered before we need to change our schemas in a very radical way or create a whole new schema.

Psychologist Jean Piaget defined accommodation as the cognitive process of revising existing cognitive schemas, perceptions, and understanding so that new information can be incorporated.

This happens when the existing schema (knowledge) does not work, and needs to be changed to deal with a new object or situation.

In order to make sense of some new information, you actually adjust information you already have (schemas you already have, etc.) to make room for this new information.

Examples

1. A baby tries to use the same schema for grasping to pick up a very small object. It doesn't work. The baby then changes the schema by now using the forefinger and thumb to pick up the object.

2. A child may have a schema for birds (feathers, flying, etc.) and then they see a plane, which also flies, but would not fit into their bird schema.

3. In the "clown" incident, the boy's father explained to his son that the man was not a clown and that even though his hair was like a clown's, he wasn't wearing a funny costume and wasn't doing silly things to make people laugh. With this new knowledge, the boy was able to change his schema of "clown" and make this idea fit better to a standard concept of "clown".

4. A person who grew up thinking all snakes are dangerous might move to an area where garden snakes are common and harmless. Over time, after observing and learning, they might accommodate their previous belief to understand that not all snakes are harmful.

7. Equilibration

Piaget believed that all human thought seeks order and is uncomfortable with contradictions and inconsistencies in knowledge structures. In other words, we seek "equilibrium" in our cognitive structures.

Equilibrium occurs when a child's schemas can deal with most new information through assimilation. However, an unpleasant state of disequilibrium occurs when new information cannot be fitted into existing schemas (assimilation).

Piaget believed that cognitive development did not progress at a steady rate, but rather in leaps and bounds. Equilibration is the force which drives the learning process as we do not like to be frustrated and will seek to restore balance by mastering the new challenge (accommodation).

Once the new information is acquired the process of assimilation with the new schema will continue until the next time we need to make an adjustment to it.

Equilibration is a regulatory process that maintains a balance between assimilation and accommodation to facilitate cognitive growth. Think of it this way: We can't merely assimilate all the time; if we did, we would never learn any new concepts or principles.

Everything new we encountered would just get put in the same few "slots" we already had. Neither can we accommodate all the time; if we did, everything we encountered would seem new; there would be no recurring regularities in our world. We'd be exhausted by the mental effort!

Applications to Education

Think of old black and white films that you've seen in which children sat in rows at desks, with ink wells, would learn by rote, all chanting in unison in response to questions set by an authoritarian old biddy like Matilda!

Children who were unable to keep up were seen as slacking and would be punished by variations on the theme of corporal punishment. Yes, it really did happen and in some parts of the world still does today.

Piaget is partly responsible for the change that occurred in the 1960s and for your relatively pleasurable and pain-free school days!

"Children should be able to do their own experimenting and their own research. Teachers, of course, can guide them by providing appropriate materials, but the essential thing is that in order for a child to understand something, he must construct it himself, he must re-invent it. Every time we teach a child something, we keep him from inventing it himself. On the other hand that which we allow him to discover by himself will remain with him visibly".
Piaget (1972, p. 27)

Plowden Report

Piaget (1952) did not explicitly relate his theory to education, although later researchers have explained how features of Piaget's theory can be applied to teaching and learning.

Piaget has been extremely influential in developing educational policy and teaching practice. For example, a review of primary education by the UK government in 1966 was based strongly on Piaget's theory. The result of this review led to the publication of the Plowden Report (1967).

In the 1960s the Plowden Committee investigated the deficiencies in education and decided to incorporate many of Piaget's ideas into its final report published in 1967, even though Piaget's work was not really designed for education.

The report makes three Piaget-associated recommendations:

1. Children should be given individual attention and it should be realized that they need to be treated differently.

2. Children should only be taught things that they are capable of learning

3. Children mature at different rates and the teacher needs to be aware of the stage of development of each child so teaching can be tailored to their individual needs.

"The report's recurring themes are individual learning, flexibility in the curriculum, the centrality of play in children's learning, the use of the environment, learning by discovery and the importance of the evaluation of children's progress - teachers should "not assume that only what is measurable is valuable."

Discovery learning - the idea that children learn best through doing and actively exploring - was seen as central to the transformation of the primary school curriculum.

How to teach

Within the classroom learning should be student-centered and accomplished through active discovery learning. The role of the teacher is to facilitate learning, rather than direct tuition.

Because Piaget's theory is based upon biological maturation and stages, the notion of "readiness" is important. Readiness concerns when certain information or concepts should be taught.

According to Piaget's theory, children should not be taught certain concepts until they have reached the appropriate stage of cognitive development.

According to Piaget (1958), assimilation and accommodation require an active learner, not a passive one, because problem-solving skills cannot be taught, they must be discovered.

Therefore, teachers should encourage the following within the classroom:

1. Educational programs should be designed to correspond to Piaget's stages of development. Children in the concrete operational stage should be given concrete means to learn new concepts e.g. tokens for counting.

2. Devising situations that present useful problems, and create disequilibrium in the child.

3. Focus on the process of learning, rather than the end product of it. Instead of checking if children have the right answer, the teacher should focus on the student's understanding and the processes they used to get to the answer.

4. Child-centered approach. Learning must be active (discovery learning).
Children should be encouraged to discover for themselves and to interact with the material instead of being given ready-made knowledge.

5. Accepting that children develop at different rates so arrange activities for individual children or small groups rather than assume that all the children can cope with a particular activity.

6. Using active methods that require rediscovering or reconstructing "truths."

7. Using collaborative, as well as individual activities (so children can learn from each other).

8. Evaluate the level of the child's development so suitable tasks can be set.

9. Adapt lessons to suit the needs of the individual child (i.e. differentiated teaching).

10. Be aware of the child's stage of development (testing).

11. Teach only when the child is ready. i.e. has the child reached the appropriate stage.

12. Providing support for the "spontaneous research" of the child.

13. Using collaborative, as well as individual activities.

14. Devising situations that present useful problems, and create disequilibrium in the child.

15. Educators may use Piaget's stages to design age-appropriate assessment tools and strategies.

Classroom Activities

1. Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years):
Although most kids in this age range are not in a traditional classroom setting, they can still benefit from games that stimulate their senses and motor skills.

2. Preoperational Stage (2-7 years):

Role Playing: Set up pretend play areas where children can act out different scenarios, such as a kitchen, hospital, or market.

Use of Symbols: Encourage drawing, building, and using props to represent other things.

Hands-on Activities: Children should interact physically with their environment, so provide plenty of opportunities for hands-on learning.

Egocentrism Activities: Use exercises that highlight different perspectives. For instance, having two children sit across from each other with an object in between and asking them what the other sees.

3. Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 years):

Classification Tasks: Provide objects or pictures to group, based on various characteristics.

Hands-on Experiments: Introduce basic science experiments where they can observe cause and effect, like a simple volcano with baking soda and vinegar.

Logical Games: Board games, puzzles, and logic problems help develop their thinking skills.

Conservation Tasks: Use experiments to showcase that quantity doesn't change with alterations in shape, such as the classic liquid conservation task using different shaped glasses.

4. Formal Operational Stage (11 years and older):

Hypothesis Testing: Encourage students to make predictions and test them out.

Abstract Thinking: Introduce topics that require abstract reasoning, such as algebra or ethical dilemmas.

Problem Solving: Provide complex problems and have students work on solutions, integrating various subjects and concepts.

Debate and Discussion: Encourage group discussions and debates on abstract topics, highlighting the importance of logic and evidence.

Feedback and Questioning: Use open-ended questions to challenge students and promote higher-order thinking. For instance, rather than asking, "Is this the right answer?", ask, "How did you arrive at this conclusion?"

Individual Differences

While Piaget's stages offer a foundational framework, they are not universally experienced in the same way by all children.

Social identities play a critical role in shaping cognitive development, necessitating a more nuanced and culturally responsive approach to understanding child development.

Piaget's stages may manifest differently based on social identities like race, gender, and culture:

Race & Teacher Interactions: A child's race can influence teacher expectations and interactions. For example, racial biases can lead to children of color being perceived as less capable or more disruptive, influencing their cognitive challenges and supports.

Racial and Cultural Stereotypes: These can affect a child's self-perception and self-efficacy. For instance, stereotypes about which racial or cultural groups are "better" at certain subjects can influence a child's self-confidence and, subsequently, their engagement in that subject.

Gender & Peer Interactions: Children learn gender roles from their peers. Boys might be mocked for playing "girl games," and girls might be excluded from certain activities, influencing their cognitive engagements.

Language: Multilingual children might navigate the stages differently, especially if their home language differs from their school language. The way concepts are framed in different languages can influence cognitive processing. Cultural idioms and metaphors can shape a child's understanding of concepts and their ability to use symbolic representation, especially in the pre-operational stage.

Curriculum Development

According to Piaget, children's cognitive development is determined by a process of maturation which cannot be altered by tuition so education should be stage-specific.

For example, a child in the concrete operational stage should not be taught abstract concepts and should be given concrete aid such as tokens to count with.

According to Piaget children learn through the process of accommodation and assimilation so the role of the teacher should be to provide opportunities for these processes to occur such as new material and experiences that challenge the children's existing schemas.

Furthermore, according to this theory, children should be encouraged to discover for themselves and to interact with the material instead of being given ready-made knowledge.

Curricula need to be developed that take into account the age and stage of thinking of the child. For example there is no point in teaching abstract concepts such as algebra or atomic structure to children in primary school.

Curricula also need to be sufficiently flexible to allow for variations in the ability of different students of the same age. In Britain, the National Curriculum and Key Stages broadly reflect the stages that Piaget laid down.

For example, egocentrism dominates a child's thinking in the sensorimotor and preoperational stages. Piaget would therefore predict that using group activities would not be appropriate since children are not capable of understanding the views of others.

However, Smith et al. (1998), point out that some children develop earlier than Piaget predicted and that by using group work children can learn to appreciate the views of others in preparation for the concrete operational stage.

The national curriculum emphasizes the need to use concrete examples in the primary classroom.

Shayer (1997), reported that abstract thought was necessary for success in secondary school (and co-developed the CASE system of teaching science). Recently the National curriculum has been updated to encourage the teaching of some abstract concepts towards the end of primary education, in preparation for secondary courses. (DfEE, 1999).

Child-centered teaching is regarded by some as a child of the 'liberal sixties.' In the 1980s the Thatcher government introduced the National Curriculum in an attempt to move away from this and bring more central government control into the teaching of children.

So, although the British National Curriculum in some ways supports the work of Piaget, (in that it dictates the order of teaching), it can also be seen as prescriptive to the point where it counters Piaget's child-oriented approach.

However, it does still allow for flexibility in teaching methods, allowing teachers to tailor lessons to the needs of their students.

Social Media (Digital Learning)

Jean Piaget could not have anticipated the expansive digital age we now live in.

Today, knowledge dissemination and creation are democratized by the Internet, with platforms like blogs, wikis, and social media allowing for vast collaboration and shared knowledge. This development has prompted a reimagining of the future of education.

Classrooms, traditionally seen as primary sites of learning, are being overshadowed by the rise of mobile technologies and platforms like MOOCs (Passey, 2013).

The millennial generation, defined as the first to grow up with cable TV, the internet, and cell phones, relies heavily on technology.

They view it as an integral part of their identity, with most using it extensively in their daily lives, from keeping in touch with loved ones to consuming news and entertainment (Nielsen, 2014).

Social media platforms offer a dynamic environment conducive to Piaget's principles. These platforms allow for interactions that nurture knowledge evolution through cognitive processes like assimilation and accommodation.

They emphasize communal interaction and shared activity, fostering both cognitive and socio-cultural constructivism. This shared activity promotes understanding and exploration beyond individual perspectives, enhancing social-emotional learning (Gehlbach, 2010).

A standout advantage of social media in an educational context is its capacity to extend beyond traditional classroom confines. As the material indicates, these platforms can foster more inclusive learning, bridging diverse learner groups.

This inclusivity can equalize learning opportunities, potentially diminishing biases based on factors like race or socio-economic status, resonating with Kegan's (1982) concept of "recruitability."

However, there are challenges. While the potential of social media in learning is vast, its practical application necessitates intention and guidance. Cuban, Kirkpatrick, and Peck (2001) note that certain educators and students are hesitant about integrating social media into educational contexts.

This hesitancy can stem from technological complexities or potential distractions. Yet, when harnessed effectively, social media can provide a rich environment for collaborative learning and interpersonal development, fostering a deeper understanding of content.

In essence, the rise of social media aligns seamlessly with constructivist philosophies. Social media platforms act as tools for everyday cognition, merging daily social interactions with the academic world, and providing avenues for diverse, interactive, and engaging learning experiences.

Applications to Parenting

Parents can use Piaget's stages to have realistic developmental expectations of their children's behavior and cognitive capabilities.

For instance, understanding that a toddler is in the pre-operational stage can help parents be patient when the child is egocentric.

Play Activities

Recognizing the importance of play in cognitive development, many parents provide toys and games suited for their child's developmental stage.

Parents can offer activities that are slightly beyond their child's current abilities, leveraging Vygotsky's concept of the "Zone of Proximal Development," which complements Piaget's ideas.

Critical Evaluation

The influence of Piaget's ideas on developmental psychology has been enormous. He changed how people viewed the child's world and their methods of studying children.

He was an inspiration to many who came after and took up his ideas. Piaget's ideas have generated a huge amount of research which has increased our understanding of cognitive development.

Piaget (1936) was one of the first psychologists to make a systematic study of cognitive development. His contributions include a stage theory of child cognitive development, detailed observational studies of cognition in children, and a series of simple but ingenious tests to reveal different cognitive abilities.

His ideas have been of practical use in understanding and communicating with children, particularly in the field of education (re: Discovery Learning). Piaget's theory has been applied across education.

According to Piaget's theory, educational programs should be designed to correspond to the stages of development.

Criticisms

Are the stages real? Vygotsky and Bruner would rather not talk about stages at all, preferring to see development as a continuous process. Others have queried the age ranges of the stages. Some studies have shown that progress to the formal operational stage is not guaranteed.

For example, Keating (1979) reported that 40-60% of college students fail at formal operation tasks, and Dasen (1994) states that only one-third of adults ever reach the formal operational stage.

The fact that the formal operational stage is not reached in all cultures and not all individuals within cultures suggests that it might not be biologically based.

According to Piaget, the rate of cognitive development cannot be accelerated as it is based on biological processes however, direct tuition can speed up the development which suggests that it is not entirely based on biological factors.

Because Piaget concentrated on the universal stages of cognitive development and biological maturation, he failed to consider the effect that the social setting and culture may have on cognitive development.

Cross-cultural studies show that the stages of development (except the formal operational stage) occur in the same order in all cultures suggesting that cognitive development is a product of a biological process of maturation.

However, the age at which the stages are reached varies between cultures and individuals which suggests that social and cultural factors and individual differences influence cognitive development.

Dasen (1994) cites studies he conducted in remote parts of the central Australian desert with 8-14-year-old Indigenous Australians. He gave them conservation of liquid tasks and spatial awareness tasks. He found that the ability to conserve came later in the Aboriginal children, between ages of 10 and 13 (as opposed to between 5 and 7, with Piaget's Swiss sample).

However, he found that spatial awareness abilities developed earlier amongst the Aboriginal children than the Swiss children. Such a study demonstrates cognitive development is not purely dependent on maturation but on cultural factors too - spatial awareness is crucial for nomadic groups of people.

Vygotsky, a contemporary of Piaget, argued that social interaction is crucial for cognitive development. According to Vygotsky the child's learning always occurs in a social context in cooperation with someone more skillful (MKO). This social interaction provides language opportunities and Vygotsky considered language the foundation of thought.

Piaget's methods (observation and clinical interviews) are more open to biased interpretation than other methods. Piaget made careful, detailed naturalistic observations of children, and from these, he wrote diary descriptions charting their development. He also used clinical interviews and observations of older children who were able to understand questions and hold conversations.

Because Piaget conducted the observations alone the data collected are based on his own subjective interpretation of events. It would have been more reliable if Piaget conducted the observations with another researcher and compared the results afterward to check if they are similar (i.e., have inter-rater reliability).

Although clinical interviews allow the researcher to explore data in more depth, the interpretation of the interviewer may be biased.

For example, children may not understand the question/s, they have short attention spans, they cannot express themselves very well, and may be trying to please the experimenter. Such methods meant that Piaget may have formed inaccurate conclusions.

As several studies have shown Piaget underestimated the abilities of children because his tests were sometimes confusing or difficult to understand (e.g., Hughes, 1975).

Piaget failed to distinguish between competence (what a child is capable of doing) and performance (what a child can show when given a particular task). When tasks were altered, performance (and therefore competence) was affected. Therefore, Piaget might have underestimated children's cognitive abilities.

For example, a child might have object permanence (competence) but still not be able to search for objects (performance). When Piaget hid objects from babies he found that it wasn't till after nine months that they looked for it.

However, Piaget relied on manual search methods - whether the child was looking for the object or not.

Later, researchers such as Baillargeon and Devos (1991) reported that infants as young as four months looked longer at a moving carrot that didn't do what it expected, suggesting they had some sense of permanence, otherwise they wouldn't have had any expectation of what it should or shouldn't do.

The concept of schema is incompatible with the theories of Bruner (1966) and Vygotsky (1978). Behaviorism would also refute Piaget's schema theory because is cannot be directly observed as it is an internal process. Therefore, they would claim it cannot be objectively measured.

Piaget studied his own children and the children of his colleagues in Geneva to deduce general principles about the intellectual development of all children. His sample was very small and composed solely of European children from families of high socio-economic status. Researchers have, therefore, questioned the generalisability of his data.

For Piaget, language is considered secondary to action, i.e., thought precedes language. The Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1978) argues that the development of language and thought go together and that the origin of reasoning has more to do with our ability to communicate with others than with our interaction with the material world.

Piaget maintains that cognitive development stems largely from independent explorations in which children construct knowledge of their own.

Whereas Vygotsky argues that children learn through social interactions, building knowledge by learning from more knowledgeable others such as peers and adults. In other words, Vygotsky believed that culture affects cognitive development.

These factors lead to differences in the education style they recommend: Piaget would argue for the teacher to provide opportunities that challenge the children's existing schemas and for children to be encouraged to discover for themselves.

Alternatively, Vygotsky would recommend that teachers assist the child to progress through the zone of proximal development by using scaffolding.

However, both theories view children as actively constructing their own knowledge of the world; they are not seen as just passively absorbing knowledge.

They also agree that cognitive development involves qualitative changes in thinking, not only a matter of learning more things.

FAQs

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Piaget's Stages: 4 Stages of Cognitive Development & Theory

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Jean Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development outlines four stages (sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational) in a child's cognitive development from infancy to adolescence.

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Constructivism learning theory is a philosophical theory that develops the logical and analytical abilities of the students based on their experience and their surrounding environment. The basis of this theory is that the real-life experiences of an individual play a significant role in their education process.

Constructivism learning theory stresses the fact that experiences are a prime source of knowledge in the life of the people. The founder of this theory is considered to be Jean Piaget.

MEANING AND DEFINITION OF CONSTRUCTIVISM

Constructivism theory of learning that states that an individual's mental abilities and activities help in constructing their knowledge base. By analyzing our own rel0life experiences, we can make conclusions about the various happenings of the world. It is about building a perspective about things and constructing a meaning based on our experiences. Constructivism learning theory is highly influenced by the age and mental abilities of a person, and may not always be accurate. But as one progresses, it becomes more intricated and realistic.

Some of the chief driving elements or principles about constructivism theory of learning are:-

Knowledge constructs through experiences it cannot be transferred.

Having prior knowledge before joining a formal training, impacts the learning procedure.

Knowledge is affected by our surroundings and the influences which may not be as per the global standards.

For adequate knowledge, one needs to apply their efforts and actively participate in experience gaining activities.

CONSEQUENCES OF CONSTRUCTIVISM ON THE LEARNING PROCESS

In the teaching and education process, constructivism theory can be a very profitable venture. In this practical approach can be adopted instead of textbook learning. Students are encouraged to utilize their thinking, reasoning and analytical skills. Education becomes more about concept application and establishing connections instead or taking in information.

For the teachers and educator, the teaching and instruction process becomes more centred towards the practical application of the concepts. The students learn from the hands-on approach of the things and interpret the results as per their perspective. It involves a lot of discussions and inquiry-based learning.

Assessment procedure also changes, as the teachers do not have to grade the students as per traditional assessments. Students themselves analyze their experiences, and so assessment is also involved as a learning process.

TYPES OF CONSTRUCTIVISM

Generally, 4 significant types of constructivism are prevalent in the teaching world:-

Inconsequential or Trivial Constructivism

Social Constructivism

Cultural Constructivism

Profound or Radical Constructivism

A) TRIVIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM
It is one of the most basic and most straightforward amongst types of constructivism. It can be considered as the base of all the other constructivism theories. In this, knowledge is constructed by the learner through the interpretation of personal experiences based on his/ her cognitive and mental abilities. It is not just induced form the environment automatically and calls for active involvement.
B) RADICAL CONSTRUCTIVISM
Radical constructivism also emphasizes the construction of knowledge and states that textbook knowledge is not that meaningful. It can be connected to the working methodologies of mathematics, but it is difficult to understand and implement.
C) SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM
Peers and people in society majorly influence the experience and learning process of an individual. Teachers family, friends, administrators and peers directly affect a student in various activities in a classroom. Even outside the school, this influence is significant. Hence, social constructivism is also an essential form of types of constructivism.
D) CULTURAL CONSTRUCTIVISM
Culture and traditions of a place also affect a person's perfective and opinion of things. By observing a person's cultural background, one can make out the factors that affect their perception.

SOME COMMON BELIEFS OF CONSTRUCTIVISM

Here are some common beliefs and myths regarding constructivism learning thoery:

Learning refers to the finding of meaning behind the concepts. Hence, it should be influenced by individuals daily life experiences and their surrounding atmosphere.

Application-based learning is more important than bookish knowledge. Education should be imparted in context with practical learning and understanding the ideation behind the theoretical concepts.

To ensure proficient and productive teaching practices, a teacher must be able to analyze the thinking capabilities of a student first. Their thinking procedures and assumptions should be taken into account.

Instead of accessing and mugging up the answer to a problem, the student should be able to come to a conclusion about things from their point of view. This develops the involvement process of the students and also ensures a better understanding of the concepts involved in the teaching scenario.

When a student joins an Indian school or any other type of formal training, he already has established a view about the world through constructivism.

A student can then evolve their perception based on the knowledge provided in the classroom and connect it with their experiences.

New ideas can be constructed as a student has a good set of logical and reasoning skills. Also, concepts get relayed in a better manner through the practical learning approach, and they lead towards a better understanding.

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Constructivism learning theory in education - Types & Common believes

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Constructivism learning is a method in which students learn and gain knowledge on bases of experiences. Everyone constructs their own understanding on basis of the the things they experience.

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In fact, there are a number of different approaches or terms within this broad heading, such as experiential learning, co-operative learning, adventure learning and apprenticeship. I will use the term 'experiential learning' as a broad umbrella term to cover this wide variety of approaches to learning by doing.

3.6.1. What is experiential learning?

There are many different theorists in this area, such as John Dewey (1938) and more recently David Kolb (1984).

Simon Fraser University defines experiential learning as:

" the strategic, active engagement of students in opportunities to learn through doing, and reflection on those activities, which empowers them to apply their theoretical knowledge to practical endeavours in a multitude of settings inside and outside of the classroom."

There is a wide range of design models that aim to embed learning within real world contexts, including:

laboratory, workshop or studio work;

apprenticeship;

problem-based learning;

case-based learning;

project-based learning;

inquiry-based learning;

cooperative (work- or community-based) learning.

The focus here is on some of the main ways in which experiential learning can be designed and delivered, with particular respect to the use of technology, and in ways that help develop the knowledge and skills needed in a digital age. (For a more detailed analysis of experiential learning, see Moon, 2004).

3.6.2 Core design principles

Experiential learning focuses on learners reflecting on their experience of doing something, so as to gain conceptual insight as well as practical expertise. Kolb's experiential learning model suggest four stages in this process:

active experimentation;

concrete experience;

reflective observation;

abstract conceptualization.

Experiential learning is a major form of teaching at the University of Waterloo. Its web site lists the conditions needed to ensure that experiential learning is effective, as identified by the Association for Experiential Education.

Ryerson University in Toronto is another institution with extensive use of experiential learning, and also has an extensive web site on the topic, also directed at instructors. The next section examines different ways in which these principles have been applied.

3.6.3 Experiential design models

There are many different design models for experiential learning, but they also have many features in common.

3.6.3.1 Laboratory, workshop or studio work

Today, we take almost for granted that laboratory classes are an essential part of teaching science and engineering. Workshops and studios are considered critical for many forms of trades training or the development of creative arts. Labs, workshops and studios serve a number of important functions or goals, which include:

to give students hands-on experience in choosing and using common scientific, engineering or trades equipment appropriately;

to develop motor skills in using scientific, engineering or industrial tools or creative media;

to give students an understanding of the advantages and limitations of laboratory experiments;

to enable students to see science, engineering or trade work 'in action';

to enable students to test hypotheses or to see how well concepts, theories, procedures actually work when tested under laboratory conditions;

to teach students how to design and/or conduct experiments;

to enable students to design and create objects or equipment in different physical media.

An important pedagogical value of laboratory classes is that they enable students to move from the concrete (observing phenomena) to the abstract (understanding the principles or theories that are derived from the observation of phenomena). Another is that the laboratory introduces students to a critical cultural aspect of science and engineering, that all ideas need to be tested in a rigorous and particular manner for them to be considered 'true'.

One major criticism of traditional educational labs or workshops is that they are limited in the kinds of equipment and experiences that scientists, engineers and trades people need today. As scientific, engineering and trades equipment becomes more sophisticated and expensive, it becomes increasingly difficult to provide students in schools especially but increasingly now in colleges and universities direct access to such equipment. Furthermore traditional teaching labs or workshops are capital and labour intensive and hence do not scale easily, a critical disadvantage in rapidly expanding educational opportunities.

Because laboratory work is such an accepted part of science teaching, it is worth remembering that teaching science through laboratory work is in historical terms a fairly recent development. In the 1860s neither Oxford nor Cambridge University were willing to teach empirical science. Thomas Huxley therefore developed a program at the Royal School of Mines (a constituent college of what is now Imperial College, of the University of London) to teach school-teachers how to teach science, including how to design laboratories for teaching experimental science to school children, a method that is still the most commonly used today, both in schools and universities.

At the same time, scientific and engineering progress since the nineteenth century has resulted in other forms of scientific testing and validation that take place outside at least the kind of 'wet labs' so common in schools and universities. Examples are nuclear accelerators, nanotechnology, quantum mechanics and space exploration. Often the only way to observe or record phenomena in such contexts is remotely or digitally. It is also important to be clear about the objectives of lab, workshop and studio work. There may now be other, more practical, more economic, or more powerful ways of achieving these objectives through the use of new technology, such as remote labs, simulations, and experiential learning. These will be examined in more detail later in this book.

3.6.3.2 Problem-based learning

The earliest form of systematised problem-based learning (PBL) was developed in 1969 by Howard Barrows and colleagues in the School of Medicine at McMaster University in Canada, from where it has spread to many other universities, colleges and schools. This approach is increasingly used in subject domains where the knowledge base is rapidly expanding and where it is impossible for students to master all the knowledge in the domain within a limited period of study. Working in groups, students identify what they already know, what they need to know, and how and where to access new information that may lead to resolution of the problem. The role of the instructor (usually called a tutor in classic PBL) is critical in facilitating and guiding the learning process.

Usually PBL follows a strongly systematised approach to solving problems, although the detailed steps and sequence tend to vary to some extent, depending on the subject domain. The following is a typical example:

Traditionally, the first five steps would be done in a small face-to-face class tutorial of 20-25 students, with the sixth step requiring either individual or small group (four or five students) private study, with a the seventh step being accomplished in a full group meeting with the tutor. However, this approach also lends itself to blended learning in particular, where the research solution is done mainly online, although some instructors have managed the whole process online, using a combination of synchronous web conferencing and asynchronous online discussion.

Developing a complete problem-based learning curriculum is challenging, as problems must be carefully chosen, increasing in complexity and difficulty over the course of study, and problems must be chosen so as to cover all the required components of the curriculum. Students often find the problem-based learning approach challenging, particularly in the early stages, where their foundational knowledge base may not be sufficient to solve some of the problems. (The term 'cognitive overload' has been used to describe this situation.) Others argue that lectures provide a quicker and more condensed way to cover the same topics. Assessment also has to be carefully designed, especially if a final exam carries heavy weight in grading, to ensure that problem-solving skills as well as content coverage are measured.

However, research (see for instance, Strobel and van Barneveld, 2009) has found that problem-based learning is better for long-term retention of material and developing 'replicable' skills, as well as for improving students' attitudes towards learning. There are now many variations on the 'pure' PBL approach, with problems being set after initial content has been covered in more traditional ways, such as lectures or prior reading, for instance.

3.6.3.3 Case-based learning

With case-based teaching, students develop skills in analytical thinking and reflective judgment by reading and discussing complex, real-life scenarios.
University of Michigan Centre for Research on Teaching and Learning
Case-based learning is sometimes considered a variation of PBL, while others see it as a design model in its own right. As with PBL, case-based learning uses a guided inquiry method, but usually requires the students to have a degree of prior knowledge that can assist in analysing the case. There is usually more flexibility in the approach to case-based learning compared to PBL. Case-based learning is particularly popular in business education, law schools and clinical practice in medicine, but can be used in many other subject domains.

Herreid (2004) provides eleven basic rules for case-based learning.

1. Tells a story.

2. Focuses on an interest-arousing issue.

3. Set in the past five years

4. Creates empathy with the central characters.

5. Includes direct quotations from the characters.

6. Relevant to the reader.

7. Must have pedagogic utility.

8. Conflict provoking.

9. Decision forcing.

10. Has generality.

11. Is short.

Using examples from clinical practice in medicine, Irby (1994) recommends five steps in case-based learning:

anchor teaching in a (carefully chosen) case;

actively involve learners in discussing, analysing and making recommendations regarding the case;

model professional thinking and action as an instructor when discussing the case with learners;

provide direction and feedback to learners in their discussions;

create a collaborative learning environment where all views are respected.

Case-based learning can be particularly valuable for dealing with complex, interdisciplinary topics or issues which have no obvious 'right or wrong' solutions, or where learners need to evaluate and decide on competing, alternative explanations. Case-based learning can also work well in both blended and fully online environments. Marcus, Taylor and Ellis (2004) used the following design model for a case-based blended learning project in veterinary science:

Other configurations are of course also possible, depending on the requirements of the subject.

3.6.3.4 Project-based learning

Project-based learning is similar to case-based learning, but tends to be longer and broader in scope, and with even more student autonomy/responsibility in the sense of choosing sub-topics, organising their work, and deciding on what methods to use to conduct the project. Projects are usually based around real world problems, which give students a sense of responsibility and ownership in their learning activities.

Once again, there are several best practices or guidelines for successful project work. For instance, Larmer and Mergendoller (2010) argue that every good project should meet two criteria:

students must perceive the work as personally meaningful, as a task that matters and that they want to do well;

a meaningful project fulfills an educational purpose.

The main danger with project-based learning is that the project can take on a life of its own, with not only students but the instructor losing focus on the key, essential learning objectives, or important content areas may not get covered. Thus project-based learning needs careful design and monitoring by the instructor.

3.6.3.5 Inquiry-based learning

Inquiry-based learning (IBL) is similar to project-based learning, but the role of the teacher/instructor is somewhat different. In project-based learning, the instructor decides the 'driving question' and plays a more active role in guiding the students through the process. In inquiry-based learning, the learner explores a theme and chooses a topic for research, develops a plan of research and comes to conclusions, although an instructor is usually available to provide help and guidance when needed.

Banchi and Bell (2008) suggest that there are different levels of inquiry, and students need to begin at the first level and work through the other levels to get to 'true' or 'open' inquiry as follows:

It can be seen that the fourth level of inquiry describes the graduate thesis process, although proponents of inquiry-based learning have advocated its value at all levels of education.

3.6.4 Experiential learning in online learning environments

Advocates of experiential learning are often highly critical of online learning, because, they argue, it is impossible to embed learning in real world examples. However, this is an oversimplification, and there are contexts in which online learning can be used very effectively to support or develop experiential learning, in all its variations:

blended or flipped learning: although group sessions to start off the process, and to bring a problem or project to a conclusion, are usually done in a classroom or lab setting, students can increasingly conduct the research and information gathering by accessing resources online, by using online multimedia resources to create reports or presentations, and by collaborating online through group project work or through critique and evaluation of each other's work;

fully online: increasingly, instructors are finding that experiential learning can be applied fully online, through a combination of synchronous tools such as web conferencing, asynchronous tools such as discussion forums and/or social media for group work, e-portfolios and multimedia for reporting, and remote labs for experimental work.

Indeed, there are circumstances where it is impractical, too dangerous, or too expensive to use real world experiential learning. Online learning can be used to simulate real conditions and to reduce the time to master a skill. Flight simulators have long been used to train commercial pilots, enabling trainee pilots to spend less time mastering fundamentals on real aircraft. Commercial flight simulators are still extremely expensive to build and operate, but in recent years the costs of creating realistic simulations has dropped dramatically.

Instructors at Loyalist College have created a 'virtual' fully functioning border crossing and a virtual car in Second Life to train Canadian Border Services Agents. Each student takes on the role of an agent, with his/her avatar interviewing the avatars of the travellers wishing to enter Canada. All communication is done by voice communications in Second Life, with the people playing the travellers in a separate room from the students. Each student interviews three or four travellers and the entire class observes the interactions and discusses the situations and the responses. A secondary site for auto searches features a virtual car that can be completely dismantled so students learn all possible places where contraband may be concealed. This learning is then reinforced with a visit to the auto shop at Loyalist College and the search of an actual car. The students in the customs and immigration track are assessed on their interviewing techniques as part of their final grades. Students participating in the first year of the Second Life border simulation achieved a grade standing that was 28 per cent higher than the previous class who did not utilize a virtual world. The next class, using Second Life, scored a further 9 per cent higher. More details can be found here.

Staff in the Emergency Management Division at the Justice Institute of British Columbia have developed a simulation tool called Praxis that helps to bring critical incidents to life by introducing real-world simulations into training and exercise programs. Because participants can access Praxis via the web, it provides the flexibility to deliver immersive, interactive and scenario-based training exercises anytime, anywhere. A typical emergency might be a major fire in a warehouse containing dangerous chemicals. 'Trainee' first responders, who will include fire, police and paramedical personnel, as well as city engineers and local government officials, are 'alerted' on their mobile phones or tablets, and have to respond in real time to a fast developing scenario, 'managed' by a skilled facilitator, following procedures previously taught and also available on their mobile equipment. The whole process is recorded and followed later by a face-to-face debriefing session.

Once again, design models are not in most cases dependent on any particular medium. The pedagogy transfers easily across different delivery methods. Learning by doing is an important method for developing many of the skills needed in a digital age.

3.6.5 Strengths and weaknesses of experiential learning models

How one evaluates experiential learning designs depends partly on one's epistemological position. Constructivists strongly support experiential learning models, whereas those with a strong objectivist position are usually highly skeptical of the effectiveness of this approach. Nevertheless, problem-based learning in particular has proved to be very popular in many institutions teaching science or medicine, and project-based learning is used across many subject domains and levels of education. There is evidence that experiential learning, when properly designed, is highly engaging for students and leads to better long-term memory. Proponents also claim that it leads to deeper understanding, and develops skills for a digital age such as problem-solving, critical thinking, improved communications skills, and knowledge management. In particular, it enables learners to manage better highly complex situations that cross disciplinary boundaries, and subject domains where the boundaries of knowledge are difficult to manage.

Critics though such as Kirschner, Sweller and Clark (2006) argue that instruction in experiential learning is often 'unguided', and pointed to several 'meta-analyses' of the effectiveness of problem-based learning that indicated no difference in problem-solving abilities, lower basic science exam scores, longer study hours for PBL students, and that PBL is more costly. They conclude:

In so far as there is any evidence from controlled studies, it almost uniformly supports direct, strong instructional guidance rather than constructivist-based minimal guidance during the instruction of novice to intermediate learners. Even with students with considerable prior knowledge, strong guidance when learning is most often found to be equally effective as unguided approaches.

Certainly, experiential learning approaches require considerable re-structuring of teaching and a great deal of detailed planning if the curriculum is to be fully covered. It usually means extensive re-training of faculty, and careful orientation and preparation of students. I would also agree with Kirschner et al. that just giving students tasks to do in real world situations without guidance and support is likely to be ineffective.

However, many forms of experiential learning can and do have strong guidance from instructors, and one has to be very careful when comparing matched groups that the tests of knowledge include measurement of the skills that are claimed to be developed by experiential learning, and are not just based on the same assessments as for traditional methods, which often have a heavy bias towards memorisation and comprehension.

On balance then, I would support the use of experiential learning for developing the knowledge and skills needed in a digital age, but as always, it needs to be done well, following best practices associated with the design models.

Activity 3.6 Assessing experiential design models

1. If you have experiences with experiential learning, what worked well and what didn't?

2. Are the differences between problem-based learning, case-based learning, project-based learning and inquiry-based learning significant, or are they really just minor variations on the same design model?

3. Do you have a preference for any one of the models? If so, why?

4. Do you agree that experiential learning can be done just as well online as in classrooms or in the field? If not, what is the 'uniqueness' of doing it face-to-face that cannot be replicated online? Can you give an example?

5. Kirschner, Sweller and Clark's paper is a powerful condemnation of PBL. Read it in full, then decide whether or not you share their conclusion, and if not, why not.

Banchi, H., and Bell, R. (2008). The Many Levels of Inquiry Science and Children, Vol. 46, No. 2

Dewey, J. (1938). Experience & Education. New York, NY: Kappa Delta Pi

Gijselaers, W., (1995) 'Perspectives on problem-based learning' in Gijselaers, W, Tempelaar, D, Keizer, P, Blommaert, J, Bernard, E & Kapser, H (eds) Educational Innovation in Economics and Business Administration: The Case of Problem-Based Learning. Dordrecht, Kluwer.

Herreid, C. F. (2007). Start with a story: The case study method of teaching college science. Arlington VA: NSTA Press.

Irby, D. (1994) Three exemplary models of case-based teaching Academic Medicine, Vol. 69, No. 12

Kirshner, P., Sweller, J. amd Clark, R. (2006) Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching Educational Psychologist, Vo. 41, No.2

Kolb. D. (1984) Experiential Learning: Experience as the source of learning and development Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice Hall

Larmer, J. and Mergendoller, J. (2010) Seven essentials for project-based learning Educational Leadership, Vol. 68, No. 1

Marcus, G. Taylor, R. and Ellis, R. (2004) Implications for the design of online case-based learning activities based on the student blended learning experience: Perth, Australia: Proceedings of the ACSCILITE conference, 2004

Moon, J.A. (2004) A Handbook of Reflective and Experiential Learning: Theory and Practice New York: Routledge

Strobel, J. , & van Barneveld, A. (2009). When is PBL More Effective? A Meta-synthesis of Meta-analyses Comparing PBL to Conventional Classrooms. Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning, Vol. 3, No. 1

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3.6 Experiential learning: learning by doing (2)

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In fact, there are a number of different approaches or terms within this broad heading, such as experiential learning, co-operative learning, adventure learning and apprenticeship. I will use the term 'experiential learning' as a broad umbrella term to cover this wide variety of approaches to learning by doing.

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Contextual Learning to a student's experience, is the modern practical method of learning. Rather than just asking the children to learn from their textbooks, this method seeks to give their learning a purpose. The conventional educational system, in which pupils were merely instructed to absorb knowledge from books, ironically distanced the student from the quest of knowledge. While this is subjective, it applies to the vast majority of pupils. In this blog, we will see what exactly is contextual learning, how to implement contextual learning and more about contextual learning.

What is Contextual Learning?

Contextual learning is a method that provides a frame of reference to the learning process, making it simpler for students to apply the material to real-life events and everyday tasks. This sort of learning occurs when development and education experts and teachers deliver new material in ways that enable the learner to derive meaning from their personal experiences. Learning in context can enable the students to understand the significance of discipline information and skills, improving motivation and engagement. Meanwhile, learning that occurs outside of the context in which information and skills will be used may impede or impair a student's ability to transfer and apply such knowledge to the real world or in a new setting.

The core concept of contextual learning is to investigate how placing learning into context might render the experience more relevant for students. A contextualized learning opportunity educates students for life beyond the classroom by allowing them to explore knowledge in numerous situations and discover how it applies to them. Students begin to understand how well the knowledge learned throughout their studies relates to their planned career, the workplace, other elements of life, and the world as a whole.

Contextual professional learning also teaches students what it is like to be a practitioner in their chosen field. It can assist students in developing their professional identity and effectiveness as future members of a specific profession or business. Contextualization also teaches students to other peers' and fields' viewpoints, as well as how they connect with their own and in their own circumstances.

How to Implement Contextual Learning?

1. Engage your pupils in relevant industrial activities. Industry events and interactions should be advertised and promoted. This might include panel discussions, conferences, industry guest lectures, materials that examine potential career paths, and interviews with alumni.

2. In order to teach the material, include real-world and workplace situations into learning activities and assessments. What are the duties and problems that experts in your field face on a daily basis? How might these working scenarios be copied, reproduced, altered, or integrated into learning or evaluation activities? What approaches, tools, procedures, and analyses are employed in the field? How can they be used to teach content? Students will get a better understanding of how information is organized and utilized in their area by making connections to the business and the actual reality.

3. Maintain contact with key stakeholders, the broader community, and alumni. Consult with them to help you build genuine learning activities and assessments. Make use of their expertise to stay on track with market trends and expectations. Use these connections to give chances for students to interact with industry, such as job placements and industry networking.

4. Encourage students to consider possible and practical applications of their knowledge through learning activities. Investigate and use contextualized methodologies such as project-based learning, case-based learning, and work-integrated learning. Contextualized teaching and learning should result in more genuine evaluation. Maintain these distinct connections throughout your studies.

5. Promote and advertise work-integrated learning events to your students. What kind of work placement courses, practicums, volunteer initiatives, and research projects could they do as parts of their course or as extra curricular activities? Are there opportunities that are not affiliated with the university? Students completing work placements should be framed as growing professionals rather than students; this will result in a more realistic learning opportunity for the learner.

6. It's important to remember that not all learning is contextualized, and that decontextualization is not always bad. It is possible to combine contextualization with decontextualization.

Characteristics of Contextual Learning:

Contextual Teaching and Learning incorporates strategies such as solving problems, self-directed learning, peer instruction, starting to learn in real situations, and authentic evaluations into learning activities; the major aspects of its assimilation are as follows and can be integrated into teaching activities, work - based learning, conceptual material, capstone projects, dissertations, online course material, and synchronous and asynchronous Chalkboard learning.

Strategies for Contextual Teaching and Learning

Linking material to the learner's experience

Inviting pupils to participate in active learning

Giving pupils the opportunity to guide their own learning.

Promoting the development of personal meaning through individual and group experience

Evaluating achievement of results in an actual scenario and allowing for many interpretations of a same event

Identifying information that is developmentally suitable for the learner

You might ask why to adopt this Contextual Learning Methodology. Here are the 3 steps to consider.

1.Faster time to value with better results

The tide of individualized learning is stronger than ever, particularly in light of the present epidemic, i.e. although remote employment has become the new standard, organizations assume that training programmes tailored to an individual's function will result in higher employee productivity.

Contextual learning produces the same outcomes. In essence, it is a programme that is tailored to the learner's position, daily life, and real-world events, resulting in stronger reinforcement of learning and, as a result, better achievements in a shorter time period.

2.Easy to remember and digest

According to a Forgetting Curve research, a student forgets 90% of the material they acquire in the first year. Contextual learning incorporates the knowledge to be transmitted into the natural flow of work, allowing for improved retention and application of what is learnt.

3.An overall better learning experience

When the proper technique is not followed, there are a variety of barriers to having a successful learning experience. They are as follows:

The requirement to establish a threshold to notify the teacher that a skill has been achieved.

A reduction in total production.

Having to adapt generalized learning material to context-specific scenarios.

Contextual learning overcomes all of these obstacles to offer a learning experience that is pleasurable, output-driven, and self-sufficient over time. It also improves your workforce's flexibility and mobility during crisis situations.

We at Vikas Concept, understands the importance of contextual learning and encourages students and teachers to follow it. Vikas The Concept School is a center of excellence dedicated to developing children into future leaders. Through a systematic strategy, we provide concept and comprehensive-centered education. Order, independence, a joy of learning, a sense of being part of the larger world, and a sense of social duty are all fostered in our educational environment. "Every kid is creative and distinctive" - With this in mind, we give several possibilities for them to explore their abilities. Vikas The Concept School continues to motivate pupils, resulting in the highest possible participation in all events. For more information do contact us.

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Contextual Learning - What You Need to Know | Vikas School

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The Essence of Contextual Learning on Vikas The Concept School. Uncover insights and essentials in a concise journey to knowledge enrichment.

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There's no doubt about it: Contextualizing can dramatically boost teaching and learning outcomes! While lately, there has been an increased appreciation of the use of contextualized learning activities in adult education, the fact is that the concept itself is not novel.

Even in our everyday lives, we appreciate the effects of contextualization - behaving in one way in one situation, while using another set of behaviors in a different context - although we may not be actively conscious of it.

In this article, we'll take a closer look at the contextual knowledge definition, so that we can better understand how it can be leveraged in corporate teaching and learning settings.

Understanding contextualized learning

Anyone who works in a team will understand the social stigma associated with people whispering when they are in a group setting. It's often considered rude and impolite. However, when considered in another context - of say, a hospital, or a gathering like a funeral - then whispering may be deemed acceptable.

Contextualized teaching and learning builds upon a similar concept of putting academic activities into perspective to achieve the best teaching and learning outcomes.

So, what exactly are contextualized learning activities, and how do they impact learning outcomes?

Researchers and academics Berns, Robert G. and Erickson, Patricia M. published a paper that defines contextualized learning as a practice that endeavors to link theoretical constructs that are taught during learning, to practical, real-world context.

The underlying theme behind the use of contextual learning activities is simple. It recognizes that by embedding instructions in contexts that adult learners are familiar with, learners more readily understand and assimilate those instructions.

This realization is grounded in constructionist learning theory, which holds that people learn better when encouraged to construct relevance between the instructions they receive, and interpretations of those instructions within the context of their own environments.

Why use a contextual learning approach?

For any teaching and learning approach to be adopted as an acceptable pedagogy, it must demonstrate that its core principles are in keeping with the broader body of pedagogical findings. Contextualized teaching and learning approaches have been proven to be grounded in:

1) Pedagogical theory: Contextual learning activities are aligned with the mainstream pedagogical body of knowledge, including Motivation Theories, Social Learning Theories, Problem-centered Learning and modern psychological and physiological research around how human brains learn.

2) "Real world" application: Rather than teach for the abstract or theoretical world, using contextual learning strategies helps companies prepare their employees to take on real-world challenges that their staff faces in the workplace.

3) Specificity: Because the contextual learning approach to training a workforce relies on "context", trainers can offer content built to deal with company-specific context in mind.

4) Speed: By focusing on the "big picture first" (more on this later), this training approach trains employees much quicker than the traditional "crawl...toddle...walk...run" approach.

While other training approaches might also work well, the inclusion of contextual learning examples as part of corporate training will help produce a workforce that's more adept at real-world problem solving.

Contextual learning strategies in practice

The following best practices should be considered when designing your contextualized approach to learning and training your corporate staff:

1) Design with the most relevant approach in mind

There are a number of contextual learning strategies that you can implement, including Knowledge-based, Skills-based and cognitive approaches. Make sure that you choose the strategy that's most appropriate to the learning you wish to impart to your audience.

For example, while a skills-based approach might work in one context, in another it might ignore the practical application required to effectively transfer knowledge regarding a specific learning objective.

2) Design for effectiveness

For a contextualized approach to learning to be effective, it's not sufficient to just impart the knowledge or skills required to achieve a learning objective. You need to design activities that also teach the procedurs, processes and discipline on how and when to apply those skills and that knowledge in a given context.

3) Design for transference

Often, when an employee moves from one position to another (horizontally, laterally or even externally, to another organization), they need to be able to transfer their skills, knowledge and experiences to that new environment.

A research-based publication of the Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education National Research Council found that much greater transfer of knowledge takes place when information is organized in a conceptual framework. When that happens, learners were found to be more adept at applying what they learned to newer situations in the workplace.

Therefore, it is important that you design your contextualized learning activities in a way that learners are able to adapt and transfer them to newer contexts, as opposed to relating them to just one specific context.

4) Design with social consciousness

The typical workforce today is highly multicultural, with employees coming from different ethnicities, cultural and social backgrounds. Therefore, it is imperative that when pulling together contextualized learning activities as part of a course, you also factor in those social "nuances".

In some cultures, for instance, it may not be appropriate for male and female colleagues to participate in two-person activities. As a result, learners with specific cultural backgrounds might be resistant to absorbing new information/skills using a contextual learning approach that challenges their ingrained social norms.

In such a situation, slightly changing the makeup of the learning team, perhaps into a small group configuration (as opposed to one male and one female), might create a better context for learning to be transferred more effectively.

5) Design iteratively

Compared to traditional approaches, contextual learning involves a slightly different approach to designing learning activities. You need to be more iterative in designing learning content, by starting with an immediate focus on broad contextualized learning activities that learners need to perform as part of their daily work routine first.

You can then build supporting contextual learning activities that focus on the basic skills and knowledge required to effectively carry out those broad activities. This approach is repeated in several iterations, enabling learners to get a better appreciation of the "big picture" first; and therefore subsequently grasp the "smaller" nuances that make up that broader view.

6) Design for groups

The most successful contextual learning strategies are those that are designed with groups of learners in mind - as opposed to focusing on individual learners. That's because in the real world, learners must interact with fellow workers, supervisors, management teams, and a host of other individuals and groups.

By designing your contextual learning activities with groups of interdependent learners in mind, you stand a better chance that learning will mimic the real world where these individuals will subsequently interact. In designing group learning, you'll also leverage the power of individuals learning from other individuals - something that routinely occurs in the workforce today.

7) Design assessments appropriately

When designing your contextualized approach to learning, you should evaluate learners based on authentic assessments, instead of measuring their command of remembering or blindly performing specific activities.

Jon Mueller, Professor of Psychology, defines authentic assessment as assessments where learners are required to show their command of what they learned, by applying that knowledge and those skills to real-world tasks.

Assessing the outcomes of contextualized learning activities based on authentic assessment will ensure that transfer of learning has actually occurred and that employees are well equipped to put the skills and knowledge learned to effective use in their workplaces.

The takeaways

Contextualized learning is real, and it works! By including contextualized learning activities in your corporate training initiatives, you'll not only produce workforce-ready teams more quickly but will also ensure that your teams absorb the information being taught more effectively.

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Contextualized Learning: Teaching made highly effective!

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There's no doubt about it: Contextualizing can dramatically boost teaching and learning outcomes! While lately, there has been an increased appreciation of the use of contextualized learning activities in adult education, the fact is that the concept itself is not novel.

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Classroom Activities on Perspective Taking

Every perception a person has is based upon their own personal experience. People perceive the world differently because no two people have the same experiences. Experience makes us who we are. It shapes our minds and opinions, our likes and dislikes. Therefore, it is difficult to have one ideal definition of certain concepts, such as justice, virtue, and an ideal society. Our experiences color our opinions of people different than ourselves and even our opinion of the dark. The only way to create one perception of reality would be to systematically force everyone to have the same experiences. Fortunately, by using the kind of perception checking skills explored earlier, we can do our best to understand how others are experiencing the world and we can avoid misinterpreting their behavior.

Learning Activities

The following activities from the CRE Curriculum materials developed by the Ohio Commission on Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management can provide you and your students with fun and interactive ways to look at perception and perspective taking.

Seeing Different Things in the Same Image

Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License

Brought to you by CReducation.org

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Classroom Activities on Perspective Taking

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Classroom Activities on Perspective Taking Every perception a person has is based upon their own personal experience. People perceive the world differently because no two people have the same experiences. Experience makes us who we are. It shapes our minds and opinions, our likes and dislikes.

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Abstract

The past few years have been marked by a large number of discoveries about the learning brain. Those insights have the potential to support teachers in designing even better classroom environments to help you learn better. While understanding the brain can be helpful for teachers, this knowledge can also be beneficial for you as a student. For instance, it can encourage you to believe in your capacity to improve your own skills. Such beliefs make it more likely for you to make an effort and to make better use of supportive learning strategies []. In this article, we briefly present some core principles of the learning brain and suggest learning strategies inspired by neuroscience for you to try at school or at home.

What Happens in My Brain When I Am Learning?

Your brain is primarily composed of about 85 billion neurons, which is more than the number of stars you can see with the naked eye in the night sky. A neuron is a cell which acts as a messenger, sending information in the form of nerve impulses (like electrical signals) to other neurons (see Figure 1). For example, when you are writing, some neurons in your brain send the "move fingers" message to other neurons and this message then travels through the nerves (like cables) all the way to your fingers. The electrical signals that are communicated from one neuron to another are therefore what allows you to do everything you do: write, think, see, jump, talk, compute, and so on. Each neuron can be connected with up to 10,000 other neurons, leading to a large number of connections in your brain [], which looks like a very dense spider web (see Figure 2).

Figure 1 - Figure illustrating two neurons that are connected.

Figure 2 - Figure illustrating the very large number of connections between neurons.

When you are learning, important changes take place in your brain, including the creation of new connections between your neurons. This phenomenon is called . The more you practice, the stronger these connections become. As your connections strengthen, the messages (nerve impulses) are transmitted increasingly faster, making them more efficient []. That is how you become better at anything you learn whether it is playing football, reading, drawing, etc. We can compare the connections between your neurons to trails in a forest (see Figure 3). Walking through a forest without a trail is difficult, because you have to compact and push the vegetation and branches out of the way to carve your way through. But the more you use the same trail, the easier and more practicable it becomes. Conversely, when you stop using the trail, the vegetation grows back, and the trail slowly disappears. This is very similar to what happens in your brain-when you stop practicing something, the connections between your neurons weaken and can ultimately be dismantled or pruned. That is why it may seem so difficult to start reading again when school starts if you have not read all summer. However, it is possible for some neural networks to become so strong that the trails or connections never completely disappear.

Figure 3 - Figure illustrating the analogy of the trail in the forest.

The fact that learning rewires your neurons shows how dynamic (plastic) your brain is-that the brain changes and does not remain fixed. Practicing or rehearsing repeatedly activates your neurons and makes you learn. These changes happen as early as when a baby is in their mother's womb and continues throughout a person's life. So, the question is, how can you help your neurons to create and strengthen their connections? Here, we present two strategies that appear to be more compatible with how your brain works and could help you learn better.

Which Learning Strategies Are More Compatible With Your Brain?

Because the connections between your neurons need to be activated multiple times to become stronger and more efficient, a first and crucial strategy is to repeatedly activate them. This means that to learn arithmetic tables for instance, you have to practice it repeatedly, to establish the "trail" between your neurons. As a baby, you were not able to speak and walk within 1 day: you practiced a lot. However, it is important to note that only reading or glancing at your arithmetic tables will not be that helpful in connecting your neurons. You might also find it quite disengaging and boring. To create the connections between your neurons, you need to retrieve the arithmetic tables from your memory. In other words, you have to try recall the answer yourself to activate your connections. We are not saying that this is easy to do! However, scientists think that this "struggle" improves learning because the challenge is an indication that you are building new connections. Remember, learning something new is like hiking in a bush with no designated trail, you will probably walk slowly at first, but if you keep hiking, trails will start forming and eventually you will be walking on well-beaten tracks. Besides, when you do try to recall what you have learned and make a mistake, it can help you identify gaps in your learning and give you an indication of which trail still needs to be worked on.

Scientists have also noted that performing tests or exams can help you remember information better than studying alone []. For example, if you study your arithmetic tables interspersed with test periods, you will probably perform better on your final test than if you had only studied. Why? The tests require that you retrieve the information from the neurons in which the information is stored, thus activating your connections and contributing to their strengthening. The point is thus to practice retrieval in an engaging way. There are different strategies that you could try at home, for example answering practice questions or using flashcards. These should improve learning more than re-reading or listening to lectures (as long as you do not flip the flashcard over before recalling the answer!). Other strategies include preparing questions to ask to a classmate or a parent as well as redoing tests or exercises. Use your imagination! What you need to remember is that first, for your neurons to strengthen their connections, you need to retrieve the information and avoid just reading or listening to the answer. Second, you should plan a way to get feedback to know whether you got something correct or incorrect. Do not be discouraged if you face challenges, this is a natural step of the learning process taking place in your brain!

Now that you know that neurons need to be activated repeatedly for learning to occur (and that it means retrieving information), you probably wonder how often you should practice. Scientists who study the learning brain observed that breaks and sleep between learning periods enhance learning and minimize forgetting []. It therefore seems better to retrieve often within spaced practice sessions, as opposed to a massed practice (practicing a task continuously without rest). For instance, instead of studying or doing homework for 3 h, after which you would probably feel exhausted anyway, you could separate this learning period into three 1-h periods or even into six half-an-hour periods. In short, when spacing your retrieval practice, you allow your brain to make the connections that you strengthened during your practice sessions more efficient. When you take a quick break from practicing, let us say a 20 min recess, you allow for the maintenance or replacement of the receptors on the surface of the neurons. The receptors are like electric outlets that receive the nerve impulse (electrical signals) from other neurons. Taking a break helps them work better: your neurons can thus transmit their nerve impulses more easily to other neurons. Finally, when you get a night of sleep between practice sessions, you actually benefit from a free retrieval practice session because while you sleep, your brain reactivates the connections between the neurons that you activated during the day. You could also get similar benefits from a nap. Next time you find yourself sleepy in class, you could tell your teacher that you are in fact trying to do retrieval practice! In brief, when spacing out learning, and especially retrieval practice, your brain is more activated than when you mass learn in one long session.

At this point, you are probably asking yourself how to space out learning in your day-to-day life. The good news is that there are a number of ways to do it and it can be easily adapted to different skills, such as solving mathematical problems or memorizing definitions. The most obvious change you can make to your study schedule is to break up sessions into smaller sessions. You could also ask your teacher to set daily or weekly review quizzes and other assignments. Finally, spacing can be done by doing interleaved practice. This consists of a set of problems arranged so that consecutive problems cannot be solved by the same strategy. For example, you could mix your math problems so that geometry questions, algebra, or inequality problems are randomly sequenced. The added benefit of interleaving is that you engage in different activities in-between two sessions, making good use of your time. In brief, one thing to keep in mind is that information that was previously learned will require less effort to re-learn because the spacing gives your brain time to consolidate-meaning your brain produces the building blocks required for the connections between your neurons.

Conclusion

Your brain is where learning occurs and you therefore need to keep your neurons active to optimize the use of class or study time. The two learning strategies proposed in this article have the potential to help you learn better by creating optimal conditions to strengthen and consolidate the connections between your neurons. You now know that you can get better by repeatedly using the "trails" in your brain and by spacing out your practice. This greater understanding of how your brain learns and the use of supportive learning strategies can now allow you to help your brain learn better!

Glossary

Neuroplasticity: ↑ The ability of your brain to change, that is to create, strenghten, weaken or dismantle connections between your neurons.

Repeatedly Activating Your Neurons: ↑ Practicing a lot, trying to retrieve information from your memory, for example by explaining a concept to a friend or answering quiz questions.

Spacing the Activation of Neurons: ↑ Practicing more often but for a shorter period. For example, instead of studying for 2 h in a row, studying 4 periods of 30 min over a few days allows your brain to take breaks and sleep which helps you remember better in the long run.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

We would like to wholeheartedly thank those who assisted in the translation of the articles in this Collection to make them more accessible to kids outside English-speaking countries, and for the Jacobs Foundation for providing the funds necessary to translate the articles. For this article, we would especially like to thank Nienke van Atteveldt and Sabine Peters for the Dutch translation.

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Understanding Your Brain to Help You Learn Better

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The past few years have been marked by a large number of discoveries about the learning brain. Those insights have the potential to support teachers in designing even better classroom environments to help you learn better. While understanding the brain can be helpful for teachers, this knowledge can also be beneficial for you as a student.

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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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Using Retrieval Practice to Increase Student Learning

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Using Retrieval Practice to Increase Student Learning

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What is Retrieval Practice?

Retrieval practice is the strategy of recalling facts, concepts, or events from memory in order to enhance learning. The act of retrieving something from your memory actually strengthens the connections holding it there, making it more likely that you'll be able to recall it in the future. A classic example of retrieval practice is using flashcards as a study tool. Sometimes called the "testing effect," retrieval practice in teaching is not limited to quizzes or exams, but can include any exercise where students attempt to retrieve what they have learned from their memory.

Evidence shows that retrieval practice is especially effective at increasing longer-term retention and generally outperforms more common strategies such as repeated studying or even more elaborate ones like concept mapping (McDermott, 2021; Karpicke & Blunt, 2011; Roediger & Karpicke, 2006). Research in classrooms demonstrates that retrieval practice is an extremely robust strategy across age groups and subject domains (McDermott, 2021). Retrieval practice also aids in higher-order thinking; it's not just for memorization. Students who use retrieval practice perform better on complex tasks and show improved metacognition (Pooja & Bain, 2019).

Incorporating activities using retrieval practice into your teaching can increase your students' learning.

Three Ways to Use Retrieval Practice in During Class

There are many ways to use retrieval practice in your instruction (Agarwal & Bain, 2019). Here are three easy ways to get started:

1) Low-stakes Quizzes

Frequent low-stakes quizzes are an easy way to incorporate retrieval practice. Quizzes can be free response, multiple choice, or another format. In-class polling works well too. Student feedback can be automatic (in the case of online quizzes), from the instructor, or from peers.

Questions should be neither too hard nor too easy. The goal is to achieve "desirable difficulty."

2) Two Things Activity

Ask students to recall and write down two things they learned today, last class or within a unit of your course. Feedback can come from peers (in pairs or groups), and/or class discussion.

3) Brain Dumps

Ask students to write down everything they know about a certain topic. The exact prompt used can be narrow (e.g., What is the definition of culture from our textbook?) or broad (e.g., Why does social mobility vary across social groups?), depending on your learning goals. Optionally, students can then compare and contrast their answers with peers in small groups or breakout rooms. A full class discussion can be used to provide instructor feedback.

Tips for Teaching with Retrieval Practice

Keeping these general tips in mind can help maximize the benefits of retrieval practice exercises for students.

Giving feedback to students is an important part of retrieval practice, especially when multiple-choice questions are used (Agarwal & Bain, 2019; Brown et al., 2014). Feedback lets the learners know about any errors they made and helps prevent accidentally encoding the wrong material into memory. It can also focus and motivate further study (i.e. it provides formative feedback).

Retrieval practice activities designed to engage every student are more effective than those that primarily engage only a few students at once. For example, a writing activity where everyone writes works better than asking the class a question and calling on a single student for an answer because the writing activity engages all students in the retrieval activity.

Most retrieval practice exercises are designed to be closed book in order to maximize "desirable difficulty." There is evidence, however, that retrieval practice works in both open- and closed-book settings (Agarwal et al., 2008). One possible disadvantage to open-book settings is that they may have the unintended effect of reducing student time spent studying if the students know that the future activity will be open book. In general, we suggest closed-book conditions for most retrieval practice exercises, unless other considerations make this impractical (e.g. online quizzes in remote or hybrid courses).

Explaining to students that the goal of the activity is learning and not assessment can increase student buy-in.

Not all activities need to be collected or graded, although sometimes collecting even ungraded tasks increases participation.

References

Agarwal, P. K., & Bain, P. M. (2019). Powerful teaching: Unleash the science of learning. Jossey-Bass.

Agarwal, P. K., Karpicke, J. D., Kang, S. H. K., Roediger, H. L., & McDermott, K. B. (2008). Examining the testing effect with open- and closed-book tests. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 22(7), 861-876. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.1391

Brown, P. C., Henry L. Roediger III, & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Make it stick: The science of successful learning. Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press.

Karpicke, J. D., & Blunt, J. R. (2011). Retrieval practice produces more learning than elaborative studying with concept mapping. Science, 331(6018), 772-775. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1199327

McDermott, K. B. (2021). Practicing retrieval facilitates learning. Annual Review of Psychology, 72(1), 609-633. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010419-051019

Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249-255. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01693.x

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Using Retrieval Practice to Increase Student Learning - Center for Teaching and Learning

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Retrieval practice is a powerful evidence-based teaching strategy that can easily be incorporated into you existing courses.

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What you should be doing when studying for a course isn't just "studying". A large body of research has shown that simply studying materials over and over (for instance, looking over your notes repeatedly) is not the most effective way to learn. Here we outline the do's and don'ts for one of the most effective alternatives to studying.

Don't: simply restudy information.

One of the reasons why restudying, rereading, and reviewing are not the most effective learning strategies is because they do not involve the actual cognitive processes that exams require. Specifically, on exams you must retrieve information from memory. There are no notes, lecture slides, or textbooks to consult (and even if such information were available, as occurs during an open book test, there often is not enough time to search through it efficiently). As such, the more thoroughly you have absorbed course content - and the more able you are to successfully retrieve that information during an exam - the better you are likely to do.

Learning scientists have determined that one method is especially effective at helping you retain information and successfully retrieve it later. That method is retrieval practice.

Do: practice recalling information from memory.

After you have finished reading through a set of lecture slides, your notes, or the textbook, put it aside. Without looking at those materials, try to remember what you have just learned, either mentally or by writing it down. In effect, you are giving yourself a practice test. Some information will readily come to mind, and some information might not. Some materials might be completely understood, and other materials might not. After you have recalled as much as you can remember, go back and check the course materials. Determine if the information that you recalled was correct and examine those portions that you did not fully recall or did not fully understand. Then, repeat the process.

If you have completed those steps, then you have just used retrieval practice. Retrieval practice involves recalling to-be-remembered information from memory. Retrieval practice - by itself and especially when accompanied by a subsequent check of course materials (as in the example just discussed) - is one of the most effective learning methods discovered to date. In fact, over 200 studies from over a century of research have demonstrated benefits of retrieval practice on memory. 1,2 That benefit is commonly known as the retrieval practice effect or the testing effect.

How do I use retrieval practice?

There are many ways to practice retrieving information. It can be as simple as the example discussed above - put your course materials aside and simply try to recall information mentally or on a sheet of paper. Other ways to use retrieval practice include:

Use practice tests - make your own practice questions, make and share questions with a study partner, use practice questions provided by the instructor or found in a textbook, or find questions from online sources (for example, Quizlet).

Make flashcards - this commonly involves writing on index cards (questions on one side, answers on the reverse). You can also make flashcards on a computer and print them out or use flashcard software systems.

Use a copy-cover-and-check method - simply cover your lecture slides, attempt to recall, and then uncover to check. Like the method discussed in an earlier section of this page, this method has the advantage of requiring little-to-no added work before you start retrieval practice.

If you know the types of questions that will be on the course exam, it can also help to perform retrieval practice using similar types of questions or to focus on retrieving the same types of information (such as names, dates, or examples, depending on the course). If the course exam involves application questions (for example, identifying how a concept matches with a given hypothetical example), then consider incorporating application questions into your retrieval practice activities.

Overall, by using retrieval practice, you are increasing the likelihood that you will successfully remember relevant information during your next high-stakes exam.

Downloadable Resources

How to Study Less and Remember More [PDF], includes summary of how to use retrieval practice

Further Resources
How-To Video How to Use Retrieval Practice More Information About Retrieval Practice

References

¹ Roediger III, H. L., & Butler, A. C. (2011). The critical role of retrieval practice in long-term retention. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15(1), 20-27.
² Rickard, T. C., &amp; Pan, S. C. (2017). A dual memory theory of the testing effect. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 1-23.

Prepared by S. C. Pan for UCSD Psychology

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Author: Justine Schultz

Editors: Elizabeth Harsma, Carrie Miller, and Michael Manderfeld

Explore these Spaced and Interleaved Practice topics:

1. What is Spaced Practice?

2. Example of Spaced Practice

3. What is Interleaving?

4. Example of Interleaving

5. Strategies and Technology for Spaced and Interleaved Practice

6. Even More Resources

What is Spaced Practice?

Spaced practice is organizing studying/learning activities into multiple sessions that are spread out over a longer period of time (Carpenter and Agarwal, 2020). Spaced practice is often used as part of retrieval practice techniques - learn more about retrieval in this article.

Image 1. Repeated spaced practice improves recall. Data from from Karpicke & Bauernschmidt (2011).

Spaced practice is often contrasted with cramming. Cramming is organizing learning/studying into one or very few sessions in a brief period of time, such as waiting to study until the night before an exam. Carpenter and Agarwal's (2020) research suggests that cramming can be helpful for short-term learning but has little benefit for long-term retention. In contrast, spaced practice has significant benefit to long-term learning (Carpenter & Agarwal, 2020).

Examples of Spaced Practice

An example of spaced practice: Let us say you study on Monday and seem to understand all the content. Since you have learned about spaced practice, you decide to review again on Wednesday. It is clear you have forgotten some things, but now you are more confident in your learning, reviewing what you had forgotten. A week later you study the same material and notice you have forgotten some of the material, but not as much as last week. If you continue to study, increasing the time between review, it will only take a few more sessions to thoroughly imprint the material in your long-term memory (Murre & Dros, 2015).

What is Interleaving?

Interleaving is organizing studying/learning activities by varying or mixing up the topics or types of things studied (Rohrer, Dedrick, & Agarwal, 2017). Interleaving is often used as part of retrieval practice techniques - learn more about retrieval in this article.

Image 2. Blocking vs. interleaving strategy from Weinstein, Madan & Sumeracki (2018).

Interleaving is often contrasted with blocked learning. Blocking is when you practice all items of the same type at the same time, then move on to the next topic or type of learning activity. For example, practicing all addition problems, then all subtraction problems, then all multiplication problems, and then all division problems when studying mathematics. In contrast, interleaving has significant benefits to learning over blocked practice with learning performance increasing approximately 30% with interleaved practice (Roher & Taylor, 2007; Rohrer, Dedrick & Burgess, 2014). Interleaving also helps learners distinguish between related concepts and avoid confounding pattern recognition with learning (Agarwal & Bain, 2019).

Examples of Interleaving

Some examples of interleaving:

Instead of practicing all addition problems, then all subtraction problems, you would study a few addition problems, then a few subtraction problems, then a few division problems, and so on.

Instead of studying Lakota language for four hours straight, you would study programming for an hour, health for an hour, Lakota for an hour, and gender studies for an hour.

Strategies and Technology for Interleaved and Spaced Practice

Free Recall or Brain Dumps

A brain dump or free recall activity is an effective retrieval practice strategy that can easily incorporate spaced and interleaved variations (Agarwal & Bain, 2019; Brame & Biel, 2015).

The basics: Before class, after class, or during your lesson, lecture, or activity, pause and ask students to write down everything they can remember about a specific topic from memory. Be specific with your prompt and set a brief time limit (a few minutes). Make this activity low- or no-stakes and emphasize with students that it is a learning strategy, not an assessment.

Spacing Strategy: In your brain dump prompt, ask students to write down one thing they remember from the lesson yesterday, last week, and/or within the last month.

Interleaving Strategy: In your brain dump prompt, give students 1 - 3 key concepts from past units of learning mixed up with a few concepts from the current unit.

Free Recall activities can be completed using:

Blast from the Past Quizzes

Blast from the Past is a retrieval practice activity that already includes spacing and interleaving (Agarwal & Bain, 2019).

The basics: Engage students in recalling information across a variety of units and time frames using only their memory. Like other retrieval practice strategies, make this activity low- or no-stakes and emphasize with students that it is a learning strategy, not an assessment.

Spaced Strategy: Re-take a quiz from a past unit worth low or no points.

Interleaving Strategy: Create low or no-stakes quizzes with cumulative questions across diverse topics, units, or chapters of study.

Blast from the Past quizzes can be conducted with:

Learning Games

The basics: Create a list of key questions and answers specific to your learning objectives across one or more units, lessons, or chapters of study. As students play the game, ask students to only use their memories to try to answer correctly.

Spacing Strategy: For example, you may pick questions that span across several different lessons (Multiplication problems using numbers 1-9).

Interleaving Strategy: For example, you may include several different topics given from each lesson (Multiplication, Addition, Subtraction, Addition).

Variation on the strategy: Create a JEOPARDY! ® style quiz game show using PowerPoint or another game software. Create categories of concepts. Then add a list of key terms and concepts across various lessons, units of study, etc... into each category. Arrange terms in each category by easiest to most challenging on a game board. Label more challenging terms with more points or more "prize money." Students take turns selecting concepts and answering by posing a question, for example, if the category is "Circulatory System" and the concept is "Blood," the student would respond, "What is the transport medium for gases, nutrients, and waste in the body?"

Learning games can be conducted with:

Paper and pen/pencil,

Poll Everywhere Competition feature,

Zoom Polls,

Shared One Drive Word or PowerPoint Online document,

And other game software or apps!

Spin the Wheel or Roll the Dice

Spin the wheel or roll the dice is another retrieval practice activity that already incorporates spacing and interleaving (Agarwal & Bain, 2019).

The basics: Select some general retrieval questions. You may use these questions or develop your own questions that will help with retrieval:

What is an application or how can I use it?

What is it similar to?

What is it different from?

What is an analogy to something in my daily life?

How does it connect to something I knew previously?

What is a fun way to remember it?

Then create a list of key concepts specific to your course learning objectives, mixing up topics from one or more lessons, units, or chapters of study.

Individually or in small groups, students select a key concept from the list, spin the wheel/roll the dice, and then answer the selected question using only their memory.

Image 3. Digital wheel with retrieval questions

Even More Resources

References

Agarwal, P. K., Bain, P. M. (2019). Powerful Teaching: Unleash the science of learning. Wiley.

Agarwal, P. K., Roediger, H. L., McDaniel, M. A., & McDermott, K. B. (2020). How to use retrieval practice to improve learning. Retrieved Practice. Retrieved December 10, 2021, from https://orbit.texthelp.com/?file=http%3A%2F%2Fpdf.retrievalpractice.org%2 FRetrievalPracticeGuide.pdf.

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. The information in this guide has been published in CBE-Life Sciences Education (www.lifescied.org/content/14/2/es4.full.pdf+html)."

Chen, Huang, C. (Kathy), Gribbins, M., & Swan, K. (2018). Gamify online courses with tools built into your learning management system to enhance self-determined and active learning. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks JALN, 22(3), 41-. https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v22i3.1466

Karpicke, J. D., & Bauernschmidt, A. (2011). Spaced retrieval: Absolute spacing enhances learning regardless of relative spacing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 37(5), 1250-1257. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023436

Rohrer, D., Dedrick, R. F., & Burgess, K. (2014). The benefit of interleaved mathematics practice is not limited to superficially similar kinds

of problems. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 21, 1323-1330. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-014-0588-3

Weinstein, Y., Madan, C.R. & Sumeracki, M.A. (2018). Teaching the science of learning. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-017-0087-y

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Maverick Learning and Educational Applied Research Nexus

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Author: Justine Schultz Editors: Elizabeth Harsma, Carrie Miller, and Michael Manderfeld Explore these Spaced and Interleaved Practice topics: What is Spaced Practice? Example of Spaced Practice What is Interleaving? Example of Interleaving Strategies and Technology for Spaced and Interleaved Practice Even More Resources What is Spaced Practice?

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Interleaving boosts learning by mixing up closely related topics, which encourages students to develop the ability to distinguish between multiple concepts. For example, learning increases when students practice addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems all mixed up, rather than one type of problem at a time.

Here are some of our weekly updates on interleaving to get you started. We hope you'll check out all of our teaching strategies and visit our library for free downloadable guides.

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Interleaving: Boost learning by mixing it up - Retrieval Practice

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Interleaving boosts learning by mixing up closely related topics, which encourages students to develop the ability to distinguish between multiple concepts. For example, learning increases when students practice addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems all mixed up, rather than one type of problem at a time.

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Spacing is a powerful strategy that boosts learning by spreading lessons and retrieval opportunities out over time so learning is not crammed all at once. By returning to content every so often, students' knowledge has had time to rest and be refreshed.

Here are some of our weekly updates on spacing to get you started. We hope you'll check out all of our teaching strategies and visit our library for free downloadable guides.

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Spacing: A strategy where forgetting is a good thing - Retrieval Practice

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Spacing is a powerful strategy that boosts learning by spreading lessons and retrieval opportunities out over time so learning is not crammed all at once. By returning to content every so often, students' knowledge has had time to rest and be refreshed. Here are some of our weekly updates on spacing to get you started.

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We throw around quite a few learning theory vocabulary words, and we know it can be confusing. In particular, we're often asked the difference between interleaving and spaced retrieval. Basically, interleaving is studying multiple topics during one study session, and spaced retrieval is the repeated recall of key information in a progressively delayed manner.

For example, to use the method of interleaving, you would study many different topics during the same study session. So, you might review cardiology Preview | Review Questions, then read a section in the Core on endocrinology, and then finish up your study session with Q&As from the immunology section. That way you are studying many different topics at a time. Interleaving is effective because it allows your brain to work on recall for a variety of topics-meaning it gives your brain a better study session than reviewing one topic at a time-which helps lock the must-know information into your long-term memory.

Spaced Retrieval is studying the same topic at different times. So on day 1, you would review Preview | Review questions about Rheumatology. On day 2, you would read the Rheumatology section and answer questions from your Q&A. Then the same Preview | Review questions would appear in the Spaced Retrieval section of your Personal Trainer at progressively longer intervals of time. To really lock the topic into your long-term memory, you'd practice recall on Rheumatology 2 days after initial studying, 10 days, 4 weeks, and then 4 months.

ProTip: Personal Trainer will set up a study plan for you using spaced retrieval! It will present topics to review in the Spaced Retrieval module at the correct intervals of time, so you don't have to keep track. Try Personal Trainer now!

Now that you have a good idea of what the difference between interleaving and spaced retrieval is, let's dive a little deeper!

Why is interleaving effective?

When you do it, it may feel like you are not getting much learning done and like you're bouncing back and forth between too many different topics. But don't give up! Interleaving has been proven to enhance not only the encoding but also the cognitive processing involved with learning.

Here's why it works so well:

Increased attention: Once you start studying this way, you will see that you remain fresher and have better focus throughout the study session.

Practicing recall: Bouncing back and forth between topics can be thought of as mini retrieval practice. The more often you recall knowledge, the better your grasp of it and the stronger your memory of it.

Contrast and compare: Mixing concepts forces you to contrast and compare similar information in different topics, thereby building newer and stronger connections to and between concepts and developing a more robust understanding of each. You don't get this benefit from studying one topic at a time.

Active learning: Interleaving is active learning-you are constantly thinking about what you are doing and are directing all your own efforts. This helps you maintain focus and deepens your learning.

Why is spaced retrieval effective?

Retrieval is the process of recalling a memory. Recalling the memory is an end in itself, but every time retrieval occurs, another round of the memory storage process occurs-the memory, along with any new information, is reencoded and then automatically reconsolidated over hours to days. Each round of recall, reencoding, and reconsolidation results in a memory that is more robust, better defined, more durable, and more easily recalled.

Repeated recall of information over weeks and months can make it easily accessible in your memory for the long-term. Purposefully repeating the process of recalling previously-learned information is called retrieval practice, and doing retrieval practice on the same material multiple times with progressively longer periods between is called spaced retrieval. In the following text, "strength" is used to reflect both storage and retrieval strengths.

Spaced retrieval is the most effective way to lock the study material into long-term memory! Want more information about how spaced retrieval works? Get StudyWise now and read up on the best ways to learn for the long term.

How Personal Trainer incorporates interleaving and spaced retrieval
Preview, Study, and then use the Spaced Retrieval module in the Personal Trainer.
It would be a full-time job to keep up with the complex calendaring of multiple study units AND fully implement a 3-phased system that first requires you to preview the study unit, then study it, and then move the study unit into long-term memory using spaced retrieval with progressively longer times between sessions. So, we decided to do that for you by making Personal Trainer!

Your first study topics will start off in the far right "Preview" column. Click on each study unit to see its associated preview questions. Use this opportunity to recall everything you can remember about the study material before you start studying. This primes your brain for the studying you will do the next day.

The day after you've previewed a study unit, you'll see it move to the "Study" column on the far left. If you have the digital Core you can click on each topic to instantly read in your Digital Core, and if you have Qbank+ you can click through to start answering questions for each topic in your Qbank+.

A few days after you've completed a study unit, you'll see it pop up in the middle "Review" column. Click on each unit to test your understanding with review questions and read content from the Digital Core covering each topic. Take the time to remember all the material you covered that is relevant to the answer. After you complete these units you'll see them pop up in this column every now and then at increasing intervals (this is where the spaced retrieval comes in!). This is key to moving your knowledge into easily accessible long-term memory.

Finish off your study session by previewing the topics you'll study next week in the "Preview" column, so you can prime your brain to start the cycle all over again next time. By the time your study session is over, you will have used the method of interleaving by studying multiple topics at a time.

Personal Trainer will check in weekly to review what you accomplished and ask if you want to keep the same study pace for the next week. It will also recommend the ideal study pace for you to hit your end goal.Once you confirm your study pace, your study board will update with the next week's study material.
Try Personal Trainer for Internal Medicine Try Personal Trainer for Pediatrics Try Personal Trainer for Medical School

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What's the Difference Between Interleaving and Spaced Retrieval?

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Learning theory can be confusing! We get asked about the difference between interleaving and spaced retrieval quite a bit. Here's what you need to know!

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Practicing problems over sessions that are spaced increases learning | Open Learning

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Studying or practicing problems over sessions that are spaced in time can help students learn better than if the sessions were grouped together in a single session. Also, performing different problems in the same session leads to higher learning gains, than practicing the same types of problems cons…

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Knowledge organisers, are now common in KS1 and KS2 classroom having made their way into primary schools from their roots in secondary. This article looks at what knowledge organisers are and how teachers can use them in primary school teaching across the curriculum.
What are knowledge organisers?

Knowledge organisers are a summary of the key facts and essential knowledge that pupils need about a unit of work or a curriculum subject. They should be no more than one side of A4 with all the information broken down into easily digestible chunks.

The single side of A4 is important in order to focus the minds of the teachers creating them so they only include what's absolutely crucial. It is easy for knowledge organisers to become overwhelmingly full of information which then renders them useless.

Knowledge organisers can be used for any subject or year group, from the humanities such as history and English to maths and science.

It is also important to state what a knowledge organiser is not:

Knowledge organisers are not a curriculum and they will never replace the expert teacher. It's best to think of them as tools to help teachers enact a curriculum.

Who uses knowledge organisers

Knowledge organisers can be a valuable tool for both children, staff and parents. Class teachers are usually the ones who write the knowledge organiser, to set out their expectations of what pupils should learn about a topic - and to clarify their own thinking around what is important.

School leaders, headteachers and subject leaders then may look at a series of knowledge organisers to check for progression and continuity both within and across curriculum subjects and to ensure standards and expectations for learning are being implemented, and if not, what CPD is required.

Pupils will review, revise and quiz themselves using their knowledge organisers.

And finally knowledge organisers are a really clear and easy to understand way for parents to be more aware of what their children are learning at primary school and thus to support them.

Knowledge organiser templates and examples

Accompanying this blog post we've included a sample Year 6 Maths Knowledge Organiser. We've done this to give you a headstart when creating your own. Other knowledge organiser templates are available online however we encourage you to take a critical approach to these.

When you download anyone else's knowledge organiser it will always need adapting for your own school curriculum and the unit of work you are teaching.

What to include on a knowledge organiser?

The contents of a knowledge organiser are entirely subject and year group dependent; while a KS1 knowledge organiser for phonics might simply include all the different phonemes to learn, a KS2 knowledge organiser is likely to be a lot more complex as fits the age of the learner and the information to be studied.

Knowledge organiser contents

There is of course some information that may be found be found across knowledge organisers in all subjects. This is a basic contents list

key vocabulary (in maths make sure to use appropriate mathematical language by using this maths vocabulary list)

key places and people

useful diagrams (as required for the topic)

key dates for a subject like history (e.g. when the two World Wars were) would clearly also be included

key themes - essential for any Key Stage 2 reading work

important quotes (that demonstrate those themes)

stem sentences for a subject like Maths

Knowledge organisers used to be most common for humanities subjects, at GCSE/A-Level. While there has been a recent increase in use of knowledge organisers in teaching primary maths there is still some misunderstanding about what to include on them and how to use knowledge organisers at primary school.

Why use knowledge organisers?

There are a number of benefits to having pupils use knowledge organisers, many of these born from ideas developed from the teachings of cognitive science. Others draw from other sources but are still considered good practice, and we will look at these first.

5 benefits of using knowledge organisers

1. A knowledge organiser makes the teacher think hard about what will be taught

From a planning perspective, if it goes in the knowledge organiser then there is an expectation that the pupils will learn it. With the limited space an A4 sheet of paper provides, the teacher needs to consider very carefully the information that they will put on from when creating a knowledge organiser.

If it is not going to be used within a sequence of lessons, then there is no reason for that information to be in the organiser. Going through this thought process makes exactly what learning you expect to occur far clearer, and with this clarity the likelihood that what we teach will stick with pupils increases.

Creating a series of knowledge organisers also provides an excellent example of the intent of your curriculum which will be useful during an Ofsted deep dive into the subject.

2. Knowledge organisers are an endless source of meaningful homework activities

Once a knowledge organiser has been given to the pupils, the teacher now has an endless means of providing homework for the pupils.

Assuming that careful thought and consideration has been given to the knowledge on the knowledge organiser, this will mean that pupils could come to a lesson already having some understanding of the key vocabulary or key facts needed to be successful for that lesson.

Further, Professor Graham Nuthall in his work Hidden Lives of Learners hypothesises that those pupils who know more about a topic learn more about a topic. Therefore, there is a chance that pupils could learn more from a lesson when they have some of this information to hand.

Pupils' working memory can process the bigger picture rather than getting distracted with the meaning of certain words etc. This is an absolute work-load saviour - no more last minute rushes to the photocopier and printing off 30 sheets of practice questions which some pupils may not be able to do independently!

The fact that knowledge organisers are physical printed out items, also ensures there is no barrier to uptake or technology requirement that might otherwise prove a barrier to pupil premium children accessing the material during their home learning.

3. Knowledge organisers are an excellent tool for inclusion

For our low attaining pupils (by low attaining I am referring to the differences between what pupils in the class know) use of knowledge organisers offers an excellent way to help fill those gaps.

For example, those pupils who require more practice on 'shape' could be given a knowledge organiser that details some core knowledge on shape names and properties of that shape including angles. A teacher could then hand this to the TA to work with then on or get them to self-quiz.

It should be noted again that this does not replace an expert teacher, but allows a pupil to take responsibility for their own learning and work on their own gaps.

In addition, once these facts and key words have been learnt, it will be far easier for the expert teacher to teach and demonstrate (via worked examples and maths talk) how to use this information to solve more complex problems and deepen learning.

Assuming the key facts have been learnt, there will also be less of a burden on pupils' working memory, making it more likely they will learn to apply those facts when solving problems.

If our aim is to use the mastery maths approach, then we know that each pupil will need a different amount of time to master the content. By providing high quality knowledge organisers, we can ensure that those pupils who need more time can use their own time productively, as well as using the teacher's time more effectively as the key facts will already have been learnt.

4. Knowledge organisers create opportunities for spaced retrieval practice

Spaced practice refers to a specific practice concerned with timing - 'when' it's best to learn. Is it better to spend seven hours on a Sunday to practise a skill before a test or to space those seven hours out as one hour sessions across seven days?

Many studies have looked into this and the evidence is clear: it would be far better to practise for seven one-hour sessions than to practise for seven hours the night before.

From the experiments by Ebbinghaus, we know that the rate we forget newly learnt information is quick. Assuming 100% recall, it would only take (on average) for knowledge retained to fall to 58%. After an hour the retention rate has fallen to 44%. Is it any wonder that that pupils forget things?

Luckily, there is a way to interrupt this forgetting and that is by systematically recalling that information which we wish to be learnt. This is known as retrieval practice and is far more effective in the long-term than simply restudying something (more on this later).

When we retrieve information, that memory trace becomes stronger and the rate that we forget something decreases. The more we space out our learning, the more time it would take for us to forget something.

Knowledge organisers are excellent tools to ensure that some of this spaced practice takes place.

Ahead of a summative assessment at the end of a topic you can inform pupils that some of the questions will refer to previous learning; pupils can then refer to the knowledge organiser to access and practice those topics.

This is especially important when dealing with topics in maths that you know do not get equal teacher time. With many popular primary maths schemes of work like White Rose Maths blocking their units, it is entirely possible that after two weeks on measurement in Year 5 the pupils will not encounter it again until Year 6.

By continuously testing those areas that do not get our equal attention, we can ensure that the retention of these units happens across the year, not just in the unit.

5. Used appropriately, knowledge organisers can increase retention of facts

This comes down to their core purpose. Our working memory can only take in so much information at one time and for our pupils to be successful in a range of subjects they need to have a large store of factual knowledge in their long-term memory.

Our minds have adapted to take this information from our long-term memory into our working memory without sacrificing much space within our working memory, but children need to develop this skill.

A child who has been taught their times tables is far more likely to get to grips with equivalent fractions as all their working memory can attend to the fractions. A child on the other hand who is not secure in their multiplication facts will have to juggle both the multiplication facts and their relation to equivalent fractions in their working memory.

This can overload the working memory, stressing its cognitive load and lead to pupils not learning what they should.

With a knowledge organiser providing the key information and, providing the pupils use them correctly, these facts can then become part of a pupil's long-term memory.

How to use knowledge organisers

There are no set ways with how to use a knowledge organisers but there are some principles that ensure they are likely to be successful in their deployment.

I would first of all suggested that a copy goes home and that one copy goes into the relevant book. Some schools also put them on the school website for each year to further cement the links between home and school.

I would not advocate a teacher passing out a knowledge organiser and just telling their pupils to get on with it, especially at primary.

Telling pupils that they will have 5 questions from a certain section of the knowledge organiser can be an effective way to channel learning.

Pupils can then learn smaller chunks of the knowledge organiser as homework - which we have already established is more likely to ensure that they retain knowledge.

It is important that, once you have set some sections of the knowledge organiser to learn for homework in isolation that you also plan commutative quizzes; pupils must be made aware that they cannot just learn these facts in isolation to each other, and that there is an expectation to memorise them all for the long-term.

A piece of maths homework in week 4 for example could be a selection of questions from the 3 previous sections, with more weighting given to section 1 and 2 as these may not have been tested for 2 weeks.

4 top tips for using knowledge organisers

1. For the knowledge organiser to be successful, pupils will have to put it away

A consistent finding in cognitive science is that of the retrieval effect. This has demonstrated that, when talking about long-term learning, the act of studying something for a session and then writing down everything from memory about that topic is far more effective than just constantly re-reading something.

The latter gives us an air of familiarity about the topic and deceives us into thinking we know the material better than we actually do. To make sure that we do know the material, the knowledge organiser has to go away and a blank sheet of paper has to come out!

Alternatively, a family member could test pupils by asking questions from the knowledge organiser. This is the best way to help pupils retain more of the information they've learnt.

2. Give the knowledge organiser out at the start of a topic

As mentioned earlier, pupils who have greater prior knowledge of a unit are likely to learn more from the teaching of that unit. This is because knowledge is generative (sticky) and new knowledge is good at hooking onto this pre-knowledge.

Without this foundation, there is nothing for knowledge to 'hook' onto, and so the new knowledge risks falling out of our minds. As teachers, we know that many pupils' prior knowledge of a topic can vary and the home environment is one culprit for this.

To ensure that all our pupils have a chance of being successful in an upcoming unit, I recommend that knowledge organisers go out a week before beginning teaching (maybe longer if the new unit coincides with a longer break) and sections of the knowledge organiser are given for pupils to learn that relate to the first few lessons.

This way, there is a likelihood that all pupils have at least a baseline of prior knowledge which the new knowledge can attach itself to. However, this won't happen by osmosis; this leads to my next tip.

3. Teach pupils how to use their knowledge organisers effectively

When introducing knowledge organisers for the first time, it is important that we teach pupils how to use them properly. This includes telling them the 'why'. I have with previous classes told them all about working memory and long-term memory and the link between prior knowledge and new knowledge.

This certainly gets some buy-in from the pupils and allows them to see that I am not just being Gradgrindian in my teaching outlook. Another crucial part is telling them about retrieval practice and helping them understand that to be successful, they will need to recall this information without using an organiser.

This is important as research into retrieval practice has shown that participants who had several sessions of retrieval practice believed they would remember less than those who took part in the research and had several sessions of simply re-studying information.

This means that pupils over-estimate just how much they think they will learn. This makes taking the time to ensure your pupils know how to use knowledge organisers properly paramount.

For pupils to understand just how powerful knowledge organisers can be, they need to be able to use them and then work beyond them - coming back to that blank piece of paper!

4. Test regularly (but in the right conditions)

You need to make sure that your pupils know that you mean business when you provide a knowledge organisers. That means that from the get-go low-stakes quizzing begins - the next day if possible.

It should not be many questions - 5 at the most; doing this everyday after the knowledge organiser has been handed out will mean that your pupils know that they are expected to learn it. To get the conditions right, the pupils need to not feel threatened by the test (which is why we use the friendlier-sounding 'quiz' rather than 'test').

This further means marking and score collection should not be a 'public' activity; this risks making the quiz high-stakes again.

What we are aiming for here is for pupils to strengthen their memory, not for us to be assessing constantly. Other ways to get the conditions right are to make the quizzes time effective; I'd suggest that the ideal time is around 5-7 minutes to complete and mark a quiz.

It's also important to ensure that everyone is able to take part in these quizzes. This could be done through writing the quiz on paper and giving it to the pupils, or having multiple choice questions with pupils holding up the correct fingers to show the correct answers/writing their answers on whiteboards.

Feedback must still be given to the pupils, as we do not want pupils recalling the wrong information. Two ways this could happen could be the teacher simply going through the answers, or the pupils self-checking answers by using the knowledger organiser that is in their books.

Of course, this latter way will only be effective if the learning culture in your classroom is right and the pupils are not tempted to cheat.

How to write a knowledge organiser

It is important to note that when the term 'knowledge-rich' is talked about this does not simply mean facts.

There are two types of knowledge - declarative and procedural. Knowing the difference between these two will help make it clearer which knowledge should go into your knowledge organiser.

Declarative knowledge is simply factual knowledge. In the domain of mathematics, this would be your number bonds, times tables, knowing that all angles in a triangle add to 180 degrees etc.

Procedural knowledge involves being able to know procedures. So "how do I do 3 digit by 2 digit long multiplication" or "how to find the missing angle of a triangle if 2 are already given to me".

When designing knowledge organisers it is unlikely that pupils will garner much understanding from procedural knowledge being on there. That is just an attempt to replace a teacher with a piece of paper and it will not work.

We therefore want to focus our knowledge organiser on declarative knowledge as it's this knowledge that will unlock the procedural knowledge and make that learning much richer in the classroom.

In terms of what these would look like on the page, there is definitely no set format and I think it would be wrong to try and force all teachers to use the same format as they should be.

It is preferable that you adapt your knowledge organiser to the needs of the of the unit, rather than follow an arbitrary format.

I would recommend, should you wish to create your own knowledge organiser, that you look at the curriculum objectives for each domain and year group and pick out which essential knowledge would be considered as declarative.

KS1 knowledge organiser example for Year 2 Maths: properties of shapes

These are the objectives for shape for Year 2. Pupils should be taught to:

identify and describe the properties of 2-D shapes, including the number of sides and line symmetry in a vertical line.

identify and describe the properties of 3-D shapes, including the number of edges, vertices and faces.

identify 2-D shapes on the surface of 3-D shapes, [for example, a circle on a cylinder and a triangle on a pyramid].

compare and sort common 2-D and 3-D shapes and everyday objects.

If I were to create knowledge organiser for this topic, I would ensure that I included the most common 2-D and 3-D shapes, a picture, a name, the number of sides, the number of lines of symmetry, the number of edges, vertices and faces etc.

The other two objectives are examples of procedural knowledge. That is, the success of those final objectives comes down to pupils knowing the declarative knowledge from the first two objectives.

Once pupils are comfortable with the shape names and their properties they will be able to identify the 2-D shapes on the surface of 3-D shapes and easily compare the shapes.

KS2 knowledge organiser example for Year 3 Maths: number and place value

In Year 3, these are the curriculum learning objectives for number and place value. Pupils should be taught to:

count from 0 in multiples of 4, 8, 50 and 100;

find 10 or 100 more or less than a given number

recognise the place value of each digit in a three-digit number (hundreds, tens, ones) compare and order numbers up to 1000

identify, represent and estimate numbers using different representations

read and write numbers up to 1000 in numerals and in words

solve number problems and practical problems involving these ideas.

If I were creating a knowledge organiser as part of my number and place value teaching for Year 3, I would include the 2, 3, 5 (from year 2 - it would be foolish of me to believe that these are secure) 4, 8, 50 and 100 times tables.

I would also where possible follow my concrete pictorial abstract approach to include visual representations of these. I would include the greater than, less than and equal signs and a suitable definition along with a place value grid with a 3 digit number written in both numerals and words.

Finally, I would provide spelling for the numbers 1-19 and the multiples of 10 up to 100. Again, I am under no illusion that this means that pupils will not need to be taught these things explicitly in lessons, it's just that they are more likely to be successful if they have this background knowledge already in their long-term memories.

Clearly, that last objective is all procedural knowledge and relies on the declarative and procedural knowledge of the other objectives, therefore it would not have a place on the knowledge organiser.
While it can be a lot of work to begin with, the joy of having these knowledge organisers is that once they are done, they can always be reused year on year and will be a useful tool in the teacher tool box to help increase attainment in maths or any other subject.
Do you have pupils who need extra support in maths?
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Knowledge Organisers: What They Are And How To Use Them In KS1 and KS2

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Knowledge organisers, are now common in KS1 and KS2 classroom having made their way into primary schools from their roots in secondary. This article looks at what knowledge organisers are and how teachers can use them in primary school teaching across the curriculum.

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Create concrete images of abstract thoughts to visualize our thinking

A thinking map is a learning method, which could visualize learners' thinking and abstract thoughts with concrete visuals. Specifically, the thinking map can help learners to organize their ideas and information effectively.

Moreover, learners could connect their pieces of information in an easier way. This could improve their comprehension. Usually, a thinking map works in the creative and thinking process. In school education, teachers in primary and secondary schools use this map a lot for the teaching process.

The 8 Types of Thinking Maps

There are eight types of graphic representation based on uses' different purposes, and each thinking map requires users a cognitive skill and a strong logic mind. All of the thinking maps could be combined creatively.

1: Circle Map - brainstorming topic

A circle map is an effective approach for users to understand a specific topic in both individual and group activities. There are two circles: the inside one and the larger one. The inside circle is the main topic or thoughts, while the larger circle surrounded usually responds with connections and definitions to the main topic.

This map is used to connect the simple idea or brainstorm learners' minds before the complicated plans. For example, what do learners want to learn IG stories in the inside topic? Some thoughts and questions can be written around this topic in the larger circle. This brainstorming way is the circle map we called.

Overall, it is a great way to open and retain more information at the beginning of a given subject.

Image source: online.visual-paradigm.com

2: Bubble Map - Describing subjects

Bubble maps are a tool to describe a subject using adjectives. This could make learners think more in-depth about a given topic, so in school, students could identify and summary the related adjectives for the subjects, such as animals. It is also useful for students to describe a situation or character from a fictional book in the classroom.

Another reason to use this map is to set the user's goal. This map could break down the final goal into pieces. Throughout piecing the final goal, it is effective for users to achieve step by step. For example, the goals for the rest of the year are divided into six smaller goals, and each sub-goal can guide me more specifically and concisely.

Overall, this characteristic of the bubble map describes and supports your center topic with more details.

Image source: edrawsoft.com

3: Flow Map - Ordering and sequencing

The flow map aims to visualize a process and progression. Information and steps of the process can be labeled and identified well and specifically.

This map could also guide people step by step to get access to some entrances or destinations if people need to find their way. In school, the flow map could guide parents and children to registration in school open days.

Overall, the flow map could help users to represent a series of instructions.

Image source: edrawsoft.com

4: Multi-Flow Map - Analyzing reason and results

The multi-flow map focuses on the analysis of reason and results. The left rectangles represent the causes, while the right one shows the possible effects.

On some occasions, effects also can be one of the contributions, which creates a feedback loop. Therefore, a multi-flow map is a good way to analyze an event, figuring out the main factors and possible impacts.

For instant, air pollution would produce acid rain and damage human respiratory organs like the lungs. Also, the ozone layer can be broken. All of this is because of the pollution exhaust from factories and cars, and the overuse of mine resources.

Image source: sites.google.com

5: Brace Map - identifying the components

Brace map aims to the relationship between the parts and the whole subject. Compared to the treemap, the brace map tends to organize and conceptualize the components of the whole topic. However, the abstract thoughts and ideas cannot be included because the brace map only takes account of the real objects or situations.

In school, science teachers could prepare the experience tools based on this brace map because this map could show every component of the experience needed. Another example is the parts of the plant in biology class. The plant separates into three parts, and each part includes more things. Children could understand the parts of a plant in an organized and clear way.

Overall, a brace map is a tool to instruct people, including components of certain subjects.

Image source: pinterest

6: Treemap - Classifying and organizing

Like the taxonomy map, the treemap organizes information so that people could classify the objects by the connections with the main categories. Usually, the main topic is on the top, and the relevant information just lists below.

Students could learn a group of animal families and other mammal families by this treemap in primary school. It is very helpful for students to organize and remember basic knowledge.

Another example is the English learning. Learners could see the different types of verbs and find the connections between these verbs. Overall, a treemap could help users to order the information and sum it up.

Image source: eileendelorenzo.com

7: Double Bubble Map - Comparing and contrasting

The double bubble map puts two bubble maps together so that users can compare the differences and similarities easily. The combined shadows are the similarities, while the differences are in each left part of the circles.

Compared to a Venn diagram, the double bubble map is more visualized and organized because the bullet points are listed separately. School students often use double bubble maps for literature analysis.

The characters and the situation, as well as the plots in similar types of novels, can be compared. What similar experiences make them successful, and what differences make them have different life ends. Overall, the double bubble map does a great job in comparison and connections.

Image source: thinkingmaps.com

8: Bridge Map - Seeing similarities

The bridge map helps users to find the similarities and connections between objects by comparison. It is natural for people to learn new things by connecting to prior knowledge. In this situation, analogy skills are very important.

This map builds the bridge between the new and the old things so that people can quickly find the connections and master it. The example is the connections between daily food and nutrition terms. For children, the knowledge that oranges include vitamin C can be delivered to students quickly in a strong and impressive way.

Overall, the bridge map connects people's previous knowledge to the new one.

Image source: osborne10thlit.com

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How to Create a Thinking Map

Step 1: thinking of your purpose and usage of a thinking map.

Step 2: choosing a certain mode of thinking map to match your purposes.

Step 3: typing the context you needed.

Step 4: after typing, keep it and quickly download the format.

For example:

My purpose is to know what information my students want to have, so I choose the circle map as the approach.

The topic in my bubble map is course names such as animal learning, so the inside circle is animal learning, and the bigger circle, my students, can write anything they want to know. After this, I could design my class based on the information they are interested in.

In this case, students would be more engaged in the learning and teaching process because the context is their interest.

Lots of examples can support the benefits of thinking maps to users, and each type of thinking map has its focus and advantages. Speaking, thinking maps help users to simplify their knowledge and organize their minds. In the classroom, teachers should be encouraged to use each type so that the knowledge can be visualized and simplified. Finally, academic performance would definitely be better than before.

Try EdrawMax and make an excellent lesson plan to outlines the content of your lesson step-by-step.

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Types of Thinking Maps and How They Work (With Examples)

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A thinking map is a learning method, which could visualize learners' thinking and abstract thoughts with concrete visuals.

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Thinking Maps®, created by David Hyerle, are consistent visual patterns linked directly to eight specific thought processes. By visualizing our thinking, we create concrete images of abstract thoughts to reach higher levels of critical and creative thinking individually and collaboratively. Thinking Maps establish a consistent language for thinking and problem solving. The goal is to have the students work independently choosing the cognitive process of a Thinking Maps ® that best supports their thinking.

The language of Thinking Maps is a language of eight fundamental cognitive skills. These eight cognitive skills, as shown on the next page, are based on a synthesis of cognitive science research, models of thinking developed for psychological testing and educational programs, and a transformation of Dr. Upton's early work with Designs for Thinking. This model is neither linear nor hierarchical. The eight cognitive skills are defining in context, describing attributes, comparing and contrasting, classification, part-whole spatial reasoning, sequencing, cause and effect reasoning, and reasoning by analogy. Each of the eight processes additionally can have a Frame of Reference to further expand information, schema and thinking. This language is not a comprehensive view of thinking; it identifies the coherence and interdependency of the eight fundamental cognitive skills that ground thinking and learning.
More about Thinking Maps® online can be found on the Thinking Maps® website and the Thinking Foundation website.

Thinking Maps® are a cognitive language of the way we think, adults think, children and youth think and how we as humans organize our thinking. The eight maps represent a language ultimately for the user to choose which best supports their organization of thinkings. Each of the cognitive processes (the eight maps) can be expanded with a frame of reference. The maps different cognitive processes are shared further below without and with a frame.
Circle Map * for defining in context / brainstorming

Thinking Process
Defining in Context is the process of becoming aware of and defining some "thing" in context by representing it using signs, symbols or drawings.

The Circle Map is used for brainstorming ideas and for showing prior knowledge about a topic by providing context information. In the center circle use words, numbers, pictures or any other sign or symbol to represent the object, person or idea you are trying to understand and define. In the outside circle write or draw any information that puts this thing in context.

The Bubble Map is used for describing through the use of adjectives and adjective phrases. Unlike the Circle Map that is used for brainstorming, the Bubble Map is a tool for specifically identifying qualities and characteristics and for refining the use of descriptive words. In the center circle, write the word or thing being "described." In the outside "bubbles," write in adjectives and/or adjective phrases to describe something.

The Double Bubble Map is a tool for comparing and contrasting things. In the large circles, write the words for the two things being investigated. In the middle "bubbles," use words and phrases that show similarity between the two things. In the outside bubbles, as connected respectively to the two things, write the words that identify their different qualities.

Thinking Process
Classifying is the process of sorting things into categories or groups and creating new categories, often according to common qualities.
The Tree Map is used for classifying things and ideas. On the top line write the category name, on the second level of lines write the subcategories, and below each subcategory write the specific members.

The Brace Map is used to analyze physical objects. On the line to the left, write the name of the whole object. On the lines within the first brace to the right, write the major parts of the object, then follow within the next set of braces with the subparts of each major part.
Bridge Map * for analogies
and similarities between relationships
The Flow Map is used for sequencing and ordering information. In the outside rectangle write the name for the event, or sequence. In the larger rectangles-flowing from left to right-write in the major stages of the event. In the smaller rectangles below, write in the substages of each major stage.

The Multi-Flow Map is used for showing and analyzing cause and effect relationships. In the center rectangle, write in an important event that occurred. On the left side of the event, write in the causes of the event, and on the right side, write in the effects of the event. As you identify more causes and effects, add them to the Map. If you are studying a system, you will find that there are effects in the system that, in turn, influence initial causes. This circular cause and effect relationship is called a feedback loop.

The Bridge Map gives people a tool for applying the process of seeing analogies. On the line to the far left, write in the relating factor. The relating factor is the similar phrase that fits both sides of an analogy. On the top and bottom of the left side of the bridge, write in the first pair of things that have this relationship. On the right side of the bridge, write in the second pair of things that have the same relationship. The line of the bridge represents the relating factor that is "bridged over" from one side of the analogy to the other. As a check for understanding, write the analogy as a complete sentence.

Thinking Maps® Rubric
The following Five Levels of Thinking Maps® Implementation provides a pathway of implementation and assessment of implementation. The visual below can be downloaded as a PDF clicking here and on the image below.

Thinking Friends® for Pre-K
From the Thinking Foundation Website:
Given the recent research in the cognitive-neurosciences and child development, Thinking Foundation supported research and development of an approach for Early Childhood Years education. The outcome is a systematic approach to facilitating child centered cognitive development, "Thinking Friends". This program is offered as a foundation for Thinking Schools and early childhood centers. Given the recent research in the cognitive-neurosciences and child development, Thinking Foundation supported research and development of an approach for Early Childhood Years education. The outcome is a systematic approach to facilitating child centered cognitive development, "Thinking Friends". This program is offered as a foundation for Thinking Schools and early childhood centers. It is available in both English and Spanish editions. More information about Thinking Friends® may be found on the Thinking Foundation website.

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Thinking Maps® , created by David Hyerle, are consistent visual patterns linked directly to eight specific thought processes. By visualizing our thinking, we create concrete images of abstract thoughts to reach higher levels of critical and creative thinking individually and collaboratively. Thinking Maps establish a consistent language for thinking and problem solving.

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Self Management - Affective Skills | Approaches to Learning Toolkit

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Affective skills that demonstrate an engaging, positive, empathetic attitude. Diplomatic responses and solutions indicate integrity, problem solving and agility building respect and understanding.

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Extract: Motivated Teaching by Peps Mccrea

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Peps Mccrea draws on motivation science to create a framework that can be used to ensure your pupils remain engaged in classrooms. Find out more.

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In education, student engagement refers to the degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism, and passion that students show when they are learning or being taught, which extends to the level of motivation they have to learn and progress in their education. Generally speaking, the concept of "student engagement" is predicated on the belief that learning improves when students are inquisitive, interested, or inspired, and that learning tends to suffer when students are bored, dispassionate, disaffected, or otherwise "disengaged." Stronger student engagement or improved student engagement are common instructional objectives expressed by educators.

In many contexts, however, volunteer programs and community-service requirements (engaging students in public service and learning through public service), student organizing (engaging students in advocacy, community organizing, and constructive protest), and any number of potential student-led groups, forums, presentations, and events (engaging students in community leadership, public speaking, and other activities that contribute to " student engagement may also refer to the ways in which school leaders, educators, and other adults might "engage" students more fully in the governance and decision-making processes in school, in the design of programs and learning opportunities, or in the civic life of their community. For example, many schools survey students to determine their views on any number of issues, and then use the survey findings to modify policies or programs in ways that honor or respond to student perspectives and concerns. Students may also create their own questions, survey their peers, and then present the results to school leaders or the school board to advocate for changes in programs or policies. Some schools have created alternative forms of student governance, "student advisory committees," student appointments to the school board, and other formal and informal ways for students to contribute to the governance of a school or advise superintendents, principals, and local policy makers. These broader forms of "student engagement" can take a wide variety of forms-far too many to extensively catalog here. Yet a few illustrative examples include school-supported positive youth development"). For a related discussion, see student voice.

In education, the term student engagement has grown in popularity in recent decades, most likely resulting from an increased understanding of the role that certain intellectual, emotional, behavioral, physical, and social factors play in the learning process and social development. For example, a wide variety of research studies on learning have revealed connections between so-called "non-cognitive factors" or "non-cognitive skills" (e.g., motivation, interest, curiosity, responsibility, determination, perseverance, attitude, work habits, self-regulation, social skills, etc.) and "cognitive" learning results (e.g., improved academic performance, test scores, information recall, skill acquisition, etc.). The concept of student engagement typically arises when educators discuss or prioritize educational strategies and teaching techniques that address the developmental, intellectual, emotional, behavioral, physical, and social factors that either enhance or undermine learning for students.

It should be noted that educators may hold different views on student engagement, and it may be defined or interpreted differently from place to place. For example, in one school observable behaviors such as attending class, listening attentively, participating in discussions, turning in work on time, and following rules and directions may be perceived as forms of "engagement," while in another school the concept of "engagement" may be largely understood in terms of internal states such as enthusiasm, curiosity, optimism, motivation, or interest.

While the concept of student engagement seems straightforward, it can take fairly complex forms in practice. The following examples illustrate a few ways in which student engagement may be discussed or addressed in schools:

Intellectual engagement: To increase student engagement in a course or subject, teachers may create lessons, assignments, or projects that appeal to student interests or that stimulate their curiosity. For example, teachers may give students more choice over the topics they are asked to write about (so students can choose a topic that specifically interests them) or they may let students choose the way they will investigate a topic or demonstrate what they have learned (some students may choose to write a paper, others may produce short video or audio documentary, and still others may create a multimedia presentation). Teachers may also introduce a unit of study with a problem or question that students need to solve. For example, students might be asked to investigate the causes of a local environmental problem, determine the species of an unknown animal from a few short descriptions of its physical characteristics and behaviors, or build a robot that can accomplish a specific task. In these cases, sparking student curiosity can increase "engagement" in the learning process. For related discussions, see authentic learning , community-based learning , differentiation , personalized learning , project-based learning , and .

Emotional engagement: Educators may use a wide variety of strategies to promote positive emotions in students that will facilitate the learning process, minimize negative behaviors, or keep students from dropping out. For example, classrooms and other learning environments may be redesigned to make them more conducive to learning, teachers may make a point of monitoring student moods and asking them how they are feeling, or school programs may provide counseling, peer mentoring, or other services that generally seek to give students the support they need to succeed academically and feel positive, optimistic, or excited about school and learning. Strategies such as advisories , for example, are intended to build stronger relationships between students and adults in a school. The basic theory is that students will be more likely to succeed if at least one adult in the school is meeting with a student regularly, inquiring about academic and non-academic issues, giving her advice, and taking an interest in her out-of-school life, personal passions, future aspirations, and distinct learning challenges and needs.

Behavioral engagement: Teachers may establish classroom routines, use consistent cues, or assign students roles that foster behaviors more conducive to learning. For example, elementary school teachers may use cues or gestures that help young students refocus on a lesson if they get distracted or boisterous. The teacher may clap three times or raise a hand, for example, which signals to students that it's time to stop talking, return to their seats, or begin a new activity. Teachers may also establish consistent routines that help students stay on task or remain engaged during a class. For example, the class may regularly break up into small groups or move their seats into a circle for a group discussion, or the teacher may ask students on a rotating basis to lead certain activities. By introducing variation into a classroom routine, teachers can reduce the monotony and potential disengagement that may occur when students sit in the same seat, doing similar tasks, for extended periods of time. Research on brain-based learning has also provided evidence that variation, novelty, and physical activity can stimulate and improve learning. For a related discussion, see classroom management .

Physical engagement: Teachers may use physical activities or routines to stimulate learning or interest. For example, "kinesthetic learning" refers to the use of physical motions and activities during the learning process. Instead of asking students to answer questions aloud, a teacher might ask students to walk up to the chalkboard and answer the question verbally while also writing the answer on the board (in this case, the theory is that students are more likely to remember information when they are using multiple parts of the brain at the same time-i.e., the various parts dedicated to speaking, writing, physical activity, etc.). Teachers may also introduce short periods of physical activity or quick exercises, particularly during the elementary years, to reduce antsy, fidgety, or distracted behaviors. In addition, more schools throughout the United States are addressing the physical needs of students by, for example, offering all students free breakfasts (because disengagement in learning and poor academic performance have been linked to hunger and malnutrition) or starting school later at a later time (because adolescent sleep patterns and needs differ from those of adults, and adolescents may be better able to learn later in the morning).

Social engagement: Teachers may use a variety of strategies to stimulate engagement through social interactions. For example, students may be paired or grouped to work collaboratively on projects, or teachers may create academic contests that students compete in-e.g., a friendly competition in which teams of students build robots to complete a specific task in the shortest amount of time. Academic and co-curricular activities such as debate teams, robotics clubs, and science fairs also bring together learning experiences and social interactions. In addition, strategies such as demonstrations of learning or capstone projects may require students to give public presentations of their work, often to panels of experts from the local community, while strategies such as community-based learning or service learning (learning through volunteerism) can introduce civic and social issues into the learning process. In these cases, learning about societal problems, or participating actively in social causes, can improve engagement.

Cultural engagement: Schools may take active steps to make students from diverse cultural backgrounds-particularly recently arrived immigrant or refugee students and their families-feel welcomed, accepted, safe, and valued. For example, administrators, teachers, and school staff may provide special orientation sessions for their new-American populations or offer translation services and informational materials translated into multiple languages. Students, families, and local cultural leaders from diverse backgrounds may be asked to speak about their experiences to students and school staff, and teachers may intentionally modify lessons to incorporate the history, literature, arts, and perspectives of the student ethnicities and nationalities represented in their classes. School activities may also incorporate multicultural songs, dances, and performances, while posters, flags, and other educational materials featured throughout the school may reflect the cultural diversity of the students and school community . The general goal of such strategies would be to reduce the feelings of confusion, alienation, disconnection, or exclusion that some students and families may experience, and thereby increase their engagement in academics and school activities. For related discussions, see dual-language education , English-language learner , multicultural education , and .

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In education, student engagement refers to the degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism, and passion that students show when they are learning or being taught, which extends to the level of motivation they have to learn and progress in their education. Generally speaking, the concept of "student engagement" is predicated on the belief that learning [...]

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Encouraging student engagement with blended and online learning

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Encouraging student engagement with blended and online learning

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View all Teaching Toolkits
This toolkit focusses on approaches and specific strategies to help engage students and then maintain that engagement.

Success and engagement go hand in hand, leading teachers and lecturers to ask: What can I do to increase and sustain engagement? We attempt to answer this here but with a particular focus on blended and online modes of teaching.

The toolkit starts by setting out a definition and some core principles before offering some broad guidance through the lens of a simple and logical engagement framework. The final section separates engagement techniques appropriate for asynchronous content and activity development versus live, online sessions.

There is no point in teaching if nobody is learning! We can check learning at different stages but designing teaching approaches that centre on active engagement are most effective at ensuring learning is taking place.

Although blended and online learning offers all sorts of potential ways to add depth and dimension to student learning, they can also create additional barriers. This toolkit offers a launch point for all lecturing and teaching staff who want enhance learning and increase success rates by encouraging student engagement in online and blended modalities.

What we mean by 'engagement'

Despite its many varied meanings, 'engagement' in the context of teaching and learning can be broadly defined as a set of positive student behaviours. These include attention to and completion of work, visibility and active involvement in that work, and similar involvement in their interactions with peers, the teaching team and the wider university community.

Whilst engagement does not mean that students are learning per se, and indeed there is evidence to show that students tend to engage in learning activities that do not challenge them too deeply (Nuthall, 2007), higher levels of engagement do correlate to increased success.

Engagement will vary from programme to programme, and according to each individual's needs and (to an extent) preferences. 'Motivation' can be seen as one of the pre-requisites to deep engagement but the two words are not synonymous. UCL's connected curriculum framework is about engaging students through the various connections they should be making as they study. It makes a good starting point because it reminds us that engagement is much more than what happens in classrooms or in learning spaces online.

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Key engagement principles

It is important to consider the core principles in each of the modes of engagement set out below, but you should also select from the ideas and activities according to your disciplinary area and the nature of the programme (especially its modality and the cohorts); use local knowledge to select what is likely to work best, or experiment with a range of approaches based on the principles and ideas here.

A student's individual level of engagement will naturally vary but the following factors will have an impact:

The degree to which active and interactive opportunities exist

Prudent/ limited use of didactic approaches

Supportive, empathetic and approachable academic team

Frequent developmental feedback

The impact of the wider community; opportunities to form friendship groups and participant in other non programme-related activities (see Almarghani and Mijatovic, 2017, for a deeper exploration of these points and for a consideration of how technology can aid or impede a push against student passivity).

Aside from the last bullet point, academic staff have a degree of agency (to an extent limited by their role) on these factors and can work towards ensuring their teaching acknowledges these 'needs'.

In addition, providing opportunities for students to participate in wider academic work of the institution as well as curricula and research level partnership activity on programmes and across faculties (HEA, 2015). See, for example, student teaching and quality reviewers initiatives at UCL and the range of staff/ student partnerships that make up the ChangeMakers scheme .
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Modes of engagement

Before we start to develop strategies to improve engagement, it makes sense to consider our practice through the lens of an analytical framework, such as the simple one proposed by Redmond et al. (2018).

Broadly speaking, the role of the educator is to foster an environment where each of these levels of engagement can flourish. Measuring such engagement across the modes is an impossible endeavour in a quantifiable sense but indicators of engagement / absence of engagement might be behaviours such as: working with others, actively seeking or providing peer feedback, making interpersonal connections in different media, responding / acting on feedback, showing enthusiasm, making connections or focused working. Thinking about the kinds of behaviours that signal engagement can help tutors determine earlier whether interventions might be needed.
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Engagement approaches in online and blended teaching

Across the five areas of engagement, there are various strategies that stand out as broadly effective, notably modelling good practice, clarifying expectations and sharing agency. These are strategies that need to be embedded in practice so that they become habitual, as developing good engagement is a shared endeavour that takes time to become the norm.

In addition, there are various approaches that have proven effective in each of the five areas of engagement.
Here are our top tips:

Social engagement

In live sessions: Allow time for socialising, chatting and asking / answering low stakes questions (may or may not be related to the session topic).

Encourage students to join, create and use social spaces. These can be virtual or physical and should be student-led though can be nudged by academic staff (especially in year 1).

Decide whether and how you will use discussion forums or equivalent asynchronous communications channels. Moodle forums or Microsoft Teams channels can be used for discussing ideas, peer work and review, asking questions or simply socialising- it's important that the channels are consistent across modules and that there are not multiple alternatives.

Encourage active participation but expect slow starts. Use gentle prompts and value passive participation (sometimes known as 'lurking') which is a valid and important degree of engagement.

However: never push too hard, insist on certain behaviours (e.g. cameras on) or incentivise 'compliance' behaviours: this is likely to lead to the opposite effect in the long term of increased disengagement, especially amongst students who are experiencing heightened anxiety and / or neurodivergence as well as those students from different culture contexts.

Cognitive engagement

Tell students why you (or they) are doing a certain activity.

Ask students to speculate on the underpinning purposes of a design of an assessment or the organisation of groups.

Allow processing time so chunk content and state with clarity the purpose of the content, how it should be approached and how the information will be used.

Vary activities, drawing on a range of (relevant) activities such as discussion, application, investigation (see ABC learning design ideas for more inspiration)

Use collaborative documents to co-create a solution to a problem or write a lab report.

Behavioural engagement

Set expectations for presentation and format of work, discuss these pre and post early submissions and follow up in feedback.

Provide opportunities in office hours to discuss academic skills; make it clear that expectations vary in pre-university contexts, especially in different countries so there are no stupid questions.

Model and encourage subject appropriate (and, if relevant, employment) behaviours.

Recognise that each student will have skills and gaps in the ways they approach tasks. The classic misapprehension is that all students are digitally adept. Offer opportunity to walk-through advisable approaches and processes.

Collaborative engagement

Consider, discuss and share the extent to which collaboration is a necessary skill in the disciplinary area per se and in career routes.

Rationalise collaborative work; pre-empt complaints about group work through discussion.

Assume some students will need what others might consider to be 'basic' guidance on how to use certain tools or approach certain tasks. If you suggest someone takes the role of 'note-taker' for example, have you discussed purpose, format, sharing, detail, formality?

Model use of (or at least recommend/ discuss) collaboration tools such as MS Teams or shared presentations or documents in Office 365 ahead of setting collaborative tasks.

Encourage students to set their own criteria for 'success' in collaborative activities and to evaluate themselves (and others) against their own criteria.

Flag staff-student partnership projects and opportunities like ChangeMakers.

Use the Connected Curriculum framework to explicitly discuss depth and breadth of engagement (perhaps in tutorials, office hours or in relation to research-based work, dissertations or placement activity).

Emotional engagement

If you sense anxiety or confusion about something: Ask: how are you feeling about this project/ topic/ assessment? Those willing to share anxieties are likely to re-assure those that were feeling they were the only ones.

Use narratives and examples (possibly from own experience- your choice) to re-assure, pre-empt anticipated anxieties and to illustrate principles such as seeing value in all learning (such as a failed experiment or completely misinterpreting a task).

Enjoyment signifies and fosters engagement: what scope is there to inject energy or fun aspects into the studies?

Explore and discuss preferences with students- help them to embrace two key concepts: 1. Everyone is different- some may love silent absorption of lengthy lecture content; others may crave the chance to talk over everything and 2. Sometimes what we prefer is not the best way to tackle it!

Never apologise for work that is to follow as 'boring' or 'necessary evil' or 'you'll hate it but...' this becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy and decreases engagement.

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Digital options and tools

It is an unusual course that has no element of 'blended'. What varies is the degree, depth and sophistication of that blend. When designing the blend (especially in situations where a great deal of the content will be made available asynchronously) thought and care needs to be put into:

1. The desired outcomes- knowledge, skills, collaboration, criticality, production and so on.

2. The media used - including the range and quality required.

3. The tools to be used - digital capabilities and access to essential technology is a consideration for both the academic team and students.

4. Techniques for optimising engagement.

The UCL connected learning baseline is designed to support all these components and, as the name suggests, is the starting point. Key principles for optimising engagement include:

Get the students to the materials as efficiently as possible by minimising places where it is stored. Moodle is typically the portal to content and activities and channelling everything through Moodle using links, embedding and a consistent layout all reduce frustration, add clarity and can foster engagement.

Ensure you blend the types of learning activities you ask your students to engage with, so that they not only have an opportunity to 'acquire' new knowledge, but also to practice with it, discuss and collaborate with peers and produce novel content themselves. Laurillard's six learning types (Laurillard, 2013) can help you identify an effective pattern, especially through use of the UCL Learning Designer tool.

Signpost everything with clarity and consistency in terms of: where to go; precisely what to do when they get there; what do with it after; how long it will take; and how crucial and/ or timebound it is

Content does not have to be in the form of video but if you do record video:

1. Chunk the information (see this case study from Dr Danielle D'Lima)

2. Voiced over slides alone are the least engaging video type

3. Try to connect through the lens on a human level and with enthusiasm (fast pace is ok)

4. High production quality is not essential but good audio is (use a microphone where possible). (Brame, 2016; Guo et al., 2014)

Consider creating spaces for collaborative and/ or individual written or record comments, discussion, outputs and evidence of learning. Blogs, discussion forums and MS Teams channels are all possible depending on context and needs. Most importantly you need to be clear about how optional these channels are. If assessed, then they lose the creative, innovative, whimsical potential that open and optional spaces often become. Be prepared in those instances to need to nudge, nurture and grow the spaces and accept that 'lurking' is a legitimate engagement (for more on this see Gilly Salmon's 5 stage model).

ePortfolios are useful tools for student engagement provided they are used to give continuous feedback. Mahara is the institutional one but others exist through third party vendors (at a cost) e.g. Pathbrite, PebblePad) and Reflect is also used as a portfolio at UCL.

Open badges can be used for recognition and reward that is separate from the 'ultimate' reward of the degree. They can be endorsed by organisations and created using tools such as Open Badge Factory. Open Badges are easily displayed online via a range of options. Open Badge Passport is one option or they can be displayed via any web-based platform like LinkedIn or personal blogs.

Whether you are using Zoom, Teams or another tool for live sessions online a key principle is to not see this as 'delivery' time.

The best place to break this cycle is right at the start (of the year and every session) by including opportunities for interaction and engagement. If possible, being in the online space ahead of the scheduled time and making sure students know you will be there, is a great opportunity to support the emotional and behavioural engagement of students.

Actively plan questions, or make observations or offer something unrelated or tangential to the topic to stimulate interest.

Your UCL Mentimeter account which is a place students can go to contribute thoughts, answer questions or provide insights. It works well for both asynchronous and synchronous interactions and, indeed, bridging the two. For example, you might choose to send a Mentimeter link ahead of a session, then close the voting just before the session then display the results and use that as a prompt for the in-session discussion. Alternatively (though harder to manage for both lecturer and student) is to run a live poll in-session as a way of engaging a wider number of students than those confident enough to turn on mics and cameras at the start.

Teams, Zoom and Collaborate all offer simple in-app polling tools as an alternative or, even simpler, pose a question and ask all students to drop a yes/ no/ don't know/ ambivalent type response into the chat.

All these tools also offer breakout spaces and but, as with effective group work in a face to face setting, what they will do needs planning and the instructions need to be clear. This article offers detailed, practical guidance on using breakout spaces.

As part of a breakout activity, you could use a Jamboard collaborative space or equivalent to give a visible focal point to discussions and provide an shareable output of the discussions.

Alternatively, use Moodle Hot Questions in live sessions as described by Dr Rebecca Yerwoth to encourage anonymous contributions that can be discussed and voted on by students.

Those Faculties with access to social annotation software (Talis Elevate and Hypothes.is) can use these to create engagement with texts. By asking questions within images, videos and texts discussions can take place either in a seminar or outside face to face teaching time. Those who have used it have reported a higher engagement with readings across the term.

If you have set a pre-session activity, it's a chance to display input and give early arrivals something to ponder, compare to their own responses or to quickly do (because they 'forgot'!).
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1. Higher levels of engagement mean increased success.

2. Engagement manifests in many forms, some more visible than others, but it is worth considering our approaches to learning design holistically and critically so that we might support types of engagement.

3. There are principles of design and practical strategies that we can adopt that will engage, build engagement and help to sustain it.

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Setting expectations early on is important to establish a 'norm', especially regarding sensitive issues like cameras on/off. Whilst you should never insist on cameras on, as you can never know individual students' contexts, nonetheless research suggests that most students leave their cameras off only because they are concerned about their own appearance, or because they are in a shared space which others are also using (Castelli & Sarvary, 2021). The norm becomes cameras off, and this then persists.

Ideally, the session will be built around discussion, application or practice and will build on the resources and activities you have used to frame and the live event. Tools that you can use to support this include:

Although there are two sections above, to sustain engagement it is important to make visible the connections between what happens live (whether it is in a lab, classroom or online) and what happens asynchronously. Building those bridges by making those connections overt is essential.

Further help

For online and blended learning support, contact your Faculty Learning Technology Lead.

If you would like to create or redesign your online course, or receive training about online courses (including online centred ABC), contact a member of the Online Learning team.
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For development of blended courses, including blended ABC training, contact a member of the Digital Education Advisory team.

To discuss any of the teaching and learning ideas and issues here please contact your Arena faculty liaison.

For more on Mentimeter, visit the Mentimeter resource centre and see our case study on How Mentimeter can support asynchronous engagement.

Download this toolkit

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Encouraging student engagement with blended and online learning

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View all Teaching Toolkits This toolkit focusses on approaches and specific strategies to help engage students and then maintain that engagement. Success and engagement go hand in hand, leading teachers and lecturers to ask: What can I do to increase and sustain engagement?

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Cognitive Load Theory: A teacher’s guide

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How can you use Cognitive Load Theory to improve learning outcomes in your classroom?

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Front Psychol. 2022; 13: 837374.

Abstract

The aim of the study is to document a new predictor of knowledge hiding from the perspective of Art design trainers and Art design trainees in virtual training's and this study tends to add new theoretical insights into the body of literature. For this purpose, this study approached a sample of 500 respondents under a cross-sectional research design and respondents who have participated in virtual trainings or their trainings were at the final stage were recruited through the snowball sampling technique. The useable responses remained at 406 and these have been analyzed through SPSS for demographic analysis and Smart-PLS has been used to test the structural model, while a process macro has been used to test the moderation. Results indicate that cognitive loading has the potency to reduce the knowledge hiding behavior of the trainees. Similarly, it has been observed that cognitive loading increases the cognitive engagement of the trainees, and it moreover reduces the knowledge hiding tendency of trainees. In case of mediation, a partial mediation has been documented through the variance accounted for (VAF) approach while testing moderation. The role of supervisor support has not been found to be statistically significant.

Keywords: cognitive loading, cognitive engagement, knowledge hiding, supervisor support, Art design trainees

Introduction

In the search of "impacts of cognitive loading on knowledge hiding in virtual educational trainings," it has been important for going deep into the cognitive loading and its settings. The idea is derived from cognitive load theory and management of cognitive load. Knowledge sharing and knowledge hiding are two opposites sides which are determined by various psychological and management factors ( Wu et al., 2022). It is proven that knowledge hording or hiding is influenced by many factors especially in Art design teaching whether it be physical or online. Three different types of knowledge hiding are reported by Connelly et al. (2012) including evasive one, playing dumb, and rationalized knowledge hiding. Rationalized hiding is referred to as justified or justification-based knowledge hiding. Providing justifications to the planned activities is a cognitive aspect of psychology ( Rong and Liu, 2021). A relational aspect could be developed between cognitive loading and such kind of knowledge hiding. Cognitive loading is actually a management of working memory as defined by the cognitive load theory due to which certain things occupy the segment of brain that acts in delivering the knowledge to learners. Due to the onset of the pandemic, a worldwide shift to online teaching and learning has been witnessed. So, the impact of all cognitive factors became necessary to be analyzed in such Art design virtual educational contexts virtual educational contexts.

Dissecting the cognitive load, first it is important to understand the cognitive load theory given by Sweller (1994). According to the theory, cognitive load is the capacity of the brain related to working ability defined by him. The part of our brain or the working memory that analyzes what we are doing right now can only handle a certain amount of data at a time. According to the theory, there are three types of cognitive load which should be understood. Among them, the basic one is intrinsic load, then the extrinsic load, and the last one is the germane load ( Sweller, 1988). Intrinsic load refers to a task that can be difficult at times. Compare the difference between calculus and arithmetic. Maybe one who is good at math would not find it too difficult. For others, this endeavor would need a high level of mental focus. While extrinsic load is somewhat different in which the tutor has more control over learners. It is caused by the communication of ideas that have nothing to do with the assignment. Germane load refers to information processing in which organization of information in the brain takes place. It is affected by the information previously learned ( Sweller, 1988).

The mediating role of cognitive engagement has been examined in previous research such as Jelas et al. (2016) which suggested its role in the context of our study that it could mediate the relationship between cognitive loading and knowledge hiding. The degree to which students are eager and allowed to carry on the learning job at hand is referred to as cognitive engagement ( Corno and Mandinach, 1983; Appleton et al., 2006). This includes how much effort pupils are willing to put into the activity and how long they are willing to work on it. The level of students' homework, class participation, supplementary involvement in events, or general contact with teachers, as well as how motivated they appear when participating in classroom discussions, has traditionally been used to measure cognitive engagement. Most writers believe cognitive involvement to be a more or less stable quality of students, regardless of the setting, based on this description.

Working in groups and participating in conversations, looking for information on the Internet, or listening to a lecture are likely to result in varying levels of cognitive involvement due to varying amounts of autonomy. Listening to a lecture is considered the least intellectually engaging because there is little to no student agency in such situations. When students autonomously look for information on the Internet, or participate in self-initiated information-seeking behaviors, the level of autonomy should be relatively high, leading to increased cognitive engagement. Depending on the dynamics of the group, working in groups and participating in debates might result in high or low emotions of autonomy. In contrast to a group that works well together, a student may feel less independent and participate less cognitively if there are dominant classmates in the group ( Rotgans and Schmidt, 2011). Based on this evidence, we utilized cognitive engagement as a mediator in our study model.

Review of Literature and Hypothesis Development

This study model is based on two cognitive theories which suggest influential roles of cognitive load and cognitive engagement in the context of knowledge hiding behaviors. First, the variable cognitive loading is derived from cognitive load theory and the cognitive engagement from integrated cognitive antisocial potential (ICAP) theory of cognitive engagement for the load management and knowledge hiding management.

Cognitive Load Theory

Sweller (1988) established the cognitive load theory in the disciplines of education and instructional design, based on a model of working memory. According to cognitive load theory, information storage and processing are based on two interdependent systems. Human working memory is responsible for knowledge processing, whereas the long-term memory is responsible for storing data in the form of schemata. Cognitive load theory is a branch of schema theory that explains how people learn and store knowledge by combining lower-order and higher-order schemata ( Wu et al., 2022). Working memory resources are finite, according to cognitive load theory, and processing and retaining information consumes a portion of these resources. As a result, once a certain quantity of data is stored in a single schema, it may be kept in working memory at a lower cognitive cost. The cognitive load is viewed as a multi-factorial term in cognitive load theory, with various sources of cognitive burden creating varied loads.

Sweller differentiates three types of cognitive stress. Intrinsic load is determined by the amount and interactivity of components that must be processed and is directly tied to the learning content. Anything that must be or has been learned, including a notion or procedure, is specified as an element. The term "interactivity" refers to how elements interact with one another ( Sweller, 2010). A collection of chemical symbols, for example, might be considered low interactive material since these elements are not dependent, but learning to calculate second degree problems is considered high interactive. Intrinsic load is determined by the student's degree of skill since the more knowledgeable they are, the more information may be shrunk onto high-order schemata, lowering the cognitive cost of keeping pieces in working memory. Extraneous load focuses on the mental resources used for things that do not help with learning, schemata acquisition, or automation.

The mental resources committed to collecting and automating schemata in long-term memory are referred to as germane load. Sweller came up with the notion of cognitive load after seeing that some educational forms might also boost cognitive burden and learning ( Ayres, 2006). If superfluous load must be decreased to prevent exhausting working memory resources, relevant load must be emphasized to improve learning. Cognitive load theory may explain how an increase in cognitive load might benefit the work at hand rather than being primarily tied to a decrease in performance. The triarchic model of cognitive load is now the subject of heated dispute in the cognitive load theory field. Researchers disagree on how the loads should be conceptualized as well as the nature of the interactions between them ( Schnotz and Kürschner, 2007; de Jong, 2010).

According to the researchers, intrinsic load relates to task performance, whereas germane load refers to additional cognitive processes that might improve learning, such as the intentional use of a learning technique. In other words, they argue that while learning may occur without relevant load, it can be enhanced by it. Some studies go even farther, claiming that germane and intrinsic loads are two ideas that are interchangeable. Because there is no need to refer to relevant load to explain the primary consequences predicted by cognitive load theory, he views it as a theoretical construct without empirical support ( Kalyuga, 2011). Since the role of cognitive load in sharing the knowledge or hiding has been established through cognitive load theory and its types, cognitive loading was used as a variable in light of this theory.

ICAP Theory of Cognitive Engagement

According to the research, cognitive engagement, as it is presently measured and characterized, appears to promote only shallower learning. The ICAP theory was created to address these two issues by defining cognitive engagement or student engagement (the terms are related in ways that might improve deeper learning). The ICAP theory was initially published in 2009 ( Chi, 2009), in a study that hypothesized three cognitive modes of interaction (Active, Constructive, and Interactive), as well as data from the literature to back up ICAP's predictions that Interactive is floating between Constructive and Active. Because multiple laboratory and classroom investigations described in the report compared the passive mode to one of these three alternative active modes, ICAP was expanded in 2014 to incorporate the passive mode ( Chi and Wylie, 2014). As a result, whereas the term active in ICAP refers to one form of interaction, the term active in active learning refers to all three kinds of cognitive involvement ( Menekse et al., 2013).

ICAP is made up of three parts: a taxonomy of four engagement modes with operational definitions for each, a metric for defining the degree of engagement based on the cognitive processes associated with the four behavioral modes, and a hypothesis for predicting the hierarchical levels of student learning as a function of the mode of engagement. Findings from published research in the literature are used to back up the theory's predictions ( Chi, 2009; Chi and Wylie, 2014; Chi et al., 2018). The theory provides the basis for cognitive engagement and its measurement in numerous cases of learning. In the context of cognitive loading effects on knowledge hiding behaviors, this theory could be applied to find the role of cognitive engagement of the students in the learning process. The mediating link of cognitive engagement could be easily determined by the support of this theory. So, we utilized the information provided by Chi (2009) in identifying the role of cognitive engagement in this study.

Relationship Between Cognitive Loading and Knowledge Hiding

We hypothesized that the role of cognitive loading leads to a significant relationship with knowledge hiding. The load that completing a task places on the learner's cognitive system is known as cognitive load ( Paas and Van Merriënboer, 1994). According to this theory, the objective, the requisite mental representations, the learner's inventory of cognitive schemata, and processing techniques influence learning processes that lead to knowledge creation and automation. The cognitive burden placed on the learner's working memory by performing learning activities and accompanying learning processes is significant. The contrast between intrinsic load, which is caused by the work, and external burden, which is caused by poor teaching, is at the heart of the cognitive load hypothesis. Intrinsic load is a type of activity dictated by the nature of the task demands in relation to the learner's skill and motivation. Extraneous load, which is ineffectual for learning, and germane load, which is helpful for learning, are both possible outcomes of instructional design. Extraneous cognitive burden is defined as extra cognitive strain that is unnecessarily added because of poorly designed education. Load that adds to learning, such as self-explanations, is referred to as germane load ( Paas and Van Merriënboer, 1994).

According to the literature on knowledge management, knowledge grows as it is used ( Rong and Liu, 2021; Wen and Ma, 2021). According to the researchers, information is important when it is shared with others ( Giustiniano et al., 2016; Škerlavaj et al., 2018). While information sharing among individuals benefits a company, many people are uncomfortable or hesitant to share their expertise with their coworkers, which can stifle creativity. Despite the fact that people are aware that sharing information benefits the larger society, they nonetheless weigh the financial cost of contributing, such as the fear of losing power or position, or the fear of being underestimated ( Fong et al., 2018). As a result, many people do not genuinely share all their information. Individuals may, on the other hand, participate in knowledge concealment. In other words, when their colleagues ask them to share information, they try to keep it hidden or withhold it. In academia and research institutes, the human proclivity to scrutinize their own expertise with caution is a serious element ( Babic et al., 2019).

To summarize, knowledge sharing or knowledge hiding in virtual educational trainings imposes additional unnecessary strain without assistance that deals with varied group composition and online communication. Because extra cognitive resources must be committed to identifying a good partner and learning how to engage with others online, this is the case. These organizing and sustaining processes reduce the cognitive capacity available for knowledge formation because, according to cognitive load theory, different types of cognitive load build up and there is an upper limit to the available cognitive load defined by working memory restrictions ( Babic et al., 2019). So, based upon these analogies, a relationship was suggested between cognitive loading and the behavior of knowledge hiding, and we suggested the following hypothesis for analysis for new levels of virtual educational training context.

Relationship Between Cognitive Loading and Cognitive Engagement

Mediating Role of Cognitive Engagement Between Cognitive Load and Knowledge Hiding

A significant discussion about cognitive engagement and cognitive loading has been done in the preceding part of the manuscript which suggested a strong relationship between both. It is worth mentioning that there could be a negative relationship between cognitive engagement and knowledge hiding and more engagement would yield into more knowledge sharing among each other whereas it would lead to lesser knowledge hiding. Therefore, it was necessary to check the mediating association of cognitive engagement between both factors of cognitive loading and knowledge hiding. A number of studies in the past have evaluated the mediating role of cognitive engagement in different perspectives such as reported by Cheng (2013) and Raja Kamal et al. (2021). But no research investigated the mediating link of cognitive engagement between cognitive loading and the knowledge hiding which yielded a research gap for us.

The research conducted by Raja Kamal et al. (2021) suggested that cognitive engagement positively played a mediating role between the online teaching and the understanding and learning in the said setup. The research conducted by Joo et al. (2017) suggested that cognitive engagement showed partial mediation. It was indicated that employees' perceived work cognitions accounted for 31% of the variance in cognitive engagement, according to the results of structural equation modeling (SEM). Work cognition and cognitive engagement accounted for half of the variance in psychological well-being among employees. Furthermore, cognitive engagement served as a partial mediator. The cognitive engagement in the health sector also provided an insight for the mediation between different variables such as in Joo et al. (2017). The theoretical structure of this study was confirmed by 290 survey replies, which established accountable artificial intelligence as a third order component. The 174 dyadic data findings further validated the participant's cognitive engagement using accountable artificial intelligence technologies and potential value, which contributes to market efficiency, as a mediation mechanism. No prior research was available for mediating role of cognitive engagement between cognitive loading and knowledge hiding, which provided us with a gap to find the mediating relationship and we formulated the following hypothesis.

Moderating Relationship of Supervisor Support

A supervisor is a person who oversees controlling and regulating students' work in the first level of command. Supervisors keep track of how well pupils complete assignments ( Stephens, 2014; Shahzad et al., 2019). Supervisors have an impact on promoting, disciplining, rewarding, altering, and other student-related actions ( Swanzy, 2020; Yaghi and Bates, 2020). Supervisors in an organizational setting issue orders to employees and oversee the operations, productivity, and overall performance of a group of workers. The supervisory function, which is similar to that of a manager, has a considerable impact on building good and safe attitudes, work training, up-to-date working techniques and tactics, and spotting unfavorable workplace behavior. Supervisors generate resources such as exchanging knowledge, emotional empathy, collaboration, and helping through providing a supportive connection. Supervisors play a critical role in ensuring that students and employees are safe in the workplace ( Abubakr, 2018; Al-Jaro et al., 2021).

A lot of studies have been conducted on moderating or regulating the role of supervisor support in various contexts. Achour et al. (2017) conducted research and suggested that employee well-being was inversely correlated with work family responsibilities. Management and supervisory support also increased the moderating link between work family needs and employee well-being. As a result, management and supervisory assistance played a significant moderating role in balancing job obligations and family responsibilities, as well as in improving the well-being of working female academics. Another study conducted by Achour et al. (2017) found a moderating role of supervisor support, job support, and flexibility in scheduling the work. Perceived supervisor support was found moderating between satisfaction for job, task performance, and psychological contracts ( Achour et al., 2017). Similar results in a different perspective were also obtained by Wickramasinghe (2012). This allowed us to evaluate the moderating effects of supervisor support in our context of relationship between cognitive loading and the knowledge hiding. Therefore, we proposed the following.

This research is based on the conceptual model (see Figure 1 ) for the analysis of impact of cognitive loading on knowledge hiding in virtual educational training setup with cognitive engagement in mediation and supervisor support in moderation.

Methodology

Participants and Procedure

Measures

Demographic Profile

Respondents were requested to report their demographic characteristics such as age, gender, and qualifications along with the job status. Demographic characteristics of the respondents indicate that most of the respondents in this regard were men and they share a major portion (i.e., 62%) while women respondents in this regard were 38%. Similarly, respondents were requested to report their educational level and data reveals that only 8.6% respondents have graduation degrees while 42.6% have master's degree, and the remaining have other degrees (MS/MPhil and other technical degrees). While in the case of job status level, most of the respondents were on a contractual nature posting (74%), while the remaining 26% were on a permanent basis. The last demographic characteristic of the respondents pertains to their age group and results revealed that most of the respondents fall in the category of age group of 26-30 years with a higher percentage, i.e., 40%. While respondents in the age group between 30 and 35 years share a portion of 28.8%. Similarly, respondents in the age group between 20 and 25 years were 13.8% and last category having age above 35 years was 17.2%.

Statistical Analysis

In order to test the complex nature of relationships in this study, we used the variance based structural modeling approach (partial least square) ( Sarstedt et al., 2014). Thus, Smart-PLS was the best available choice for this purpose, and we have used it to test the hypothesis assumed in this research. Smart-PLS, which is based on the partial least square (PLS) approach, is the best tool that can be used where theory is less developed and in this case nothing was available regarding the relationship of cognitive loading and knowledge hiding, so it was the best fitted approach in this case ( Hair et al., 2017). Moreover, PLS-SEM can easily handle the non-parametric data and thus owing to the concerns of normality this study tested a conceptualized model of this study through Smart-PLS ( Hair et al., 2017).

Data Analysis and Results

Results of SEM are assessed in two dimensions. The first dimension is related to assessment of the measurement model while the second dimension is related to measurement of the structural model. First, the measurement model is assessed for quality criteria based on reliability and validity ( Hair et al., 2017). To assess reliability various measures are available, and this study used three measures to assess the reliability based on "Cronbach's alpha, rho-A, and composite reliability. All these indicators have been found under the prescribed limit (see Table 1 ). In case of reliability, statistics measured through alpha for cognitive loading is 0.590. This value can be accepted as the scale for cognitive loading that is newly developed and still needs to be validated and tested, so such low values in this regard can be accepted. While for another two constructs, the value of the Cronbach alpha is above the threshold value (i.e., >0.60). Similarly, in the case of rho-A, the value for the newly developed and tested scale for cognitive loading is 0.601. Again, this value can be tested owing to the reason that this scale is tested in new contextual settings and the scale is moreover under testing.

While other parameters of reliability statistics, i.e., composite reliability, indicated a well-established measurement of reliability, all the values were within the acceptable range. The second portion of the assessment of the measurement model is related to checking the convergent and discriminant validity. For the measurement of convergent validity, this study has used two indicators, the first indicator of convergent validity is based on outer loadings and the other indicator of convergent validity is average variance extracted (AVE). Both criteria of convergent validity provided sufficient evidence in this regard and indicated good convergent validity (see Tables 1 , ​,2). 2 ). Initially the outer loadings values were checked, and poor outer loadings were located. Although a lower or week outer loading value was identified in cognitive engagement, however, it was retained despite being lower outer loading because the AVE of cognitive engagement was within the acceptable range (>0.50), so item CE1 was retained, despite having lower outer loading. In the case of cognitive loading item CL-3 has poor loading and it was dropped from further analysis. Finally, for the knowledge hiding outer loading value indicated good values and no item from this scale was dropped as all the indicators from this scale have good outer loadings ( Mela and Kopalle, 2002).

Similarly, in order to assess the convergent validity, we also tested AVE and it was observed that all the constructs have AVE greather than 0.50, indicating more than 50% variance and ensuring that convergent validity has been established (see Table 1 ). Thus, AVE of all study constructs is above the threshold value of 0.50. For instance, in the case of cognitive engagement AVE is 0.537, for cognitive loading AVE is 0.549, and for knowledge hiding AVE is 0.652 indicating well-established convergent validity. While other indicators of discriminant validity are assessed in this study based on Fornell-Larker criterion and heterotrait-monotrait ratio of correlations (HTMT) ( Hair et al., 2017; e.g., see Tables 3A , ​,B). B ). Initially for evaluating discriminant validity, Fornell-Larcker criterion was checked ( Table 3A ) and it was observed that the square root of AVE of the respective construct is greater than in the respective row and column. For instance, the square root of AVE of cognitive engagement is 0.732, which is higher than the respective values in row and column. A similar pattern is observed in the case of cognitive loading and for knowledge hiding the square root of AVE is also higher. Therefore, the first criteria of discriminant validity was established very well ( Hair et al., 2011).

TABLE 3A

Cognitive engagement

0.732

Cognitive loading

0.246

0.741

Knowledge hiding

−0.374

−0.288

0.808

TABLE 3B

Cognitive engagement

-

Cognitive loading

0.355

-

Knowledge hiding

0.455

0.393

-

Assessment of Structural Model

We have used a 5000 bootstrapped procedure to test the structural model to eliminate risk of non-parametric data because this procedure applies 5,000 randomly drawn sub-samples which are replaced at 0.05% ( Hair et al., 2017). For the assessment of a structural model, we tested a model for R ² which is also termed as predictive accuracy. The value of R ² indicates the combined effect of variables on dependent and mediating variables. In this study, the value of the coefficient of determination has been observed to be 6% in the case of cognitive engagement and 18% in the case of knowledge hiding. It indicates that 18% change in knowledge hiding is being explained by cognitive engagement and cognitive loading. While in the case of cognitive engagement, 6% change in the mediating variable was being explained through cognitive loading (independent variable). Predictive relevance Q ² was also assessed ( Hair et al., 2013) and it was observed that the value of Q-square was greater than the zero indicating a predictive relevance of the model ( Geisser, 1975; see Table 3 ). Multicollinearity was also assessed to test the proper parameter estimation ( Mela and Kopalle, 2002). In this study (see Table 1 ) all the values of variance inflation factor (VIF) were below the cutoff point, i.e., +5 and indicated that model is free from multi-collinearity ( Hair et al., 2013).

The final stage to assess the structural model is based on hypothesis testing. In this regard, Table 4 presents the testing of a hypothesis. The first hypothesis of this study is related to the relationship of cognitive loading and knowledge hiding behavior. The coefficient sign (negative) indicates that cognitive loading brings a negative change in knowledge hiding. The estimated value for this path indicates that one unit change in cognitive loading will bring -0.210-unit change in knowledge hiding ( Figure 2 ). This path is supported as p and t-statistics indicate an accepted level (see Table 4 ). Hence, H ₁ is supported, and it can be concluded that cognitive loadings predict knowledge hiding negatively and significantly. Similarly, H ₂ of this study is also supported/accepted as evidenced by statistical indicators. In this regard, the impact of cognitive loading on cognitive engagement has been found to be positive and significant which indicates that with the high cognitive loading there will be high cognitive engagement. The coefficient for this path indicates that one unit change in cognitive loading will bring 0.255-unit change in cognitive engagement as supported by the statistical parameters of p and t for this path and thus it can be concluded that cognitive loading has positive and significant effects on cognitive engagement. Similarly, mediation (H ₃) has been tested through the variance accounted for (VAF) approach as recommended by Hair et al. (2017). In this regard, it has been observed that direct, indirect, and total paths are significant. To calculate VAF, the indirect path is divided by total path coefficient and the outcome of this value indicates regarding mediation. If the value is less than 20%, it indicates no mediation and if the value is in the range of 20-80%, it indicates a partial mediation, while values above 80% and less than 100% depict a picture of full mediation. In our case after dividing the value of indirect effect with total effect the value yield indicates VAF of 28% which points toward a partial mediation (Cognitive Loading → Cognitive Engagement → Knowledge Hiding) and thus H ₃ is accepted here that cognitive engagement mediates the relationship between the cognitive loading and knowledge hiding behaviors of the trainees (see Table 5 ).

TABLE 4

Direct hypothesis

β

t

p

Status

H1

Cognitive loading → Knowledge hiding

−0.210

4.170

0.00

Supported

H2

Cognitive loading → Cognitive engagement

0.255

4.683

0.00

Supported

Mediation hypotheses

Indirect effect

Total effect

VAF

Status

H3

Cognitive loading → Cognitive engagement → Knowledge hiding

−0.083

−0.293

28%

Supported

TABLE 5

Path

Coefficient

t

p

Indirect path

Total path

Moderation analysis has been done through the process macro (see Table 6 ). It was conceptualized that if the perceived supervisor support is high and cognitive engagement is also high it will lead toward a mechanism to reduce the knowledge hiding more strongly. For this purpose, it was hypothesized that cognitive loading will increase the cognitive engagement, and if at this stage perceived supervisor support is also high it will reduce the knowledge hiding more rigorously.

TABLE 6

Model summary

R

R-sq

MSE

F

df1

df2

p

Model

Coeff

se

t

p

LLCI

ULCI

Model summary

R

R-sq

MSE

F

df1

df2

p

Model

Coeff

se

t

p

LLCI

ULCI

Test(s) of highest order unconditional interaction(s)

R2-chng

F

df1

df2

p

M*W

.0009

.4750

1.0000

401.0000

.4911

Index of moderated mediation

Index

BootSE

BootLLCI

BootULCI

PSS

.0083

.0130

−.0183

.0335

Discussion

This research is based on certain factors which result into knowledge hiding in different ways. The factor of cognitive loading was derived from the cognitive load theory by Sweller (1988). Another factor which could mediate the relationship of cognitive load and knowledge hiding was derived from ICAP theory of cognitive engagement by Chi (2009). Moderating the role of supervisor support was also analyzed in this study regulating the relationship of cognitive loading and knowledge hiding. The research was conducted to identify the impact of cognitive loading on knowledge hiding behaviors in the context of virtual educational trainings. The outcomes of this research revealed some interesting results. Our first hypothesis, which was about the relationship of cognitive loading on knowledge hiding, was accepted. The reason behind such a relationship is the loading of the cognitive segment of the brain with overflowing knowledge in virtual education. The medium used in such kind of trainings is either online or through digital sources. In such mediums, a trainer is unable to deliver all the information to the knowledge seekers.

This thing leads to hiding of some of the knowledge especially in cases of rational knowledge hiding in which a knowledge source hides the information purposely or has justifications for the knowledge hiding. This concept of knowledge hiding was first given by Connelly et al. (2012). So, it was obvious to get such kind of results. These kind of results are in accordance with many researchers of the past where occupancy of the brain leads to knowledge hiding as in our first hypothesis ( Babic et al., 2019). Our second hypothesis was about the relationship of cognitive load and cognitive engagement. This hypothesis was also accepted as cognitive engagement is derived from the ICAP theory of cognitive engagement which deals with the interactive ability of learners ( Chi and Wylie, 2014). This factor is directing the brain possession with the knowledge or the information provided by the trainer, so working memory is full or loaded at a time when getting trainings either physically or online. Similar kinds of results were obtained in previous studies in different contexts regarding students' cognitive engagement ( Carini et al., 2006).

Our third hypothesis was about mediating the role of cognitive engagement between cognitive loading and knowledge hiding. This hypothesis was also supported in this setup of research showing the supporting impact of cognitive engagement between the two factors. Such kinds of results are obtained due to the reason that cognitive loading could be helped through cognitive engagement in knowledge hiding in the virtual educational training. If the working memory is loaded with all the information to be delivered and is engaged in delivering all information to the knowledge seekers, then there would be certain knowledge hiding in the setup. Mediating the role of cognitive engagement has also been previously studied by many researchers who obtained similar results of positive mediation of cognitive engagement in different perspectives ( Cheng, 2013; Joo et al., 2017; Raja Kamal et al., 2021).

Theoretical Contributions

The study has certain theoretical contributions. First, no prior study has attempted to check the impact of cognitive loadings and cognitive engagements from trainers. Second, the knowledge hiding behavior of the trainers has been found to be an important factor in the role of supervisor support between cognitive loading and knowledge hiding. Third, the aim of this study is to document a new predictor of knowledge hiding from the perspective of trainers and trainees in virtual trainings and this study tends to add new theoretical insights.

Practical Implications

This study has many implications in the real ecosphere. For instance, this study will be helpful, and it can be recommended and suggested that in virtual trainings, practitioners should increase the interactions of the trainees with trainers and their colleagues so that it should become a source to decrease the knowledge hiding in organizational courses and its circuits. Second, it has been empirically initiated that cognitive loadings lead toward cognitive engagement which is also an important outcome and stresses upon the fact that if the trainers create an interaction environment for the trainees it brings cognitive engagement among the trainees and they become engaged cognitively. So cognitive loading has double benefits for the trainers and trainees without instructor involvement in rationalized knowledge hiding. Organizations can ensure the maximum sharing of knowledge by being involved in positive reinforcement behavior to motivate the instructors.

Limitations and Future Research

The present study has certain limitations. (1) It has a sample size of 500 which is a small sample concerning the population of the students. Future studies should be conducted with a large sample size and probability sampling to ensure rigor in the study. This study can be replicated with more mediating variables (like understanding behavior, cognitive interest, etc.) and moderating variables (gender, technical support, supervisor motivation, etc.). This study is conducted in Chinese universities; it should be conducted in other countries of the world to ensure the generalization of the results.

Conclusion

Based on empirical findings of this it can be safely concluded that cognitive loading has the potency to affect the knowledge hiding behavior of Art design employees. Keeping in view the theoretical orientation of this study as data were collected from the respondents who have participated in Art design virtual training's as it has been confirmed that if the interaction in virtual trainings is high it increases the cognitive loadings of the trainers in virtual trainings and boosts them and motivates them to avoid knowledge hiding. Thus, it can be recommended that in Art design virtual trainings practitioners should increase the interactions of the trainees with trainers and their colleagues so that it should become a source to decrease the knowledge hiding in organizational circuits. Second, it has been empirically found that cognitive loadings lead toward cognitive engagement which is also an important outcome and stresses upon the fact that if the trainers create an interaction environment for the trainees it brings cognitive engagement among the trainees, and they become engaged cognitively. So cognitive loading has double benefits for the trainers and trainees. Moreover, it has been found that cognitive engagement plays a mediating role between the relationships of cognitive loading and knowledge hiding. Simply, cognitive engagement carries out the effect of cognitive loading and it passes this to the knowledge hiding behavior of the trainees.

Data Availability Statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Ethics Statement

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Jiangxi Normal University of Science and Technology. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study. The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Author Contributions

TG: drafting the manuscript and data collection. LK: reviewing, analysis, and supervision. Both authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Cognitive Loading and Knowledge Hiding in Art Design Education: Cognitive Engagement as Mediator and Supervisor Support as Moderator

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The aim of the study is to document a new predictor of knowledge hiding from the perspective of Art design trainers and Art design trainees in virtual training's and this study tends to add new theoretical insights into the body of literature. ...

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When was the last time you learned something new? Did you have to learn any new jargon or terminology? How did you communicate your questions and/or your understanding as you were learning? Is it possible to answer any of the above questions without using general and specific language? This question is obviously rhetorical, but its answer drives the point that language is simply a part of everything we do.

As "experts of subject area language," teachers can help students develop awareness for the language that pertains to the subject they are studying.

Last year, I asked a student to choose an article to read on any topic of his choice. He chose an article about a Formula 1 driver. As we read the article, I had to stop several times and ask him to explain what different terms like "pole position," "pit wall," "MP4-5," and "TG184" meant. Having little background knowledge in car races, it was up to my student to help me understand the new Formula 1 language I was encountering.

Unlike my lesson in Formula 1, the roles in our classrooms are typically the other way around as we are delivering the concepts and content to students. But when we do, are we considering the language they need to understand the concepts? Do the students have the background knowledge to pick up this language quickly, or do we need to teach it more explicitly?

Why Every Teacher is a Language Teacher

This doesn't apply to just one or two subject areas. Language is embedded in the concepts, contexts and big ideas across all subject areas. Further, in many cases, key terms and concepts transfer easily from one subject to another. However, there are instances when the same word in one subject may mean something completely different in another. Take the word "tone" for example. Think about what this term/concept means in literature class. What does it mean in music? How about art? How do we use it in language class? Helping students recognize these key terms and concepts, understand when they do and do not directly transfer, and how to use them to communicate is what makes every teacher a language teacher.

"But I teach x, I can't even begin to know how to teach language!" This is an understandable reaction from teachers who are not trained to teach language and may have great discomfort at the idea of studying another language, let alone teaching one! The idea that every teacher teaches language doesn't mean that every teacher needs to be a language expert, but rather, that they are experts of the language of their subject areas.

As "experts of subject area language," teachers can help students develop awareness for the language that pertains to the subject they are studying. With this awareness, students can be guided to understand both how to better communicate their understanding of subject concepts and content, in addition to recognizing how everyday, academic, and even subject specific language transfers across the curriculum.

Just like there are acceptable ways to communicate in different languages and cultures, there are appropriate ways to communicate in different subject areas. Not every class requires a lab report, a chart or graph, or an essay. However, there is a language, and a form, to these different communicative functions, and we cannot take for granted that students arrive to our classrooms prepared to communicate accurately and with the correct language. If they don't learn how to do this in the classroom, where will they? As experts of subject area language, it is up to us to help students understand the best way to communicate their ideas and understanding of subject concepts.

So how do we do this? And when do teachers have time to add language lessons to their already busy lessons?

How many teachers review answers students have given and say, "hmm...that's not really telling me what you know. I can't tell if you understood this concept or not?" After reviewing work, teachers may realize they need to back track, make sure understanding is clear, and ask for students to communicate their knowledge again.

However, if we help students recognize the important language embedded in our lessons, units, assessments, etc, provide repeated exposure to this language, and develop their awareness of how to use language to communicate understanding, we may find that: 1. Students' understanding of the subject matter comes more quickly, and 2. They can clearly communicate this understanding the first time, thus, saving class time in the long run.

To take steps toward developing students' language across subject areas, we can start asking ourselves:
What key terms or new vocabulary will students see when reading this text, studying this unit, or exploring this concept?

How do we let them know these terms are important?

How do we give them practice using these terms in class, on homework, etc?

How do we provide repeated exposure to the terms?

What do students need to do to show us their understanding?

How will we be asking them to show their understanding?

How will we let them know what an acceptable answer looks like?

Like the old adage, "Rome wasn't built in a day," correct language use and communication in subject areas doesn't develop overnight. Teachers need to lay the groundwork by first identifying the language of the subject they are teaching. Then, they can start building a foundation for the students to acquire the subject language, transfer the language to other subjects, and use language accurately to communicate their understanding. This process doesn't require expertise in language learning, but it does signify why every teacher is a language teacher.

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Language is embedded in the concepts, contexts and big ideas across all topic areas making every teacher a language teacher no matter the subject.

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Metacognition is the ability to think about your own thinking. 'Meta' means beyond and 'Cognition' means thinking. So, metacognitive strategies involve reflecting on and regulating how you think.
Having this skill is essential for improving your own productivity and effectiveness at school or work.

When we apply metacognitive strategies, we become better learners. We can control not only our thoughts but also our actions much more effectively.

The following meta cognitive strategies are used regularly as teaching strategies to help people learn better.

Read Also: What is Flavell's Metacognitive Theory?

1. Self-Questioning

Self-questioning involves pausing throughout a task to consciously check your own actions.

Without self-questioning, we may lack humility and awareness of our own faults.

Most importantly, we would not be able to improve because we never took the time to ask ourselves important questions like:

Is this the best way to carry out this task?

Did I miss something? Maybe I should check again.

Did I follow the right procedure there?

How could I do better next time?

Am I looking at this task the right way?

How can I do a better job at thinking about what I'm doing?

Good students question their actions both while they're completing the task and after finishing it (see also: 'reflection').

2. Meditation

Meditation involves clearing your mind. We could consider it to be a metacognitive strategy because meditators aim to:

Clear out the chatter that goes on in our heads.

Reach a calm and focused state that can prime us for learning.

Be more aware of our own inner speech.

Meditation for children is becoming increasingly popular in schools because educators can see the value of this task for helping students achieve greater self-awareness in the classroom.

3. Reflection

Reflection involves pausing to think about a task. It is usually a cyclical process where we reflect, think of ways to improve, try again then go back to reflection.

Reflection is metacognitive only if you consciously reflect on what your thought processes were and how to improve upon them next time.

There are many models of reflection with varying steps. Most reflective cycles have at least the following phases:

A task is planned.

You attempt the task.

You look at how you did the task.

You come up with things you did well and areas for improvement.

You plan the next task, with a focus on improving on your weaknesses.

You try again ...

You reflect again ...

And so on.

Once you become skilled at reflection, you may also reflect while doing a task so that you can make adjustments to your thinking processes as you go. We call this sort of reflection reflection in action (as opposed to reflection on action).

4. Awareness of Strengths and Weaknesses

Central to metacognition is a person's capacity to see their own strengths and weaknesses. Only through looking at yourself and making a genuine assessment of your weaknesses can you achieve self-improvement.

One way to start looking at your strengths and weaknesses is to use a SWOT chart.

A SWOT chart is a chart with four sections:

Strengths: write down what you perceive to be your strengths as a learner.

Weaknesses: write down what you perceive to be your weaknesses as a learner.

Opportunities: identify opportunities you may have to improve your cognitive skills in the coming weeks or months.

Threats: identify potential threats that may prevent you from improving your cognitive skills in the coming weeks or months.

5. Awareness of Learning Styles

Learning styles theories such as Gardner's Multiple Intelligences and Learning Modalities theories argue that different people learn in different ways.

For example, you may feel you are better at learning through images than reading.

Some common learning styles include:

Visual: A visual learner learns best through images, graphics, TV documentaries and graphs. They are good at identifying patterns and matching complementary colours.

Auditory: A visual learner learns best through listening rather than watching or reading. They enjoy being read stories and listening to podcasts.

Kinesthetic: A kinesthetic learner learns best through movement. They like to learn by doing things rather than reading or listening. They are active rather than passive learners.

Logical-Mathematical: People who are logical-mathematical learners are good at using reasoning to find answers. They are good with numbers but may struggle with subjective issues in the humanities.

Interpersonal: An Interpersonal learner loves learning through social interaction. They're good at group work, have high emotional intelligence, and can compromise to get their job done.

Intrapersonal: An intrapersonal learner is someone who likes to mull things over in their own heads. They're happy to learn in silence and isolation and may find working with others to be a distraction (see: intrapersonal communication skills).

If you are aware of how you learn (i.e. the way your brain processes information!) you may be able to use your strengths and work on your weaknesses more efficiently.

6. Mnemonic aids

Mnemonic aids are strategies you can use to improve your information retention. They involve using rhymes, patterns, and associations to remember.

They work by adding context (additional or surrounding information) to a fact to help you to recall it.

My favorite example of using mnemonic aids is for remembering names.

You might remember a name in one of the following ways:

Rhyme: You meet a singer named Tom. You tell yourself "Tom would sing a song before long." Now, next time you meet Tom the singer, you might be able to recall your rhyme to remember both his name and profession!

Association: I have a sister named Vanessa. I always remember people named Vanessa because my head says "Oh, she has the same name as my sister!" every time I meet a Vanessa.

7. Writing Down your Working

Most people will recall in high school math classes their teacher saying: "I want to see your working so I know how you got to your answer."

This teacher is ensuring you are employing the right thinking processes and can show others how you went about thinking about the task.

When you become an expert at a topic you tend not to think about your thinking. We sometimes call this "unconscious competence", which is the fourth stage of learning in the learner competence model.

8. Thinking Aloud

Lev Vygotsky (a central figure in the sociocultural theory of education) argues beginner learners tend to think aloud before learning to think inside their heads.

The benefit of sociocultural theory's strategy of thinking aloud is that it makes you really think. You have to talk through what your brain is doing, making those thinking processes explicit.

Teachers will often ask students to speak out loud about what they're thinking. It not only helps the student be more conscious of their cognitive processes, it also helps the teacher identify areas where the student is going astray.

9. Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers, also sometimes called cognitive tools, help us to consciously improve our thinking processes. They assist us in:

Organizing our thoughts.

Creating connections between things we know.

Thinking more deeply about something.

Visualizing processes and procedures.

Examples of graphic organizers include:

The ideal graphic organizer will allow us to spill our thinking out onto a sheet or screen and shuffle and sort our thoughts to help us organize our minds better. By using a graphic organizer, we are more effectively thinking about our thinking.

10. Regulation Checklists

A regulation checklist can either be task-based or generalized.

A task-based regulation checklist is usually created before a task begins. It will:

List the thought processes required to succeed in the task.

List the observable outcomes of higher order thinking linked to the task.

List the checkpoints during the task where people should pause to reflect on their thinking.

A general regulation checklist provides regulation strategies that can be used across any normal task, such as:

Reminders to pause and reflect-in-practice at regular intervals.

Prompts to remind students to think about what strategies they are using and whether they are appropriate for the task.

Self-questioning prompts to remind students to question their choices.

Quick charts and questionnaires to help people focus on their developments such as KWL charts.

11. Active Reading Strategies

Active reading strategies are strategies that ensure you are concentrating while you read and actually comprehend the information.

Examples of active reading strategies include:

Underlining text: Underline key or important bits of information to highlight their importance in your mind.

Using a ruler to read: place a ruler under the sentence you're reading to help you focus on that line.

Scan for the main ideas: In informational texts, you can scan for the information you need. Pay close attention to subheadings that give you a clue about where you will find the key information.

My favorite approach to active reading is the reciprocal teaching approach. This approach emphasizes four more strategies:

Questioning: Ask yourself questions or ask your friends questions to check comprehension.

Summarizing: Try to sum up the page you just read in one or two sentences to check for comprehension before moving on.

Predicting: Try to predict how a story will go by looking at the pictures on the cover.

Clarifying: Ask for clarification from friends or a teacher when you don't understand rather than just moving on.

12. Active Listening Strategies

Active listening strategies are strategies students use to ensure they are listening attentively.

Some examples of active listening strategies include:

Turning your body to directly face the speaker.

Making eye contact.

Asking questions.

Nodding when appropriate.

Repeating what was said to you.

Teachers can directly teach and model active listening strategies to help students develop these metacognitive skills and internalize them for future use.

13. Planning Ahead

When we plan ahead, we often have to think about how we'll go about a task. We might call it our "plan of attack".

Planning ahead involves thinking about what we're going to do in order to complete a task. During your planning phase, you might make decisions such as:

Deciding what strategies you'll use when your task, competition or activity begins.

Tossing up a range of different thinking skills you might use when approaching a task.

Reminding yourself not to make the same mistakes you made last time.

Preparing some tools that will help you keep your thinking on track, such as preparing graphic organizers.

Get a Pdf of this article for class

Final Thoughts

When learners "think about their thinking" they are more capable of self-improvement. Metacognitive strategies can be learned, practiced, and made into habits in order to improve learning, studying, and thinking skills into the future.

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13 Examples of Metacognitive Strategies (2023)

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Examples of metacognitive strategies include: (1) Self-Questioning, (2) Meditation, (3) Reflection, (4) Thinking Aloud, (5) Active Listening, (6) Menemonic aids.

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Cite this guide: Chick, N. (2013). Metacognition. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [todaysdate] from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/metacognition/.

Thinking about One's Thinking | Putting Metacognition into Practice

Thinking about One's Thinking

Metacognition is, put simply, thinking about one's thinking. More precisely, it refers to the processes used to plan, monitor, and assess one's understanding and performance. Metacognition includes a critical awareness of a) one's thinking and learning and b) oneself as a thinker and learner.

Initially studied for its development in young children (Baker & Brown, 1984; Flavell, 1985), researchers soon began to look at how experts display metacognitive thinking and how, then, these thought processes can be taught to novices to improve their learning (Hatano & Inagaki, 1986). In How People Learn, the National Academy of Sciences' synthesis of decades of research on the science of learning, one of the three key findings of this work is the effectiveness of a "'metacognitive' approach to instruction" (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000, p. 18).

Metacognitive practices increase students' abilities to transfer or adapt their learning to new contexts and tasks (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, p. 12; Palincsar & Brown, 1984; Scardamalia et al., 1984; Schoenfeld, 1983, 1985, 1991). They do this by gaining a level of awareness above the subject matter: they also think about the tasks and contexts of different learning situations and themselves as learners in these different contexts. When Pintrich (2002) asserts that "Students who know about the different kinds of strategies for learning, thinking, and problem solving will be more likely to use them" (p. 222), notice the students must "know about" these strategies, not just practice them. As Zohar and David (2009) explain, there must be a " conscious meta-strategic level of H[igher] O[rder] T[hinking]" (p. 179).

Metacognitive practices help students become aware of their strengths and weaknesses as learners, writers, readers, test-takers, group members, etc. A key element is recognizing the limit of one's knowledge or ability and then figuring out how to expand that knowledge or extend the ability. Those who know their strengths and weaknesses in these areas will be more likely to "actively monitor their learning strategies and resources and assess their readiness for particular tasks and performances" (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, p. 67).

The absence of metacognition connects to the research by Dunning, Johnson, Ehrlinger, and Kruger on "Why People Fail to Recognize Their Own Incompetence" (2003). They found that "people tend to be blissfully unaware of their incompetence," lacking "insight about deficiencies in their intellectual and social skills." They identified this pattern across domains-from test-taking, writing grammatically, thinking logically, to recognizing humor, to hunters' knowledge about firearms and medical lab technicians' knowledge of medical terminology and problem-solving skills (p. 83-84). In short, "if people lack the skills to produce correct answers, they are also cursed with an inability to know when their answers, or anyone else's, are right or wrong" (p. 85). This research suggests that increased metacognitive abilities-to learn specific (and correct) skills, how to recognize them, and how to practice them-is needed in many contexts.

Putting Metacognition into Practice

In " Promoting Student Metacognition," Tanner (2012) offers a handful of specific activities for biology classes, but they can be adapted to any discipline. She first describes four assignments for explicit instruction (p. 116):

Preassessments-Encouraging Students to Examine Their Current Thinking: "What do I already know about this topic that could guide my learning?"

The Muddiest Point-Giving Students Practice in Identifying Confusions: "What was most confusing to me about the material explored in class today?"

Retrospective Postassessments-Pushing Students to Recognize Conceptual Change: "Before this course, I thought evolution was... Now I think that evolution is ...." or "How is my thinking changing (or not changing) over time?"

Reflective Journals-Providing a Forum in Which Students Monitor Their Own Thinking: "What about my exam preparation worked well that I should remember to do next time? What did not work so well that I should not do next time or that I should change?"

Next are recommendations for developing a "classroom culture grounded in metacognition" (p. 116-118):

Giving Students License to Identify Confusions within the Classroom Culture: ask students what they find confusing, acknowledge the difficulties

Integrating Reflection into Credited Course Work: integrate short reflection (oral or written) that ask students what they found challenging or what questions arose during an assignment/exam/project

Metacognitive Modeling by the Instructor for Students: model the thinking processes involved in your field and sought in your course by being explicit about "how you start, how you decide what to do first and then next, how you check your work, how you know when you are done" (p. 118)

To facilitate these activities, she also offers three useful tables:

Questions for students to ask themselves as they plan, monitor, and evaluate their thinking within four learning contexts-in class, assignments, quizzes/exams, and the course as a whole (p. 115)

Prompts for integrating metacognition into discussions of pairs during clicker activities, assignments, and quiz or exam preparation (p. 117)

Questions to help faculty metacognitively assess their own teaching (p. 119)

Weimer's " Deep Learning vs. Surface Learning: Getting Students to Understand the Difference " (2012) offers additional recommendations for developing students' metacognitive awareness and improvement of their study skills:

"[I]t is terribly important that in explicit and concerted ways we make students aware of themselves as learners. We must regularly ask, not only 'What are you learning?' but 'How are you learning?' We must confront them with the effectiveness (more often ineffectiveness) of their approaches. We must offer alternatives and then challenge students to test the efficacy of those approaches." (emphasis added)

She points to a tool developed by Stanger-Hall (2012, p. 297) for her students to identify their study strategies, which she divided into " cognitively passive" ("I previewed the reading before class," "I came to class," "I read the assigned text," "I highlighted the text," et al) and " cognitively active study behaviors" ("I asked myself: 'How does it work?' and 'Why does it work this way?'" "I wrote my own study questions," "I fit all the facts into a bigger picture," "I closed my notes and tested how much I remembered," et al). The specific focus of Stanger-Hall's study is tangential to this discussion, ¹ but imagine giving students lists like hers adapted to your course and then, after a major assignment, having students discuss which ones worked and which types of behaviors led to higher grades. Even further, follow Lovett's advice (2013) by assigning "exam wrappers," which include students reflecting on their previous exam-preparation strategies, assessing those strategies and then looking ahead to the next exam, and writing an action plan for a revised approach to studying. A common assignment in English composition courses is the self-assessment essay in which students apply course criteria to articulate their strengths and weaknesses within single papers or over the course of the semester. These activities can be adapted to assignments other than exams or essays, such as projects, speeches, discussions, and the like.

As these examples illustrate, for students to become more metacognitive, they must be taught the concept and its language explicitly (Pintrich, 2002; Tanner, 2012), though not in a content-delivery model (simply a reading or a lecture) and not in one lesson. Instead, the explicit instruction should be "designed according to a knowledge construction approach," or students need to recognize, assess, and connect new skills to old ones, "and it needs to take place over an extended period of time" (Zohar & David, p. 187). This kind of explicit instruction will help students expand or replace existing learning strategies with new and more effective ones, give students a way to talk about learning and thinking, compare strategies with their classmates' and make more informed choices, and render learning "less opaque to students, rather than being something that happens mysteriously or that some students 'get' and learn and others struggle and don't learn" (Pintrich, 2002, p. 223).

Metacognition instruction should also be embedded with the content and activities about which students are thinking. Why? Metacognition is "not generic" (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, p. 19) but instead is most effective when it is adapted to reflect the specific learning contexts of a specific topic, course, or discipline (Zohar & David, 2009). In explicitly connecting a learning context to its relevant processes, learners will be more able to adapt strategies to new contexts, rather than assume that learning is the same everywhere and every time. For instance, students' abilities to read disciplinary texts in discipline-appropriate ways would also benefit from metacognitive practice. A literature professor may read a passage of a novel aloud in class, while also talking about what she's thinking as she reads: how she makes sense of specific words and phrases, what connections she makes, how she approaches difficult passages, etc. This kind of modeling is a good practice in metacognition instruction, as suggested by Tanner above. Concepción's " Reading Philosophy with Background Knowledge and Metacognition " (2004) includes his detailed "How to Read Philosophy" handout (pp. 358-367), which includes the following components:

What to Expect (when reading philosophy)

The Ultimate Goal (of reading philosophy)

Basic Good Reading Behaviors

Important Background Information, or discipline- and course-specific reading practices, such as "reading for enlightenment" rather than information, and "problem-based classes" rather than historical or figure-based classes

A Three-Part Reading Process (pre-reading, understanding, and evaluating)

Flagging, or annotating the reading

Linear vs. Dialogical Writing (Philosophical writing is rarely straightforward but instead "a monologue that contains a dialogue" [p. 365].)

What would such a handout look like for your discipline?

Students can even be metacognitively prepared (and then prepare themselves) for the overarching learning experiences expected in specific contexts. Salvatori and Donahue's The Elements (and Pleasures) of Difficulty (2004) encourages students to embrace difficult texts (and tasks) as part of deep learning, rather than an obstacle. Their "difficulty paper" assignment helps students reflect on and articulate the nature of the difficulty and work through their responses to it (p. 9). Similarly, in courses with sensitive subject matter, a different kind of learning occurs, one that involves complex emotional responses. In " Learning from Their Own Learning: How Metacognitive and Meta-affective Reflections Enhance Learning in Race-Related Courses" (Chick, Karis, & Kernahan, 2009), students were informed about the common reactions to learning about racial inequality (Helms, 1995; Adams, Bell, & Griffin, 1997; see student handout, Chick, Karis, & Kernahan, p. 23-24) and then regularly wrote about their cognitive and affective responses to specific racialized situations. The students with the most developed metacognitive and meta-affective practices at the end of the semester were able to "clear the obstacles and move away from" oversimplified thinking about race and racism "to places of greater questioning, acknowledging the complexities of identity, and redefining the world in racial terms" (p. 14).

Ultimately, metacognition requires students to "externalize mental events" (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, p. 67), such as what it means to learn, awareness of one's strengths and weaknesses with specific skills or in a given learning context, plan what's required to accomplish a specific learning goal or activity, identifying and correcting errors, and preparing ahead for learning processes.

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1 Students who were tested with short answer in addition to multiple-choice questions on their exams reported more cognitively active behaviors than those tested with just multiple-choice questions, and these active behaviors led to improved performance on the final exam.
References

Adams, Maurianne, Bell, Lee Ann, and Griffin, Pat. (1997). Teaching for diversity and social justice: A sourcebook. New York: Routledge.

Bransford, John D., Brown Ann L., and Cocking Rodney R. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

Baker, Linda, and Brown, Ann L. (1984). Metacognitive skills and reading. In Paul David Pearson, Michael L. Kamil, Rebecca Barr, & Peter Mosenthal (Eds.), Handbook of research in reading: Volume III (pp. 353-395). New York: Longman.

Brown, Ann L. (1980). Metacognitive development and reading. In Rand J. Spiro, Bertram C. Bruce, and William F. Brewer, (Eds.), Theoretical issues in reading comprehension: Perspectives from cognitive psychology, linguistics, artificial intelligence, and education (pp. 453-482). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Chick, Nancy, Karis, Terri, and Kernahan, Cyndi. (2009). Learning from their own learning: how metacognitive and meta-affective reflections enhance learning in race-related courses . International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 3(1). 1-28.

Flavell, John H. (1985). Cognitive development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Hatano, Giyoo and Inagaki, Kayoko. (1986). Two courses of expertise. In Harold Stevenson, Azuma, Horishi, and Hakuta, Kinji (Eds.), Child development and education in Japan, New York: W.H. Freeman.

Lovett, Marsha C. (2013). Make exams worth more than the grade. In Matthew Kaplan, Naomi Silver, Danielle LaVague-Manty, and Deborah Meizlish (Eds.), Using reflection and metacognition to improve student learning: Across the disciplines, across the academy. Sterling, VA: Stylus.

Salvatori, Mariolina Rizzi, and Donahue, Patricia. (2004). The Elements (and pleasures) of difficulty. New York: Pearson-Longman.

Schoenfeld, Alan H. (1991). On mathematics as sense making: An informal attack on the fortunate divorce of formal and informal mathematics. In James F. Voss, David N. Perkins, and Judith W. Segal (Eds.), Informal reasoning and education (pp. 311-344). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Weimer, Maryellen. (2012, November 19). Deep learning vs. surface learning: Getting students to understand the difference. Retrieved from the Teaching Professor Blog from http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/deep-learning-vs-surface-learning-getting-students-to-understand-the-difference/.

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

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by Nancy Chick Print Version Cite this guide: Chick, N. (2013). Metacognition. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [todaysdate] from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/metacognition/. Thinking about One's Thinking | Putting Metacognition into Practice Thinking about One's Thinking Metacognition is, put simply, thinking about one's thinking. More precisely, it refers to the processes used to plan, monitor, and assess...

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CLAVES® - Dual Language Education of New Mexico

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CLAVES® is a framework that provides educational stakeholders with the professional learning needed to create an environment of differentiated, inclusive, and validating instruction in schools that serve English learners (ELs).

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Developing Learning Agility This diagram was inspired by the blog post, The agile learner in a VUCA world, written by Aloha Lavina. VUCA is an acronym used to describe volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Put simply, we live in a fast-changing world and in such an unfamiliar environment, we face unpredictable changes, often are required to make decisions in complex systems, and ...

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A case study is an in-depth study of one person, group, or event. In a case study, nearly every aspect of the subject's life and history is analyzed to seek patterns and causes of behavior. Case studies can be used in many different fields, including psychology, medicine, education, anthropology, political science, and social work.

The point of a case study is to learn as much as possible about an individual or group so that the information can be generalized to many others. Unfortunately, case studies tend to be highly subjective, and it is sometimes difficult to generalize results to a larger population.

While case studies focus on a single individual or group, they follow a format similar to other types of psychology writing. If you are writing a case study, we got you-here are some rules of APA format to reference.

At a Glance

What Are the Benefits and Limitations of Case Studies?

A case study can have its strengths and weaknesses. Researchers must consider these pros and cons before deciding if this type of study is appropriate for their needs.

One of the greatest advantages of a case study is that it allows researchers to investigate things that are often difficult or impossible to replicate in a lab. Some other benefits of a case study:

Allows researchers to capture information on the 'how,' 'what,' and 'why,' of something that's implemented

Gives researchers the chance to collect information on why one strategy might be chosen over another

Permits researchers to develop hypotheses that can be explored in experimental research

On the other hand, a case study can have some drawbacks:

It cannot necessarily be generalized to the larger population

Cannot demonstrate cause and effect

It may not be scientifically rigorous

It can lead to bias

Researchers may choose to perform a case study if they want to explore a unique or recently discovered phenomenon. Through their insights, researchers develop additional ideas and study questions that might be explored in future studies.

It's important to remember that the insights from case studies cannot be used to determine cause-and-effect relationships between variables. However, case studies may be used to develop hypotheses that can then be addressed in experimental research.

Case Study Examples

There have been a number of notable case studies in the history of psychology. Much of Freud's work and theories were developed through individual case studies. Some great examples of case studies in psychology include:

Anna O: Anna O. was a pseudonym of a woman named Bertha Pappenheim, a patient of a physician named Josef Breuer. While she was never a patient of Freud's, Freud and Breuer discussed her case extensively. The woman was experiencing symptoms of a condition that was then known as hysteria and found that talking about her problems helped relieve her symptoms. Her case played an important part in the development of talk therapy as an approach to mental health treatment.

Phineas Gage: Phineas Gage was a railroad employee who experienced a terrible accident in which an explosion sent a metal rod through his skull, damaging important portions of his brain. Gage recovered from his accident but was left with serious changes in both personality and behavior.

Genie: Genie was a young girl subjected to horrific abuse and isolation. The case study of Genie allowed researchers to study whether language learning was possible, even after missing critical periods for language development. Her case also served as an example of how scientific research may interfere with treatment and lead to further abuse of vulnerable individuals.

Such cases demonstrate how case research can be used to study things that researchers could not replicate in experimental settings. In Genie's case, her horrific abuse denied her the opportunity to learn a language at critical points in her development.

This is clearly not something researchers could ethically replicate, but conducting a case study on Genie allowed researchers to study phenomena that are otherwise impossible to reproduce.

What Types of Case Studies Are Out There?

There are a few different types of case studies that psychologists and other researchers might use:

Collective case studies: These involve studying a group of individuals. Researchers might study a group of people in a certain setting or look at an entire community. For example, psychologists might explore how access to resources in a community has affected the collective mental well-being of those who live there.

Descriptive case studies: These involve starting with a descriptive theory. The subjects are then observed, and the information gathered is compared to the pre-existing theory.

Explanatory case studies: Theseare often used to do causal investigations. In other words, researchers are interested in looking at factors that may have caused certain things to occur.

Exploratory case studies: These are sometimes used as a prelude to further, more in-depth research. This allows researchers to gather more information before developing their research questions and hypotheses.

Instrumental case studies: These occur when the individual or group allows researchers to understand more than what is initially obvious to observers.

Intrinsic case studies: This type of case study is when the researcher has a personal interest in the case. Jean Piaget's observations of his own children are good examples of how an intrinsic case study can contribute to the development of a psychological theory.

The three main case study types often used are intrinsic, instrumental, and collective. Intrinsic case studies are useful for learning about unique cases. Instrumental case studies help look at an individual to learn more about a broader issue. A collective case study can be useful for looking at several cases simultaneously.

Where Do You Find Data for a Case Study?

There are a number of different sources and methods that researchers can use to gather information about an individual or group. Six major sources that have been identified by researchers are:

Archival records: Census records, survey records, and name lists are examples of archival records.

Direct observation: This strategy involves observing the subject, often in a natural setting. While an individual observer is sometimes used, it is more common to utilize a group of observers.

Documents: Letters, newspaper articles, administrative records, etc., are the types of documents often used as sources.

Interviews: Interviews are one of the most important methods for gathering information in case studies. An interview can involve structured survey questions or more open-ended questions.

Participant observation: When the researcher serves as a participant in events and observes the actions and outcomes, it is called participant observation.

Physical artifacts: Tools, objects, instruments, and other artifacts are often observed during a direct observation of the subject.

How Do I Write a Psychology Case Study?

If you have been directed to write a case study for a psychology course, be sure to check with your instructor for any specific guidelines you need to follow. If you are writing your case study for a professional publication, check with the publisher for their specific guidelines for submitting a case study.

Here is a general outline of what should be included in a case study.

Section 1: A Case History

This section will have the following structure and content:

Background information: The first section of your paper will present your client's background. Include factors such as age, gender, work, health status, family mental health history, family and social relationships, drug and alcohol history, life difficulties, goals, and coping skills and weaknesses.

Description of the presenting problem: In the next section of your case study, you will describe the problem or symptoms that the client presented with.

Describe any physical, emotional, or sensory symptoms reported by the client. Thoughts, feelings, and perceptions related to the symptoms should also be noted. Any screening or diagnostic assessments that are used should also be described in detail and all scores reported.

Your diagnosis: Provide your diagnosis and give the appropriate Diagnostic and Statistical Manual code. Explain how you reached your diagnosis, how the client's symptoms fit the diagnostic criteria for the disorder(s), or any possible difficulties in reaching a diagnosis.

Section 2: Treatment Plan

This portion of the paper will address the chosen treatment for the condition. This might also include the theoretical basis for the chosen treatment or any other evidence that might exist to support why this approach was chosen.

Cognitive behavioral approach: Explain how a cognitive behavioral therapist would approach treatment. Offer background information on cognitive behavioral therapy and describe the treatment sessions, client response, and outcome of this type of treatment. Make note of any difficulties or successes encountered by your client during treatment.

Humanistic approach: Describe a humanistic approach that could be used to treat your client, such as client-centered therapy. Provide information on the type of treatment you chose, the client's reaction to the treatment, and the end result of this approach. Explain why the treatment was successful or unsuccessful.

Psychoanalytic approach: Describe how a psychoanalytic therapist would view the client's problem. Provide some background on the psychoanalytic approach and cite relevant references. Explain how psychoanalytic therapy would be used to treat the client, how the client would respond to therapy, and the effectiveness of this treatment approach.

Pharmacological approach: If treatment primarily involves the use of medications, explain which medications were used and why. Provide background on the effectiveness of these medications and how monotherapy may compare with an approach that combines medications with therapy or other treatments.

This section of a case study should also include information about the treatment goals, process, and outcomes.

Discussion

When you are writing a case study, you should also include a section where you discuss the case study itself, including the strengths and limitiations of the study. You should note how the findings of your case study might support previous research.

In your discussion section, you should also describe some of the implications of your case study. What ideas or findings might require further exploration? How might researchers go about exploring some of these questions in additional studies?

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A case study is an in-depth analysis of one individual or group. Learn more about how to write a case study, including tips and examples, and its importance in psychology.

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Service-learning is an educational approach that combines learning objectives with community service in order to provide a pragmatic, progressive learning experience while meeting societal needs.

Service-learning involves students in service projects to apply classroom learning for local agencies that exist to effect positive change in the community. The National Youth Leadership Council defines service learning as "a philosophy, pedagogy, and model for community development that is used as an instructional strategy to meet learning goals and/or content standards."

Author Barbara Jacoby defines service-learning as "...a form of experiential education in which students engage in activities that address human and community needs together with structured opportunities for reflection designed to achieve desired learning outcomes."

Service learning is a combination of what we know as formal education and applying that learning in a service oriented way. It is a type of educational philosophy that requires the student to demonstrate their knowledge, thus connecting the cognitive to the emotive and resulting in better learning outcomes. It incorporates personal passions with intellect, empowering students to find their passion and exercise useful ways to engage in real world problems. It is a connected learning experience, linking personal development with cognitive development and touching feelings as well as thought. Students take the ideas they learn about in theory and connect them to real problems in practice, creating viable solutions for long term transformation in society. The classroom becomes a place where thought is connected to passion, evoking real world change.

This philosophy incorporates the core ideas of progressivism such as democracy, experimental education, and individual rights. It also includes Pragmatism, a philosophy inspired by William James stating that learning should be useful and that information is only valuable if it does something. In recent years this theory is gaining traction as professors and academic advisers review the learning outcomes of students that are encouraged to find and use their passions to exercise solutions to the problems around them. This is made more possible by the ideas of democracy and individual freedoms that enable citizens to freely use their passions and intellect to become social entrepreneurs; individuals who undertake a social problem and become transformative forces in society.

As defined by Robert Sigmon, 1994:

Service-LEARNING: Learning goals primary; service outcomes secondary.

SERVICE-Learning: Service outcomes primary; learning goals secondary.

service learning: Service and learning goals completely separate.

SERVICE-LEARNING: Service and learning goals of equal weight and each enhances the other for all participants.

As stated above, there are four different categories that define various levels of Service-Learning that Sigmon created, using graphical representations of the two words. Each have their different advantages, and their different purposes in the world of Service-Learning. An activity such as students offering community service to an agency would classify as "SERVICE-learning", because the service aspect is taking the forefront of the work. If a student, or a group of students studies the observation of community groups, or something along those lines, it would be classified as "service-LEARNING", because the learning aspect is the main focus of that type of project. Now "service learning" is a little different than the last two, as the service and learning aspects are separate from each other, with neither taking the spotlight. An example of this definition would be volunteer programs within a college, that have no real connection to the academics they are pursuing. When both service and learning are of equal weight, it is seen as "SERVICE-LEARNING", as both are being put together instead of being separated, or one taking the main focus over the other. An example of this type of service could be a group of students volunteering to serve in a certain area, but also studying the subject while putting in their service, and coming up with ideas to help improve the work they are doing. All of these variants come underneath the wing of Service-Learning, and each of them can be used at different times, depending on the circumstances.

Service-learning, as defined by Robert Sigmon, "occurs when there is a balance between learning goals and service outcomes." As follows, there are various methods of hands-on learning that fall into this category, these include:

Volunteerism: Volunteerism is acts of service performed out of free will without expectation of recompense and is generally altruistic in nature; the main beneficiaries (at least in a visible sense) are generally those served by the student.

Community Service: Community service is quite similar to volunteerism, the main difference being that it is said to "involve more structure and student commitment than do volunteer programs."

Internship: Internships can provide students with experience in various fields of work; however, unlike volunteerism and community service, students gain a more measurable benefit from this aspect of service learning.

Field Education: Field education, like internships, is generally more materially beneficial to the student. Field education involves programs that, "provide students with co‐curricular service opportunities that are related, but not fully integrated, with their formal academic studies."

The purpose of service learning is, in essence, to, "equally benefit the provider and the recipient of the service as well as to ensure equal focus on both the service being provided and the learning that is occurring." Volunteerism, community service, internships, and field education all exemplify, in some way or another, the core value of service learning, as all of them benefit the student as well as the one they served to an equal degree, the only difference being how material the benefit is. These methods also tend to focus on ensuring that the student not only serves, but learns something, whether it is interpersonal skills, work experience in their future field, or a change in how they view themselves and others. Service-learning also addresses the critique of higher education to function more as a gatekeeper and reifier of social stratifications rather than a knowledge-making enterprise that benefits society. Service-learning allows for publicly engaged scholarship (PES), which allows students to collaborate with their local communities to promote peace and social betterment. The value of reciprocity between students and community is prioritized through relationships that are not hierarchical; they are collaborative.

In Service-learning: History, Theory, and Issues, Bruce W. Speck and Sherry Lee Hoppe say that John Dewey's writings on the active nature of understanding and the benefits of and conditions for participatory democracy "...provide an early theoretical foundation for a pedagogy in which students cooperatively engage actual social problems." In Building partnerships for service-learning, Barbara Jacoby writes that Service-learning "is based on the work of researchers and theorists on learning, including John Dewey, Jean Piaget, Kurt Lewin, Donald Schon, and David Kolb, who believe that we learn through combinations of action and reflection."

In 1979 Robert Sigmon called for a more precise definition in Service-Learning: Three Principles, in which he said the term, which was relatively new, was being used to describe a number of different volunteer actions and experiential education programs. Sigmon wrote that, in the late 1960s, the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) popularized a service-learning internship model, that defined service-learning as "the integration of the accomplishment of a public task with conscious educational growth." Many faculty of color have led PES movements; they have quickly applied their academic expertise to their local communities. Similarly, their service work in the local communities has informed their scholarly pursuits.

In 1992 Maryland adopted statewide service-learning requirements for high school graduation. In the same year, the District of Columbia also adopted such requirements.

A number of other states have allowed credit toward graduation for service-learning/community service.

Janet Eyler outlines the different ways student learn through service-learning in the book Where's the Learning in Service-Learning?. First, there is interpersonal learning, in which students re-evaluate personal values and motivations by channeling a passionate interest to service-learning projects, as well as build a connection and commitment to the community. The second form is academic material that is taught through practical application and reflective instruction, so that it may be practiced outside classrooms and test-taking. Janet Eyler explains, "it is the product of continuous challenge to old conceptions and reflection on new ways to organize information and use the new material." Thirdly is cognitive development where students are challenged to use critical thinking and problem-solving skills in a context that provides additional information and experience for student evaluation, because service-learning deals with numerous problems in complex situations. The fourth form is transformation within the students, which "is about thinking about things in a new way and moving in new direction-creating a new picture without relying on the old lines." Finally, service-learning focuses on effective citizenship and behavioral issues, and this helps the students better understand social issues relevant to their own community. Learning in all these ways makes service-learning effective to those serving as well as those being served, for "learning begins with the impact of service-learning on the personal and interpersonal development of the students."

According to Janet Eyler and Dwight E. Giles, there are numerous benefits to the service-learning approach. It provides experiential learning that connects personal and interpersonal development with cognitive and academic advancement, providing opportunities for personal connections and ultimately transformation. Those serving may encounter certain social problems for the first time, thus transforming their view on the world. Beyond that, students may be transformed in the way of developing better problem-solving skills to address those problems about which they now know. A service-learning experience may be the catalyst in the life of a student to dive into the complexities of the social issues they have encountered and to seek to develop innovative solutions.

It is important to point out the importance of the role of reflection in service-learning. The hyphen in between the service and learning links to the key role of reflection or "learning" after the physical act of service has taken place.

Service learning combines both experiential learning and community service.

According to Eyler and Giles Jr., who conducted nationwide studies on service-learning, factors that influence its impact on students include placement quality, duration, and reflection. A recent sample study assessed the benefits of service learning in undergraduate public health education course using the Civic Attitudes and Skills Questionnaire. Overall, students reported increases in their civic attitudes and skills. However, individuals reporting poor team dynamics consistently reported lower levels of improvement than those reporting great team dynamics.

Placement quality

According to Eyler and Giles, " Placement quality refers to the extent that students in their community placements are challenged, are active rather than observers, do a variety of tasks, feel that they are making a positive contribution, have important levels of responsibility, and receive input and appreciation from supervisors in the field." According to their research, placement quality has measurable effects on such things as "personal development outcomes," "increased leadership and communication skill," and connection to community, faculty, and other students.

In The Importance of Program Quality in Service-Learning, Eyler and Giles state: "a program or a sequence of experiences needs to be of a long enough duration to have a developmental impact." This view is expanded upon by Alexander W. Astin and Linda J. Sax. In their opinion, "the amount of time devoted to providing service carries additional benefits beyond those benefits associated with the type of service performed, especially in the areas of civic responsibility and life skill development."

But how much time is enough? According to J. Beth Mabry, "students should spend at least fifteen to nineteen hours in their service activities to have adequate exposure to the people and issues their service addresses."

Reflection

An essential feature of service-learning programs, reflection is a period of critical thinking performed by the student. For many advocates of the pedagogy, reflection may symbolize the learning that occurs in the student. Janet Eyler and Dwight E. Giles provide an example of this opinion in their book, Where's the Learning in Service-Learning? when they state: "learning occurs through a cycle of action and reflection, not simply through being able to recount what has been learned through reading and lecture." Also, the National Service Learning Clearinghouse considers reflection a "core component" of service-learning.

Some higher education programs require a reflection component in their service-learning classes. The University of Minnesota is one such institution that includes required reflection activities with its service learning classes.

Reflection may be done individually or as a group activity. Wartburg College in Indiana published a list of reflection activity suggestions on their website. These included various types of journaling, brainstorming as a group, using quotes, writing essays and papers, structured class discussions, and class presentations among other ideas.

Diversity is also a component of a successful service-learning program. By working with people of different ethnicities, lifestyles, and socioeconomic statuses, a student's learning and tolerance increases. By serving in a diverse learning environment, student are more likely to reduce stereotypes and increase their cultural appreciation. This can help a student learn how to more effectively serve a broader array of people.

The Service in Service Learning takes knowledge outside the classroom into the real world with real people and situations. In his book Banker to the Poor: Micro-lending and the Battle Against World Poverty, Muhammad Yunus states that "If a university is a repository for knowledge, then some of this knowledge should spill over to the neighboring community. A university must not be an island where academics reach out to higher and higher levels of knowledge without sharing any of their findings."

Service brings community together as a whole, towards a common goal or purpose. Service is about what is for someone else. The action of service in and among the community, provides challenges to sociocultural norms and prejudices. While some have questioned the positive effect and collective interest of the service side of service-learning, among those who perform the services, many disagree.

Based upon various studies, students who participate in service-learning courses or projects seem to encounter a multitude of benefits. The book Where's the Learning in Service-Learning? discusses the effects of service learning on students, as well service learning in general.

In addition to interpersonal skills students have also reported developing personal leadership skills. Another benefit seen is that it can also develop a sense of meaning and purpose in their academics.

 In their book titled, " Where's the Learning in Service-Learning" authors Janet Eyler and Dwight E. Giles Jr. claim that learning is most effective when students not only employ their cognitive processes to education but also their affective thought processes and emotions. It is common belief that what excites passions, interests, and convictions influences not only a person's vocation but what they chose to continue learning about. HuffPost Contributor Marcia Y. Cantarella wrote in an article titled,Just Not Feeling it - Or When You Don't Love a Subject You Have to Take, that students are more focused on the relationship of what they are studying and what they plan to do for a job in their future. She expounds on this topic by encouraging students who are struggling with studying subjects they could care less about to relate them to personal experiences or problems they are having in their life at that moment. Thereby confirming the purpose of service-learning as one of the greatest teachers in real-life lessons that stick with students for many years.

Though one might not immediately think of serving others as affecting oneself, studies have found that "coming into contact with people whose life experiences and assumptions about the world are different calls one's own world into question." Not only does the service experience move one to examine his own life, but it also allows him to produce a better version of himself. In their book, Where's the Learning in Service-Learning? Janet Eyler and Dwight E. Giles Jr. identify five key personal growth outcomes of service-learning: self-knowledge, spiritual growth, the reward of helping others, career benefits and careers in service, and changes in personal efficacy. As one goes out into the community with the intent of reaching out to those within it, this broader social context causes one to see himself more clearly.

Researchers have found that these personal and interpersonal gains from engaging in service-learning classes where higher when the programs were of better quality. The biggest predictor of increased learning in communication skills was the high placement quality that the students were put into, allowing them to develop and "hone" their skills.

Many experience interpersonal development through the service learning process. According to Where's the Learning in Service-Learning?, among the students in their survey, "40 percent reported that learning to work with others was among the most important things they learned from service-learning, and 81 percent indicated that it was the most or very important." Learning to work with others is crucial for job placement in our world today. Another effect this has on the students is that they are more apt to learn how to lead. By working with others, the students are given opportunities to be more responsible and take initiative. Service-learning also encourages connection within the community. Truly, many learned how to listen to the voice of their communities. Not only that, but it helps form friendships and find other like-minded individuals who are involved with service learning. Above all it helps students to feel as though they are making a difference and matter to their communities. It was also found that quantity and quality of reflective discussion was linked to the outcome of feeling a closeness among the community and other students. An even more powerful outcome was the creation of a bond between a student and faculty member. In most classroom settings there's little room for a deep relationship between the student and teacher, while in service-learning often student and teacher work alongside each other and develop a more lasting bond. As stated in Where's the Learning in Service-Learning?, "Service participants in their assessment of Learn and Serve America were more likely than their peers to spend at least an hour a week interacting with a faculty member." Service-learning has a tremendous impact on students and how they learn, but also how they interact with others.

Service learning programs have developed rapidly within the last 30 years. From 1995-1997, 458 universities received grants from the Corporation for National Service's Learn and Serve Higher Education (LASHE). This facilitated development of 3,000 new service-learning courses that benefit an average of more than 60 students per course.

Service-learning has been applied across a host of cultural settings, including numerous Native American communities. Guffey (1997) notes credible service learning begins with tribal ways of knowing and value systems, which is to say that outsiders should not impose service learning projects. Rather, tribal communities should devise projects that reflect needs unique to the community being served. This parallels Matthew Fletcher's (2010) assertion that tribes, and other historically marginalized communities, should unique develop educational programs, as opposed to merely adopting Westernized forms of education.

According to this view, service learning provides a pedagogical framework for tribes to address community needs. One such example is provided by Sykes, Pendley, and Deacon (2017) who provide a qualitative case study of a tribally-initiated service learning project embedded within a partnership at a research university. This case is unique in that it recounts how service learning students (who were also tribal members) came to collectively understand their responsibilities of citizenship through service. Moreover, tribal elders came to appreciate the importance of young citizens in maintaining and growing tribal culture. Thus, service learning can also be a means to explore cultural identity.

There are numerous critiques of service-learning. In 1979, Robert Sigmon acknowledged criticisms that called service-learning, "a utopian vision" and "too demanding and impractical." He called for research into outcomes related to service-learning. Towson University Professor John Egger, writing in the Spring 2008 issue of the journal Academic Questions, argued that service learning does not really teach useful skills or develop cultural knowledge. Instead, Egger maintained, service learning mainly involves the inculcation of communitarian political ideologies. Tulane Professor Carl L. Bankston III has described his own university's policy of mandating service learning as the imposition of intellectual conformity by the university administration on both students and faculty. According to Bankston, by identifying specific types of civic engagement as worthy community service, the university was prescribing social and political perspectives. He argued that this was inconsistent with the idea that individuals in a pluralistic society should choose their own civic commitments and that it was contrary to the ideal of the university as a site for the pursuit of truth through the free exchange of ideas.

Representatives of community organizations where service-learning students volunteer expressed interest in working with colleges and universities to change service-learning programs so that they work more smoothly for the organizations. Their suggestions included establishing more consistent communication between faculty and organizations, creating longer-term partnerships between colleges and community organizations, and ensuring that the students and their projects are matched well with the organizations they serve.

In Downsizing Democracy: How America Sidelined Its Citizens and Privatized Its Public, Matthew A. Crenson and Benjamin Ginsberg question whether service-learning is contributing to privatizing or downsizing citizenship practices. Responding to this, Christopher Koliba wrote that education providers may have the opportunity to change this trend.

Comprehensive Action Plan for Service Learning (CAPSL)

CAPSL Identifies four constituencies on which a program for service learning must focus its principal activities: institution, faculty, students, and community.

CAPSL also identifies a sequence of activities (Planning, awareness, prototype, resources, expansion,; recognition, monitoring, evaluation, research, and institutionalization) to pursue for each of the four constituencies (institution, faculty, students, and community).

CAPSL provides a heuristic for guiding the development of a service learning program in higher education.

Advantages of CAPSL: it is general enough that the execution of each cell can be tailored to local conditions.

Disadvantages of CAPSL: it is not possible to detail how each step can be successfully accomplished to take the sequence of activities from the whole CAPSL model and apply it to any cell in the matrix.

Many engineering faculty members believe the educational solution lies in taking a more constructivist approach, where students construct knowledge and connections between nodes of knowledge as opposed to passively absorbing knowledge. Educators see service learning as a way to both implement a constructivism in engineering education as well as match the teaching styles to the learning styles of typical engineering students. As a result, many engineering schools have begun to integrate service learning into their curricula and there is now a journal dedicated to service learning in engineering.

Service Learning emphasizes the learning process of the experiences we have had or observed and how we then apply it to our lives and thought processes. Jesus Christ of the Christian Gospel not only was benevolent to the world around Him but engaged the suffering by stepping into their misfortune with them. In the New Testament book of Colossian, Apostle Paul writes from a prison cell that "...there's a lot of suffering to be entered into in this world-the kind of suffering Christ takes on..." (Peterson, Eugene. The Message Bible Remix) This speaks plainly of Jesus' work but also His walk with suffering people.

In Where's the Learning in Service-Learning?, Janet Eyler and Dwight E. Giles Jr. wrote, "Although fewer students chose spiritual growth as an important outcome of service-learning-20 percent selecting it as among the most important things they learned and 46 percent selecting it as very or most important-it was important to many students...Some saw service as a definite opportunity to fulfill their religious commitment."

Service-learning has both a service and a learning component. Eyler and Giles Jr. in Where's the Learning in Service-Learning? apply the term service-learning "to programs where the two foci are in balance, and study and action are explicitly integrated.

Eyler and Giles Jr. have found that service-learning students, upon reflecting on their experience, find reward in helping others and in developing close personal relationships. The second focus in the term service-learning, that of learning, is defined by R. L. Atkinson as "a relatively permanent change in behavior that results from practice."

In addition to the service and learning components stressed by Eyler and Giles, author David Bornstein references motivation in service. In How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, he states: "The key difference [between highly successful and average entrepreneurs has] more to do with the quality of their motivation."

Service learning is about taking the student out of the classroom and placing them in an environment where they can make a difference while also learning. Service learning strengthens not just the community that is being helped but the person who is giving their time and effort to their cause, which benefits them socially, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. For many service learning is simply tending to basic human needs: food, water, clothes, and housing. Some organizations, such as The Salvation Army, also seek to attend to the spiritual side of service learning. They used the motto "soup, soap, and salvation" to show what they wanted to do with their ministry. "The Salvation Army sees no conflict between spiritual and social ministry. It seeks to serve people so as to satisfy both the spiritual and social dimensions of their needs."

One contributor to the study of service learning is Alexander Astin. Astin, the Allan M. Cartter Distinguished Professor of Higher Education Emeritus and founding director of both Cooperative Institutional Research Program and Higher Education Research Institute, formed a Theory of Involvement. This theory explains how student involvement in co-curricular activities positively affects college outcomes. Through a 1998 study of college seniors, Astin demonstrated that service greatly improves critical thinking skills.

Nadinne I. Cruz works as an independent consultant. She gained enthusiasm for the cause of service learning through her work in the Philippines. Now, she is an advocate of service learning who argues that only a small portion of skills needed to address life's problems can be learned through traditional academia. Other skills, such as courage, forgiveness, and stewarding the earth, must be learned elsewhere. Therefore, she recommends service learning and community engagement, which "offer learning with and from wise people, who teach by example."

Andrew Furco, Associate Vice President for Public Engagement at the University of Minnesota and a professor, has contributed a variety of literature to service learning, including two books: Service-Learning: The Essence of the Pedagogy and Service-Learning Through a Multidisciplinary Lens, which he co-authored with S. Billig. He gives five reasons engagement programs differ from engaged universities: "Engagement differs from outreach... is at the heart of the university's identity... focuses on partnerships... is with, not to, for, or in communities... is about institutional transformation."

One other service-learning notable is James Kielsmeier. Kielsmeier founded the National Youth Leadership Council, a nonprofit that became the service-learning movement. Kielsmeier posits that service learning involves a change in how schools see young people: from "resource users, recipients, and victims" to "contributors, givers, and leaders."

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2. ^ "K-12 Service-Learning Standards for Quality Practice" (PDF). National Youth Leadership Council. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 11, 2011.

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8. ^ "High School Graduation Requirement or Credit toward Graduation - Service-Learning/Community Service". Education Commission of the States (ECS). January 2014.

9. Eyler, Janet; Giles Jr., Dwight E. (23 April 1999). Where's the Learning in Service-Learning (1st ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. ^ ISBN 978-0-470-90746-7.

10. ^ Perez, Shivaun (2000). "Assessing Service Learning Using Pragmatic Principles of Education: A Texas Charter School Case Study". Applied Research Projects. Paper 76. Texas State University.

11. ^ Eyler, Janet; Giles Jr., Dwight (2013). Waterman, Alan S. (ed.). The Importance of Program Quality in Service-Learning. Service-Learning: Applications From the Research. New York, NY: Psychology Press. p. 59.

12. ^ Chavez-Yenter, Daniel; Hearld, Kristine Ria; Badham, Amy; Budhwani, Henna (13 November 2015). "Service-Learning in Undergraduate Global Health Education: The Effect of Team Dynamics on Civic Attitudes and Skills". The International Journal of Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement. 3 (1). ISSN 2374-9466.

13. ^ Astin, Alexander W.; Sax, Linda J. (1998). "How Undergraduates are Affected by Service Participation". Journal of College Student Development: 260.

14. ^ Mabry, J. Beth (1998). "Pedagogical Variations in Service-Learning and Student Outcomes". Michigan Journal of Community Service-Learning: 41.

15. ^ "Reflection in service-learning classes". Center for Community-Engaged Learning.

16. ^ Robin R. Jones. "Service-Learning Reflection Activities" (PDF). Wartburg College. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 5, 2012.

17. ^ Eyler, Janet & Giles, Dwight E. (2007). Where's the Learning in Service-Learning?. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

18. ^ Tryon, Elizabeth; Stoecker, Randy (September 2008). "The Unheard Voices: Community Organizations and Service-Learning". Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement. 12 (3).

19. ^ Sandy, Marie; Holland, Barbara A. (Fall 2006). "Different Worlds and Common Ground: Community Partner Perspectives on Campus-Community Partnerships". Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning. 13 (1): 30-43.

20. ^ Vernon, Andrea; Ward, Kelly (1999). "Campus and Community Partnerships: Assessing Impacts and Strengthening Connections". Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning. 6 (1).

21. ^ Erickson, Joseph A.; Anderson, Jeffrey B. (30 November 1996). "Learning with the Community: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Teacher Education. AAHE's Series on Service-Learning in the Disciplines".

22. ^ results, search (30 May 2008). American Indian Education: Counternarratives in Racism, Struggle, and the Law. Routledge. ISBN 978-0415957359.

23. ^ Sykes, Brent E.; Pendley, Joy; Deacon, Zermarie (22 June 2017). "Transformative learning, tribal membership and cultural restoration: A case study of an embedded Native American service-learning project at a research university". Gateways: International Journal of Community Research and Engagement. 10: 204-28. doi:10.5130/ijcre.v10i1.5334 - via epress.lib.uts.edu.au.

24. ^ Egger, John (2008). "No Service to Learning: 'Service-Learning' Reappraised" (PDF). Academic Questions. 21 (2): 183-194. doi:10.1007/s12129-008-9057-7.

25. ^ Koliba, Christopher (Spring 2004). "Service-Learning and the Downsizing of Democracy: Learning Our Way Out". Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning: 57, 66. hdl:2027/spo.3239521.0010.205.

26. ^ Robert, G. Bringle; Julie A. Hatcher (March-April 1996). "Implementing Service Learning in Higher Education" (PDF). Journal of Higher Education. 67 (2). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-01-18.

27. ^ International Journal for Service Learning in Engineering

28. Dr. Andrzej Diniejko, ^ "The Origin and Early Development of the Salvation Army in Victorian England", "The Victorian Web", 11 April 2013

29. ^ Eyler, Janet; Giles, Dwight E., Jr. (1999). Where's the Learning in Service-Learning? (1st ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. ISBN 0-7879-4483-1.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Service-learning is an educational approach that combines learning objectives with community service in order to provide a pragmatic, progressive learning experience while meeting societal needs. Service-learning involves students in service projects to apply classroom learning for local agencies that exist to effect positive change in the community.

# data[].attributes.body
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12SF4VtAXngbvEQMrJxLc43llla_JRIu2MWXJcWyzcoE/edit?usp=drivesdk