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After watching this, your brain will not be the same | Lara Boyd | TEDxVancouver

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Slides by Kelsey Deacon

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The changing nature of technology has not only provided us with more and better ways to teach in general but has also increased the need for the skills of critical thinking. The easy availability, with just a few keystrokes, of massive amounts of information has made the ability to evaluate and sort information more important than ever. Furthermore, much of the information available on the Internet is not reliable, and some of it is deliberately and dangerously deceptive (as on sites that tout miracle cures for serious illnesses or offer deliberately biased accounts of history or current events). Thus the ability to judge the credibility of an information source has become an indispensable critical thinking skill that needs to be deliberately and repeatedly taught in college and earlier.

Halpern, D. F. (1999). Teaching for critical thinking: Helping college students develop the skills and dispositions of a critical thinkerLinks to an external site.. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 69-74.

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Welcome!

ITUE is a faculty-led group dedicated to improving the quality of teaching and learning. Along with our Faculty Commons partners, we are a resource for faculty at UD (and beyond) to help navigate the scholarship on teaching and learning, with a particular focus on Problem-based learning and related pedagogies.

If you have any questions or if you would like to discuss anything related to ITUE, please feel free to get in touch with Phil Duker ( pduker@udel.edu).

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| Institute for Transforming University Education

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Welcome! ITUE is a faculty-led group dedicated to improving the quality of teaching and learning. Along with our Faculty Commons partners, we are a resource for faculty at UD (and beyond) to help navigate the scholarship on teaching and learning, with a particular focus on Problem-based learning and related pedagogies.

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The surprising habits of original thinkers | Adam Grant | TED

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Retrieval practice is a simple research-based teaching strategy that dramatically raises students' grades. When students retrieve and bring information to mind, this mental challenge produces durable long-term learning. Easy learning leads to easy forgetting. Stop cramming, reviewing, and re-teaching. Instead, simply ask students what they remember. No prep, no grading, just powerful teaching.

The science of learning exists. It's time to unleash it.

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Retrieval Practice: Unleash the Science of Learning

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Harness powerful teaching strategies, unleash the science of learning, and transform your classroom with resources by cognitive scientists.

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Keep sound off

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Leave One Add One - Dr. Pooja K. Agarwal

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Switch from reviewing to retrieving in 5 minutes or less – Retrieval Practice

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It’s exam time. Here’s how to switch your review sessions to *retrieve* sessions with a 5-minute brain dump. Reduce anxiety, increase confidence, improve metacognition, and boost students’ memory for course material beyond their final exam.

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How to practice effectively...for just about anything - Annie Bosler and Don Greene

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In simple terms, metacognition is thinking about one's thinking. In an educational context, it is students' awareness and understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses as learners and their ability to adapt accordingly to be more successful learners. Metacognition involves active control over the cognitive processes engaged in learning. Novices tend to think more like experts when they recognize their strengths and weaknesses as learners. Self-monitoring and self-regulation, important metacognitive processes, lead to better goal-setting, planning, implementation of plans, monitoring of progress toward goals and, generally, better adaptation of learning strategies. Metacognitive practices increase students' ability to determine how to expand their knowledge and transfer that knowledge to new contexts. Recent studies show that these practices can be taught and learned. Students should understand that their ability to be self-regulated learners can improve with practice. Metacongnition is applicable to a single class session, a homework assignment, an exam, or an entire course.

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L2L Strategy - Metacognition | Arizona Site

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In simple terms, metacognition is thinking about one's thinking. In an educational context, it is students' awareness and understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses as learners and their ability to adapt accordingly to be more successful learners. Metacognition involves active control over the cognitive processes engaged in learning.

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75 digital tools and apps teachers can use to support formative assessment in the classroom

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We’ve compiled an extensive list of 75 digital tools that can help teachers use formative assessment to elicit evidence of student learning.

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University of Massachusetts Amherst

Torrey Trust, Ph.D. is a Professor of Learning Technology in the Department of Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies in the College of Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her work centers on the critical examination of the relationship between teaching, learning, and technology; and how technology can enhance teacher and student learning. Specifically, Dr. Trust studies how educators engage with digitally enhanced professional learning networks (PLNs), how emerging pedagogical tools (e.g., HyperDocs), practices (e.g., Making) and technologies (e.g., 3D printers, augmented reality, ChatGPT, generative AI tools) influence learning, how to design and use open educational resources (OERs), and how to find, critically evaluate, and teach with digital tools and apps. Dr. Trust served as a professional learning network leader for the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) for five years, including a two-year term as the President of the Teacher Education Network from 2016 to 2018.

Dr. Trust's research, teaching, and service in the field of educational technology has received noticeable recognition, including the 2016 ISTE Online Learning Network Award, 2017 Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education Outstanding Research Paper Award, 2017 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Instructional Technology SIG Best Paper Award, 2017 ISTE Emerging Leader Award, 2019 AERA Technology as an Agent of Change for Teaching & Learning SIG Early Career Scholar Award, 2020 University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Education Outstanding Teaching Award, 2020 AECT Annual Achievement Award, 2023 MERLOT Classics Award, and the 2023 University of Massachusetts Amherst Distinguished Teaching Award. In 2018, Dr. Trust was selected as one of the recipients for the ISTE Making IT Happen Award, which "honors outstanding educators and leaders who demonstrate extraordinary commitment, leadership, courage and persistence in improving digital learning opportunities for students." www.torreytrust.com

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This eBook features critical reviews of more than 100 digital tools and apps for teaching and learning. Each page was written and designed by students enrolled in EDUC 390D, 592A, or 692D at the University of Massachusetts Amherst

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

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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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Disclaimer

The simplified model presented here is just one of many ways to categorize types of memory. There are other models too, and some of them use slightly different definitions for some of the terms used here.

This model highlights just a few of the key brain regions involved in different memory functions. Since no part of the brain exists in isolation, most types of memory include more areas than the ones listed here. The big idea to take away is that different areas of the brain have different functions.

If you wish to delve more deeply into the types of memory or the brain anatomy involved, we encourage you to explore the references linked at the bottom of the page.

When we learn, our brain takes in information about the world that causes us to change our behavior in some way.

For example, a young baby doesn't understand that fire can hurt them. But thanks to learning, if they touch a candle flame even one time, they will probably not do it again. The information that feeds into the brain-candle, flame, hot, pain-is physically recorded in the connections between cells. And those connections influence our future behavior-don't touch!

As the brain takes in any information and stores it, there are physical changes to the connections between brain cells. And those connections influence our behavior.

Neurons that fire together wire together

The brain is an enormous interconnected network of specialized cells called neurons and supporting cells called glia. To transmit information in the brain, neurons pass signals to one another. This passing of signals can cause physical changes to the connections between cells.

When we learn a skill (like riding a bike) or new information (like multiplication tables), we are building brain connections. The more we use those brain connections, the stronger they get. It's the reason "practice makes perfect."

In the activity above, you can read about how injuries to certain brain areas cause certain memory functions to stop working. But just as important are the connections between them. If two brain areas can no longer communicate, then learning and memory can break down.

Like trails through the wilderness, brain connections get stronger the more they're used

Learning is a process that relies on long-term memory systems in the brain. People who study learning typically divide it into 4 steps: attention, storage, consolidation, and retrieval. These steps dovetail with the Types of Memory described above, and they provide a slightly different framework for thinking about what happens when one or more of these steps go wrong.

Attention - Our sensory systems are constantly bombarded with information, yet most of it fades before we are even aware of it. Attention is like a filter that lets important information into the brain while keeping the irrelevant information out. Without attention, we would remember very little.

Encoding - As sensory information comes in, the brain processes it. Strings of sounds become words, flashes of light and color become images. The brain begins connecting this new information with what it already knows about the world. Some information that is encoded will fade, and some will stick around.

Storage - Long-term storage of information requires new brain connections. The brain has its own way of rehearsing experiences (there's evidence that this is what dreaming is all about), which helps strengthen brain connections. But we can also consciously repeat information or skills to help the brain form strong memories.

Retrieval - Retrieval is the process of accessing stored memories. We use it when we recall a fact or reimagine an experience. But we also use it when we take in new information. It's part of what helps us connect new information to old.

Even when memory systems function normally, memory is imperfect. To learn more about the fallibility of memory, visit The Seven Sins of Memory.

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The simplified model presented here is just one of many ways to categorize types of memory. There are other models too, and some of them use slightly different definitions for some of the terms used here. This model highlights just a few of the key brain regions involved in different memory functions.