online lecture 1	video 1
TEACHING WITH PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING
[Fundamental Learning Principles][Multiple Intelligences] [Personality and Learning][Learning and Assessment]

"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." Henry Adams

This is the first online lecture in Education 173, Cognition and Learning in Educational Settings. In this introduction, we will be examining fundamental principles of teaching and learning. It will be an overview of some of the central issues dealt with in this course.

• How does learning occur?
• What are the differences among individuals in how they learn?
• How can we make "what" we teach relevant to learners' levels of knowledge?
• How do you know if a concept has been understood?

When learning occurs, there are changes in what we perceive, how we act, and how we organize our environment.

1. To most effectively promote learning, teachers need to know something about how our students learn -- and how we ourselves learn.
2. There are research-based general principles that teachers can apply to improve teaching and learning in any context.
3. Teaching is a complex and varied craft in which educators can excel by applying these guiding principles to their particular disciplines, instructional environments, and students.

Research by cognitive scientists and psychologists has provided much more direction to teaching than was available even a decade ago. While some of the principles of effective teaching date back to Socrates and earlier, others are based on relatively recent breakthroughs in cognitive research.

We are going to examine ten principles that answer the question: How does learning occur?

Principle #1: Active learning is the key to student understanding.

Principle #2: Learning requires focused attention, and awareness of the importance of what is to be learned.

Principle #3: To be remembered, new information must be meaningfully connected to prior knowledge.

Principle #4: Unlearning what is already known is often more difficult than learning new information.
 

Principle #5: Mastering a skill or body of knowledge takes a great amount of time and effort. Learning to transfer knowledge and skills to new contexts requires a great deal of practice.

Principle #6: Interaction between teachers and learners and collaboration among learners are two of the most powerful factors in promoting learning.

The next two principles we will examine relate to the question: What are the differences among individuals in how they learn?

DIFFERENCES AMONG LEARNERS
AND THE THEORY OF MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES

Howard Gardner's work has shown that intelligence is not a single concept as would be communicated, for example, by an IQ score.

Rather, there are seven different types of intelligences.

Principle #7: In order to be effective in teaching it is critical to provide opportunities for all learners to draw upon their intellectual strengths -- that is, to learn in the ways in which they are strongest.

You draw upon linguistic intelligence when you present material orally and when your students discuss it and read and write about it.

You draw upon logical-mathematical intelligence when you and your students analyze the likely consequences of alternative actions or measure the dimensions of a problem you are solving.

You draw upon spatial intelligence when you or your students represent concepts with pictures, drawings and videos.

You draw upon bodily-kinesthetic intelligence when learners practice techniques or procedures requiring physical actions and involvement.

PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS AND LEARNING

Through the centuries, philosophers and psychologists have recognized that people's personalities are different in fundamental ways. Hippocrates, close to twenty-five centuries ago, spoke of four temperaments.

More recently, the work of Myers and Briggs and of Kiersey and Bates has dealt with personality and temperament differences that affect how individuals learn.

1. Introversion (internal) versus Extroversion (sociable)

2. Sensation (experience, the actual) versus Intuition (speculation, the possible)

3. Thinking (objective, impersonal) versus Feeling (subjective, personal)

4. Judging (decided, fixed) versus Perceiving (pending, gather more data)

Principle #8: Basic personality traits affect how individuals perceive, think and learn. These differences in individuals' personalities and behavior may be inborn as may be differences in their physical characteristics and in their intellectual strengths.

• Assessing prior knowledge of learners
• Determining whether learners have dealt with the same material previously in different ways

Principle #9: The kinds and amounts of knowledge one has before encountering a new topic or question powerfully affects what one learns. Prior knowledge significantly influences the processing of new information.

Learning and Assessment: How Do You Know If a Concept, or an Idea, is Understood?

Our last principle concerns the crucial components of teaching that relate to assessing learner understanding:

• Assessment of whether or not learners have a correct understanding of a concept or idea
• Determining whether learners can apply the concepts or knowledge learned

Principle #10: The methods and timing of assessment powerfully affect what students learn and retain.

[WEBLIOGRAPHY for Lecture 1]

[ED173 Online Home Page]

[UC Irvine Department of Education Home Page]

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[Fundamental Learning Principles][Multiple Intelligences][Personality and Learning][Learning and Assessment] 

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