This document provides an overview of strategies for effective teaching based on principles of how students learn. It discusses seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education including student-faculty contact, active learning, and high expectations. Key findings are that students' preconceptions must be engaged, a deep foundation of factual knowledge is needed, and students must take a metacognitive approach. Various techniques for formative assessment are also presented.

1. T O D D Z A K R A J S E K , P h . D .
9 1 9 - 6 3 6 - 8 1 7 0
t o d d z a k r a j s e k @ g m a i l . c o m
How Students Learn: Strategies
for Teaching from the
Psychology of Learning
Sinclair Community College
2012 Spring Conference
April 20, 2012

2. http://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=DF04XPBj5uc
Long-Term Potentiation

3. What do you want your
students to know or be
able to do 5 years after
graduation?

4. Seven Principles for Good Practice in
Undergraduate Education
(Chickering & Gamson, 1996)
 Contact between student and faculty
 Develops reciprocity and cooperation
among students
 Uses active learning techniques
 Prompt feedback
 Time on task (motivation to learn)
 Communicate high expectations
 Respects diverse talents and ways of
knowing

5. Hake (1998)

6. Pashler, McDaniel, Rohrer, & Bjork,
2009
Learning Styles: Concepts and Evidence

7. Key Finding #1 – Bransford, et al.
Students have preconceptions about how the
world works and if those preconceptions are
not engaged, they may well fail to grasp and
implement the new knowledge and concepts
taught.
Caution: They may well learn a concept or
demonstrate knowledge for a test and then
revert to prior position once the class is over.

8. Trial 1 Trial 3
#
Problems
Solved
Mueller & Dweck, 1998

9. Key Finding #2 – Bransford, et al.
To develop competence a person
must acquire a deep foundation of
factual knowledge, understand
how the information is organized
(conceptual framework), and be
able to retrieve the information
when needed.

10. “Every beginning instructor discovers
sooner or later that his first lectures were
incomprehensible because he was talking to
himself, so to say, mindful only of his point of
view. He realizes only gradually and with
difficulty that it is not easy to place one’s self
in the shoes of students who do not yet know
about the subject matter of the course.”
Piaget (1962)

11. Illusion of simplicity (including hindsight
bias)
False consensus effect – overestimate that
others think/feel the same as you do
Curse of knowledge – tendency to NOT
discount properly the fact that others don’t
have relevant knowledge

12. Karpicke & Roediger, 2007
Proportion
of
ideas
recalled
Retention Interval For Final Test
1 Week
5 Minutes
SSSS
SSST
STTT
.90
.40
.60
.50
.70
.80

13. Flingledobe and Pribin (Lavoie, 1989)
Last Serny, Flingledobe and Pribin
were in the Berdlink treppering gloopy
caples and cleaming burly greps.
Suddenly, a ditty strezzle boofed into
Flingledobe’s tresk. Pribin glaped. “Oh
Flingledobe,” he chifed, “that ditty
strezzle is tunning in your grep!”

14. Recht & Leslie (1988)
Items
Correct
High Knowledge
Good Readers
Poor Readers
20
Low Knowledge
10
Fill Columns

15. Key Finding #3 – Bransford, et al.
Learners must be taught to take a
metacognitive approach.

16. Types of CATs
 Minute Paper (check understanding at end of
class session)
 Muddiest Point (check understanding at end of
class session)
 One-Sentence Summary (check understanding at
end of class session)
 Directed Paraphrasing (check understanding of a
concept)
 Lecture Checks (Mazur’s Technique)
 Card Passing (very good for sensitive topics)

17. Selected References
Bjork, R. A., & Linn, M. C. (2006, March). The Science of Learning and the
Learning of Science: Introducing Desirable Difficulties. American Psychological
Society Observer, 19, 29- 39.
Bransford, J.D., Brown, A.L., & Cocking, R.R. (1999). How people learn:
Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Chickering, A., & Ehrmann, S. (1996). Implementing the seven principles:
Technology as lever. AAHE Bulletin, October, 3-6.
Goldstein, N. J., Cialdini, R. B., & Griskevicius, V. (2008). A room with a
viewpoint: Using normative appeals to motivate environmental conservation in a
hotel setting. Journal of Consumer Research, 35, 472-482.
Halpern, D. F. & Hakel, M.D. (2002). Applying the science of learning to
university teaching and beyond. New Directions in Teaching and Learning, 89.
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Karpicke, J.D., & Roediger, H.L. (2007). Repeated retrieval during learning
is the key to long-term retention. Journal of Memory and Language, 57, 151-162.

18. Selected References
Mueller, C.M. & Dweck, C.S. (1998). Intelligence praise can undermine
motivation and performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75,
33-52.
Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D., & Bjork, R. (2009). Learning Styles:
Concepts and Evidence. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 9 (3), 105-
119. Available Online - http://psi.sagepub.com/content/9/3/105.full
Recht, D.R., & Leslie, L. (1988). Effect of prior knowledge on good and poor
readers’ memory of text. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80, 16 – 20.
Wilson, T.D., Damiani, M. & Shelton, N. (2002). Improving the academic
performance of college students with brief attributional interventions. In Joshua
Aronson, Ed., Improving Academic Achievement: Impact of Psychological
Factors on Education. (pp. 91-108). New York: Academic Press.