Learning Theories
Eide Neurolearning Blog: Why It's Hard to Get Rid of Old Ideas
Whatever You Do, Don’t Drop Practice | Tom Werner
The only instructional element that really matters is practice with feedback.
Will at Work Learning: People remember 10%, 20%...Oh Really?
Synchronous Learning Model over the Internet
Cognitive Daily: Does racial diversity help students learn?
By far the researchers' most significant finding was one that simply matched previous research: students who had a more racially diverse group of friends and classmates <em>outside</em> of the study tended to write essays with higher ICs. Again, however, this finding is only a correlation, and cannot on its own show that racial diversity improves learning.
Half an Hour: Kirschner, Sweller, Clark (2006) - Readings
Scaffolding and Achievement in Problem-Based and Inquiry Learning
A response to the Kirschner, Sweller, & Clark article, specifically focused on demonstrating that problem based learning and inquiry learning are highly scaffolded, not "minimally guided." Research is cited showing the effectiveness of PBL.
A Review of What Instructional Designers Do: Questions Answered and Questions Not Asked
Research comparing ID models with what instructional designers actually do for their jobs. The authors conclude that ID isn't so much about following a rigid process, but about solving complex problems and making nuanced decisions.
New link: http://www.cjlt.ca/index.php/cjlt/article/view/147/140
Results showed that, while instructional designers apparently do make use of process-based ID models, they do not spend the majority of their time working with them nor do they follow them in a rigid fashion. They also engage in a wide variety of other tasks that are not reflected in ID models.
Rowland (1992) reported his results to be congruent with the research on expertise and indicated that expert instructional designers clearly employ a definable problem solving and decision-making process. He suggested that ID tools, unlike procedural design models, should foster a deep understanding of the system of concern and should include such characteristics as flexibility of structures and processes, a workspace for construction of problem representation, and mechanisms for making multiple links between problems and solutions. Rowland suggested that, rather than to be taught procedures or even problem-solving heuristics, novices need to develop experience in the design process and that a case-based method of teaching, providing involvement with real or realistic situations, might be the most appropriate way for new instructional designers to learn the design process.
Design is always about making judgments about design situations that are complex, rich and replete with tensions and contradictions.
Do Generational Differences Matter in Instructional Design?
Literature review of research in generational differences in learning and whether it matters for instructional design. Overall, the authors conclude that there are some generational differences in the workplace, but that the generalities don't warrant making assumptions about any particular individual. The current research also doesn't do enough to account for socioeconomic differences.
Lars is Learning: Snooze and Learn Faster
Summary of research showing that 90-minute afternoon naps can help speed up learning and improve memory. However, the control group caught up in skill level after a full night's sleep.
How to get an Instructional Design education without paying tuition | effectivedesign.org
A reading list for instructional designers, especially those of us doing the "informal masters" on our own rather than enrolling. More than just instructional design, this list includes project management, psychology of learning, and other topics.
Related link: http://www.dctrcurry.com/2008/02/immediately-accessible-instructional.html
Top News - Analysis: How multimedia can improve learning
Research on how effective use of multimedia can improve learning outcomes. Based on research by Mayer, Moreno, Clark, & others. Much of this is in e-Learning and the Science of Instruction, but some of these principles, especially on interactivity, aren't included in that book. (Quotes from page 4)
Direct Manipulation Principle: As the complexity of the materials increases, the impact of direct manipulation (animation, pacing) of the learning materials on the transfer of knowledge also increases.
However, when the average student is engaged in higher-order thinking using multimedia in interactive situations, on average, that student's percentage ranking on higher-order or transfer skills increases by 32 percentile points over what the student would have accomplished with traditional learning.
Coherence or interest: Which is most important in online multimedia learning?
A challenge to the coherence principle: the idea that all information in multimedia learning should be essential, and nothing should be added simply for interest. This research found that in an authentic learning setting that performance was the same whether learners had only the essentials or had additional interesting information, directly contradicting Clark & Mayer's work.
Will at Work Learning: FREE Research Report on Feedback
21 points from research on feedback summarized, plus a downloadable free report with all the details. Feedback is generally good for learners and should tell them the right answers, plus maybe why it's right. Lots of insight about what kinds of feedback to use or how to use feedback depending on the results you're aiming for.
<li>Immediate feedback prevents subsequent confusion and limits the likelihood for continued inappropriate retrieval practice.</li>
<li>Delayed feedback creates a beneficial spacing effect.</li>
<li>When in doubt about the timing of feedback, you can (a) give immediate feedback and then a subsequent delayed retrieval opportunity, (b) delay feedback slightly, and/or (c) just be sure to give some kind of feedback.</li>
<li>Feedback should usually be provided before learners get another chance to retrieve incorrectly again.</li>
Sensory Integration | Brain Rules |
Several people have mentioned John Medina's book Brain Rules. A lot of this sounds common sense, but check the footnotes on slides 2 & 3 for his rule "Sensory Integration: Stimulate more of the senses." He has a nice chart about how much more we remember for passive/active learning with multiple senses stimulated. He cites Dale's cone of experience, but he has numbers for each level, so we know he's, shall we say, stretching the research a bit.
Ask the Cognitive Scientist: “Brain-Based” Learning: More Fiction than Fact
This article examines several myths of brain-based learning, looking at what the neuroscience research actually tells us. Very little of the research at this point is directly applicable to the classroom; it just doesn't tell us enough about how people learn in real environments.
For neuroscience to mean something to teachers, it must provide information beyond what is available without neuroscientific methods. It’s not enough to describe what’s happening in the brain, and pretend that you’ve learned something useful.
In general, if you are interested in describing effects at a given level of analysis, you are most likely to make progress by sticking to that level of analysis. If you’re interested in describing ways that students learn best, it makes sense to study classroom situations. To the extent that neuroscience will inform good teaching practice, it seems most likely that this influence will be funneled through the cognitive level of analysis: For example, neuroscience will help us better understand memory, and this improved understanding of memory might be used to improve classroom practice. It’s unlikely that leapfrogging the cognitive level analysis and going straight from the brain to the classroom will work out very often.
Do Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic Learners Need Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic Instruction?
Examines what cognitive science actually tells us about different learning styles and argues that the best answer is to choose the modality that best suits the content rather than adapting to the student.
eduweb: research
Research on educational games from Eduweb
Whatever You Do, Don’t Drop Practice | Tom Werner
Summary of research which compared courses with the same content but with specific elements of Gagne's instructional events removed. The strongest correlation with student performance and satisfaction was with practice with feedback. (This is an old post, but it's moved since I originally bookmarked it.)
The only instructional element that really matters is practice with feedback.
Donald Clark Plan B: Brilliant 35 studies in media and learning
Great summary of research points on our perceptions of media with implications for using media effectively for learning. For example, audio quality matters a lot, but video quality can be low and still effective. Large, wide screens are preferred over higher quality images on smaller screens.
35 psychological studies into the human reaction to media all point towards the simple proposition that people react towards media socially even though, at a conscious level, they believe it is not reasonable to do so. They can't help it. In short, people think that computers are people, which makes e-learning work.
As long as a media technology is consistent with social and physical rules, we will accept it. Read that last part again, 'as long as a media technology is consistent with social and physical rules'. If the media technology fails to conform to these human expectations - we will very much not accept it.
Will at Work Learning: New Research Report on Using Culturally, Linguistically, and Situationally Relevant Scenarios
Research on how to support learning with scenarios that are relevant to the specific situation. Even though this is explicitly about workplace training, the major recommendations could be adapted for instructional design in education contexts too.
Utilize decision-making scenarios. Consider using them not just in a minor role—for example at the end of a section—but integrated into the main narrative of your learning design.
Determine the most important points you want to get across AND the most important situations in which these points are critical. Then, provide extra repetitions spaced over time on these key points and situations.
Could Power Point Presentations Be Stifling Learning?
This summary doesn't say how large the sample size was, and the researchers clarify that it's only about teaching new concepts. However, it is interesting to note that animation in PowerPoint slide decreased recall and comprehension.
<p>To test their hypothesis, the team recorded two versions of a PowerPoint lecture. The presentations differed only in the presence of animation to incrementally present information. They then showed students either the animated or non-animated lecture and then tested the students recall and comprehension of the lecture.</p>
<p>The team found a marked difference in average student performance, with those seeing the non-animated lecture performing much better in the tests than those who watched the animated lecture. Students were able to recall details of the static graphics much better. Animated slides meant to present information incrementally actually require greater concentration, which makes it harder to remember content as well as reducing overall exposure time to the "complete" slide, the researchers found.</p>
<p>To test their hypothesis, the team recorded two versions of a PowerPoint lecture. The presentations differed only in the presence of animation to incrementally present information. They then showed students either the animated or non-animated lecture and then tested the students recall and comprehension of the lecture.</p>
<p>The team found a marked difference in average student performance, with those seeing the non-animated lecture performing much better in the tests than those who watched the animated lecture. </p>
22 Why Reasons People Go Online: Which is Your Blog Connecting With?
Why do people go online? The most popular category is learning: educating yourself, doing research, or keeping informed. Fun reasons like passing time and being entertained as well as socializing also ranked high.
A review of research on professional learning communities: What do we know?
Like the title says, a research review on PLCs, synthesizing results from 10 articles.
- All research supported the idea that learning communities change teaching practice, although not all articles were specific about what changes took place.
- In one study, teachers in PLCs developed more student-centered classrooms. Some other studies discussed specific teaching strategies used as a result of PLCs.
- All studies showed a change in school culture through "collaboration, focus on student learning, teacher authority, and continuous teacher learning."
- All 6 studies that looked at student achievement found that student learning improved. However, this was only seen when the focus of collaboration was student learning and not just working together.
- Their conclusion: "The focus of a PLC should be developing teachers’ “knowledge of practice” around the issue of student learning"
- "...working collaboratively is the process not the goal of a PLC. The goal is enhanced student achievement."
New evidence that bullet-points don’t work : Speaking about Presenting
Research applying cognitive load theory to slide presentations providing evidence that slides crammed full of text aren't effective for helping people learn and remember
Getting It Wrong: Surprising Tips on How to Learn: Scientific American - Sean Kearney's Lifestream
Interesting research--totally flies in the face of how most of us think about designing learning. Do we design learning environments that allow people to fail enough to learn?
The idea embedded in this approach is that if students make errors, they will learn the errors and be prevented (or slowed) in learning the correct information. But <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=2009-09620-017&CFID=24407194&CFTOKEN=49068829"> research </a> by Nate Kornell, Matthew Hays and Robert Bjork at U.C.L.A. that recently appeared in <em>the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition</em> reveals that this worry is misplaced. In fact, they found, learning becomes better if conditions are arranged so that students make errors
Learning Visions: Ruth Clark: Evidence Based E-Learning #dl09 #dl09-104
Cammy Bean's live blogged notes from DevLearn with Ruth Clark. Lots of this is the multimedia principles I've read before (and maybe don't always apply in authentic learning environments, but that's another story). The research on animations vs stills was new to me though.
Cognitive Load Theory: Failure? « EdTechDev
Explanation of cognitive load theory and the problems with it, both conceptual and methodological. Lots of sources to dig into deeper if you want more research on this issue.
Numerous contradictions of cognitive load theory’s predictions have been found, but with germane cognitive load, they can still be explained away. de Jong does not use this term (unfalsifiable) but instead states that germane cognitive load is a <em>post-hoc</em> explanation with no theoretical basis: “there seems to be no grounds for asserting that processes that lead to (correct) schema acquisition will impose a higher cognitive load than learning processes that do not lead to (correct) schemas” (2009).
2. <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Poor external validity of lab-based studies</span>. Moreno doesn’t touch on something in the de Jong article – the fact that most cognitive load (and multimedia learning) studies are conducted in labs that “includes participants who have no specific interest in learning the domain involved and who are also given a very short study time” (de Jong, 2009), often only a few minutes. Quite a number of findings from these studies have not held up as strongly when tested in classrooms or real-world scenarios, or have even reversed (<a href="http://www.txwes.edu/professionaldevelopment/materials/Multimedia%20Instructions.pdf">such as the modality effect</a>, but see <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2007.09.010">this refutation</a> and this <a href="http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=5135499">other example of a reverse effect</a>).
Learning Benefits of On-Line Spaced Education Persist for 2 Years
Summary of follow-up research on online spaced education with medical residents showing that the benefits could still be detected 2 years later.
On-line spaced education can generate improvements in learning that are retained 2 years later. Although the effect size is modest, the persistence of detectable knowledge differences between educational interventions after such a long duration is exceedingly unusual.