What Do We Know - Susan Manning, ION - Part 3

This session will recap some of what we know about the science of learning, the background of our students, and the basics of instructional design.

[Susan Manning] Okay...well how do you do how do you in the traditional classroom?

[Quad Cities] Unintelligible

[Susan Manning] Okay and so the way that you set up the question to will get them there...alright

[audience member] Unintelligible

[Susan Manning] Right...they might use different tools

to communicate that...okay can you see this image?

Alright finish this sentence

curiousity killed the cat not the dog

dogs give up if it's to hard

a dog will find something else to do

so that's why the dog is here

we tend to like we like being curious

and curiousity drives our students

but it has to be just enough curiousity

not to much the problem has to be

just difficult enough not to hard

if it's to hard if it's to complex

if you throw too much at people they turn off

their not cats

and we like to solve problems

that we think we can solve

that we have some sense that we can accomplish this

and I'm going to bring this back later on

in a different model but again that idea that students

need this in smaller doses

so that they feel that they can be successful

they have a little bit of curiousity

and we build on that

too much and you wipe them out

Background knowledge who are these guys

they look like pilots do you see

all those buttons

do you think they learned

all those buttons at once?

Do you think they started out

in a plane like this?

Do you know anything about flying?

And how you learn to fly?

You first have to start in a classroom

and you have to learn basic concepts

and vocabulary and then you get in a plane with

the instructor and you begin to learn

the instrument panel

the instrument panel on the plane

that you learn on is nothing like this

because it's much smaller plane

their only permitted to fly like under the clouds

or only so high at first

to were you don't need certain kinds

of instrumentation and then as you get so many

hours you move up in terms of the level

of sophistication with the airplane.

The same thing applies to how we sequence

our courses right you get some fundamental

background knowledge before you can move forward.

This is why my dad retains alot

of what he learned was because his instructor's

didn't let him go on until they were confident

that he had the background knowledge

and right or wrong for how we've structured

higher education it's often possible

for students to move on in their schooling

without really getting the fundamentals right okay

So the challenge then is to think

what kind of background knowledge

do students need first of all to get into

you're course and then what kind of background

knowledge are they going to need from you're course

to get to the next level?

That should help us define what it is

that were going to teach

and if you're teaching something

that doesn't fall in that range why bother.

it would be better to focus on the background

knowledge that there going to need.

Okay here's a model of thinking

and this is pure cognitive science

you get information from the environment

new information stuff that I'm telling you

right now and it goes and it interacts

with what you already know in you're long term memory

and it get's played with in what we call

you're working memory and the process

of thinking is the combining

of this long term memory

and what you are learning or experiencing

for the first time it get's into the working memory

you work it enough that eventually

it get's into it goes back into

the long term memory

okay..very, very simple model of how people think

Now the problem is that working knowledge

can only hold so much

it's limited in it's capacity

how long are telephone numbers?

Seven or ten digits right how long is a zip code?

Five digits and now we have the extra four

which I can not remember my extra four

that's because it's around seven things

that we can hold in our working memory

at one time some of us can hold a little more

some days it's a little less right

okay it has to be exercised

if this working memory is not exercised

it does atrophy and when it comes to holding

those things experts see different patterns

how many of you are musicians?

Okay I'm a musician also I play the flute

and my oldest daughter did three years

on the flute and then just in April

she switched to the oboe

so I was like wow well then I can't teach you

I'll have to start paying somebody else to do this

so she's now taking private lessons

with my friend Lou

and she hates it because she doesn't like going

every week and being exercised

Well Lou is working her in a series

that has a lot of chromatic

and she's working on triades right now

and he has her work on the, the fingering stuff

and then she applies this in a piece

it's a pretty well coordinated series that she's in

and she's turning a corner and she's beginning

to recognize patterns musically

so that she's becoming a much better sight reader

she'll pick up a piece of music and play it

because she kind of knows

what that chromatic is suppose to sound like

in that piece of music and it's really exciting

to see this I've said to her

Anna your becoming an expert

because now your recognizing

patterns that you couldn't see two years ago

two years ago you would seen -unintelligible-

and know you know what and you're fingers

know what to do

and so experts see things differently

than young learners or new learners

new lerners is a better way to say it

and so part of what we have to do is share

that thinking process and those patterns

so but they first have to have

that background information to build on that

Okay, -unintelligible- doing

no he's like this yeah

he's pulling his thoughts together.

Question 5 is the total amount of mental activity

imposed on working memory at one time

one instance of time what is that

I have one correct answer you want to quess?

Yeah the cognitive load is how hard

you're brain has to work

at one time

how do you think this relates

to teaching and learning?

Perfect answer how you need to chunk

it into smaller pieces because if you're load is to great

remember that curiosity puppy

the puppy is going to run away

because the puppy is going to get squished

Alright and here's an example

solve this in you're head

the answer is?

83 that was pretty easy

because it really didn't tax it wasn't a big cognitive load

right cause remember I said that working memory

is limited now do this one

see you're non-verbal said

I can't hold all of that in my head

that's to many it's to much

the cognitive load now is much higher

now some of you are going to be able

to do this in you're head but most of us

are going to have the reaction of shutting down

because there's to much our working memory

can not hold all of that information

were not that curious

I mean my God and I don't have enough

background knowledge know ones shown

me how to work these and hold these in my head

okay so that's my demonstration

to bring all of it together so far

This is a great quote

from The Why Students Don't Like School

"Memory is the residue of thought."