Marsha Lovett Video Summary
Intro
After reading How Learning Works, I had the opportunity to watch one of the authors, Marsha Lovett, give a talk on how the 7 principles of learning impact teaching. I included the video at the bottom of my summary in case you are interested in watching it. I found it interesting to hear her say that the concepts can not only help for teaching but also for students that are learning and studying (Lovett 2011). It makes sense because it is, after all, the students that are doing the learning. She called this concept learner-centered teaching (Lovett 2011). This is why it is so important to understand how learning works. Through extensive research, the 7 learning principles were identified and extend across different disciplines (Lovett 2011).
Prior Knowledge
First, prior knowledge is a factor in learning because students have backgrounds; they are not coming in completely blank (Lovett 2011). There are so many different types of prior knowledge that can impact learning but Lovett really focused on insufficient and inactive prior knowledge (Lovett 2011). Insufficient prior knowledge occurs when you might know the concept but not how or when to apply it (Lovett 2011). Inactive prior knowledge is somewhat similar, except that the student knows the information but is not able to apply it to different contexts or call it up without being reminded (Lovett 2011). How do we know students’ level of prior knowledge? Ask them to do something, perform a task – this is the best way to gage whether they understand the information (Lovett 2011).
Organizing Knowledge
Knowledge is all interconnected, and people can have superficial connections between facts or form deep connections (Lovett 2011). The ideal state looks like a web of ideas, this is much different than memorizing and regurgitating facts that don’t mean anything to the learner and won’t likely be retained (Lovett 2011). Conceptual understanding is more meaningful and more likely to be retained (Lovett 2011). Pointing out these connections and helping students understand the big picture will help your teaching be more successful (Lovett 2011). So how do we do this? Maybe ask the students to recall what was covered in the previous session, forcing them to be actively thinking about these connections (Lovett 2011). Or have them turn to each other and summarize the previous lesson to each other. It can be really helpful to provide the big picture view, or outline of the lecture, to the students and work off of that, as well (Lovett 2011).
Motivation
It is important to know what motivates your students because they need to be motivated to do the things you want them to do to learn (Lovett 2011). Things that motivate students are based on their perception and include students’ values as well as how they expect they will perform in the course (Lovett 2011). Do they have a fair chance to succeed? Do they have team members in group projects that pull their weight? To give another example, a graduate student would be very motivated most likely by the opportunity further education gives them to bring home more income and have a higher status in society.
Mastery
Mastery means that you not only acquire the skills, but that you can also apply them in a variety of situations (Lovett 2011). She talked about the 4 different types of consciousness and competence, including the expert blind spot (Lovett 2011). This is so important to recognize as an educator. Some strategies you can use to help remember what it was like to learn the material yourself are to talk to your students and get their perspective, go through the thought process with them, and slow down (Lovett 2011).
Practice
Hands-on experience along with getting feedback about performance is crucial to the learning process (Lovett 2011). Lovett gives an example of practicing a musical piece in which the student learns the entire piece not just the separate sections individually (Lovett 2011). One thing she cautions us about is making practice too difficult or too easy (Lovett 2011). If you make the practice exercises flow into feedback, you will see more success (Lovett 2011). Also, don’t overflow their capacity for feedback – give feedback on the most important points that you need students to change (Lovett 2011). If an instructor sees common errors amongst the students, giving group feedback is a good idea (Lovett 2011).
Climate
A student’s level of development coupled with the climate of the class will directly impact learning (Lovett 2011). Research shows that the college years help people gain social and emotional skills far more than intellectual skills, as this is the time students being to develop their identity (Lovett 2011). Lovett went on to go over different stages of intellectual development. Dualism is the stage in which students just want to know if they have the right or wrong answer, Multiplicity is the stage in which knowledge is subjective, and Relativism is the stage in which students see that different sources are more credible (Lovett 2011).
Self-Directed Learners
Students need to be able to look at a task, asses it, and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses as they perform the task at hand (Lovett 2011). Students tend to skip this planning step, so teachers need to give practice exercises to help students with the planning process (Lovett 2011). I was very lucky to have a teacher as a parent, so I took knowing how to study and take notes for granted. Students have to be able to flex their learning styles if something is not working (Lovett 2011).
Video
Click on play below to view the video about which this summary was written. The video is on Vimeo and is 1 hour and 31 minutes long. Enjoy!
References:
Marsha Lovett: How Learning Works from UT Austin CTL (2011). https://vimeo.com/29799078
Marsha Lovett: How Learning Works from UT Austin CTL (2011). https://vimeo.com/29799078