The following was presented at the virtual New Faculty Orientation at UCO for the Fall 2020 semester, by Dr. Jody Horn —
Brain-Based Principles of Learning:
- Malleable; Changed by Experience
- Connects New Information to Old
- Unique and Uniquely Organized
- Not Equal, because context and ability influence learning
Other important concepts to consider for effective teaching:
- Active Retrieval: More mental effort, but long-term memory increases when repeatedly retrieving information
- Aligning/Authentic Assessment: What students are assessed over should be what they are learning which should match the learning activities
- Clear Learning Goals: Students who know where they are “going” in class are more likely to be successful
- Encoding: Learners must encode information into their longer-term memory
- Feedback: Students must receive timely feedback on their performance to help them encode and learn
- Metacognition: Students learn through reflecting, and they learn how to learn by reflecting on how they learn! This will lead to them becoming lifelong learners.
The fact that learning is malleable is significant because that means it can be impacted by students’ practice. To take . . .