Learning in Schools

We are learning virtually all of the time.

From the moment we are born, throughout our lives, and even in our sleep.

If we watch a baby or a toddler interact with the world around them, we see them constantly trying to make meaning of sensory patterns in their environment, consciously or unconsciously asking how and why.

What do we mean by learning?

While there are many definitions of learning, Robert Sternberg, a cognitive scientist, provides one that is clear and concise.

He says, "Learning is any relatively permanent change" in the behavior, thoughts, or feelings of an organism "that results from experience."

Notice Sternberg mentions not only that learning is reflected in visible behaviors and actions, but learning is also reflected through changes in interior thoughts and feelings that are indiscernible by the outside observer.

And this is one of the biggest challenges of teaching, trying to figure out what our students have learned so we can respond accordingly.

Learning takes on many forms and occurs in many settings.

For instance, one form of learning called implicit learning develops without our necessarily being aware of its happening.

Examples would be first language acquisition, and learning social norms a cues.

Much of what we learn in school, however, is explicit learning.

In order for explicit learning to happen, we have to consciously attend to learning and make memories for later recall.

Learning develops in different contexts or settings.

In fact, learning often happens in informal situations: on the playground, at home, in museums, and often with peers during various forms of recreation and related activities.

Learning, of course, also occurs more formally.

Formal learning occurs in structured educational settings like schools and colleges.

Our focus in this course mostly will be on explicit and formal learning in schools.

Explicit formal learning is not always easy for children to do, since they are most naturally inclined to learn implicitly in informal settings.

Learning to read or write or think about abstract concepts like metaphors, multiplication, Newton's Laws, or dangling participles, is not usually intrinsically motivating to most kids.

That is, kids don't usually gravitate to this kind of learning on their own.

Additionally, many students don't find learning within the confines of four walls of a classroom for extended periods of time consistently alluring.

As a result, motivating a child to pay attention and learn in school is often a challenge, as any teacher will tell you.

Another reality of school learning is that deep thinking is not something we usually do just for fun or even naturally.

Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham speaks to this when he says, "People's minds are not "especially well-suited to thinking.

"Thinking is slow, effortful, and uncertain." This means we tend to automatically rely on past habits and memories to guide our actions, and are less likely to think deliberately and deeply.

To further complicate matters, struggle and confusion are usually necessary for deep and transformative learning to happen, something that many students tend to avoid or incorrectly interpret as a sign of their ineffectiveness as learners.

We'll talk more about this later.

It's no surprise then that teaching is an incredibly difficult and demanding profession.

Lee Shulman, who for years headed the Carnegie Center For Teaching And Learning, and spent his career researching expertise in medical doctors and K through 12 teachers, said this near the end of his career, "I have concluded that classroom teaching is perhaps "the most complex, most challenging, and most demanding, "subtle, nuanced, and frightening activity "that our species has ever invented."

Daunting, yes, but reflective teachers all over the world have been addressing these challenges for a long time.

So why are we here?

Cognitive science research about how people learn, what we are calling science of learning, has been going on for well over half a century, but it is only relatively recently that this research has reached a point where it can powerfully inform the day to day practice of any classroom teacher.

The really exciting aspect of this research is that it can help students develop deeper and more enduring understanding of our important learning goals.

At the same time, developing such durable understanding makes it more likely that students will be able to use and apply that understanding to their lives well beyond school.

And that's for all learners, not just the ones who might struggle the most.

Finally, while our focus in this course is on the science of teaching, it almost goes without saying that effective teaching is also about much more than the insights provided by cognitive science.

There is a creativity, empathy, an art to what we do as we respond in the moment to a child before us.

No amount of science will replace the fundamentally relational quality of great teaching.

This course, in providing an introduction to the science of learning and the brain, aims however, to allow educators to develop knowledge that puts their art and conversation with the robust science of learning, all towards more deliberately impacting the learners in their classes.

With that said, we're ready to begin. Let's start with how we make and recall memories.