Reading Notes: Understanding How We Learn

Provide important “Take-Away(s)” from each Part (1-4) of the Text.

 Include a minimum of 3 key points from each Part (1-4) of the book.

 Use the Dual Coding strategy to record your notes.

 Then Reflect: What will you actually do to improve teaching and learning after reading this chapter?

 Explain your key points and how you will (now or in future) apply it in your professional practice. Provide a descriptive analysis of
your plans.

 Add visuals, web links, or other supporting information for each major point. For example, a picture of the brain or chart that
explains your point would be typical.

Part 1 Chapter 1 Communication Breakdown Between Science and Practice in Education

 If evidence supports the effectiveness of a strategy, then we should adopt it while still being flexible as the science evolves.
 Cognitive psychology- study of the mind including perception, attention, and memory. Helps us understand learning by testing
hypothesis about learning strategies. Our intuition serves as another type of evidence. Relying on intuition alone can lead us to
false positives.
 We must do research to implement educational strategies that have proven to be effective.
 Teachers often are not reading research and implementing evidence based practice because of the lack of access and the lack of
time to read through it and plan accordingly.
 To have trust in the research there must be a bi-directional approach to the giving of information so that the teachers feels like
the researcher is in touch with the realities of the classroom environment.

Chapter 2 Different Types of Evidence in Education

 Quantitative data in the text will be used since it has been collected and analyzed. Data taken from student’s assignments and
self-reports about their learning.
 Cognitive psychology focuses on explanations related to the mind, whereas neuroscience is concerned with figuring out what
happens in the brain.
 The focus in on cognitive psychology because the finding show to be more applicable to the classroom.
  the field of cognitive psychology evolved from behaviorism, where behavior is observed and measured without cognitive
explanation.
 The lab to classroom model helps the researchers to hone in on what factors are actually causing learning. This way, methods
are being tested out before being practiced or implemented in the classroom. Often times, it will have to go back to the lab
setting for reevaluations. This communication about findings, helps to prevent and resolve misunderstandings and
misinterpretations.

Chapter 3 Is Intuition the Enemy of Teaching and Learning

 Despite all the years of being in school and being a learner, our own intuitions about how we learn and how we should teach
are not always correct. Our intuitions can cause us to pick the wrong learning strategies. We then can be biased on the results of
implementing that strategy. Leading us to ignore the negative effects of that learning strategy.
 How often am I as a teacher assessing the ineffectiveness of my instruction rather than only focusing on what I think is working
or connecting with my students?
 I can be a more effective educator to my students be looking for the evidence that shows the truth of my instruction, rather than
relying on intuition alone.
 In education, there has been a lack in relying on the proven sciences to help guide and formulate instructional strategies. Most
of the times, we are relying on our own intuitions to make decisions and create lessons that might not even be effective for our
students.

Chapter 4 Pervasive Misunderstandings About Learning: How They Arise, and What We Can Do
  There is danger in taking information about learning and research and taking it out of context and condensing it into
overgeneralizations.
 One misunderstanding is that a overly decorated class provides enriching stimuli when in fact it is noisy and distracting.
Colorful decorations can lead children to shift or split their attention away from the teacher and their current learning tasks, this
can interfere with their learning.
 Second misunderstanding is that individuals learn information in the preferred learning style. No concrete research shows that
teaching someone in their learning style is actually effective in helping them learn. Many people hold to this idea even though
there is no concrete findings on its effectiveness. We must better understand the brain to understand how to care for it and teach
it.
 The third is about right and left brained people and how they learn. There is no evidence that people have differences in their
brain according to their strengths or preferences. There is no task that relies solely on one hemisphere even is some tasks use
more resources form one hemisphere. “Every complex cognitive function is a result of the engagement of a network of multiple
regions, distributed throughout both hemispheres, acting in coordinated ways.”
 We must be vigilant to distinguish between accurate and inaccurate statements about learning and the brain.
 Refutational teaching- facts, refutation, inoculation. start with the fact, present the misunderstanding, refute and explain why
this is not true with evidence, then inoculate the audience against the incorrect information.

Key Points:
 Chapter 1- There is research and studies done that are helpful to guide teachers in their instruction. To have trust in the research
there must be a bi-directional approach to the giving of information so that the teachers feels like the researcher is in touch with
the realities of the classroom environment. Cognitive psychology studies can better equip teachers to understand the intricacies
of the mind of their learners.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcaAVWtP48A

 Chapter 2- We must be mindful of the research that we are implementing because the results will show the effectiveness.
Looking into the research of cognitive psychology can help to look into strong evidence of causal conclusions. There is a
system of finding out what works and what doesn’t. Which is why there is a constant assessment of how strategies are working
and how they may need to be adapted to fit the environment. This reflect the lab to classroom model shown above.

 Chapter 3- I must not base my decision making on teaching my students on intuition alone but I have to draw conclusions from
my data to then find research based strategies that can help me better teach my students. I can go along time not being effective
to them if I am relying on my own intuition or the intuition of others.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-Y6G5dAWaA

 Chapter 4- There are many misunderstandings in the world of education that have been popularized and believed based on
inaccurate information. There must be a diligence to understand true research to ensure that we are not continuing to base our
teaching philosophies on falsehoods.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_SQrRa73U0
 Reflection
 After these chapters, I have been made aware that there is a lot I do not know and understand about the brain. I have been led to
believe falsehoods about how I should teach and how my students learn. I want to grow in looking into accurate data and
research to better understand the intricacies of how the brain functions so that I can better instruct my students and create an
effective learning environment. Through cognitive psychology, I can begin to better understand functions of the brain and what
that means to the relationship between the learner and the educator. This information will help me be a better educator because
I will be more aware of the many inaccuracies there are in my mind that can be causing me to have ineffective instruction
within my classroom. Instead, I can go a step deeper and read about neuroscience to have true facts about the brain. I plan to
use the information I learn from this class to build a foundation of how I view the learning process and how I use instructional
strategies. I will be more careful to research the effectiveness of my methods before implementing to ensure I do not waste time
on something that might not be as useful as something else.

Part 2 Chapter 5 Perception

 The way we perceive information will determine how we understand and view the world around us. Perception involves all five
senses.
 All students will bring in their own preconceived notions, reactions, and attitudes toward the material or content being learning
in school.
 Top down processing involves bring in prior knowledge to influence your interpretation of the input you are receiving.
 Bottom up processing begins and ends with the stimulus. Understanding information without applying prior knowledge to the
situation.
 It is hard for us to unlearn the information and put ourselves in a student’s shoes to experience the novelty of learning about a
concept.
Chapter 6 Attention
 Attention- ability to focus on a specific stimulus, stimuli, or location. We have a certain amount of attention to be apportioned
to different tasks.
 With a difficult task, it takes a lot of attention which leaves little attention for other things. With an easy task, it takes little
attention and there will be more attention left over for other things.
 Since we can only have so much information to take in at one time, we must follow the cognitive load theory. This theory
teaches that there is a cognitive load and a cognitive overload. With too much information coming in at once, it will be too
much to process and attention will diminish quickly. It also looks at perceptual load and cognitive load. Perceptual load is the
bottom up processing and cognitive load is the demand on the working memory.
 Being able to focus on one stimulus at a time is an important feature of attention. We cannot fully focus on two things at a time.
Multitasking is when we switch back and forth between two things we are paying attention to.
 The saliency of the material will influence the ability to pay attention.
 Individual and situational interest will affect how well we pay attention to something.
 Mind wandering can affect the ability to pay attention as well as other distractions.
 Short term memory tells us that only a small amount of information can be taken in at a time but with chunking, it makes it
easier.
 Working memory- phonological loop, visual sketchpad, and the central executive.
 working memory capacity, processing speed, attentional control.
Chapter 7 Memory
 Everything we do requires memory of some sort. It is embedded into our thought process. Remembering names, a task, the
location of something, a future activity, how to comprehend a speech, how to do something.
 Memory is reconstructive- every time you retrieve as memory, you are changing it. Memories are a lot less accurate then we
think. The can easily invite errors and are not always a reliable source of information. Recalling info correctly will increase
memory.
 Procedural memory allows us to remember how to do things without thinking about how to do them. Declarative memory is
what we can directly access, voluntarily report the contents of, and are aware of remembering.
 Information must be decoded in a memorable way for it to be moved from short term memory to long term memory.
 Forgetting can occur as we are unable to remember something we once knew. Or a retrieval failure. retrieval cues should help
us to remember the forgotten material.
Key Points

Chapter 5- Perception must be on the teachers mind when instructing students. People will take in information through their senses and
then interpret them with top down and bottom up processing. We also have the curse of knowledge that hinders us form being able to
see things as our students see them. With this in mind, teachers have to keep in mind that their students bring in their own backgrounds
that effect the way they perceive what they are being taught.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unWnZvXJH2o

Chapter 6- To keep someone’s attention can be a hard concept to figure out because there are many components to how the brain
works in taking in information and staying focused on stimuli that is presented. There are many distractions that get in the way of
learning and taking in information. The main distraction being mind wandering. Instructors can use the knowledge on attention and
short term and working memory to understand how to best provide learning opportunities that are going to help the students focus as
much as possible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu4Yvq-g7_Y

Chapter 7- Memory was once thought of as a computer or a library that just stored information that could be retrieved anytime. After
studying memory, it was made known that this is not the case. Memory is an intricate process that involves encoding, consolidation,
storage, and retrieval. When we go to retrieve information from our memory, it is always being reconstructed. Our memory does not
stay the same like a book in the library. Even if we remember something correctly, we are associating it with new information when
we retrieve it. we can add and change a memory. Forgetting is also a part of memory as we have retrieval errors. a way we can help
retrieval errors are by using retrieval cues.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu4Yvq-g7_Y

Reflection
After reading about perception, attention, and memory, I am eager to read the following chapters that show how to apply this
knowledge within the classroom. I can instantly see how this is helpful in the educational setting. With perception, I am able to
understand that each of my students come to the classroom with their own backgrounds that will affect how they take in information
and perceive. I must be aware of who they are and where they come from to try and understand how they make encode the
information. I must always continue to find new ways to bring novelty into the classroom and look into how they are participating in
bottom up and top down processing throughout their learning. A good idea to understand this before a lesson is to ask them what they
know about a topic before we start to be able to connect their learning to their own lives. Attention is a factor of teaching that I am
looking forward to learning more about as I learned that it is more involved then asking for their attention and then expecting them to
focus. I must engaged them with interesting and stimulating material to keep their attention. A way I can incorporate this is by
including their senses when reading a story. I can get real items that will help them to interact with the story as we read and so they can
make meaningful connections to the material. From learning about memory, I can help my students to properly recall their information
so that they can store information properly. This is important because my students have a difficult time remembering information due
to their disabilities. This is a component of teaching I am constantly working on because everything in my teaching is about repetition.
Part 3 Chapter 8 Planning Learning: Spaced Practice and Interleaving
 Spaced Practice- builds on opportunities to look over the material and practice it for weeks before the exam.
 The effectiveness depends on the delay between the study session and the final test or exam. Information is more likely to stick
around in the mind for longer than if cramming took place.
 Spacing increases storage strength- a measure of deep learning- rather than our current ability to produce information.
 If we forget a little before we restudy information, this allows us to boost that storage strength.
 Interleaving- This involves taking information you are trying to learn and varying the order in which they are practices.
 Switch between ideas during a study session. Don’t study one idea for too long.
 Go back over the ideas again in different order to strengthen your understanding.
 Make links between different ideas as you switch between them.
 Interleaving practice produces improved accuracy and speed on later testing session compared to blocking.
 It is recommended to focus more on spaced practice more than interleaving but keeping in mind that during each individual
study session, it could be helpful to mix up studying different ideas and answering in the classroom
 Cognitive discovery- repetitious spaced out practice over time will lead to greater retention of information in the long run than
the same number of repetitious close together in time.

Chapter 9 Development of Understanding

 As teachers, we hope that our students will learn material in a meaningful manner – that is, that they will understand it.
Understanding occurs when students elaborate a memory by adding details to it and integrating it with existing knowledge, and
can be enhanced by several effective strategies.
 Elaboration- to add something to memory while encouraging organization or the connecting and integrating of ideas.
 For understanding to happen, the new information needs to be connected to preexisting knowledge.
 Elaboration Interrogation- asking yourself questions about how and why things work, and then producing answers to those
questions.
 Self-Explanation- involves students trying to explain the steps that they are taking out loud as they solve a problem.
 Concrete examples help illustrate abstract ideas and make them easier to understand. Students will often remember the concrete
 ideas over the concepts.
 Providing concrete examples can help students understand abstract ideas but when teaching novices, we run the risk of students
remembering the surface details of the example which isn’t as important as remembering and understanding the abstract ideas
themselves.
 Dual Coding- process of combining verbal materials with visual materials. Pictures are often remembered better than words.
Information is more likely to be remembered because we process visual and verbal information through separate channels.
 Students tend to learn better when there are combined modalities.

Chapter 10 Reinforcement of Learning: Retrieval Practice

 Every time a memory is brought to mind it is reinforced and reconstructed. When doing activities asked to retrieve information,
like a quiz, students are also enhancing their memory.
 Retrieval practice involves reconstruction something you have learned in the past from memory and thinking about it right
now. This improves learning compared to rereading information.
 This does not have to be a test but can be anything that involves bringing information to mind form memory.
 It also gives students feedback on what they know and do not know and gives teachers feedback too. It tends to produce
learning benefits after a delay, similar to spaced practice.
  It seems that in order for retrieval practice to work well with students of any age, we need to make sure that students are
successful. Scaffolding is a great way to help increase retrieval success. Scaffolding could be implemented with any student,
but it may be particularly important with students who may struggle to recall on their own from the start.
 The key to optimizing a retrieval based learning activity is to make sure that the students are being challenged to actually bring
the information to mind from memory, but also that the students can be relatively successful at doing so.

Key Points

Chapter 8 Planning Learning: Spaced Practice and Interleaving

To implement effective study sessions, it is important to implement both spaced practice and interleaving. Spaced out practice will
help students to retain the information in their long term memory giving them a better opportunity to remember it for an exam.
Interleaving will help to allow the students to make connections to different ideas so that they can get a more comprehensive
knowledge about a topic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uMMRjrzPmE

Chapter 9 Development of Understanding

In understanding information, elaborating can be useful to connect new information to preexisting information. When we elaborate,
students can make more connections to their learning and will have a more successful time remembering the information later on.
Students can also use self-explanation to explain their learning as it is happening so that they are able to be cognizant as they are
remembering information and solving problems. Lastly, dual coding is useful in remembering information because we can improve
understanding by combining visual and verbal modalities when teaching. This will also enhance connects that students make.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUyOfkTE4aY

Chapter 10 Reinforcement of Learning: Retrieval Practice

Retrieval practice is crucial to implement in the classroom to extend the learning process. This helps students to strengthen their
memory by recalling the information they learned and reinforcement it. This can take place in many different forms and does not have
to just be through tests.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO8abw3DHxs

Reflection
From these chapters, I have further learned the importance of thinking through the understanding of information process that people go
through to acquire knowledge. The process of spaced practice is important because it gives the students time to learn over a period
rather than learning one day and taking a test the next. In my classroom, I can see using spaced practice and interleaving together to
help teach concepts so that my students will have a better chance of learning the material. To interleave, I will teach them how
different parts of a whole relate to one another to show them the big picture of a concept. I will also take the time to space out parts of
a lesson so that they have time to process and then continue in their learning. In their understanding of the material, I learned that it is
important to use a variety of modalities to elaborate on concepts. I can elaborate by using dual coding to help teach concepts. I can do
this in my PowerPoints so that as I am teaching the material, they are intaking both verbal and visual stimulants to help them to better
understand the material. Lastly I learned more about the process of retrieval and how it enhances learning. I can use a variety of
different tools to have my students show what they learned in lessons so that they can strengthen their memory and show me and
themselves what was learned. I would probably use simple assessments such as drawing a picture, putting the pieces in a graphic
organizer, or simple exit ticket questions for my moderate to severe students.

Chapter 11 Tips for Teachers

 Spacing – use spaced practice techniques such as creating opportunities to revisit information throughout the semester (spacing
or within one lesson (Interleaving), and by helping students to create their own effective study schedules.
 ideas to try: lagged homework, brief interviews on previous ideas, spaced quizzes. Help students to schedule to cultivated
spaced practice habits so they are less likely to cram and keep the content in their long term memory.
 Elaboration- help students to come up with relevant how and why questions when they are studying and learning content. Then
have them come up with the answers so that they had to use their critical thinking on their own. Have the students make
meaningful connections of the content to their lives. Teach them how to do dual coding when taking notes. After a section of
writing notes, have them write a summary or draw a picture that represents the content.
 Concrete Examples- use several concrete examples throughout teaching to give another avenue of the students understanding
the material. Link the details of the content to the example so that students understand the example and how it can help them
 understand.
 Visuals- teaching dual coding will help the students to use different modes of learning. Help them work that way to drawing
visuals from memory. This would be a good exam option. For the student to make a visual for the information they learned.
Teachers can slow down and chunk the content so that the students have time to absorb and process the information.
 Retrieval- Create opportunities for students to bring information to mind and recall it from prior. Give low or no stake quizzes,
different modes of quizzes, let the students choose how to present their understanding of the content. Frequent retrieval practice
will help the students to have to recall information and they will have a better time retaining it.

Chapter 12 Tips for Students

 Spacing- Students can practice spacing by planning early to study, setting time aside every day to study a small amount of
something that could be on a test. Review information from each class but after some time, not immediately after. Cramming
does not help long term memory as much as spaced practice and takes more time. You will quickly forget the information.
When cramming, you are depriving yourself of you are impairing the ability think critically think and have attention to a task.
 Elaboration- asking questions about the learned content will increase understanding. Make connections to multiple ideas and
explain how they work together. Apply it to your life experiences and memories to make further connections.
 Concrete Examples- Think how you can take what you are learning and turn it into concrete examples. make a link between the
idea you’re studying and a vivid concrete example. Review them with others so that you can be assured they are correct
examples before you hold on to incorrect information.
 Visuals- dual coding will help as you are note taking to give more ways to remember information. Try to look at the visuals
within books and understand them and also try to create your own visuals from the reading. Practice retrieving information by
drawing what you know from memory.
 Retrieval- Bring information to mind after you have already learned something by reading it in a book or hearing it in class.
Take practice tests without looking at notes to help the learning process. Review the material of the questions you got wrong.
You can also try to write everything you learned onto a paper without looking at notes. Create flashcards to practice retrieval
with questions and answers. Link the facts to concepts and see how they compare and contrast to other concepts being learned.
You can also create a concept mad or draw a visual of the information.
Chapter 13 Tips for Parents
 Spacing- Help your child plan out a study schedule and stick to it. Encourage your children to visit older content so that they
can be connecting their learning together known as interleaving. Take advantage of homework so that the students can revisit
what they learned that day and they can have a better chance of storing that information into long term memory.
 Elaboration- Ask students what they learned in school and then ask why and how questions to deepen their thinking and
learning. Have the child explain what they are doing during their school work so that they can deepen their learning and recall
it so that they can understand the process better.
 Concrete Examples- Point out examples in the environment that can connect to the child’s learning.
 Visuals- Help your students explain their learning through visuals so they can continue to practice learning their content.
 Retrieval- Let the students do most of the talking to discuss the details of what they learned at school. Have them make
notecards about their content so that they can continue recalling it.
 Make sure the child gets enough sleep so they can have a mind that is ready and able to learn at school.
 Small rewards can be helpful for your child to encourage them in the subject that are less favored.
 Show and model how to be a learner for your child.

Key Points

Chapter 11 Tips for Teachers

Through spacing, elaboration, concrete examples, retrieval, and visuals, the teacher can use methods of instruction that will help
students to take what they are learning and provide opportunities to take it deeper. These methods can be implemented both in the
classroom and at home for homework. By implementing these strategies, the students will grow in their knowledge and ability to retain
the information.

Chapter 12 Tips for Students

Through spacing, elaboration, concrete examples, retrieval, and visuals, the student can be an active learner to work hard and have
strategies that will help them throughout their lives to be a better learner and have ways to study information in a time saving and
effective way. They will have a better understanding of the content and they will take these strategies into their futures.

Chapter 13 Tips for Parents

Through spacing, elaboration, concrete examples, retrieval, and visuals, parents can help students to deepen their learning process. The
main way parents can help is by being an active member in their child’s learning They can ask questions of what their child learned
and then go deep with the content. They I can ask deeper questions about the content or even show them ways to practice their learning
through visuals and writing down what they learned. They can also find examples that will help their student understand the content.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5vNqmvaCBU

Reflection
Through spacing, elaboration, concrete examples, retrieval, and visuals, I can help my students to deepen their learning rather than
forget it. Some of the methods I enjoyed reading about will help me to enhance the learning environment I provide for my students.
The first method I want to implement is more spacing and interleaving when teaching. My students can only take in a small amount of
information. I will teach for shorter periods of time and spread out a concept. I will also implement concrete examples as much as
necessary to help elaborate on the material and help their understanding. I will also have my students regularly show me what they
learned. I thought about having some time at the end of each day to have the students show me what they learned in any way they can.
I will implement more recall in times after content is taught to ensure that the students are having to remember the information to
lessen the chance of forgetting. I have learned many methods to be a more effective teacher for my students and I am excited to try
some of these out in the coming school year. I can also share with the students how they can use these strategies as well as their
parents. I can be in better communication with the parents, informing them at the beginning of each month to let them in on the theme
and content so they can be engaged with their child. I can have them ask their students deep questions and have them point out
examples of what the child is learning so that the information can be generalized.