Learning to Learn:

Why Not Be Explicit In

The Classroom?

Karl Wirth
 Changing Landscape of
Teaching & Learning
• Research on the Brain
• Research on Learning
• New Students & Learning Styles
• Technology
• Globalization
 Research on Learning
• Active & Learner-Centered
• Teamwork & Collaborative
• Roles of Transfer & Metacognition
• Importance of Community & Civic Engagement
• Multi-dimensional
How People Learn (NRC, 2000)
Significant Learning (Fink, 2003)
 New Students & Learning Styles
GI Silent Boomer Gen X Millennial

1924 1942 1960 1982

• Faculty are mostly Boomers and Gen Xers

• Millennial Preference for Sensing Styles

Active Learning
Teamwork
Civic Engagement
Use of Technology
 Technology & Globalization
• Age of Communication & Multimedia
• New Definition of “Educated”
• Adaptability & Lifelong Learning

Friedman (2005)
Tapscott (1998)
 Critical Competencies
1. Personal responsibility,
2. Ability to act in principled, ethical fashion,
3. Skill in oral and written communication,
4. Interpersonal and team skills,
5. Skills in critical thinking and problem-solving,
6. Respect for people different from oneself,
7. Ability to change,
8. Ability and desire for lifelong learning.

(from Gardiner, 1994)

Educating “Intentional Learners”
“to help college students become Intentional
Learners who can adapt to new environments,
integrate knowledge from different sources, and
continue learning throughout their lives.”

Intentional Learners
Are:
• Empowered
• Informed
• Responsible
Greater Expectations
(2002 AACU Report)
 Intentional Learners
Becoming an intentional learner means:
developing self-awareness about the
reason for study, the learning process
itself, and how education is used

Intentional learners are integrative thinkers

who see connections in seemingly
disparate information to inform their
decisions.
Greater Expectations
(2002 AACU Report)
 Self-Directed Learners
Self-directed learners are highly motivated,
independent, and strive toward self-
direction and autonomy. They take the
initiative to diagnose their learning needs,
formulate learning goals, identify
resources for learning, select an
implement learning strategies, and
evaluate learning outcomes.
Greater Expectations
(2002 AACU Report)
 2006 Panel Report Commission on
Further of Higher Education
“we are disturbed by evidence that the quality of
student learning at U.S. colleges and universities
is inadequate and, in some cases, declining”

“employers report repeatedly that many new

graduates they hire are not prepared to work,
lacking the critical thinking, writing and problem-
solving skills needed in today’s workplaces”

“business and government leaders have

repeatedly and urgently called for workers at all
stages of life to continually upgrade their academic
and practical skills”
 Learning to Learn

How will you get there…

…if you don’t know where you are going ?

 Learning Co-Curriculum
• Outgrowth of Faculty Teaching Seminar
• Search for “Overview of Learning” For Students
• Preparation of Learning Document
• Students & Faculty
 The “Language” of Learning
• Definition of Learning
• Levels of Understanding
• Significant Learning
• Critical Thinking
• Research on The Brain
• Learning Styles
• Metacognition
• Affective Domain
• Intellectual Development
• Behavioral Dimensions of Grades
 An OED Definition of Learning
• To acquire knowledge of a subject or a
skill through education or experience,

• To gain information about somebody or

something, or

• To memorize something, for example

facts, a poem, or music.

Shift from “recall” to “use”

Simon (1996)
 Levels of Understanding
• Beyond Memorization
• Bloom’s Taxonomy (1956)
Revised Taxonomy

Revised by Anderson & Krathwohl (2001)

 Significant Learning
Learning that will be “significant to the learner”

• Foundational Knowledge
• Application
• Integration
• Human Dimension
• Caring
• Learning How to Learn

Relational & Interactive Fink (2003)

Significant Learning
 Critical Thinking

“… is the intellectually disciplined process

of actively and skillfully conceptualizing,
applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or
evaluating information gathered from, or
generated by, observation, experience,
reflection, reasoning, or communication,
as a guide to belief and action”

National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking

 Elements of Reasoning
Purpose & Motivation
Question or Problem
Assumptions
Point of View
Data, Information, Evidence
Concepts & Ideas
Inferences & Conclusions
Implications & Consequences
 The Brain as a Dynamic Organ
• Learning Changes Physical Structure of the Brain
• Synapse Addition, Experience, and Environment
• Structural Changes Alter Functional Organization
• Learning Literally Involves “Re-Wiring the Brain”
• “Novices” and “Experts”

How People Learn: Brain,

Mind, Experience and
School
NRC (2000)
 Learning Styles
• Focus on different types of information
• Operate on that information differently
• Achieve understanding at different rates
• No learning style is “better”
• Instructors tend to teach to their learning style
 Learning Styles
Kolb Learning Style Inventory
Sensing, Watching, Thinking, Doing

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Four Dichotomous Dimensions: Extroversion
versus Introversion, Sensing versus Intuition,
Thinking versus Feeling, Judging versus
Perspective

VARK (Visual, Aural, Reading, Kinesthetic)

• Preferences for input and output of
information
• Strategies for enhancing learning
 Metacognition

• How We Think
• Strategies for Learning
• How One’s Thinking is Changing
• Assessing One’s Own Understanding
• Progress on Learning Goals
 Journaling on Metacognition

Describe the learning strategies that

you are currently using in this
course? How successful are they?
How might they be modified for more
effective learning?

Describe the methods you are using

to monitor your understanding? How
well are these working?
 Affective
Domain

• Attitudes
• Motivation
• Willingness to Participate
• Valuing What is Being Learned
• Incorporating Values Into Life
 Journaling - Affective Domain
How have your attitudes about the
significance and relevance of the
course materials changed?

Describe how the content and skills

you have learned in this course might
be relevant to other courses you are
currently taking. How about in your
future education? In your career?
 Intellectual Development
Perry’s (1968) Study of Harvard Students
Nine Positions of Intellectual Development; Four Sub-
Categories

Stage I - Dualism (Positions 1 & 2)

Either-Or thinking; Authorities have all the answers

Stage II - Multiplicity (Positions 3 & 4)

Recognition of uncertainty; Everyone’s opinions equally
legitimate

Stage III - Relativism (Positions 5 & 6)

Critical thinking; Knowledge is contextual and relativistic

Stage IV - Commitment to Knowing (Positions 7, 8 & 9)

Developing commitment and sense of being; Knowledge is the
resolution between uncertainty and the need to act
Behavioral Dimensions of Grades
• Commitment
• Preparation
• Curiosity
• Attitude
• Talent
• Retention
• Effort
• Communication Skills
• Performance
from Williams (1993)
 The Learning Co-Curriculum
• Reading at Beginning of Semester
• In-Class Discussion & Activities
• Learning Styles Surveys
• Reflective Journaling
• Frequent Reference Throughout Semester
 “Learning to Learn” Document
Available from:
Macalester.edu/Geology/Wirth/CourseMaterials

Send Your “Top 10” Ideas to:

wirth@macalester.edu
Opportunities for New Conversations
About Learning . . .
 Bloom's Levels of Understanding
Verb Examples That Can Represent
Level Definition
Intellectual Activity

Appraise, assess, or
appraise, argue, assess, attach, choose, defend,
Evaluation critique on basis of
standards or criteria estimate, judge, predict, rate, select, evaluate

Originate, integrate, or
arrange, assemble, compose, construct, create,
Synthesis combine ideas into a
new product or plan design, develop, formulate, organize, propose
Distinguish, classify, or
analyze, appraise, categorize, compare,
Analysis relate assumption,
hypotheses or evidence distinguish, examine
Select, transfer, and use
apply, choose, demonstrate, employ, illustrate,
Application data or principles to
complete new task interpret, solve, use

Translate, comprehend, classify, describe, discuss, explain, indicate,

Comprehension or interpret information
restate, translate
Recall or recognition of
arrange, define, label, list, name, relate, recall,
Knowledge information, ideas and
principles repeat, reproduce
 Importance of Neural Networks

The procedure is actually quite simple. First you

arrange things into different groups. Of course, one
pile may be sufficient depending on how much there
is to do. If you have to go somewhere else, due to
lack of facilities, that is the next step, otherwise you
are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo
things. That is, it is better to do a few things at once
than too many.

(from Bruer, 1993)

Importance of Neural Networks
“Washing Clothes”

The procedure is actually quite simple. First you

arrange things into different groups. Of course, one
pile may be sufficient depending on how much there
is to do. If you have to go somewhere else, due to
lack of facilities, that is the next step, otherwise you
are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo
things. That is, it is better to do a few things at once
than too many.

(from Bruer, 1993)

Teaching, Learning & Communication
1. Form Groups
2. Select and assemble “ teachers”
3. Lesson plan
4. Two-minute lecture; no illustrations
Students take notes, no questions

(from Duch et al. 2001)

Stand and Deliver Exercise
Teaching, Learning & Communication
1. Teacher conference
Students draw figure; no discussion
2. Groups work to refine representation
3. Teachers return; distribute original
4. Discussion & Reflection
Did everyone draw the same picture?
Did discussion improve representation?
How would learning be improved?
Challenge of “ teaching” mental images
Importance of communication & feedback