Understanding How, What, and Why People Learn within the Context of a Collective Commitment to Teach

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Understanding How, What, and Why People Learn
within the Context of a Collective Commitment to
Teaching, Learning and Assessment

• Peggy L. Maki
• PeggyMaki_at_aol.com
• Education Consultant and Assessment Series
  Editor, Stylus Publishing
• Fayetteville State University
• August 16, 2007

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Foci

• Origin of Our Commitment to Learn about Student
  Learning
• Research on Learning That Informs the
  Relationship among Teaching, Learning, and
  Assessment
• Clear Articulation of Student Learning Outcomes
• Curricular and Co-curricular Coherence (Maps and
  Inventories)

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• Direct and Indirect Methods of Assessment that
  Align with Teaching and Learning Practices
• Scoring Rubrics that Provide Evidence of Patterns
  of Students Strengths and Weaknesses

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Origin of Our Collective Commitment to Learn
about Student Learning
Internal

• External

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How Do You Learn?

• _______________________________
• _______________________________
• _______________________________
• _______________________________

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Research on Learning That Informs the
Relationship among Teaching, Learning, and
Assessment

• Learning is a complex process of
  interpretation--not a linear process
• Learners create meaning as opposed to receive
  meaning
• Knowledge is socially constructed (importance of
  peer-to-peer interaction)
• 1.

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• People learn differentlyprefer certain ways of
  learning (learning inventories, such as Solomon
  and Felder http//www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyle
  s/ilsweb.html Teaching Style Inventory, such as
  Pratt http//www.teachingperspectives.com/html/t
  pi_frames.htm)
• Deep learning occurs over timetransference

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Approaches to Learning

• Surface Learning
• Deep Learning

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• Meta-cognitive processes are a significant means
  of reinforcing learning (thinking about ones
  thinking)
• Learning involves creating relationships between
  short-term and long-term memory

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• Transfer of new knowledge into different contexts
  is important to deepen understanding
• See examples of teaching and learning inventories
  (handouts)
• NRC. 2001. Knowing What Students Know The
  Science and Design of Educational Assessment.
  Washington, D.C.

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How the Learner Learns
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Educators Focus on Integrated Learning.
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How Knowledge about Learning Shapes Teaching and
Inquiry into Student Learning

• What do you expect your students to demonstrate,
  represent, or produce by the end of their
  program?
• How do the curricula and other educational
  experiences contribute to your expectations?
• What do you do in your classes or in your program
  to promote the kinds of learning or development
  that your program seeks?

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Questions (cond)

• Which students benefit from various classroom
  teaching strategies or educational experiences?
• What educational processes are responsible for
  the intended student outcomes the institution
  seeks?
• How can you help students make connections
  between classroom learning and experiences
  outside of the classroom?

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Questions, cond

• What pedagogies/educational experiences develop
  knowledge, abilities, habits of mind, ways of
  knowing/problem solving, and dispositions?
• How are curricula and pedagogy designed to
  develop knowledge, abilities, habits of mind,
  ways of knowing, and dispositions?
• How do you intentionally build upon what each of
  you teaches or fosters to achieve program-level
  learning outcomes?

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• What methods of assessment capture desired
  student learning--methods that align with
  pedagogy, content, and curricular design?

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Multiple and Varied Opportunities to Learn
Clearly Stated Outcomes
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What Is a Learning Outcome Statement?

• Describes learning desired within a context
• Relies on active verbs (create, compose,
  calculate, construct, apply)
• Emerges from our collective intentions
  over time

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• Can be mapped to curricular and co-curricular
  practices (ample, multiple and varied
  opportunities to learn over time)
• Can be assessed quantitatively or qualitatively
  during students undergraduate and graduate
  careers

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• Is written for a course, program, or institution
• Outcomes need to be disseminated to students upon
  matriculation into the institution and into
  students major program of study to show the
  chronology of learning opportunities and to hold
  students accountable for their learning through
  multiple and various educational opportunities,
  including their GE learning

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Quantitative Literate Graduates according to MAA
Should be Able to

• Interpret mathematical models such as formulas,
  graphs, tables, and schematics, and draw
  inferences from them.
• 2. Represent mathematical information
  symbolically, visually, numerically, and
  verbally.
• 3. Use arithmetical, algebraic, geometric, and
• statistical methods to solve problems.

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• Estimate and check answers to mathematical
  problems in order to determine reasonableness,
  identify alternatives, and select optimal
  results.
• Recognize that mathematical and statistical
  methods have limits.
• (http//www.ma.org/pubs/books/grs.html) The
  Mathematics Association of America (Quantitative
  Reasoning for College Graduates A Complement to
  the Standards, 1996).

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EthicsStudents should be able to

• Identify and analyze real world ethical problems
  or dilemmas, and identify those affected by the
  dilemma.
• Describe and analyze the complexity and
  importance of choices that are available to the
  decision-makers concerned with this dilemma

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• Articulate and acknowledge their own deeply held
  beliefs and assumptions as part of a conscious
  value system
• Describe and analyze their own and others
  perceptions and ethical frameworks for
  decision-making
• Consider and use multiple choices, beliefs, and
  diverse ethical frameworks when making decisions
  to respond to ethical dilemmas or problems.
• California State University Monterey Bay
  University Learning Requirements, 2002

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Maps

• Help us determine coherence among our educational
  practices that enables us, in turn, to design
  appropriate chronological assessment methods
• Identify gaps in learning opportunities that may
  account for students level of achievement
• Provide a visual representation of students
  journey

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• Help students make meaning of the journey and
  hold them accountable for their learning over
  time
• Help students develop their own learning map (see
  handout)

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Inventories of Educational Practice

• Reveal how we translate outcomes into pedagogy
  and assessment practices
• Occasion discussion about models of teaching and
  learning, philosophies of teaching in a
  discipline, assumptions that underlie teaching
  and learning
• Provide a chronological profile of what and how
  students learn and demonstrate their learning
  (see handout)

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• Every assessment is also based on a set of
  beliefs about the kinds of tasks or situations
  that will prompt students to say, do, or create
  something that demonstrates important knowledge
  and skills. The tasks to which students are asked
  to respond on an assessment are not arbitrary.
  They must be carefully designed to provide
  evidence that is linked to the cognitive model of
  learning and to support the kinds of inferences
  and decisions that will be based on the
  assessment results. (NRC)
• National Research Council. Knowing what
  students know The science and design of
  educational assessment . Washington, D.C.
  National Academy Press, 2001, p. 47.

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What Tasks Elicit Learning You Desire?

• Tasks that require students to select among
  possible answers (multiple choice test)?
• Tasks that require students to construct answers
  (students problem-solving and thinking
  abilities)? (see handout on methods)

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When Do You Seek Evidence?

• Formativealong the way?
• For example, to ascertain
• progress or development and
• thereby address patterns of
• weakness before the senior year

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• Summativeat the end?
• For example, to ascertain mastery
• level of a achievement for you, your
  students, and external stakeholders

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Scoring Rubrics

• Scoring rubrics--A set of criteria that
• identifies the
• (1) expected characteristics/traits of student
  work/behavior
• (2) levels of achievement along those
• characteristics/traits

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• Are criterion-referenced, providing a means to
  assess the multiple dimensions of student
  learning.
• Are collaboratively designed based on how and
  what students learn (based on curricular-co-curric
  ular coherence)
• Are aligned with ways in which students have
  received feedback (students learning histories)

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• Are useful to students, assisting them to improve
  their work and to understand how their work meets
  standards (can provide a running record of
  achievement).
• Raters use them to derive patterns of student
  achievement to identify strengths and weaknesses
  and thus verify the efficacy of educational
  practices as well as those that need to be
  changed

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Collaborative Interpretation through Scoring
Rubrics

• Criteria descriptors (ways of thinking, knowing
  or behaving represented in work)
• Creativity
• Self-reflection
• Originality
• Integration
• Analysis
• Disciplinary logic
• Coherence of the work

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• Performance descriptors (describe how well
  students execute each criterion or trait along a
  continuum of score levels). Use numbers or words
  with descriptive elaboration, such as
• ExemplaryCommendable Satisfactory-
  Unsatisfactory
• ExcellentGoodNeeds ImprovementUnacceptable
• ExpertPractitionerApprenticeNovice (see
  handouts)

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The Process
Gather Evidence
Interpret Evidence
Mission/Purposes Learning Outcomes
How well do students achieve our outcomes?
Enhance teaching/ learning inform institutional
decision- making, planning, budgeting
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What and how students learn depends to a major
extent on how they think they will be assessed.
John Biggs. Teaching for Quality Learning at
University What The Student Does. Society
for Research into Higher Education Open
University Press, 1999, p. 141.
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References

• Biggs, J. 1999. Teaching for Quality Learning at
  University What The Student Does. Society for
  Research into Higher Education Open University
  Press.
• Maki, P. 2004. Assessing for Learning Building a
  Sustainable Commitment across the Institution.
  Stylus Publishing, LLC. (Material in this module
  is from this book and the forthcoming revision
  due out in 2008).
• National Research Council. 2001. Knowing What
  Students Know The Science and Design of
  Educational Assessment. Washington, D.C.
  National Academies Press.