EvaluationRevision Learning Theories Cognitive Style

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Evaluation/RevisionLearning TheoriesCognitive
Style

• Heidi Julien
• LIS 526
• Winter 2010

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Why evaluate and assess?

• Monitor effectiveness for accountability
• Evaluate attainment of instructional goals
• Identify effective instructional practices
• Evaluate effectiveness of instructional practices
• Measure instructional outcomes
• student achievement
• attitudes
• skills
• Assessment drives student learning

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Student assessment

• Focuses on learning
• Learning is dependent on many factors
• Teaching style and methods
• Student motivation, background knowledge
• Faculty investment
• Physical constraintstime, classroom, lab
  resources

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Learning is enhanced when

• Assessment strategies match intended learner
  outcomes
• Assessment is integrated with instruction
• Students get immediate, meaningful feedback

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Types of assessment

• Diagnostic
• What do students know, areas of weakness, or
  difficulty
• Formative
• Ongoing, to monitor learning progress
• Helps instructors to modify, adapt, support
• Summative
• Occurs at the end of the learning cycle
• Focuses on achievement, content, process

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Forms of evaluation

• Feedback
• Focuses on presentation
• speech, mannerisms, terminology, content
• Self-evaluation
• Self-reflection
• What were my goals?
• How was I trying to achieve them?
• What instructional strategies did I use?
• What did I see the students doing during
  classwere they attentive, talking, surfing?
• What were the observations of others in the
  classroom (TAs, instructors)?
• What key areas should I target for improvement?
• What can I do to improve the teaching of this
  content or class?

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Forms of evaluation (cont.)

• Peer evaluation (constructive, respectful, use
  humor)
• What went well
• What did not go so well
• What topics were covered
• What was clear (or not)
• Video-taping or audio-taping
• Faculty observation and feedback
• Student feedback

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Forms of evaluation (cont.)

• Program Evaluation
• Systematic ongoing process of obtaining
  meaningful information in order to judge the
  merits of a program.
• Purpose
• To improve the program
• To see how well goals and objectives are being
  met
• To get/keep/give administrative support
• For political decision-making, public relations
• Reporting
• As part of library use studies
• Staffing decisions

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Issues in evaluation

• Validity
• Participants are qualified to answer questions
• Questions refer to session evaluated
• Reliability
• Questions will produce same results on different
  occasions
• Questions mean same things to all participants
• Should be targeted and tied to objectives
• Can borrow or copy from others
• Can be done in many ways (observation, interview,
  survey, etc.)
• Can be done at different times (immediately
  following instruction, before instruction, during
  instruction, long after instruction)

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Steps in evaluation

• Decide why you want to evaluate.
• Determine what you need to know.
• Determine your target audience.
• Determine best method to achieve your aims.
• Develop the questions.
• Pretest and revise the questions.
• Decide how to tally and organize your results.
• Decide who will tally and organize the results.
• Organize your evaluation.
• Do it!
• Report your results.

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Examples of assessment and evaluation

• Research done by Denise Koufogiannakis et al. and
  Nancy Goebel at U of A
• Project SAILS - Kent State University
  (sails.lms.kent.edu/index.php)
• ALA Assessment Issues
• ACRL Assessment Issues (www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/di
  vs/acrl/issues/infolit/resources/assess/issues.cfm
  

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Assessing learning the quick and dirty way

• Identify three things you learned
• What was the muddiest point?
• Use a 3-item pre- and post-test
• e.g., identifying parts of a periodical or book
  citation
• Boolean logic
• Identifying appropriate information sources for
  particular information needs

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Quick questions for students

• Was todays class worth your time?
• Which parts were the most helpful?
• Which parts did you already know?
• Name 3 things you learned today.
• Do you have any other questions about research or
  the University of Alberta Libraries?

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Quick questions for faculty

• What worked/did not work?
• Did we cover the topics you wanted covered? Did
  we include anything unnecessary, or was anything
  left out?
• Did your students have any feedback about the
  session?
• Did you notice a difference in the quality of
  their research?

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Exercise

• In small groups, articulate 3 objectives or
  outcomes for IL
• Brainstorm about possible ways to evaluate
  whether those objectives or outcomes have been
  achieved
• Identify challenges associated with those
  evaluation methods ways to overcome them

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Meaningful learning

• Meaningful learning of complex material is a
  process that is
• Active
• Learner carries out various cognitive operations
  on information learned for it to be meaningful
• Constructive
• Knowledge is not passed on as an intact brick
• Perception and interpretation of knowledge is
  individual and unique
• Knowledge is related to existing knowledge

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Meaningful learning (continued)

• Cumulative
• New learning builds on prior learning mental
  models
• Prior knowledge can inhibit or facilitate new
  learning
• Self-regulated
• Learners decide what to do as learning progresses
• Involves meta-cognition, self-efficacy, study
• Goal-oriented
• Meaningful learning is more successful if it
  relates to students learning goals

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Learning theories

• Shift from view of
• Learning ? Change in behaviour
• To
• Learning ? Change in understanding

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Learning theories (continued)

• Prevailing metaphor for learning is
• Problem-Solving, NOT Memorization
• Shift in goals of client instruction
• From how to use specific tools
• To
• Use of conceptual frameworks in instructional
  design
• Use of models of how people learn

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Learning theories (continued)

• So that clients learn
• There are a variety of sources to address
  different information needs
• Information needs sources need to be analyzed
  and evaluated
• To develop flexible problem-solving abilities
• See Also
• Kuhlthaus Information Search Process
• Eisenberg Berkowitz Big Six Skills?

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Learning theories ask

• What are the necessary conditions under which
  learning occurs?
• How do motives influence learning?
• What are the roles of practice, reward,
  punishment, and stimuli in learning?

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Learning theories tell us

• Learners assimilate and consolidate new
  information in terms of prior learning
  cognitive structures
• New knowledge must be presented to facilitate
  integration into existing mental structures
• Learners develop along a continuum of stages of
  reasoning
• Learners have input preferences
• Visual
• Auditory
• Kinetic

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Learners cognitive styles

• Cognitive style (learning style) refers to
  information processing habits
• perceiving
• thinking
• remembering
• problem-solving

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Considerations Beyond Cognition

• the social/cultural nature of learning
  (influenced by Vygotsky)
• authentic (real world) tasks rather than
  artificial
• the role of motivation, interest affect
• the domain-specific nature of learning
• skills without context learning without the
  ability to generalize or remember (Jerome Bruner)

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How can we address context?

• To what extent has your own learning taken
  context into account (e.g., taken your own
  information needs into account)?
• Tie instruction to course content
• Conduct reference interview to identify
  information needs BEFORE instruction on a
  particular database

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An example of a learning theory

• Kolbs learning theory suggests learners need
• concrete experience
• being involved in a new experience (labs, field
  work, observations)
• reflective observation
• watching others or developing observations about
  own experience (logs, journals, brainstorming)
• abstract conceptualization
• creating theories to explain observations
  (lectures, papers, analogies)
• active experimentation
• using theories to solve problems, make decisions
  (simulations, case studies)

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Exercise

• Think of an instructional session that would
  take 1 hour or less, in which you can apply
  Kolbs experiential learning cycle
• some kind of learning experience
• reflection
• development of a theory
• relating that theory to practice

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Implications of learning theories for instruction

• Provide a continuum of learning experiences
• structured to non-structured
• simple to complex guidelines, handouts
• individual to group activities
• concrete to abstract
• instructor focused to client focussed (e.g.,
  topic selection, encouraging independent thinking)

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Two Theories of Cognitive Development

• PERRY STUDY Perry, William J. 1968. Forms of
  intellectual and ethical development in the
  college years a scheme. New York Holt,
  Rinehart, and Winston.
• Positions in the developmental process
• Beginning simple, dualistic, right-or-wrong
• Middle all points of view have equal validity
• Last one takes responsibility for ones own
  choices, opinions, and values
• Difficult transitions
• recognizing that different opinions exist and may
  all have some validity
• recognizing that criteria can be developed for
  evaluating diverse perceptions

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Two Theories of Cognitive Development

• WELLESLEY STUDY Belecky, M.F., B.M. Clinchy,
  N.R. Goldberger, and J.M. Tarule. 1986. Womens
  ways of knowing the development of self, voice,
  and mind. New York Basic Books.
• 5 different ways of knowing or epistemological
  categories
• silence
• received knowledge ( Perrys dualistic stage)
• subjective knowledge
• procedural knowledge ( Perrys discovery of
  critical reasoning stage)
• constructed knowledge ( Perrys last stage)

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How to apply this?

• Level One want one right answer, provide guide
  to single source
• Level Two can handle challenge of more complex
  search strategies and tools
• Level Three more relativistic, can transfer
  knowledge between contexts, provide detailed
  guides to subject literatures, librarian as
  resource

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Example

• Teaching dualists (received/subjective knowers)
• Goal to help learners develop into procedural
  knowers
• Course content challenge them with moderate
  diversity experiential learning to get them to
  explore ideas in a supportive environment

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Example contd

• Teaching relativists/procedural knowers
• Goal to help learners develop into mature
  thinkers (constructed knowers)
• Course Content present meaningful material in
  diverse ways encourage students to think for
  themselves
• Focus on abstract ideas
• Less course structure, and more freedom
• Diversity let learners choose their own topic
  or project give challenges that foster growth

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Example contd

• Teaching mature thinkers (constructed knowers)
• Goal to maintain/encourage this level
• These learners
• Are self-motivated
• Are evaluators
• Can describe searches and formulate strategies
• Librarian a resource rather than a teacher

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Experience Learning

• We remember Activity Involvement
• 10 - what we read reading auditory
• 20 - what we hear lecture auditory
• 30 - what we see movie visual
• 50 - what we hear/see demo visual/auditory
• 70 - what we say discussion kinesthetic
• 90 - what we say/do simulation kinesthetic

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Applications Academic Setting

• Faculty may
• Know little about cognitive development
• Think students already know about libraries
• Think everything can be taught in one hour
• Ask them
• How does the assignment fit course objectives?
• What are students supposed to learn from it?
• How do they get along?
• How do they frustrate the faculty member?
• Are they traditional or older, returning
  students?
• Are grads and undergrads together in the same
  class?

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Implications of theory-based instruction

• Initial design for specific course methodology
  requires a great deal of time thought
• Cannot cover as much material in single
  presentation because of time-consuming format
• Demands high level of teaching ability and
  comfort with open-ended classroom situation and
  lessened control over what happens
• Allows real self-sufficiency in all aspects of
  effective information use
• Places librarians focus on client rather than on
  tools or library