Jason Finley

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Desirable Difficulties Learning, Teaching,
Collaboratively Bridging

• Jason Finley
• UCLA Department of Psychology
• Thanks to
• Robert A. Bjork, Lindsey Richland, Matt Hays at
  UCLA
• Marcia C. Linn Britte Cheng at UC Berkeley
• This research was supported by a grant from the
  Institute of Education Sciences, CASL Grant Award
  R305H020113.

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Outline

• Goal of Research
• Subject of Research as Complex System
• Research Itself as Complex System
• Conclusions

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State of Education System in U.S.

• Needs Improvement
• (TIMSS, 1998 Stigler Heibert, 1999)
• But how?

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Cognitive Psychology to the Rescue?

• 120 years of psychological memory research have
  had scarcely any impact on education. (Bahrick,
  2004)
• Differences between research goals and the
  operational logic of schools have seriously
  weakened the cumulative impact of cognitive
  research on instructional practices. (Rothkopf,
  2004)

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Nevertheless

• Improving education is IMPOSSIBLE without
  collaboration between cognitive psychologists
  educational researchers
• This is difficult, but we are trying

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IDDEAS Introducing Desirable Difficulties for
Educational Applications in Science

• Goal extend cognitive laboratory research on
  learning and memory to classroom environment
• UCLA Cognitive Psychologists
• UC Berkeley Educational Researchers

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Outline

• Goal of Research
• Subject of Research as Complex System
• Mind
• Material
• Context
• Research Itself as Complex System
• Conclusions

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The Human Mind

• About as complex as they come
• Human Memory System
• A complex system in itself

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The Human Memory System

• We dont intuitively understand our own memory
  system.
• We differ from computers in just about every way.
• Static incremental vs. dynamic relational
• Complexity is illustrated by Desirable
  Difficulties.

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Desirable Difficulties

• Design principles that impair performance during
  learning, but enhance it at a delay
• Things that produce difficulty can enhance
  learning!

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Interleaving Effect
Presentation Order Example Performance during training Performance at a delay
Blocked A,A,A,A,A,B,B,B,B,B better worse
Interleaved A,B,B,A,B,A,A,B,A,B worse better
(e.g. Shea Morgan 1978, etc.)
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Implications of Desirable Difficulties

• Performance ? Learning!
• But do these findings extend to realistic
  educational material and environments?

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Material

• WISE Web-based Inquiry Science Environment
• A system/tool for scientific instruction
• Contains modules on a wide variety of topics,
  with options to customize and to create new
  modules
• Plus a useful research tool!

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(No Transcript)
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Material

• Adapted existing WISE modules for use in
  experiments
• Ex star formation planet formation, blocked
  vs. interleaved

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Context

• UCLA Psychology Laboratory
• Controlled environment, UCLA undergrads
• UC Berkeley Middle School Classrooms
• Complex systems!

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The Classroom

• Many students, interacting
• Individual differences
• Emotional, motivational
• Fallible technology
• Curriculum
• Policy Makers
• Parents
• Teacher!

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(video clip of classroom use of WISE software)
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Implications

• Cognitive principles may not apply in the
  classroom, or may have different effects
• May be impossible to implement
• Difficult to study this
• but we have made some initial progress.

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A few visual representations of all this
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Human Memory System
(Abstract Representation!)
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Learning
Material
Student
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Classroom
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Outline

• Goal of Research
• Subject of Research as Complex System
• Research Itself as Complex System
• Cognitive vs. Educational Research
• Teachers
• Technology
• Conclusions

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Cognitive vs Educational Research Goals

• Cognitive Psychology
• Goal Determine specific cognitive processes
  underlying learning memory
• Desire CONTROL!
• Strict experimental design.

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Cognitive vs Educational Research Goals

• Educational Research
• Goal Determine conditions that foster long-term
  learning in the classroom
• Desire VALIDITY!
• Realistic materials and contexts
• Interest is in improving learning, with less
  attention to drawing conclusions about underlying
  processes

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Different Perspectives
Laboratory
Classroom
Cognitive Researcher sees
Control!
Utter Pandemonium!
Educational Researcher sees
Validity, Realism!
Irrelevant Contrivance!
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Cognitive vs Educational Research Methodologies

• Cognitive Psychology
• Laboratory manipulation of independent variables
• Test memory for specific, simple items learned
  using relatively short retention intervals
• Start from theory (generally)
• Role of researcher small

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Cognitive vs Educational Research Methodologies

• Educational Research
• Classroom comparisons of conditions, no null
  groups
• More like design research make something and see
  what happens
• Study broad conceptual knowledge over long term
• Start from practice (generally)
• Role of researcher more active

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Methodologies Compromise Complement

• Use of more realistic material in the lab
• Parallel studies in lab classroom
• Validates laboratory results

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The Role of Teachers

• Research Partners
• Active in material design
• Run our experiments!
• But can affect results
• Limited grasp of experimental design
• Resistance to control conditions
• Professional Development

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Technology as Bridge Catalyst

• Test Bed
• Control over conditions
• Reduce role of teacher/researcher
• Common Ground

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Some more visual representations
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Collaboration
Cognitive Researchers
Educational Researchers
Teachers
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Research Process
Theory
Research Findings
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Research Process
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Outline

• Goal of Research
• Subject of Research as Complex System
• Research Itself as Complex System
• Conclusions

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Conclusions

• Trying to improve the complex system of education
  requires focus on more than just one part!
• Classroom our research itself are complex
  systems.
• We need systems methodologies.
• A long way to go, but weve made progress.

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My thanks to

• The Institute for Education Sciences and the
  Cognition and Student Learning program, which
  funded our research (Award R305H020113)
• Other members of the IDDEAS research team
• Robert A. Bjork, Ph.D, (UCLA)
• Lindsey E. Richland, Ph.D, (UCLA)
• Matthew J. Hays (UCLA)
• Marcia C. Linn, Ph.D, (UC Berkeley)
• Britte H. Cheng (UC Berkeley)
• Relevant Links
• IDDEAS http//www.psych.ucla.edu/iddeas
• WISE http//wise.berkeley.edu
• Jason Finley jfinley_at_ucla.edu