If you haven’t
read Facilitating Seven Ways of Learning:
A Resource for More Purposeful, Effective, and Enjoyable College
Teaching by Davis and Arend, I highly recommend it. (We've ordered it for the library but I would be happy to lend
my copy to anyone who wants to take a look at it right away.)
Their thesis is
that we learn in different ways depending on which of seven desired outcomes we are targeting: building skills; acquiring knowledge; developing critical, creative and dialogic
thinking; cultivating problem-solving and decision-making abilities; exploring
attitudes, feelings and perspectives; practicing professional judgment; or reflecting on experience). Each way of learning, they believe, requires different ways
of teaching. Teachers who don't use a variety of teaching methods, therefore, are teaching too narrowly.
If we simply want our students to acquire knowledge of a topic, for instance, we can teach via lecture and readings. If we want them to learn specific skills, on the other hand, we can’t lecture that skill- building knowledge into existence; we need to provide practice exercises and set tasks for students to work through. If our desired outcome instead is for students to become good problem solvers, we can’t just provide canned practice exercises—we need to help them work through real-life problems, case studies, labs, projects.
If we simply want our students to acquire knowledge of a topic, for instance, we can teach via lecture and readings. If we want them to learn specific skills, on the other hand, we can’t lecture that skill- building knowledge into existence; we need to provide practice exercises and set tasks for students to work through. If our desired outcome instead is for students to become good problem solvers, we can’t just provide canned practice exercises—we need to help them work through real-life problems, case studies, labs, projects.
It was eye-opening
to consider the differences in learning outcomes, the related theories of
learning associated with each, and the common teaching methodologies (See table with summary below) that lead
to the desired outcomes. Here, though, is the passage that made me stop and think hardest:
Almost anything that once required class time can be done outside class electronically, technologies can often perform educational tasks more efficiently than humans, and information is readily available for free to anyone with Internet access. So the fundamental question arises: What is class time for?
How would you
answer that question?
Summary of Seven Ways of Learning
Summary of Seven Ways of Learning
Intended
Learning Outcomes
(What Students Learn)
|
Way
of Learning
(Origins and Theory)
|
Common
Methods
(What the Teacher Provides)
|
Skill building
(Physical and procedural skills where accuracy, precision, &
efficiency are important)
|
1. Behavioral learning
(behavioral psychology, operant conditioning)
|
·
Tasks and procedures
·
Practice exercises
|
Acquiring Knowledge
(basic information, concepts, and terminology of a discipline or
field of study)
|
2. Cognitive learning
(cognitive psychology, attention, information processing memory)
|
·
Presentations
·
Explanations
|
Developing critical, creative,
& dialogical thinking
(Improved thinking & reasoning processes)
|
3. Learning through inquiry
(Logic, critical and creative thinking theory, classical philosophy)
|
·
Question-driven inquiries
·
Discussions
|
Cultivating problem-solving
and decision-making abilities
(Mental strategies for finding solutions & making choices)
|
4. Learning with mental models
(Gestalt psychology, problem solving, & decision theory)
|
·
Problems
·
Case studies
·
Labs
·
Projects
|
Exploring attitudes, feelings,
& perspectives
(Awareness of attitudes, biases, & other perspectives; ability to
collaborate)
|
5. Learning through groups and teams
(Human communication theory, group counseling theory)
|
·
Group activities
·
Team projects
|
Practicing professional
judgment
(Sound judgment &
appropriate professional action in
complex, context-dependent situations)
|
6. Learning through virtual realities
(Psychodrama, sociodrama, gaming theory)
|
·
Role playing
·
Simulations
·
Dramatic scenarios
·
Games
|
Reflecting on experience
(Self-discovery & personal growth from real-world experience)
|
7. Experiential learning
(Experiential learning, cognitive neuroscience, constructivism)
|
·
Internships
·
Service-learning
·
Study abroad
|
from:
Davis, James R.,
& Arend, Bridget D. (2013). Facilitating
seven ways of learning: A resource for more
purposeful, effective, and enjoyable college teaching. Stylus: Sterling, VA.