CS 1200 CH 3 notes

What are active learners?

Active learners tend to process information while doing something active with it. Consequently, active learners tend to think out loud, try things out, and prefer group work. Sitting through lectures is particularly hard for active learners.

True or False?

All learners benefit from using learning styles on both sides of all four dimensions.

What is the importance of growing your intellectual skills as said by John Bransford in How People Learn?

All learning involves "transfer"—defined as the ability to extend what has been learned in one context to new contexts—from previous experiences. Educators hope that students will transfer learning from one problem to another within a course, from one school year to another, between school and home, and from school to the workplace. Transfer is affected by the degree to which people learn with understanding rather than merely memorize sets of facts or follow a fixed set of procedures.

Why should we seek help?

Do you feel that seeking help is a sign of weakness, that if you make it on your own you will get more out of your edu- cation? The idea that we can make it through life without help from others is simply not true.

What questions should you ask when monitoring your learning?

How am I doing? Am I on the right track? How should I proceed? What information is important to remember? Should I move in a different direction? Should I adjust the pace based on the difficulty of the subject(too difficult = slow down;too easy = speed up)?

What questions should you ask when evaluating your learning?

How well did I do on a particular task or assignment? Did my particular course of action produce more or less than I had expected? What could I have done differently? How might I apply this line of thinking to other problems? Do I need to go back through the task to fill in any blanks in my understanding?

What are the steps of metacognition which regards to learning?

Improving your learning process by observing it, developing feedback on what you observe, and making changes based on that feedback. The steps are 1. Plan your learning, 2. Monitor your learning, and 3. Evaluate your learning.

How does College require higher level learning?

In high school you primarily worked at the first two levels of demonstrating subject mas- tery: remembering and understanding. Often you could earn good grades by memorizing material and successfully repeating it back on exams or other assignments. In your university education, the expectations are higher. From the start, you will be expected to think at lev- els 3 and 4— applying and analyzing—mastering concepts and applying them to solve new problems. Your performance will be evaluated on your ability to apply what you learn in one context to new contexts. In your first two years you may be given some problems that require you to think at levels 5 and 6—evaluating and creating, but the strongest focus on these levels of thinking will come in your junior and senior years.

What are visual learners?

Learn more effectively through the use of pictures, diagrams, flowcharts, graphs, films, sketches, and demonstrations.

What is Evaluating in bloom's taxonomy?

Making judgments based on criteria and standards through checking and critiquing.

Why don't your professors use a variety of teaching styles?

Many do, and in time, more and more will. There is an impetus for change within engineering education. Interactive lectures, problem-based learning, inquiry- guided learning, Team-Based Learning and just-in-time teaching are examples of teach- ing methods that are gaining acceptance within engineering education. These meth- ods bring more student involvement, context, and relevance into the classroom.

Who is Richard Felder?

NC state university. Author of the foreword of the book. A work renowned expert on teaching and learning styles. He examines five approaches for teaching.

What are sequential learners?

Prefer linear steps, with each step following logically from the previous one. They tend to follow logical stepwise paths in finding solutions.

What should you do before class?

Prepare for the lecture by reviewing notes, reading text, attempting a few problems, formulating some questions.

What is Creating in bloom's taxonomy?

Putting elements together to form a coherent or function whole; reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure.

1. What if the way I prefer to learn differs from the way I am taught?

Rather than view this as a problem, we suggest you view it as an opportunity. Just because you prefer to be taught one of two possible ways doesn't mean you can't learn the other way.

Also remember that there is a difference between preference and competence. You may like doing some- thing but not be good at it. For example

Ray loves to sing but he can't carry a tune. Conversely, you may be good at something, but not like doing it. Jen- nifer knows she would be good at accounting, but she wouldn't want to do it for a living.

Explain active learning strategies?

Research has shown that active learning strategies, e.g. interactive lecture, problem-based learning, inquiry-guided learning, and Team-Based Learning among others, result in in- creased content knowledge, improved critical thinking and problem-solving abilities, and positive attitudes toward learning compared to traditional lecture-based delivery.

What are Verbal learners?

Respond more to the written or. Spoken word. They like to read about things or hear explanations from an expert.

True or False?

Students learn little from participating in any one of these modes.

What are reflective learners?

Tend to think about information quietly first. They want to understand or think about things before attempting to do anything themselves. They tend to prefer work alone.

Explain the 80/20 rule?

That there is a major difference between high school and university-level study is illustrated by the 80/20 rule[3]. In high school roughly 80 percent of what you needed to know came from the teacher and in-class work. Only 20 percent of the learning occurred outside the classroom. In college, this rule is reversed. Only 20 percent of what you learn will come from the professor and class lectures. Eighty percent of what you learn will come from work you do outside the classroom. This is perhaps the most important concept you must grasp about the college learning environment.

What questions should you ask when planning your learning?

What is my prior knowledge or experience that will help me with this particular task? What should I do first? Why am I doing this task? How much time do I have to complete this task?

True or False?

You will immediately receive scored results indicating whether you have a strong preference, moderate preference, or are fairly well-balanced on each of the four scales.

What should you do during a class?

attend lecture, concentrate intently, take detailed notes, ask questions.

What is analyzing in bloom's taxonomy?

breaking material into constituent parts;, determining how the parts relate to one another and to an overall structure or purpose.

Do not listen to the few students who might say that the instructors' job is to lecture and not have you do work during class. These students don't understand the benefit offered to them

but you do (and maybe you can help them understand the benefits of active learning strategies).

What is applying in bloom's taxonomy?

carrying out or using a procedure through executing or implementing. Examples of this would be applying, solving, writing about it, demonstrating it, employing it, using it, practicing it.

What is understanding in bloom's taxonomy?

constructing meaning from oral, written, or graphic messages. Examples of this would be classifying, discussing, reporting, identifying, expressing.

The truth is we all rely heavily on others to live

grow, and thrive. We come into this world totally dependent on our parents or guardians for our very survival. As we grow, most of what we learn we are taught by others - parents, family, teachers, peers. In school when we use a textbook, in engineering or any other discipline, we benefit from the many experts who have evolved the subject over years to the point where we can readily under- stand it. This point is perhaps best underscored by a famous quotation by Isaac Newton, who is generally viewed as one of the greatest thinkers in the history of humankind:

What are the benefits of understanding how professors teach?

here are several benefits to understanding the different ways of teaching. Perhaps primary among these is that the knowl- edge will guide you in designing your learning process.

As you'll learn later in this chapter

if your preferred ways of receiving new knowledge are verbal and intuitive and your preferred ways of processing new knowledge are sequential and

If I have seen further

it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.

Also

keep in mind that in order to change a lecture to an active learning activity your instructor put in a lot of effort to develop the activity and this shows you how deeply they care about your learning. Tell them your appreciation in the student evaluations at the end of the term.

The bottom line is you will benefit by developing your skills on both sides of the four learning style dimensions. Good engineers are observant

methodical, practical, and willing to check calculations and replicate experiments over and over to be sure they're right (sensing skills). They also have to be innovative, deal with theories and models, and think deeply about the meaning of their observations and results (intuitive skills). Good engineers have to deal with both visual and verbal information. They must both reflect on things and also take action, and they need to both be aware of the big picture and also proceed in a stepwise manner.

Naturally

more and more instructors use active learning strategies in their courses. To get the most out of an active learning strategy, even short ones that are interspersed in traditional lectures, do the following—participate.

Learning is a process of what?

reinforcement.

What are three keys to a systematic approach to learning?

repetition, review, and reinforcement.

What is remembering in bloom's taxonomy?

retrieving, recognizing, and recalling relevant knowledge from long term memory.

What should you do after a class?

review and annotate notes, reread text, work assigned problems, work extra problems, meet with a study partner or study group to go over material and problems.

What should you do to prepare for exams?

review notes, rework problems, reread text, meet with a study partner or study group to go over the material and problems.

How can students get the most out of college according to a Harvard University Study?

s there any common theme that faculty members can use to help students, and indeed that students can use to help themselves? The answer is a strong yes. All the specific findings point to, and illustrate, one main idea. It is that students who get the most out of college, who grow the most academically, and who are the happiest, organize their time to include interpersonal activities with faculty members, and with other students, built around substantive academic work.

But change is slow. Formal training in teaching methods is not a required part of the process of becoming a math

science, or engineering professor. In the absence of such training, most professors tend to teach the way they were taught. And so the most prevalent teaching styles of the past (abstract, verbal, deductive, passive, sequential) tend to be propagated into

What are global learners?

tend to learn in large jumps, absorbing material almost randomly without seeing connections, and then suddenly getting it. They prefer to see the big picture and then fill in the details.

Above all

there is no need for you to drop out of school or change majors. You can learn to learn no matter how you are being taught. Besides, there's a place in the engineering profession for individuals with different preferences for the way they are taught. Think about the various engineering job functions described in Chapter 2—analysis, design, test, development, sales, research, management, consulting, and teaching. Although one individual might be best suited for one job function (e.g., someone who prefers to be taught visually might make a good design engineer) and another individual might be best suited for another job function (e.g., someone who prefers to be taught verbally might make a good analytical engineer), all engineering job functions require individuals who can both learn and teach in a variety of styles.

reflective

you are in step with the ways you are most likely being taught (i.e., traditional lecture format). However, you can almost certainly benefit by adopting the full spectrum of learning styles in your studies (sensory as well as intuitive; visual as well as verbal; active as well as reflective; global as well as sequential).

During your learning process

you can learn even more by translating what you were taught into the way you prefer to learn. For example, if you need to know the context and relevance (global perspective) for what you are being taught and your professor doesn't provide it, it's likely that you will learn even more if you develop it on your own than if the professor had provided it.

If your preferred ways of receiving new knowledge are visual and sensory and your pre- ferred ways of processing new knowledge are global and reflective

you may find a mismatch, between the way you prefer to learn and the way you are being taught. The good news is that you are primarily responsible for creating your learning experience. Just make sure the way you study is compatible with your preferred learning styles. Doing things that are compatible with your style can help you compensate for mismatches with the dominant style of your teachers. Doing things that are on the opposite side of your learning style preference will give you a perspective on the material you might not normally get, while helping you develop skills that will enhance your professional success - skills you might not develop if you only followed your natural inclinations.

Equally important is that you will be doing lots of teaching yourself. Throughout your time as a student and during your professional career

you will constantly be teaching others what you know - in formal and informal meetings, through your written communication and in almost everything you do.