Обсуждение:The ABCs of How We Learn

Belonging Other studies have found that helping people to think about themselves as having multiple identities, in particular, focusing on those facets of their identity that are in-group (e.g., college student) rather than out-group (e.g., female), improves performance for those at risk of stereotype threat (Rydell, McConnell, & Beilock, 2009; for more examples, see http://www.reducingstereotypethreat.org

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CONTRASTING CASES ARE close examples that help people notice features they might otherwise overlook. They increase the precision and usability of knowledge.

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DELIBERATE PRACTICE IS characterized by a high degree of focused effort to develop specific skills and concepts beyond one’s current abilities. Deliberate practice contrasts with the more common practice of simply

http://thedanplan.com).

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ELABORATION IMPROVES MEMORY by making connections between new information and prior knowledge.

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FEEDBACK IS INFORMATION that flows back to learners about the quality of their ideas and behaviors. Learners can then use the feedback to make adjustments.

For instance, an iPad game called Critter Corral lets students see how far their answer is from correct (Figure F.2). In one of the games, children need to decide how much food to serve to the restaurant patrons, and they can see if they served too much or too little. Ideally, this helps children learn the relative sizes of the numbers while also providing some guidance for how to revise. With only right/wrong feedback, learners can only guess at how to fix a mistake.

But this is a short-term effect that depends on putting the learner in the “right mood.” Can we help people learn to seek constructive criticism more generally? We addressed this question by making a game-based assessment called Posterlet. In the game, players create posters for booths at a funfair. They choose a booth and then design a poster. When done, they select a focus group of animal characters to assess their design. Each member of the focus group shows up with two thought bubbles, as shown in Figure F.3. One says, “I don’t like …” and one says, “I like …” Players can choose either the constructive negative feedback or the positive feedback about their graphic design for each character, but not both. Students then get a chance to revise if they want. Finally, they send their poster to the booth, and they learn how many tickets sold. Students repeat the cycle three times. All told, players have nine chances to choose between constructive criticism and praise (three per poster). The assessment is unique because the goal is not to test students’ factual or procedural knowledge but, rather, to assess students’ free choices relevant to learning (see Schwartz & Arena, 2013).

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HANDS-ON LEARNING OCCURS when people use their bodies and senses in the learning process. It recruits perceptual-motor intelligence to give meaning to words and symbols.

Does a hands-on activity need to be hands on? There are many computer simulations of hands-on activities that include mathematical and science manipulatives (see, e.g., the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives at http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html, and PhET Interactive Simulations at http://phet.colorado.edu). The answer to this question depends on whether learners can elicit the right perceptual-motor experiences without physically touching.

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IMAGINATIVE PLAY INVOLVES creating a story that is different from the world at hand, often letting one thing stand for another (e.g., a stick becomes a swooshing plane). Theoretically, imaginative play should improve a number of developmental outcomes, such as verbal abilities, symbolic creativity, intelligence, cognitive control, and social competence. (Below we explain why we say “theoretically.”)

How to Use Imaginative Play to Enhance Learning There is a prevailing hypothesis that improving children’s executive functioning, a major component of socioemotional functioning, will have cumulative effects on future learning. Children will be better able to control their attention, concentration, and impulsivity when learning and interacting with others. People have looked to play-centered curricula to strengthen executive functioning in four- and five-year-olds. The Tools of the Mind curriculum wraps executive function exercises around imaginative play (see http://www.toolsofthemind.org/). For example, children may be asked to play specific roles (e.g., doctors) and behave like doctors (and not patients). This differs from immature play where children do not try to play within rules. Rule-based behavior, by its very nature, is not stimulus driven.

Game play for learning has received increasing attention lately. For instance, the Quest to Learn schools in New York and Chicago frame a public school curriculum around games (see http://www.instituteofplay.org/work/projects/quest-schools/quest-to-learn/