Here we are in 2018, at some of the most “elite” institutions in the country, with an 11-year-old pointing out an obvious, but unchanging truth. “Those college students don’t look like they’re learning anything.”
Putting Your John Hancock on Labor Day
Happy Labor Day! A small history lesson for the holiday.
Friday Campus Connections
Join us every Friday to see how connectedness shows up in “real-world” stories and scenarios. Here are 5 articles, blogs, or other resources that illustrate the power of connectedness. Of course, we’ll keep blogging away too. We hope you’ll stop back by on Monday, to see our newest post. And don’t forget to follow us on twitter (@IICEorg). Happy Friday!
The Fifth Discipline – Revisited
Having taken all manner of personality indicators, I agree with their consistent findings that people who do not perform effectively, in a collaborative fashion, nor with a proper prioritization of goals, are easily waived off in my brain as “morons.” I struggle to give second chances and I quickly look for workarounds to people and departments that appear obstructivistic regarding forward thinking initiatives, student support, or even student learning, etc.
Knowing More About Less
For those of you creating workshops of your own, we found some amazing benefits to practicing what we preach. This is a major differentiator for the Institute, actually leveraging brain science, learning research, and more as we learn and contextualize. We utilized the most effective practices from cognitive science, persuasion, and perception strategies in each session. From Interleaving to pattern finding to intentional creation of norepinephrine / dopamine / endorphin moments, we saw the power behind these learning frameworks. Participants had the opportunity to review and reflect often. Attendees also networked like crazy, establishing a community of practice that will follow them home. In other words, I am confident in saying that we all learned. I am also confident that learning will stick.
Friday Campus Connections
Join us every Friday to see how connectedness shows up in “real-world” stories and scenarios. Here are 3 articles, blogs, or other resources that illustrate the power of connectedness. Of course, we’ll keep blogging away too. We hope you’ll stop back by on Monday, to see our newest post. And don’t forget to follow us on twitter (@Ice_Inst_Org). Happy Friday!
Learning That Sucks…in the best way possible
If you allow a robotic vacuum to work, it will get your floors cleaner than you can yourself. Likewise, if you create a student-led model for learning, and you cultivate it, your students will learn better than through the traditional, teacher-centric model. And learning won’t “suck” either.
Which Are You? Professor, Lecturer, Instructor or Teacher?
I don’t want my students to say that I lecture, instruct, or profess. Those are all so unidirectional, it makes me lament. This is one of the major problems with education today – the person at the front of the classroom (and it’s almost always at the front), spewing information upon students with an expectation that they will simply soak it all up and then somehow learn. They often talk instead of listening. They seem to inform far more than creating shared meaning (leading to understanding).
Professional Development – A Better Approach?
We will get our audience to do, as we show and tell, before reviewing and asking along the way. We will not only help people understand the nuances of critical (modern) learning research specific to Interleaving, Spaced Repetition, the Cognitive Science of learning, Varied Instruction, Generative learning, and Desirable Difficulties, but we will practice these methods at the same time.
Learning Is No Joke
Unfortunately, we have a lot of historical baggage to contend with, making real learning much harder than it needs to be. We have generations of practitioners doing the only thing they know how to do (that which was modeled by former instructors), despite so much research and evidence suggesting a major pivot is in order. But we’re getting there.