| Learning&Technology |
Lesson 1: Readings 1 |
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How people learn: Bridging research and practice.
National Research Council, Committee on Learning Research and Educational Practice, Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, National Academy of Sciences.
Donovan, M. S., Bransford, J. D., & Pellegrino, J. W. (Eds.). (1999).
Washington, DC: National Academy Press. [Online].
Retrieved November 20, 2000, from the World Wide Web: www.nap.edu/books/0309065364/html/
Abstracted by Anne Daugherty
In 1995, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) requested that the National Research Council (NRC) synthesize research on the science of learning. The resulting report is How People Learn, a synthesis of research on human learning. The book reviews research literature on human learning and suggests important implications for the design of curricula, instruction, assessments, and learning environments.
The authors claim this report has important implications for how our society educates. The research base on learning and teaching has not been consolidated into consistent, clear messages in ways that are useful for practice. Hence many existing school practices are inconsistent with what is known about effective learning.
The report claims that research directly influences classroom practice only when teachers and researchers collaborate in experiments, or when interested teachers incorporate ideas from research into their classroom practice. More typically, research ideas are filtered through four arenas:
- educational materials,
- pre-service and in-service teacher and administrator programs,
- public policies at the national, state, and school district level, and
- the public's beliefs about learning and teaching, often gleaned from the popular media and from their own experiences in school.
As a result, the authors argue that the various mediating arenas that influence practice are often not aligned either with research findings or with each other. In synthesizing a broad body of research, How People Learn provides an opportunity to provide research-based messages that are clear and directly relevant to classroom practice.
Three of the findings are:
- Students come to the classroom with preconceived notions about how the world works. If their initial understanding is not engaged, they may fail to grasp new concepts and information. Hence, teachers need to understand their students' existing knowledge in order to help shape an understanding that reflects the concepts and knowledge in the new discipline of study.
- To develop competence in an area of learning, students must have both a deep foundation of factual knowledge and a strong conceptual framework, allowing for organization of information for easy transfer to new problems. This research has clear implications for what is taught, how it is taught, and the preparation required for teaching.
- Strategies can be taught that allow students to monitor their understanding and progress in problem solving.
The principles of learning highlighted in the book apply to teacher education and professional development programs as well as to K-12 education. Further development and study of new tools for teacher training is proposed, as well as elaboration of key findings from the study as they apply to teacher learning. Finally, the development of a popular version of How People Learn is suggested in order to promote an understanding among parents and the public of the principles of learning that it identifies, as well as their implications for classroom practice.
