How Learning Works

1. Prior knowledge significantly impacts learning, both positively and negatively

Students' prior knowledge can help or hinder learning.

Building on foundations: Prior knowledge serves as the foundation for new learning. When students can connect new information to accurate and relevant prior knowledge, they learn and retain more effectively. This is because new knowledge "sticks" better when it has existing knowledge to attach to.

Addressing misconceptions: However, prior knowledge can also hinder learning if it's inaccurate, insufficient, or inappropriately applied. Common issues include:

• Overspecificity: Knowledge too closely tied to a specific context
• Misconceptions: Deeply held incorrect beliefs resistant to change
• Inappropriate application: Applying knowledge from one domain incorrectly to another

To leverage prior knowledge effectively:

• Assess students' existing knowledge
• Activate relevant prior knowledge before introducing new material
• Address misconceptions directly
• Provide opportunities for students to reflect on and revise their understanding

2. Effective knowledge organization enhances learning and performance

How students organize knowledge influences how they learn and apply what they know.

Expert vs. novice organization: Experts organize knowledge differently from novices:

• More interconnected and meaningful relationships between concepts
• Organization around deep principles rather than surface features
• Multiple, flexible ways of organizing information

Benefits of effective organization:

• Faster and more efficient retrieval of information
• Better problem-solving and application of knowledge
• Enhanced ability to learn new, related information

Strategies to help students develop better knowledge organization:

• Provide organizational frameworks (e.g., concept maps, hierarchies)
• Use analogies and comparisons to highlight meaningful relationships
• Encourage students to explain their reasoning and thought processes
• Offer opportunities to practice organizing knowledge in multiple ways

3. Motivation drives, directs, and sustains student learning

Students' motivation generates, directs, and sustains what they do to learn.

Key components of motivation:

• Value: The perceived importance or usefulness of the task
• Expectancy: Belief in one's ability to succeed
• Environment: Supportive or unsupportive context

Types of motivation:

• Intrinsic: Engaging in an activity for its inherent satisfaction
• Extrinsic: Performing for external rewards or outcomes

Strategies to enhance student motivation:

• Connect material to students' interests and future goals
• Provide appropriate levels of challenge
• Offer choices and control where possible
• Create a supportive learning environment
• Give specific, constructive feedback
• Help students develop a growth mindset about intelligence and ability

4. Mastery requires component skills, integration, and contextual application

To develop mastery, students must acquire component skills, practice integrating them, and know when to apply what they have learned.

Elements of mastery:

1. Component skills: Breaking down complex tasks into smaller, manageable parts
2. Integration: Combining component skills fluently and automatically
3. Application: Knowing when and how to apply skills in various contexts

Challenges in developing mastery:

• Expert blind spot: Instructors may overlook crucial steps or skills that seem obvious to them
• Cognitive overload: Students may struggle to manage multiple skills simultaneously

Strategies to support mastery development:

• Explicitly teach and practice component skills
• Provide scaffolding to manage cognitive load
• Offer opportunities for deliberate practice with feedback
• Help students recognize patterns and develop mental models
• Teach conditional knowledge (when and why to apply skills)

5. Goal-directed practice coupled with targeted feedback is crucial for learning

Goal-directed practice coupled with targeted feedback are critical to learning.

Effective practice:

• Focused on specific goals or criteria
• Appropriately challenging
• Sufficient in quantity and frequency

Valuable feedback:

• Timely: Given when students can use it
• Specific: Focused on particular aspects of performance
• Actionable: Provides clear guidance for improvement

Strategies to enhance practice and feedback:

• Set clear learning objectives and performance criteria
• Design practice activities aligned with learning goals
• Provide varied practice opportunities (e.g., spaced practice, interleaving)
• Use formative assessments to guide instruction
• Incorporate peer feedback and self-assessment
• Balance immediate and delayed feedback based on task requirements

6. Student development and course climate interact to influence learning

Students' current level of development interacts with the social, emotional, and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning.

Student development considerations:

• Intellectual development: Moving from dualistic to more complex thinking
• Social identity development: Understanding and integrating various aspects of identity
• Emotional maturity: Managing emotions and relationships effectively

Course climate factors:

• Instructor-student and student-student interactions
• Inclusivity and representation in course content and examples
• Handling of sensitive topics and diverse perspectives

Strategies to support development and create a positive climate:

• Recognize and accommodate different levels of student development
• Establish and enforce ground rules for respectful discussion
• Provide opportunities for reflection and perspective-taking
• Address biases and stereotypes explicitly
• Create a safe environment for intellectual risk-taking
• Model inclusive language and behaviors

7. Metacognition is essential for becoming a self-directed learner

To become self-directed learners, students must learn to assess the demands of the task, evaluate their own knowledge and skills, plan their approach, monitor their progress, and adjust their strategies as needed.

Key metacognitive skills:

• Task assessment: Understanding what is required
• Self-evaluation: Recognizing strengths and weaknesses
• Planning: Developing an approach to the task
• Monitoring: Tracking progress and understanding
• Reflection: Evaluating outcomes and adjusting strategies

Challenges in developing metacognition:

• Overconfidence: Students often overestimate their abilities
• Lack of practice: Metacognitive skills are rarely explicitly taught
• Fixed mindsets: Beliefs about intelligence as unchangeable

Strategies to foster metacognition:

• Model metacognitive thinking explicitly
• Provide opportunities for self-assessment and reflection
• Teach specific learning strategies and when to use them
• Use wrappers (pre- and post-task reflections) for assignments and exams
• Encourage students to set goals and monitor their progress
• Help students develop a growth mindset about learning and intelligence

Last updated: March 21, 2025