Understanding Learning and the Learning Processes TESTING

     In any pedagogy it is of the highest importance for the teacher to ascertain if students are successfully meeting the expected learning results. To determine student success, a teacher must define what success is; that is to say a teacher must define learning and acknowledge that learning processes are specific to one’s experience.

     In a misguided definition, learning may be understood as recalling information. In this scenario, a learner is required to memorize information from a source, such as a reading or a lecture and be able recognize this information at a later date, possibly for a test. Bransford, Brown, and Cocking (2000) disagree with this perception. They contend that informational texts need to avoid emphasizing “memory rather than understanding” (p. 8). Learning in its true form is far more than memorizing names, numbers, or periods of time.

     A contemporary definition of learning is focused on a complete evaluation of a concept. Under this definition, the purpose of learning is to understand a subject, so that the learner is able to retrieve and apply what he or she has learned.  According to Bransford et al. (2000), “people must learn to recognize when they understand and when they need more information” (p. 12). This notion of taking responsibility for one’s learning has recently been emphasized in the Common Core Standards as “student centered” learning. 

    Once “learning” is clearly defined by the instructor, he or she must address the reality that no two students come from the same background, and as a result do not have shared experiences with the topic being taught. In other words, each student is beginning the path to the same finish line at different starting point. It is important for teachers to diagnose where students are beginning a topic of study so prior knowledge can be corrected or built upon (Bransford et al., 2000, p. 15).

    For example, in the government class I teach, I often have students who enter the class with preconceptions about political ideologies and parties. Each students’ preconception has, of course, a different level of accuracy. Their knowledge of political ideologies and parties comes from various sources, ranging from family to media, and it is important that I engage their beliefs in order to address their misnomers. If I do not, students will struggle to grasp deeper concepts because of their inaccurate foundation. An accurate foundation of factual knowledge is a prerequisite to be competent in any area of study (Bransford et al., 2000, p. 16).

    In addition to the misconceptions that students enter the classroom with, it is important to differentiate the novice learners from the experts. As Bransford et al. (2000) states, “experts have acquired extensive knowledge that affects what they notice and how they organize, represent, and interpret information” (p. 31). This is something I have observed in my government class. Students who enter the class with a well-established political bias and understanding of their own ideology are able to find parallels when learning about different ideologies. Additionally, they can make correct assumptions about other ideologies more readily than the novice students who are studying with a basic understanding. When looking at the same notes or presentation, the expert student will understand certain ideas that the novice did not notice (Bransford et al., 2000, p. 36).

     The goal for all students is to have automatic and fluent retrieval of information because these are characteristics found in experts (Bransford et al., 2000, p. 44). The experts know how to examine a task and find the best solution. Students can become “adaptive experts”, using techniques such as models of “how experts organize and solve problems (Bransford et al., 2000, p. 49)” and they will “approach new situations flexibly and learn through their lifetimes” (Bransford et al., 2000, p. 48).

     It is equally important for expert and novice learners that instructors “pay close attention to the individual progress of each student and devise tasks that are appropriate” (Bransford et al., 2000, p. 23). To keep track of student progress and increase metacognition, there should be continual assessments throughout each unit of study (Bransford et al., 2000, p. 24). The use of educational technology would certainly help the teacher facilitate precise assessments of student progress.
Ultimately, without the foundational knowledge of how people acquire and transfer information the teacher cannot support learning in the classroom that is appropriate to a diverse group of students. Lessons that build upon or expand the learnings of experts and novices will help to create a more purposeful curricula.

                                                            References

Bransford, J., Brown, A.L. & Cocking, R. R. (Eds.), How people learn: Brain, mind,
          Experience and school. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. Retrieved
          from http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309070368

Congress Should Stop Using Borrowed Money to run their Offices

The national debt is nothing new to the United States. We have had one since the federal government agreed to take on the war debts of the 13 colonies at the end of the Revolutionary War. Of course, it has not always been as out of control as it is today. Still, it is not a new idea of the left-wing Obama Democrats as the Tea Party seems to claim. In fact, the Tea Party advocates returning to the ways of the Founding Fathers, well, the national debt was their idea. The point is though, many people from numerous political parties and leanings have contributed to the debt. In truth, our military and wars have added large sums to the debt. President Abe Lincoln added about a billion dollars to the debt during the Civil War, when in the early-mid 19th century it was actually almost paid off.

Today the national debt is somewhere around $14.5 trillion, and if you are one of the 300,000,000+ citizens of the USA, you owe about 45k of that. I'm guessing most Americans aren't able to write a check to the Treasury for 45k, so the only way to pay it off is to cut wasteful spending, right? Lets look at a few numbers.

In 2010 the US had revenue of $2.17 trillion. Since we apparently can't run a country on $2.17 trillion, we went ahead and spent $3.82 trillion, borrowing the difference and automatically adding $1.65 trillion to the debt. Interest not included. We spent almost 43% more than we took in. That is astonishing!

There is always bickering in Washington about what programs to gut or cut to crackdown on government waste; why don't we just cut spending in every government program by 43% (or even higher to pay off the debt!) so every government program, department or agency is no longer contributing to the debt.

There are a few Congressman who return money every year to the Treasury and then tout how the rest of the government should be run like their office. Most of these Congressman return somewhere between $5,000 and $150,000 to the Treasury. That works out to literally be between 1% and 10% of their office's budget being returned. These Congressman are still using borrowed money! In order to run a Congressman's office debt free, that Congressman would have to return 43% of their office's budget to the treasury, otherwise, even the ones that do give back money, they are still using borrowed money and adding to the national debt they we all have to pay for.

I suggest you contact your Congressman or Congresswoman and ask them if they return any money from their office to the Treasury, and then explain that unless they return 43% of it they are actually adding to the debt everyday.

I would absolutely love to see a Congressman run their office with 57% of their budget, wouldn't you?

Bill Gates' Harvard Commencement Address

Reducing inequity is the highest human achievement.


The speech Bill Gates gave this summer at Harvard is truly worth checking out. Below is the video of the speech via YouTube. Note that the video is broken into 5 different clips.

Here is clip 1:


Clip 2
Clip 3
Clip 4
Clip 5

Here is the full text of his speech, as prepared for delivery.