In CEP 810 this week, I have been asked to write an essay that explores what I know about learning and understanding. My full essay can be found here and is influenced by my reading of Bransford, Brown and Cocking’s (2000) How People Learn (online version here). To summarize, experts and novices learn differently. Therefore, it is important that teachers understand how people learn so that methods that support and foster learning and understanding can be applied. To start, teachers must build on prior knowledge, increase student motivation, organize learning around big ideas, help conditionalize knowledge, and engage students in metacognition. When used correctly, these approaches will help achieve an understanding that can be transferred to new settings.
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I love how you automatically related the text to your own classroom. I think every teachers goal is to show students the importance of the material be presented while also making sure to cover all the materials needed for district and state assessments. This is especially coming clear with so many new adaptive assessments such as M-Step and like my school uses NWEA. In my essay I also talked about the importance of no longer just memorizing but building a deeper understanding that learners are able to apply. I read that to help your students develop mastery you use a program called “Edify”. I have never heard of this program and would love to learn more information about it. Like you I also hope to learn how technology can bring “teaching and learning to new heights”.
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Thanks Amber! I have really liked my experience with Edify. If you are interested, I can gladly share more about it. For now, I’ll leave you the link to a Webinar about generating data with Edify that I hosted last month. http://j.mp/1Ho3fHS Enjoy!
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