Every faculty member at BYU-Idaho should have an intense interest in, questions about, and approaches to the scholarship of learning and teaching.
--President David A. Bednar
[BYU-Idaho] will become a place that people know of because of the insights that will come as we come to understand the teaching and learning process here. I so testify.
--Elder Henry B. Eyring
Brothers and sisters, we are configured and prepared to move forward in a major way on [the scholarship of learning and teaching]. And we need to do it, and we need to do it well. I have confidence we will.
--President David A. Bednar
The Scholarship of Learning and Teaching: A Personal Collection
Steve Hunsaker
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
9.12.2008
Approaches to Learning and Teaching
Diseth, Åge. "Validation of a Norwegian Version of the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST): Application of Structural Equation Modelling." Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 45.4 (2001): 381-394.
Entwistle, Noel. "Improving Teaching through Research on Student Learning." in University Teaching: International Perspectives. New York: Garland, 1998. 73-112.
Gow, Lyn and David Kember. "Conceptions of Teaching and Their Relationship to Student Learning." British Journal of Educational Psychology 63 (1993): 20-33.
Kember, David and Lyn Gow. "Orientations to Teaching and Their Effect on the Quality of Student Learning." The Journal of Higher Education 65.1 (1994): 58-74.
Kember, David and Kam-Por Kwan. "Lecturers' Approaches to Teaching and Their Relationship to Conceptions of Good Teaching." Instructional Science 28 (2000): 469-490.
Long, William F. "Dissonance Detected by Cluster Analysis of Responses to the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students." Studies in Higher Education 28.1 (2003): 21-35.
Meyer, Jan H. F. and Malcolm G. Eley. "The Approaches to Teaching Inventory: A Critique of Its Development and Applicability." British Journal of Educational Psychology 76 (2006): 633-649.
Prosser, Michael and Keith Trigwell. "Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Approaches to Teaching Inventory." British Journal of Educational Psychology 76 (2006): 405-419.
Trigwell, Keith and Michael Prosser. "Changing Approaches to Teaching: A Relational Perspective." Studies in Higher Education 21.3 (1996): 275-285.
---. "Development and Use of the Approaches to Teaching Inventory." Educational Psychology Review 16.4 (2004): 409-424.
---. "Improving the Quality of Student Learning: The Influence of Learning Context and Student Approaches to Learning on Learning Outcomes." Higher Education 22.3 (1991): 251-266.
---. "Towards an Understanding of Individual Acts of Teaching."
Trigwell, Keith, Michael Prosser and Fiona Waterhouse. "Relations between Teachers' Approaches to Teaching and Students' Approaches to Learning." Higher Education 37 (1999): 57-70.
"Scoring Key for the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students."
Deep and Surface Approaches to Learning (The Higher Education Academy) (7 June 2007)
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Bibliography
Indiana University SOTL Bibliography (7 February 2006)
Hutchings, Pat. CASTL HigherEd "The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: An Annotated Bibliography." (11 March 2005)
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Centers
Arizona State University (26 June 2007)
List of Centers for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
The Center for Teaching and Learning--Stanford University (22 May 2007)
The Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (11 March 2005)
Harvard University: The Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning (23 May 2007)
Indiana University Bloomington (11 March 2005)
Indiana University South Bend (11 March 2005)
Princeton University (13 May 2005)
The Scholar as Teacher Tip Sheet Index (13 May 2005)
The Teaching and Learning Resource Center (Montclair State University)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (11 March 2005)
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Classroom and Action Research
Action Research and Participatory Action Research (University of Georgia)
ERIC (Education Resources Information Center)
Cross, K. Patricia and Mimi Harris Steadman. Classroom Research: Implementing the Scholarship of Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996.
Mettetal, Gwynn. "Improving Teaching through Classroom Action Research." Toward the Best in the Academy 14.7 (2002-2003)
---. Research About Teaching and Learning. (11 March 2005)
---. "The What, Why and How of Classroom Action Research." The Journal of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 2 (2001): 7-13. (11 March 2005)
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Cognitive Apprenticeship
Cognitive Apprenticeship (1 February 2006)
Cognitive Apprenticeship: Creating an Effective Foreign Language Classroom (1 February 2006)
Cognitive Apprenticeship: Making Thinking Visible (1 February 2006)
Brown, John Seely, Allan Collins and Paul Duguid. "Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning." Educational Researcher, 18.1 (1989): 32-42.
Perkins, David N. and Gavriel Salomon. "Are Cognitive Skills Context-Bound?" Educational Researcher, 18.1 (1989): 16-25.
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Concept Mapping
Daley, Barbara J., Alberto J. Cañas, Tracy Stark-Schweitzer. "Cmap Tools: Integrating Teaching, Learning, and Evaluation in Onlince Courses." New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education. Spring 2007. 37-47.
Hay, David B, Caroline Kehoe, Marc E. Miquel, Stylianos Hatzipanagos, Ian M. Kinchin, Steve F. Keevil and Simon Lygo-Baker. "Measuring the Qualityof E-Learning." British Journal of Educational Technology (2007): 1-20.
Hay, David and Ian Kinchin. "Using Concept Mapping to Measure Learning Quality." Education + Training 50.2 (2008): 167-182.
Hay, David, Ian Kinchin, Simon Lygo-Baker. "Making Learning Visible: The Role of Concept Mapping in Higher Education." Studies in Higher Education 33.3 (2008): 295-311.
Kinchin, Ian M. and David B. Hay. "The Myth of the Research-Led Teacher." Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice. 13.1 (2007): 43-61.
Nesbit, John C. and Olusola O. Adesope. "Learning with Concept and Knowledge Maps: A Meta-Analysis." Review of Educational Research 76.3 (2006): 413-448.
O'Donnell, Donald F. Dansereau, and Richard H. Hall. "Knowledge Maps as Scaffolds for Cognitive Processing." Educational Psychology Review 14.1 (2002): 71-86.
Santhanam, Elizabeth, Carolyn Leach, Chris Dawson. "Concept Mapping: How Should it Be Introduced, and Is There Evidence for Long Term Benefit?" Higher Education 35.3 (1998): 317-328.
Defining the Field
Tutorial in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (Indiana University Bloomington)
Bass, Randy. "The Scholarship of Teaching: What's the Problem?" Inventio: Creative Thinking About Learning and Teaching 1 (1999): 9 printed pages. (11 March 2005)
Bender, Eileen and Donald Gray. "The Scholarship of Teaching." Research & Creative Activity 22 (1999): 4 printed pages. (11 March 2005)
Bernstein, Dan and Randy Bass. "The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning." Academe 91.4 (July -August 2005) (30 August 2005)
Cambridge, Barbara L., ed. Campus Progress: Supporting the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Washington, DC: American Association for Higher Education, 2004.
Huber, Mary Taylor. "Balancing Acts: Designing Careers Around the Scholarship of Teaching." Change 33.4 (2001): 21-29.
--- and Pat Hutchings. The Advancement of Learning: Building the Teaching Commons. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005.
Hutchings, Pat. "Approaching the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning." (11 March 2005)
Pace, David. "The Amateur in the Operating Room: History and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning." American Historical Review 109.4 (2004): 1171-1192.
Palmer, Parker. "Good Talk about Good Teaching: Improving Teaching through Conversation and Community." Change 25.6 (1993): 8-13.
Schulman, Lee S. "Taking Learning Seriously." Change 31.4 (1999): 10-17.
---. Teaching as Community Property: Essays on Higher Education. Ed. Pat Hutchings. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2004. (Available in the McKay Library: LB2305 .S58 2004)
---. "Teaching as Community Property: Putting an End to Pedagogical Solitude." Change (November 1993): 6-7.
---. The Wisdom of Practice: Essays on Teaching, Learning, and Learning to Teach. Ed. Suzanne M. Wilson. San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 2004. (Available in the McKay Library: LB1027.S475 2004)
Models for Supporting Scholarship and Reflective Practice (Research University Consortium for the Advancement of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning) (12 September 2008)
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Discussion Based Learning
The Case Method (12 June 2007)
HBS Teaching and Learning Center (12 June 2007)
Participant Centered Learning and the Case Method, Harvard Business School (12 June 2007)
Especially this video segment. (12 June 2007)
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Educational Research
The Collegiate Learning Assessment Project (1 June 2007)
Light, Richard J., Judith D. Singer, and John B. Willett. By Design: Planning Research on Higher Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990.
Mixed Method Evaluations--National Science Foundation
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Higher Education
Bain, Ken. What the Best College Teachers Do. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004.
Kuh, George D., Jillian Kinzie, John H. Schuh, Elizabeth J. Whitt, and associates. Student Success in College: Creating Conditions That Matter. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005.
Light, Richard J. Making the Most of College: Students Speak Their Minds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.
The College Experience: A Blueprint for Success (An Interview with Richard Light)
Tomorrow's Professor Blog (22 May 2007)
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Integrative Learning
Integrative Learning: Opportunities to Connect (AACU) (20 January 2006)
Leading Initiatives Integrative Learning (11 July 2007)
Statement on Integrative Learning (AACU and Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching) (20 January 2006)
Integrative Learning: Mapping the Terrain (Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching) (20 January 2006)
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Learning and the Brain
Web Resources
Jensen Learning Corporation: Brain Research Applied to Learning (20 January 2006)
Books and Articles
Abbott, John and Terence Ryan. "Learning to Go with the Grain of the Brain." (17 January 2006)
Caine, Renate Nummela et al. 12 Brain/Mind Learning Principles in Action: The Fieldbook for Making Connections, Teaching, and the Human Brain. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press, 2005.
Caine, Renate Nummela and Geoffrey Caine. "Mind/Brain Learning Principles."
Jensen, Eric. Teaching with the Brain in Mind. Alexandria, Virginia: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1998.
Leamson, Robert. "Learning as Biological Brain Change." Change 32.6 (2000): 34-40.
National Research Council, How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School.
How People Learn (Web version)
Expanded Edition. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 2000. Available on-line through the McKay Library.
Zull, James E. The Art of Changing the Brain: Enriching the Practice of Teaching by Exploring the Biology of Learning. Sterling, Virginia: Stylus, 2002.
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Learning and the Gospel
Education for Eternity (BYU) (20 January 2006)
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Learning and Technology
Duderstadt, James J., Wm. A. Wulf and Robert Zemsky. "Envisioning a Transformed University."
Twigg, Carol A. "Improving Learning and Reducing Costs: New Models for Online Learning."
Educause September/October 2003, 28-38.
Educause: Transforming Education through Information Technologies (7 April 2006)
Educause Learning Initiative (7 April 2006)
Educause Quarterly (10 April 2006)
The eLearning Guild (20 January 2006)
Harvard University, Instructional Computing Group: Best Practice Essays (23 May 2007)
Learning Peaks (20 January 2006)
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Learning Communities (Faculty and Student)
Developing Faculty and Professional Learning Communities (University of Ohio) (15 June 2007)
Reweaving the Culture of Disconnection
Brown, Ann. "The Advancement of Learning." Educational Researcher 23.8 (1994): 4-12.
Shulman, Lee S. "Communities of Learners and Communities of Teachers." In The Wisdom of Practice: Essays on Teaching, Learning, and Learning to Teach. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2004. 485-500.
Smith, Barbara Leigh, Jean MacGregor, Roberta S. Matthews, Faith Gabelnick. Learning Communities: Reforming Undergraduate Education. San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 2004.
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Learning Paradigm
The 21st Century Learning Initiative. "A Policy Paper: The Strategic and Resource Implications of a New Model of Learning." (17 January 2006)
Abbott, John and Terence Ryan. "Learning to Go with the Grain of the Brain." (17 January 2006)
---. "Upside Down and Inside Out: A Challenge to Redesign Educational Systems to Fit the Needs of a Learning Society." (17 January 2006)
Association of American Colleges and Universities. Greater Expectations: A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College. National Panel Report. 2002. (http://www.greaterexpectations.org/)
Barr, Robert B. and John Tagg. "From Teaching to Learning-A New Paradigm for Undergraduate Education." Change 27.6 (1995): 12-25.
Cambridge, Barbara. "The Paradigm Shifts: Examining Quality of Teaching Through Assessment of Student Learning." Innovative Higher Education 20 (1996): 287-298.
Cross, K. Patricia. "Leading-Edge Efforts to Improve Teaching and Learning: The Hesburgh Awards." Change (July/August 2001): 31-37.
---. "Teaching to Improve Learning." Journal on Excellence in College Teaching 1 (1990): 9-22.
Gardner, Howard and Veronica Boix-Mansilla. "Teaching for Understanding in the Disciplines-and Beyond." In The Development and Education of the Mind: The Selected Works of Howard Gardner. London: Routledge, 2006. 145-158.
Gardner, Howard. The Unschoold Mind: How Children Think and How Schools Should Teach. BasicBooks, 1991.
Massy, William F. Honoring the Trust: Quality and Cost Containment in Higher Education. Bolton, MA: Anker, 2003.
Perkins, David N. "Educating for Insight." Educational Leadership 49.2 (1991):4-8.
Shulman, Lee S. "Communities of Learners and Communities of Teachers." In The Wisdom of Practice: Essays on Teaching, Learning, and Learning to Teach. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2004. 485-500.
Schulman, Lee S. "Taking Learning Seriously." Change 31 (1999): 10-17. (11 March 2005)
Spence, Larry D. "The Case Against Teaching." Change 33.6 (2001): 10-19.
Tagg, John. The Learning Paradigm College. Boton, MA: Anker, 2003.
Click here for a review The Learning Paradigm College by Karen S. Langlois.
---. "Venture Colleges: Creating Charters for Change in Higher Education." Change 37.1 (2005): 34-43.
Weimer, Maryellen. Learner-Centered Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2002.
Weinstein, Claire Ellen. "Learning How to Learn: An Essential Skill for the 21st Century." The Educational Record 77.4 (1996): 48-52.
intime: incorporating new technologies into the methods of education (17 January 2006)
Learner Centered Teaching Approaches (29 June 2007)
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Learning Spaces
Educause Review, July/August 2005: Learning Spaces
Educause Learning Initiative -- Learning Space Design
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Learning Theory
Web Resources
The Learning Classroom: Theory into Practice (Video Library)
Explorations in Learning and Instruction Theory into Practice Database
Books and Articles
Jarvis, Peter and Stella Parker, eds. Human Learning: An Holistic Approach. London: Routledge, 2005.
National Research Council, How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. Expanded Edition. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 2000. Available on-line through the McKay Library.
Schulman, Lee S. "Making Differences." Change 34.6 (2202): 36-44.
"Shulman's Table of Learning"
Engagement and Motivation
Knowledge and Understanding
Performance and Action
Reflection and Critique
Judgment and Design
Commitment and Identity
---. "Taking Learning Seriously." Change 31.4 (1999): 10-17. (11 March 2005)
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On-Line Journals
Big Ideas (13 May 2005)
Electronic Journal on Excellence in College Teaching (11 March 2005)
Electronic Journals Related to Teaching, Illinois State (11 March 2005)
International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (4 August 2006)
Inventio: Creative Thinking about Learning and Teaching (11 March 2005)
The Journal of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (11 March 2005)
MountainRise: An Electronic Journal Dedicated to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (8 June 2005)
TeaL: A Journal of Scholarship on Teaching and Learning (11 March 2005)
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Organizations
21st Century Learning Initiative (5 January 2006)
AACU, Association of American Colleges and Universities
The Canadian Council on Learning (1 February 2006)
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
See especially the Knowledge Media Laboratory
This is my first attempt at using the tools available through the Knowledge Media Laboratory.
Declining by Degrees (5 January 2006)
Educause: Transforming Education through Information Technologies (21 February, 2006)
International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
2004 Conference Abstracts (October 21-24, 2004, Bloomington, Indiana)
2005 Conference Program (October 14-16, 2005, Vancouver, British Columbia)
The National Center for Academic Transformation (21 February, 2006)
The Program in Course Redesign has collaborated with 30 institutions to demonstrate how colleges and universities can redesign their instructional approaches using technology to achieve cost savings as well as quality enhancements. Redesign projects focus on large-enrollment, introductory courses, which have the potential of impacting significant student numbers and generating substantial cost savings.
Five Models for Course Redesign
The Supplemental Model "The supplemental model retains the basic structure of the traditional course and a) supplements lectures and textbooks with technology-based, out-of-class activities, or b) also changes what goes on in the class by creating an active learning environment within a large lecture hall setting."
The Replacement Model "The replacement model reduces the number of in-class meetings and a) replaces some in-class time with out-of-class, online, interactive learning activities, or b) also makes significant changes in remaining in-class meetings."
The Emporium Model "The emporium model eliminates all class meetings and replaces them with a learning resource center featuring online materials and on-demand personalized assistance, using a) an open attendance model or b) a required attendance model depending on student motivation and experience levels."
The Fully Online Model "The fully online model eliminates all in-class meetings and moves all learning experiences online, using Web-based, multi-media resources, commercial software, automatically evaluated assessments with guided feedback and alternative staffing models."
The Buffet Model "The buffet model customizes the learning environment for each student based on background, learning preference, and academic/professional goals and offers students an assortment of individualized paths to reach the same learning outcomes."
National Forum for College Level Learning
National Survey of Student Engagement
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Peer Review of Teaching
Classroom Observation Instruments (University of Minnesota)
Course Portfolio Initiative, Indiana University, Bloomington (24 January 2006)
Peer Review of Teaching, University of Minnesota (6 March 2006)
Peer Review of Teaching Project, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (11 March 2005)
Peer Review of Teaching, University of Wisconsin-Madison (6 March 2006)
Peer Review of Teaching, Washington University (6 March 2006)
Peer Review of Teaching, Flinders University (6 March 2006)
Peer Review of Teaching, North Carolina State University (11 March 2005)
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Quotes
Certainly, the greatest enemy of understanding is coverage-the compulsion to touch on everything in the textbook or the syllabus just because it is there, rather than taking the time to present materials from multiple perspectives, allowing students to approach the material in ways that are initially congenial to them but ultimately challenge them, and assessing understandings in as direct and flexible a manner as possible. (148)
Gardner, Howard and Veronica Boix-Mansilla. "Teaching for Understanding in the Disciplines-and Beyond." In The Development and Education of the Mind: The Selected Works of Howard Gardner. London: Routledge, 2006. 145-158.
To say that the purpose of colleges is to provide instruction is like saying that General Motors' business is to operate assembly lines or that the purpose of medical care is to fill hospital beds. We now see that our mission is not instruction but rather that of producing learning with every student by whatever means work best.
Simply ask, how would we do things differently if we put learning first? Then do it.
Barr, Robert B. and John Tagg. "From Teaching to Learning-A New Paradigm for Undergraduate Education." Change 27 (November/December 1995): 12-25.
"What students do during college counts more in terms of what they learn and whether they will persist in college than who they are or even where they go to college. That is, the voluminous research on college student development shows that the time and energy students devote to educationally purposeful activities is the single best predictor of their learning and personal development." (8)
Every college has two missions. The one that comes immediately to mind is the espoused mission. Typically, this is what a school writes about itself-its mission statement. Large public universities usually have broad, expansive mission statements that promise something to almost everyone, as is expected by the taxpayers who support them. Many smaller colleges-especially denominational colleges and special purpose institutions such as single-sex colleges and engineering and technology institutions-have espoused missions that specifically delineate their educational priorities.
The second mission is the school's enacted mission-what the institution actually does and who it serves. The enacted mission is arguably more important to student success than the espoused mission because it guides the daily actions of those in regular contact with students-in classrooms, in residence halls, and on playing fields-as well as those who set institutional policy, make strategic plans and decisions, and allocate resources. The enacted mission often differs from what the institution says or writes about itself. A university's mission statement might, for example, feature a commitment to teaching undergraduates, but its enacted mission focuses human and fiscal resources on graduate students and research. A college might claim in its mission statement to be concerned with ‘the education of the whole student' but, in fact, provide few opportunities for intellectual or social development outside of the classroom.
DEEP institutions are distinctive because the gap is smaller between their espoused mission and their enacted mission than at most other schools. At these colleges, the mission is not just a record of incorporation for periodic review by accreditors and legislators, but also a stable, yet somewhat elastic educational foundation examined routinely to ensure its continued relevance. The mission is stable in that it provides a constancy of purpose and direction. The mission is elastic because it can be modified to accommodate changing external circumstances, curricular innovation, and students' needs and educational objectives. (26)
DEEP schools work with the students they have, in contrast to the all-too-common fixation on trying to recruit the best and the brightest. This is a very important message: institutions and students can succeed despite the odds. Powerful learning environments and significant learning outcomes can be achieved no matter what the institution's resources or students' preparation. (89)
At the 1994 Student Learning Imperative teleconference at Bowling Green State University, K. Patricia Cross compared college to a jigsaw puzzle. Students, Cross said, start college with a bag in which they put puzzle pieces they collect during the course of their time in college. Into the bag goes a puzzle piece for every activity, starting with fall orientation, advising sessions, classes, cultural events, dorm meetings, and so forth. For many students the jumble of pieces does not create a coherent, sensible picture. That is a problem because students who cannot discern meaning from their college activities often report academic difficulty or social isolation, and are at risk of leaving school. Unlike a jigsaw puzzle that has a picture on the box top, college often comes without direction; many students are unlikely to know they are constructing a picture, nor do they have strategies for making the picture meaningful for the present or useful for identifying future learning opportunities. This is particularly true for students who are the first in their families to attend college. Understanding the importance of coherence in learning to student success, DEEP institutions have created pathways clearly marked to show students what to expect and what success looks and feels like. In short, they create structures and practices that help students bring meaning to their college experiences. (109)
Kuh, George D., Jillian Kinzie, John H. Schuh, Elizabeth J. Whitt, and associates. Student Success in College: Creating Conditions That Matter. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005.
We assume that students can connect thoughts and write or communicate ideas and knowledge, and we are perpetually shocked at the consistency with which this turns out not to be true. But as naive observers, we don't question what we don't understand. Were we astronomers or oceanographers, we would pursue with great interest something that challenged our expectations or predictions. Are we curious about why students don't learn, why they come up with distorted ideas about what we thought was perfectly clear, why they fail to hear or follow the simplest directions? Well, maybe, fleetingly. But by and large, we don't set out to investigate these common departures from what we know should happen in class. We are soon on to other things, and the opportunity to learn from the experience is lost.
I must admit, of course, that even academics don't have to make everything into a learning experience. There are times when we want simply to relax without feeling an obligation to analyze, to understand, or to improve ourselves or others. I can probably afford to be a naive observer of the nighttime sky, despite my recognition that some knowledge of astronomy would almost certainly add to my enjoyment.
But the college classroom is not the place for relaxed naiveté for either students or faculty. The experience would be far richer and more enjoyable if both teachers and students were more curious and more sophisticated about the effect of teaching on learning. But even more important, as educators, we have an obligation to understand the teaching/learning process well enough to improve it.
Cross, K. Patricia. "Teaching to Improve Learning." Journal on Excellence in College Teaching 1 (1990): 9-22.
In every case, the educational significance of effort, its value for an educative growth, resides in its connection with a stimulus of greater thoughtfulness, not in the greater strain it imposes. Educative effort is a sign of the transformation of a comparatively blind activity (whether impulsive or habitual) into a more consciously reflective one.
The educator who associates difficulties and effort with increased depth and scope of thinking will never go far wrong. The one who associates it with sheer strain, sheer dead lift energy, will never understand either how to secure the needed effort when it is needed nor the best way to utilize the energy aroused.
John Dewey, Interest and Effort in Education (1913)
Why do we have colleges and universities? The main reason--some might argue the only reason--is transfer of learning. The underlying rationale for any kind of formal instruction is the assumption that knowledge, skills, and attitudes learned in this setting will be recalled accurately, and will be used in some other context at some time in the future. We only care about student performance in school because we believe that it predicts what students will remember and do when they are somewhere else at some other time. Yet we often teach and test as though the underlying rationale for education were to improve student performance in school. As a consequence, we rarely assess student learning in the context or at the time for which we are teaching.
Sometimes information learned in a school context will transfer to an out-of-school context and sometimes it won't. If we want to transfer, we need to teach in ways that actually enhance the probability of transfer. The purpose of formal education is transfer. We teach students how to write, use mathematics, and think because we believe that they will use these skills when they are not in school. We need to always remember that we are teaching toward some time in the future when we will not be present--and preparing students for unpredictable real-world "tests" that we will not be giving--instead of preparing them for traditional midterm and final exams.
Diane F. Halpern and Milton D. Hakel, "Applying the Science of Learning to the University and Beyond: Teaching for Long-Term Retention and Transfer." Change 35.4 (2003): 36-41.
[L]earning should be seen as a qualitative change in a person's way of seeing, experiencing, understanding, conceptualizing something in the real world-rather than as a quantitative change in the amount of knowledge someone possesses.
Ference Marton and Paul Ramsden, "What Does it Take to Improve Learning?" in Improving Learning: New Perspectives (1988)
If students are to learn desired outcomes in a reasonably effective manner, then the teacher's fundamental task is to get students to engage in learning activities that are likely to result in their achieving those outcomes. . . . It is helpful to remember that what the student does is actually more important in determining what is learned than what the teacher does.
Shuell, T.J., "Cognitive Conceptions of Learning." Review of Educational Research 56 (1986): 411-436.
Learning, from its very beginnings, entails a process of courting failure and learning to play with it. None of us would be walking or talking-and certainly not reading, writing, and calculating-had we not embarked at an early age on the systematic project of doing things that were definitely impossible for us and repeatedly failing at them for an extended period of time. Those of us who have observed young children learning to walk or talk have noticed that toddlers are so called because they do not fear falling down and often seem to positively enjoy it. Toddlers are all incremental theorists and embrace learning goals with gusto. And this principle that trying the currently unachievable is an intrinsically interesting endeavor drives successful enterprise at every stage of life. The text you are reading now began as a magazine article and failed itself into a book.
Tagg, John. The Learning Paradigm College. (2003)
"Teaching and learning may be intimately connected, but, as any student knows, they are not the same. Faculty members at all levels methodically identify what should be taught, but spend less time finding out what students have actually learned. With learning as the center, what students learn is of primary importance. Knowledge of how learning occurs is a resource to make it happen better. Since a diverse student body learns in equally varied ways, students learn from one another, as well as from their teachers, and, indeed, teachers also learn from their students: this mutuality characterizes a learning-centered education. Students are treated as individuals, but also as members of groups--multiple and often overlapping groups. Powerful learning is intentionally nurtured over time.
Focusing education on learning should not be a radical concept for schools and colleges. But, in fact, when taken seriously, it implies far-reaching changes. For example, college becomes most importantly a place where people learn, rather than where they teach. The value of the credit unit also comes into question. Do credits earned, which equate to time spent in class, really certify learning? Does sitting through and passing two three-credit courses mean a student can communicate well enough in a second language? If the triple goals of intellectual and practical skill mastery, knowledge gain, and personal responsibility growth are what count, shouldn't how long it takes to acquire them become secondary? With learning truly as the center of education, the current practice of fixing a constant time for learning could logically give way to a more flexible model in which students are allowed variable time to achieve the outcomes desired."
Greater Expectations: A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College. National Panel Report. Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2002.
"Several possible futures for the scholarship of teaching and learning present themselves.
First, the scholarship of teaching and learning might become a specialty within the disciplines, as it already is in fields such as chemistry and composition where there are long-standing, active communities of faculty doing research on classroom practice. This scenario has some distinct advantages. If this work is not for everyone, if it is indeed a specialty, it garners the much-needed prestige and reward that comes with scarce goods.
In a second scenario, the scholarship of teaching and learning evolves on the model of women's studies or area studies. Faculty interested in teaching and learning, who in their own department may be alone in that interest, find like-minded colleagues from other fields and come together to form a multidisciplinary center for the study of teaching and learning, joining forces, learning from one another, and building a domain of knowledge that eventually infuses their home disciplines.
[A] third scenario strikes me as most promising. . . . It is a scenario in which the scholarship of teaching and learning is infused into the ongoing work of the institution--not as a new requirement for promotion and tenure, or something that replaces other work, but as a new conception of teaching in which habits of reflection, inquiry, and exchange are built into the regular rhythms of campus life. . . . Getting there is a long-term proposition, but there's movement, certainly, in that direction."
Pat Hutchings, "Movement in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning." Campus Progress: Supporting the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Washington, DC: American Association for Higher Education, 2004. 219-220.
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