Student Learning

II. Environment
A. External
1. Decor
a. Neither starkly bare nor overly full, leaving space for student
contributions/displays
b. Orderly
2. Lighting
a. Full spectrum resulted in improvements academic, social, and
physical; cool white fluorescent resulted in increased levels of
stress
b. Dimness or brightness may be task specific
c. Some preferences will vary with individual students’ styles
3. Reading surfaces- black/white is occasionally too highly contrasted for
specific individuals; colored transparencies needed on reading page
4. Sound
a. Amplification within the classroom beneficial
b. Young learners highly responsive to classroom amplification;
very important as phonetic awareness developing
c. Older learners maintained greater on-task focus, greater
participation
d. Teachers less tired with less repetition of directions and vocal
strain
5. Temperature-Personal responsibility (too much variation to
generalization)
6. Hydration
a. Water essential to distribute oxygen to brain
b. Generally, some degree of dehydration was the norm
7. Structure- Mix of stability (consistency) and change (variety in
activities) produced more learning outcome

B. Internal
1.Brain structure
a. Reptilian brain
i. Fight/flight/freeze
ii. Protects territory and privacy
iii. Builds rituals and routines
iv. Governs self-preservation and privacy
b. Limbic system
i. Emotional part of brain
ii. Associated with group, family, and friends
iii. Governs kindness, gentleness, appreciation
iv. Site where memory in encoded for long-term
recollection
c. Neo-cortex
 i. Site for reasoning, planning, speech and language,
imagination, etc.
ii. Divided into left brain/right brain
iii. Functions with whole brain activation supplying
endorphins to body
iv. Closes in presence of fear, vulnerability, stress
including arguing, defensiveness, negativity, sarcasm,
but-downs, etc.

2. Learning accomplished in the whole body

a. Endorphin flow
b. New information assimilation requires new connections with
prior information
c. New connections change physiology
d. Most effective learning involves multiple memory traces
(including multiple senses)

3. Expectations-raise the bar the next notch

a. Teacher
i. Clear objectives clearly presented
ii. Multiple opportunities to achieve objectives
iii. Timely narrative feedback on students’ efforts
b. Student
i. Self image based on self understanding
ii. Self ideal based on what student wants to become

III. Motivation
A. Mastery vs. Performance Model (Svinicki 2005)
i. Mastery oriented students are interested in learning the skill, are
willing to take on difficult tasks, and view mistakes as learning
opportunities.
ii. Performance oriented students want to appear competent or better
than others, they stick to tasks that are known, familiar quantities,
and they view mistakes as evidence of lack of competence –
something they want to avoid.
iii. Strategies to encourage mastery orientation:
1. choose knowledge & skills worth learning
2. Set tasks beyond base capability, but within reach
3. Expect them to succeed
4. Make classroom a safe place to take risks.
5. Build the class into a community of learners, where
everyone supports the others’ attempts to learn.
6. Be a good model of a mastery oriented learner yourself.
 7. Accept that your class is not the only or even the most
important place your students have to perform.

B. Intrinsic Motivation “Guide on the side” model. (Theroux 1994)

i. Achievement does not always correlate with ability. It is fostered
by taking risks, making errors, and a belief that you have control
over the outcome. It is hindered by perfectionism, fear of failure,
and a belief that someone else controls the outcome.
ii. Strategies to enhance intrinsic motivation
1. Offer real challenges, and encourage intellectual risk-taking
2. Build on their strengths first.
3. Offer choices: this develops ownership of results.
4. Secure environment: able to fail without penalty.
5. Teach how to manage tasks; prioritize; organize.
6. Use rewards and punishments with caution. Short term
only.
7. Help students develop a feeling of control.
8. Avoid power struggles. Poorly motivated students are
manipulative. Offer choices, but within boundaries.
9. Occasionally introduce ambiguity.
10. Offer open-ended activities to develop creativity.
11. Teach students to evaluate themselves.
12. Give appropriate attention for effort or risk.
13. Competition, if taught to see loss as mistakes: an
opportunity to learn and improve.
14. Relevance: students should know the goal and the benefits
of an activity.
15. Reinforce skills that they need in class.
16. Teach a variety of organizational strategies.
17. Model – a motivated learner and good loser.
18. Differentiate instruction.
19. Scaffolding: provide support so the student has a chance to
be successful when given a challenge.
20. Use computers: being able to present a word document,
power point, or web page can be highly motivating to
students.

C. Kohlberg’s Six Levels of Moral Development

1. Motivated by fear of punishment. Stay out of trouble.
2. Motivated by (extrinsic) reward.
3. Motivated by pleasing someone.
4. Motivated by following the rules.
5. Motivated by empathy – considerate of others.
6. Motivated by remaining true to a personal code of behavior
Student Learning

IV. Teacher Role: Model

A. Thought Processes
• “To be effective, knowledge must be allowed to develop
through familiar experiences that grow to recognition of
new concepts, patterns, and relationships. IN a learning
environment, new information is presented so it can be
evaluated and related to existing information, forming a
pattern or ‘chunk’ of information. Once the learner
accepts the validity or need of a new perspective, the
easier information can be incorporated.” (Rogers 2006)
• “How do we teach students thinking skills?...Model our
own thinking process. Students harbor the illusion that
we were born competent in our subject, but they need
to be aware of how long it took us to reach our current
level of competence. Seeing the instructor struggle
[with revising a paper] gives students courage to begin
revising their own work. We can work aloud through a
problem, and point out the steps in our thinking process
as we go along.” (Weiss, POD Network)

B. Relationships

• Students come with diverse backgrounds and

motivations. Intrinsic motivation can be stimulated by
knowing the learner. Effective teachers are interested
inquirers.
• Learning occurs on the journey from problem to
solution. Students need to plan, think (creatively and
critically) and evaluate. Effective teachers are guides
who reduce misdirection and highlight meaning.
• Knowledge comes through practice, and it evolves. New
problems lead to inquiry, discovery, and application.
Effective teachers are also practitioners of this process.
(Rogers 2006)

• Effective teachers take an interest in the students’

learning. They probe to find out what students already
know. They ask about learning styles and expectations.
They make a personal connection, both inside and
outside of the classroom
• Effective teachers help students answer their own
questions, through One Minute Papers, Prior Knowledge
Probes, and other questions. (See section on
Questions.)
• Effective teachers create rapport. They learn and use
students’ names; encourage questions, comments, risk-
taking, and creativity; use appropriate humor and
personal stories; develop advising skills; offer to help
outside of class; are sensitive to student responses and
tolerant of other viewpoints. (Fleming 2003)
V. Student Involvement and Questioning

A. Why?
“…the relationship between students’ active involvement
and effective learning is so strong that the effectiveness of
any educational policy or practice is directly related to the
capacity of that policy to increase involvement in learning.
Active involvement includes frequent student-faculty
interaction, both in and outside of class.”
“…involving students in discussions fosters retention of
information, application of knowledge to new situations, and
development of higher-order thinking skills – and discussions
do this much better than lectures do. Yet 70-90% of
professors use the traditional lecture as their primary
instructional strategy.” (Gardiner, L 1998)

B. How?
i. Asking Questions in Class
1. Ask open-ended questions
2. Ask divergent as well as convergent questions
3. Wait after questions to give students time to
think
4. ask for student questions
5. listen attentively to their questions
6. answer their questions (or redirect, or probe, or
rephrase, or promote discussion – but do not
ignore or belittle.)
(Cashin 1995)

ii. Extend Thinking after Questions

1. Provide wait time after a question and
response
2. Use Think-Pair-Share (individual reflection, pair
discussion, class discussion)
3. Ask follow-up questions
4. Withhold judgment, and respond in a non-
evaluative way.
5. Ask for a summary from another student
6. Take a survey of the class (thumbs up or down)
7. Allow students to select someone to respond.
8. Play devil’s advocate and ask students to
defend their reasoning.
9. Have students unpack their thinking out loud.
10.Call on students randomly.
11.Student-to-student questioning. Have them
develop their own questions (even ones for a
test.)
12.Cue student responses. “There is not a single
correct answer for this question. Consider
alternatives.”
13.Warn students that a question is coming, to
they can be ready.
(Fleming 2003)
iii. Engender Student Questioning
Goal: Students processing information, problem
solving, and becoming interdependent thinkers.

1. Begin a new unit by asking students for

questions that could be asked on the topic.
2. Brainstorm questions together, allowing and
promoting unusual, divergent, and tantalizing
questions.
3. Categorize questions. Cluster around topic.
Label as interesting/uninteresting, or
easy/difficult.
4. Create a class taxonomy of questions. Use the
metaphor of organizing different tools in a
toolbox. (Fact Questions, Why Questions,
Inference Questions, Imagine Questions…)
5. Have them develop questions for homework.
6. Have students conduct interviews.
7. Ask 5 or 10 minute questions. Don’t allow
them to answer profound questions quickly,
without putting in the requisite thought.
(McKenzie “Filling the Tool
Box”)