The ATP ScotlandOctober 3rd, 2015

Jonathan Firth & Mark Healy

How do we link these together?

Research Aware / Literate/ Enagaged

False Perceptions /

Myths

What we know-

Learning

Does it help in the Class?

Neuroscience:implications foreducation andlifelong learning

Neuroscience:implications foreducation and

lifelong learning

SOURCE- Permission to use: Professor Dorothy Bishop, Research Ed Presentation, 2014

Key Insights:1.Both nature and nurture affect the learning brain

2.The brain is plastic 3.The brain’s response to reward is influenced by

expectations and uncertainty

4.The brain has mechanisms for self-regulation

5.Education is a powerful form of cognitive enhancement

6.There are individual differences in learning ability with a basis in the brain

SOURCE- Permission to use: Professor Dorothy Bishop, Research Ed Presentation, 2014

Cognitive Psychology: Universal consonants

Differential Psychology:Individual Differences

SOURCE: http://digest.bps.org.uk/2015/08/this-is-what-happened-when.html?m=1

•Working Memory- Near / Far Transfer?

• Heritability Traits

• Fluid Intelligence

• Crystalised Intelligence

• Close? Narrow? The Gap

• Cognitive Enhancement / Nudge Bell Curve

10 Things about Working Memory Model

1. Willingham (P.55), our site of awareness and of thinking (STM)

2. Willingham, (P.14) thinking occurs when we combine info. from environment and LTM. Combining happens in WM

3. Willingham, (P.20) This ‘meeting point’ of WM can be overloaded and has a limited processing capacity of its own

4. Willingham, (P.20) Slow the pace, and use memory ‘aids’

5. Gazzaniga, (P.300) The Central Executive – ‘Coordinator’ via existing Schema (what we have already stored) V SAS (when novel tasks are involved)

10 Things about Working Memory Model

6. Richardson-Klavhen & Bjork, (P.293)Widely accepted that Long Term Memory is not single store; communication between LTM & WM

7. Carey, (P.36) Storage strength, can increase not decrease but retrieval strength can decrease i.e we can’t access (Bjork & Disuse Theory)

8. Eysenck (p.176) WM, tasks can be performed that require active processing and temporary storage of information (SEE Willingham diagram)

9. Ackerman et al (2005) Working Memory & Intelligence (g)- the same? Different constructs? No. p=.479 “They correlate moderately highly- Eseynck”

10 Things about Working Memory Model

10. “Hermeneutic Humility” –Can we improve WM capacity? With reference to our current (at least, my) understanding of memory, inconclusive- we just don’t know- yet

But, a research aware profession, as a community of teachers, parents and

pupils can point towards evidence based practices such as these:

10 Things about Working Memory Model

10. “Hermeneutic Humility” –Can we improve WM capacity? With reference to our current (at least, my) understanding of memory, inconclusive- we just don’t know- yet

But, a research aware profession, as a community of teachers, parents and

pupils can point towards evidence based practices such as these:

To Learn, Retrieve

• “Practice at retrieving new knowledge or skill from memory is a potent tool for learning and durable retention”

(P.43, Make It Stick, Brown, Roediger and McDaniel)

• Effortful Retrieval (Desirable Difficulties?) (Halamish & R. A. Bjork, 2011

To Learn, Retrieve• Repeated Retrieval, Long Term Benefits

• Testing Effect -Not only in the class Low stakes & Self Tests (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006) • Corrective Feedback linked to repeated

testing or study only? Which would you choose?

EF is important for school success

Working memory and inhibitory control each independently predict both math & reading competence throughout the school years. Discipline accounts for over twice as much variance in final grades as does IQ, even in college. (Duckworth & Seligman, 2005)Adele Diamond

Effective Learning Technique?

1. Elaborative interrogation- Generate an explanation why an explicitly stated fact or concept is true 2. Self-explanation- Explain how new information is related to known information, or explaining steps taken during problem solving 3. Summarization- Write summaries of “to-be-learned” texts (of various lengths) 4. Highlighting/underlining- Mark potentially important portions of “to-be-learned” materials while reading 5. Keyword mnemonic- Use keywords and mental imagery to associate verbal materials

Effective Learning Technique?

6. Imagery for text- Form mental images of text materials while reading or listening 7. Rereading- Restudy text material again after an initial reading 8. Practice testing- Self-test or taking practice tests over to-be-learned material 9. Distributed practice- Implement a schedule of practice that spreads out study activities over time 10. Interleaved practice- Implementing a schedule of practice that mixes different kinds of problems, or a schedule of study that mixes different kinds of material, within a single study session

Dunlosky et al, 2013

Is our professional practice, at times, based on traditions and assumptions rather than evidence?

Long-term memory

– Bjork & Bjork (2011, p.57)

“Conditions that create challenges and slow the rate of apparent learning often optimize long-term retention and transfer.”

What we already know:

• Long-term memory is based on meaning• Can be distorted by questioning and recall• Our conceptual understanding clusters into schemas • Elaboration - linking concepts - is helpful• Forgetting can be due to retrieval failure

• Spacing: delay between practice/retrieval.• Optimum gap?• Links to LTP/protein synthesis

(Sharf et al., 2002) and may require SWS. • Issues of external validity

Graphs based on Bird,S. (2010)

• Interleaved practice: mixing different study activities (instead of studying one at a time until fluent).• Mimics real world activities• Massed practice results in a false

sense of mastery

• Retrieval practice: testing = a learning strategy

• Superiority of short answer v’s multi choice/reading only (McDaniel et al., 2007; see graph).

• Shown in lab & in real learning contexts

Source: McDaniel et al. (2007, p.503)

• Transfer: can the material be used in other contexts?

• ‘Far transfer’ = entirely different situations

• Automation of skills and knowledge; creative thinking.

Social psychology

(Haslam, 2014, p.4)

“…in a majority of social contexts, social identities serve to structure (and restructure) people’s perception and behaviour: their values, norms and goals; their orientations, relationships, and interactions; what they think, what they do, and what they achieve.”

What we already know:

• Behaviour can alter radically depending on the social context/field.• Social identity = part of self-concept.• Affects group behaviour & motivation• Depends on culture

• Individual v’s social identity: emphasis varies in different situations (Tajfel, 1982).• Individual - alone & some 1-to-1

situations• Social - in school; norms of group

influence behaviour

• Intrinsic motivation: enjoyment of the task• Extrinsic can become intrinsic• Self-concept impacts motivation &

therefore achievement (& vice versa?)• School-relevant goals and social

identity

• Leadership: the teacher and other school figures• Traditional - focus on characteristics of

leader.• S.I.T. view - identifying & harnessing

social identity (Haslam et al., 2003).• Groups collaboratively set goals; leader

guides

• Risks emphasising divisions..?• Belongingness rather than

alienation - likely to boost attainment (Reynolds et al., 2015).• Potential links to current

educational policy - encouraging cultural identities and ownership of learning…?

Qs:• How could the evidence on spacing and

interleaving affect our delivery of

concepts and topics?

• How do people self-identify in classes,

and identify with psychology in

particular?

References

Bird,S. (2010). Effects of distributed practice on the acquisition of second language English syntax. Applied Psycholinguistics, 31, 635–650.

Bjork, E. L., and Bjork, R. A. (2011). Making things hard on yourself, but in a good way: Creating desirable difficulties to enhance learning. In Gernsbacher, M.A., Pew, R.W., Hough, L.M. and Pomerantz, J.R. (Eds.) Psychology and the Real World: Essays Illustrating Fundamental Contributions to Society, 56-64.

Haslam, S.A. (2014). Making good theory practical: Five lessons for an Applied Social Identity Approach to challenges of organizational, health, and clinical psychology. British Journal of Social Psychology, 53, 1–20.

Haslam, S.A., Eggins, R.A. and Reynolds, K.J. (2003) The ASPIRe model: Actualizing social and personal identity resources to enhance organizational outcomes. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology , 76, 83–113

McDaniel, M. A., Anderson, J. L., Derbish, M. H., and Morrisette, N. (2007). Testing the testing effect in the classroom. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 19(4-5), 494-513.

Reynolds, K.J, Subašić, E., Lee, E., Bromhead, D. and Tindall, K. (2015). Does education really change us? The impact of school-based social processes on the person. In Reynolds, K.J & Branscome, N.R. (eds.), Psychology of Change: Life Contexts, Experiences, and Identities. New York: Psychology Press.

Sharf, M.T., Woo, N.H., Lattal, K.M., Young, J.Z., Nguyen, P.V. and Abel, T. (2002). Protein synthesis is required or the enhancement of long-term potentiation and long-term memory by spaced training. Journal of Neurophysiology, 87(6), 2770-2777.

Tajfel, H. (1982). Social psychology of intergroup relations. Annual Review of Psychology, 33(1), 1-39.