Own Your Words

I had a bright idea.

I'd pass index cards around at the meeting and have people write their personal definitions of "significant learning experiences." But I ran into a snag.

What I really wanted to do was attach them (as comments) to the earlier post "What is an SLE?" as comments.

But there was a problem.

I didn't want to allow anonymous posts or comments.

In the 90s there was a famous online virtual community called The Well. There were incredible conversations including some of the most brilliant people around. But The Well had one rule that is quite different from the Internet of today. You had to reveal who you were. "You own your words" was the oft stated principle.

I have a feeling that the Internet of today would be much better if such a rule existed. Unfortunately that boat has left the dock.

But not here. On the blogs that I administer the rules of The Well will be observed.

PS. Here are the index card definitions I picked up at the meeting. Some of them are quite good.

A SIGNIFICANT LEARNING EXPERIENCE IS:

1. Learning that causes one to see things / the world, etc ... differently, to see new/different connections.

2. An emotional intellectual and behavioral event that is life changing.

3. When the students are engaged in a risk-free learning environment and have a sense of success.

4. When I can do something I couldn't do before -- and remember it the next day or longer.

6. When I know/see/understanding in a new way.

7. Something that can be applied outside a classroom or enhance further learning.

8. Understanding a concept or information and the ability to apply that learning to future learning/ working experiences.

9. One that can be transferred between settings and reinforced in a personally meaningful way for long term memory.

10. Something that effects my mind and behavior. Involved with someone / something that is new and important to me.

11. An experience that is based on the need to know.

How to Learn Brain-Based Learning and More ... Using Brain Based Learning Principles: an Experiential Approach

1. Assign students to do research on brain-based learning as homework. Don't give any more details than that. (At least not until you've gone through this experience at least once). This could also be adjusted depending on what your objectives are. Mine is to give them an experience which builds on their existing habits, then moves beyond it.

2. At the next class each student should bring a hardcopy article of his or her choosing on the topic at hand (brain-based learning). The article should be marked up and/or annotated in a way that would demonstrate that the student has actually read it, spent some time with it, engaged with it on some level.

3. Instructor begins by checking markups on papers of students present. Only those who have a marked up copy can participate In discussion. (If we do this early in the semester .. without warning .. I suspect the "preparation for class index" will rise). This piece can be omitted, of course) if it doesn't fit with your objectives.

4. Either with assistance or entirely on their own students should construct their own 12 commandments for brain-based learning. It's a single group-authored document that is, in one version of this, done in the classroom that has been vacated by the instructor. Students must agree on language, order of the commandments, presentafion format, how or whether to give credit to sources. (They should remember it will be due at the next class meeting. This is an intentional constraint). I envision this as perhaps the first group project of the semester. Again, in keeping with the objective of providing them with experiences where they make mistakes, then learn (mostly from themselves and each other) how to move beyond them. This could also provide an excellent learning moment for encountering the skills of cooperative learning. (See almost anything by David and Roger Johnson).

5. If you do decide to let students do the list entirely on their own...this would be a good activity for the following class. They can present it to instructor with a kind of "reading aloud" ceremony. Let them discuss the process that resulted in the 12 commandments document. Part of the assignment is their "presentation" must include as much of the rationale for their decisions on the content of the document as they can recall. Again, the instructor can highlight key cooperative learning skills, both observed and needed.

6. Watch Brain Rules video and show the students the book. Help them note the differences between their list and the ones in the video and the book. Can they explain any of those differences? Finally they (the students as a whole) should rank order the brain rules list in terms of what order would be best for students. There is no wrong answer here but you do want to push them to justify their choices.

7. As a summing up activity and assessment, each student will write a reflection on the whole experience in their e-portfolio. A grade will be taken. They should be told that the quality of their contribution will be evaluated primarily on the basis of the following definition of reflection:

a. "Reflective differs from thoughtful in its stronger implication of orderly processes of thought, such as analysis and logical reasoning, in its suggestion of a definite aim, such as the understanding of a thing's nature or of its relation to other things or the reaching of a definite conclusion." From: "Thoughtful." Webster's New Dictionary of Synonyms. Springfield: Merriam Webster, 1984. COMMENT: This may be too difficult. I'll try to find a way to make it not quite so, yet still challenging. On the other hand, it could provide a significant teaching moment, especially if you allow them drop this grade.

8. Consider challenging the students' decision about how and whether to give credit unless,of course, it was perfect in every way. Please note: This is optional and is left to the very end because it may violate some of the principles of brain-based learning. The instructor may also want to include one of the best videos ever on the consequences of plagiarism.

Brain-Based Learning as a Problem to Be Solved

My task as I understood it was to create an activity that would incorporate active learning and include an educative assessment piece. This activity is not fully developed, but is suggestive. I will try to remove the rough edges in time. Let me begin with the resources I have in mind:

Resource 1: John Medina. Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School.Seattle: Pear, 2008.

This is a superb book recommended by one of our librarians who until joining us recently was a librarian at Microsoft where this book and the accompanying videos are, apparently, all the rage. I'm selecting it as a resource because it has the business angle, the author has impeccable credentials, and the video material is dynamite. The DVD with one 3-5 minute clip for each of the 12 "rules" comes free with purchase of the book and the free web site at www.brainrules.net is also quite good.

Resource 2: "Brain based education: Fad or breakthrough?" YouTube.

Professor Daniel Willingham looks at when and how neuroscience can inform education. The professor also has very good credentials. Some may not particularly like his demeanor. But that is beside the point. "

The problem for the class to work out is "Who shall we believe? Or "Is Dr. Medina's work in the 95% group of publications that Willingham says is garbage?"

I'm tempted to stop right here and simply put these rich materials into the hands of creative teachers and let them make a significant learning experience out of this. I've got some ideas on how to proceed but I probably won't be able to post them for a while. Until then, feel free to extend this activity stem with comments...

John Gardner on The First Year Experience: Irving, Texas, Jan 27,2010

These are my "very rough" notes of the meeting with John Gardner. There were 12 or 13 of us. The Cool Ranch Restaurant was HUGE. The food was very good. And what John shared was most informative. At least in my humble opinion. GD

Anyway for what they're worth, here are the notes. Maybe they'll help jog the memories of those who were there ... and provide a small glimpse for those who were not.

I've also enjoyed reading Gardner's blog. Particularly the latter part of the tagline:

"He is alert to national and institutional policies that support or sabotage students’ progress through undergraduate education."

The Search for Practical Theory

Sometimes my mind busies itself during holiday with inscrutible questions. One that kept arising since late December was what those of us on the Learning Frameworks committee should put forward as OUR THEORY (for information literacy). As you know Learning Frameworks is supposed to be based on theory.

Those of us on both sides of the fence (faculty and librarian) are not particularly comfortable with such questions. We take pride in our practicality. But it's a task that must be done and the deadline is fast approaching. So what shall it be?

I don't think theory has to mean grand theory, but it should point to something other than mere practice. It's not about how to do something but rather about providing context for things done.

The one that has settled in my mind the longest has two interrelated parts:

(1) Information Cycles and (2) The Concept of Primary - Secondary - Tertiary sources. Here's a page in the University of Idaho Information Literacy Tutorial that combines both. There are, of course, many additional resources on the web that could support this. Like this interactive activity from The University of Washington or this audio powerpoint called 1-2-3 of Sources from a librarian in Minnesota.

I know it's not very satisfying. But if you can only teach one thing (the theory - the content) what would/should it be?

PS 1. For what it's worth here's another idea I've toyed with. Science teacher Greg Craven made a 10 minute viral YouTube video a few years back that was essentially an overview of how to think about Global Warming. He called it "The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See." There was a web site that followed the video and a book which I purchased ...What's the Worst That Could Happen? I purchased it because of Chapter 4 "A Beautiful Rainbow of Credibility: The Credibility Spectrum." It's 25 pages and could I think be translated into some kind of activity. I'll probably do another blog post that expands on this idea.

PS 2. I'm sitting here with a pile of information literacy texts trying to figure out what to do. It doesn't look promising.

My Top 10 List: Integrative Learning Conference: Atlanta, October 22-24, 2009

The American Association of Colleges and Universities knows its stuff. I shared breakfast (and a learning activity) with a psychology prof who's been coming to AAC&U conferences for years. He said he just noticed that everything they did was high caliber all the way.

It's true. Every session I attended was so good that one hardly knows where to start. In fact, I've been debating with myself how best to share what I received there. If you have a taste for drinking from a fire hydrant, here's the program (with green checkmarks for sessions I attended). And for the truly gluttonous, here are my (unedited) notes.

With my own work group, I've been sharing a little bit each week and plan on continuing that through next semester.

With the larger CORE group, I'm not so sure. I am inviting my colleagues who attended to also write something here. We'll see what materializes.

I'd hoped that some of the presentations would be available on the conference web site but, alas, that has not yet happened. (I'll post a link here when these become available).

For lack of any brighter ideas and in light of the upcoming CORE convention I've decided to provide a brief sampling of things that stood out for me.

In recent years I've learned that one of the best things that comes out of conference attendance for me is new language. Thus equipped with new search words, I can then shift into research mode and find all sorts of wonderful resources.

So: In classic quick-to-read web form, here's my bullet list of highlights: buzzwords and soundbites with definitions where appropriate and (hopefully) enlightening links.

1. Powerful Ideas. Melissa Peet from The University of Michigan was the last speaker on the program. For me she was the most exciting. I spoke with her afterwards and she told me she was most motivated by powerful ideas which inspired me to include this bullet, even organize this blog post around a series of what I believe to be powerful ideas. Peet oversees the Generative Knowledge and ePortfolio Program at The University of Michigan and talks so fast you can hardly keep up with her. It's impossible to convey the full effect of what she spoke about but maybe this powerpoint can suggest some of the integrative depth that is possible. Some of the "new language" she gave included: three forms of knowledge (generative, tacit, and embodied), the generative interviewing process (whose purpose is to ask questions that draw out tacit strengths, capacities, potentials and possibilities),

2. Authentic Evidence. This is the AAC&U term for "assessments that focus both student and faculty attention on the essential aims and outcomes of a college education. The AAC&U resists — and works to provide alternatives to the use of multiple-choice tests as the primary index of the quality of institutions’ or student’s achievement" (From their mission statement). Toward this end, much of their work centers around advancing the use of e-portfolios.

3.VALUE Rubrics. If authentic student work is to be the evidence for achievement, simple grading systems will not suffice, despite their convenience. Thus the need for rubrics. Again AAC&U has sponsored field testing of 15 rubrics: ten covering the practical and intellectual skills, four personal and social responsibility and one specifically for integrative learning.

4. E-portfolios. "Last spring, Kathleen Blake Yancey suggested that e-portfolios were a leading element in a “tectonic shift” in higher education. Yancey, the Kellogg Hunt Professor of English at Florida State University and former president of the National Council of Teachers of English, spoke to hundreds of e-portfolio practitioners gathered at a landmark e-portfolio conference held at LaGuardia Community College in 2008. She argued that e-portfolios radically alter how students learn, how faculty teach, and how institutions assess the value of their educations—that e-portfolios are literally remaking the landscape of higher education"(From Elizabeth Clarks's article in the AACU journal Peer Review). Another rousing roundtable discussion that captures some of the electricity (and challenge) around e-portfolios can be found on The Academic Commons. And for more on the "tectonic shift" see Kathleen Yancey's "Writing in the 21st Century." Among other things the e-portfolio provides a platform for reflection.

5. Reflection. This is an old, old word that takes on more and more significance the closer you look. The term kept popping up at the conference. John Dewey said that knowledge and experience are different things and we learn from processing experience (reflecting on it). Sometimes referred to as a form of "meaning making", reflection is a key component in e-portfolios. But it's not just for students. Reflective practice is what distinguishes the professional who grows and changes based on experience that is continually being reflected upon. The Consortium for Innovative Environments in Learning has produced an fine, exhaustive bibliography on the subject. Or browse through a thick tome, Metacognition in Learning and Instruction, courtesy of Google Books. Half the book is devoted to student metacognition and half to teacher metacognition. Chapter 8 "Teaching Metacognitively" is mostly available with only a few pages blocked. Reflection has many purposes but I've come to believe that its most important one for our purposes is to serve as a strategy for facilitating integrative learning.

6. Integrative Learning. My favorite approach to integrative learning is from Dee Fink who, of course, provided the inspiration and the title for this blog. He was at the conference and I met him, although I wasn't able to attend his session because it was beyond standing room only. I did manage to get in on one he moderated where he distributed a handout on the multiple meanings of Integrative Learning (easy to understand and easy to use in an activity for broader understanding of the concept). I'm pretty sure that activity will be a part of the upcoming CORE conference on January 14. By the way, Fink's new book Designing Significant Learning Experiences brings us up to date with some real world experiences of people trying to implement his ideas on their campuses. They whimsically referred to themselves as "educators who've been finked."

7. Assessing Integrative Assignments. One of the very best sessions I attended was imaginatively entitled "You Get What You Ask For: Connecting Assessment of Integrative Thinking to Improvement of Assignment Design." Janine Graziano-King and colleagues conducted it in classic active learning style. (This is where I worked with the psychology prof who's made a career of attending AAC&U conferences.) Using a superb decision tree that Kingsborough Center for Teaching and Learning developed especially for assessing integration between two content courses, we met in groups to assess a piece of student work from one of the learning community classes. After a bit, the facilitators showed us the prompt that had been used to introduce the assignment. It didn't take much examination at all to recognize that a good portion of the poor results from the student had been "set up" by the poor assignment prompt. Wow! Talk about a powerful learning experience.

8. Assignment Scaffolding. Speaking of assignment design, another practical strategy that impressed me was the notion of assignment scaffolding. This was one of those that came not as a featured session but as an aside that for whatever reason caught my attention. I find it mostly useful as a metaphor/criteria for developing well constructed assignments. If you're a fan of George Lakoff's ideas on the centrality of metaphor, you'll notice we've just jumped into a building and construction metaphor. We can speak about our foundation, about creating something solid that lasts, and much more. The metaphor is generative. You've probably already figured out what assignment scaffolding is. A learning activity begins small by giving a student place to stand, then from that new higher position, a second activity proceeds that builds on the skills acquired at level one. This can be done within a single class but the more interesting challenge for we CORE people is how to create assignment scaffolding that works across courses and through semesters. For a good example from Canada, see this one from an accounting instructor.

9. Shared Pedagogies.There was no special session but the term shared pedagogies came up several times over the course of the three day conference.Apparently, benefits multiply for student and teachers when the same approaches to learning are encountered in different classes. I'd say cooperative learning is a shared pedagogy in several of our colleges.

10. Powerful Keynotes. There isn't time to develop their ideas here, but take my word for it. Veronica Boix Mansilla (Pedagogy of the Contemporary) and Bruce Hutton (The Daniels Compass) are definitely worth a price of admission. I'll post their presentation materials here as soon as they become available.

On Deciding What to Teach and Learn

I noticed that the keynote speaker on Thursday night for the upcoming AACU Conference on Integrative Learning is Veronica Boix Mansilla.

Mansilla is Lecturer, Graduate School of Education, and Principal Investigator with Project Zero, Harvard University.

Upon seeing her name in the program and realizing she was part of Project Zero I was reminded of the respect I've held for Project Zero for many years. I've always thought it a shame that not more educators know who they are or what they do.

Howard Gardner, who wrote Five Minds for the Future (which one of the CORE committees is reading) is also part of Project Zero. As is my hero, David Perkins, from whom you shall hear more in a moment.

In case you are curious, the reason Project Zero has the zero in its name is it's founder believed that "... learning should be studied as a serious cognitive activity, but that "zero" had been firmly established about the field."

Their mission, then is "to understand and enhance learning, thinking, and creativity in the arts, as well as humanistic and scientific disciplines, at the individual and institutional levels."

But I digress.

In Smart Schools which was published in 1992, Perkins included a section he called Theory One.

As we embark on the task of deciding what this much ballyhooed Learning Framework/s? course ought to be, I thought it might be helpful to review what he said.

So here it is straight from page 45: Theory One.

A rather good theory of teaching and learning can be stated in a single sentence.The theory is not terribly sophisticated. It does not require elaborate laboratory research to test and justify. But pursuing its implications can take us a long way toward a much improved vision of classroom practice. So simple is this theory, so much a rough-hewn, first-order approximation to the conditions that foster learning, that we will call it Theory One, saving higher numbers for fancier theories.

Theory One says this:

People learn much of what they have a reasonable opportunity and motivation to learn.

How could so outrageously bland a statement about teaching possibly imply anything about better classroom practice? Admittedly, Theory One seems entirely too mousy for the job. But this is the Mouse That Roared. To see its power, we need to elaborate somewhat on the implications of the one-sentence version of Theory One. What is "reasonable opportunity and motivation to learn."? Without resorting to any technical knowledge about learning, one might commonsensically put down the following conditions:

--Clear information. Descriptions and examples of the goals, knowledge needed, and the performances expected.

-- Thoughtful practice. Opportunity for learners to engage actively and reflectively whatever is to be learned -- adding numbers, solving word problems, writing essays.

-- Informative feedback. Clear, thorough counsel to learners about their performance, helping them to proceed more effectively.

-- Strong intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. Activities that are amply rewarded, either because they are very interesting and engaging in themselves or because they feed into other achievements that concern the learner.

So there it is, Theory One, a commonsense conception of a good teaching practice. Theory One aims simply to establish a baseline. For any performance we want to teach, if we supply clear information about the performance by way of examples and descriptions, offer learners time to practice the performance and think about how they are handling it, provide informative feedback, and work from a platform of strong intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, we are likely to have considerably success with the teaching.


Perkins, David. Smart Schools: From Training Memories to Educating Minds. New York: Free Press-Macmillan, 1992.