New Directions in Teaching and Learning

From Theory to Practice: Applying the Science of Learning to the University and Beyond

Diane F. Halpern and Milton D. Hakel (Eds.)

A Special Edition of New Directions in Teaching and Learning was published in 2002. The chapters will provide an overview of some of the themes that will be addressed at the working retreat. Chapter contents:

Chapter 1. Encouraging the application of science-based knowledge to the university and beyond. Milton D. Hakel (Bowling Green State University) and Diane F. Halpern (California State University, San Bernardino)

We already have a substantial body of knowledge that could be used to improve post secondary instruction, but very little of this information is ever used in college classrooms, even by the researchers who study human cognition, motivation, and social systems. The problem is the mismatch between how we teach and how we learn. Research psychologists and other academics spend much of their professional lives studying cognition, learning, social systems, and group interaction. As a discipline, we have produced huge quantities of research reports that document our understanding of how people process, retain and use information. The psychological literature on the role of emotion, culture, peer relations, and other individual and social factors in learning is over 100 years old, which studies from education, anthropology, and other related disciplines predating the first psychological studies, perhaps, by centuries, depending on what you decide to "count" as research. It is increasingly clear that some of the current mainstays of educational formats and approaches -- such as classroom lectures, "rote" learning, multiple-choice tests, and so on - are not the most effective practices for learning, yet they are probably the most widely used instructional methods at the college level. How can we encourage the use of science-based knowledge about how people learn, think, and remember in instructional design? In short, we want to encourage major changes in higher education-ones that are based on empirical data about what works-and we want to make education a research science that is constantly being evaluated and improved.

Chapter 2. Cognitive Theory and the Design of Multimedia Instruction: An Example of the Two-Way Street Between Cognition and Instruction Richard E. Mayer (University of California, Santa Barbara)

There is an intertwined and reciprocal relation between cognitive theory and educational practice--a relation that benefits both fields. This is the thesis I examine in this essay. By intertwined, I mean that (a) it is not possible to fully understand cognition without understanding how it works in realistic settings such as how students learn and think in educational settings, and (b) it is not possible to appropriately reform education without understanding how people learn and think. By reciprocal, I mean that (a) practical educational problems challenge psychologists to improve their cognitive theories, and (b) educationally-relevant cognitive theories challenge educators to improve their teaching practices. In this essay, I explore a case example of the intertwined and reciprocal relation between cognition and instruction by focusing on my own research program on the design of multimedia instructional messages. Overall, I explore how cognitive theories of learning can be used to enhance the learning of college students and other adults, and how the challenges of higher education enhance the development of theories of how people learn.

Chapter 3. The Theory of Successful Intelligence as a Basis for Instruction and Assessment in Higher Education Robert J. Sternberg (Yale University) & Elena L. Grigorenko (Yale University)

According to the proposed theory, successful intelligence is (1) the use of an integrated set of abilities needed to attain success in life, however an individual defines it, within his or her sociocultural context. People are successfully intelligent by virtue of (2) recognizing their strengths and making the most of them at the same time that they recognize their weaknesses and find ways to correct or compensate for them. Successfully intelligent people (3) adapt to, shape, and select environments through (4) finding a balance in their use of analytical, creative, and practical abilities (Sternberg, 1997a, 1999). Teaching and assessment should balance use of analytical, creative, and practical thinking.

Chapter 4. Physics is to Engineering as Biology is to Medicine as Psychology is to Education: True or False? Nora S. Newcombe (Temple University)

Lesson 1: Students should study A to qualify in B. This implies that prospective teachers should be educated in cognitive science. I have devised and taught a course of this kind and will discuss my experiences, both positive and negative.
Lesson 2: As with psychotherapy, supervision and peer supervision should be continuing processes. This model can be contrasted with existing practica and evaluations.
Lesson 3: There is a need for scientist-practitioners, to advance and shape research and to aid dissemination and translation of research into practice. Implication is the founding of a new kind of degree program and new kind of professional.
Lesson 4: Evidence-based decisions should be the goal for education. This would require widespread understanding of (or at least appreciation of) experimental design and statistical thinking.

Chapter 5. Improving Comprehension through Discourse Processing Arthur C. Graesser (University of Memphis) and Natalie Person (Rhodes College) and Xiangen Hu

The field of discourse processing offers some solutions to the challenge of promoting deep comprehension during learning. The present article sketches the salient components of discourse processing mechanisms and subsequently points out how such mechanisms can be recruited to improve deep comprehension. So what is discourse processing? Researchers in the field of discourse processing investigate the structures, patterns, mental representations, and psychological processes that underlie written and spoken discourse. It is an interdisciplinary field that includes psychology, rhetoric, sociolinguistics, computational linguistics, conversation analysis, education, sociology, anthropology, and computer science. We focus primarily on the contributions from discourse psychology, education, and computer science in the present article. The practical mission is to improve the comprehension of material in textbooks, classrooms, human tutoring, and computer-based training.

Chapter 6. Issues, Examples, and Challenges in Formative Assessment Earl Hunt (University of Washington) and James Pellegrino (Vanderbilt University)

Assessment in education is used for two purposes, to certify the amount that individual students have learned and to provide an accountability measure for students and educational systems as a whole. Most assessments are based on a linear representation of students' knowledge; a student knows a certain amount of history, mathematics, or whatever is being assessed. While there are reasons for this evaluative mode of assessment, a quality control model would be far better. Formative assessment, in which the assessment is integrated within instruction and aimed at increasing learning, can replace evaluative assessment in many situations. Two programs of formative assessment are described, the DIAGNOSER and SMART programs. Suggestions are made concerning the integration of these and similar programs into the educational system.

Chapter 7. Using the principles of cognitive psychology to improveclassroom teaching and learning, Patricia Ann deWinstanley (Oberlin College) and Robert Bjork (University of California, Los Angeles).

            Principles from cognitive psychology that can be used to improve college-level
            classroom instruction are discussed, along with suggested applications and data       
            supporting their use.  Click to view a preview of the principles and their application

Chapter 8. Cognitive Psychology and College-Level Pedagogy: Two Siblings Who Rarely Communicate Margaret W. Matlin (State University of New York, Geneseo)

This annotated bibliography of the recent psychological literature on applying empirically-verified methods to adult education appears in its entirety on this site. To read the draft chapter, click on the "back" button of your browser, then click on "annotated references."