Reflections as a learner, educator, and a curious researcher

October 2011: Research Based Teaching Qualities and Learning Principles

by skpa

October 2011:  Research Based Teaching Qualities and Learning Principles

A document titled “Eight Research-based Qualities of Highly Effective Teachers” by Dan Pratt and a book “How Learning Works” containing seven principle of learning caught my interest. While the  former is concerned with teaching and teacher qualities the latter is  concerned with learning.  For the completeness of this reflection, I quote the eight teacher qualities and seven learning principle below.

Eight Qualities of Highly Effective Teachers (Dan Pratt)

  1. Focus on Learning:  Know that what was learned, is more important than what was taught.
  2. Engagement: Know that long-term retention is improved when people are actively engaged in both encoding and retrieval of new information.
  3. Role Modeling: Know they teach as much (or more) by what they do than by what they say.
  4. Zone of Development: Teach to the learners’ zone of proximal development in their respective field or discipline and have learners teach each other.
  5. Key Points: Build their teaching around key features or concepts that help learners organize, prioritize and recall information.
  6. Understanding of Learning: Know that learning is influenced by  prior knowledge, experience, and beliefs.
  7. Provision of Feedback: Provide students with feedback in advance of, and separate from, high stakes accountability.
  8. Perception of Assessment: Know that students’ learning is influenced by their perception of how they will be assessed.
Seven Principles of Learning (From a book on “How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching” by Ambrose et al)
  1. Student’s  prior knowledge can help or hinder learning
  2. How students organize knowledge influences how they learn and apply what they know
  3. Students’s motivation determines, directs, and sustains what they do to learn.
  4. To develop mastery, students must acquire component skills, practice integrating them, and know when to apply what they have learned.
  5. Goal-directed practice coupled with targeted feedback enhances the quality of students’s learning.
  6. Students’ current level of development interacts with the social, emotional, and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning.
  7. To become self-directed learners, students must learn to monitor and adjust their approaches to learning.

The question I want to reflect is “What is the mutual relation between the teacher qualities and learning principles?”.  Of course a one-to-one mapping between teaching and learning principles can neither be expected nor desired.

For examples the quality of Key Points resonates with  learning principle 4. Similarly the quality  of Understanding of Learning  resonates with learning principle 1. Similarities are apparent with respect to feedback too. However there are unique teaching qualities too such as Role Modeling that have no immediate mapping into the learning principles. I will continue to look at these lists in time to come. Simply thinking about the interrelationships had contributed to my own learning and understanding.

Finally, the learning principle 7 seem to point towards reflection on behalf of the students. This certainly is something I would like to read more about this in the literature.

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