Food for Thought: The Science of Learning (and technology’s impact on how we learn)

I hope you all enjoyed the 3E learning experience. 3E again emphasized just how much professional talent we have at ISHCMC and how much passion for education and learning exists in our community. Student learning is at the center of what we do at school. So understanding how students learn is fundamental and how as teachers/ coaches/ guides we can positively contribute to this learning.

ISHCMC has a definition of learning that we should be focusing on everyday in our classrooms:

Learning is a life-long process that empowers students through engaging with and reflecting upon information and experiences to construct new or to modify existing understandings as well as transferring skills and values.

This links very well with our school vision which is also built around the right environment for learning whether that be physical or attitudinal: 

To be widely recognized as a school that nurtures a creative and collaborative learning environment in which students and teachers seek to achieve beyond their goals, flourish as individuals, display compassion, embrace challenge, take principled action on local and global issues and enjoy being part of their community.

This weeks Food for Thought builds on our goal of improving student learning in our classrooms. This short video explores why technology has not revolutionized learning in the classroom whilst at the same time highlighting the important role of the teacher in the process of learning.

The second part of this week's Food for Thought is an excellent article from A.J. Juliani on the Science of Learning and how technology impacts how we learn.



"So how do people learn? What are the mechanics of memory? Can we distill thousands of articles and books to something that is manageable, digestible, and applicable to our classrooms?

1. Attention: the filter through which we experience the world
2. Encoding: how we process what our attention admits into the mind
3. Storage: what happens once information enters the brain
4. Retrieval: the recall of that information or behavior
Almost everything we do or know, we learn through these stages, for our learning is memory, and the bulk of our memory is influenced by these four processes: what we pay attention to, how we encode it, what happens to it in storage, and when and how we retrieve it.
Let’s start with Attention. Going back to the previous post on why we learn, it all begins with attention. Most of the time we pay attention for two reasons: Interest or Necessity.
Our brain is flooded with information from a multi-sensory world that is throwing sounds, sights, feelings, and everything else at us in rapid succession. With all of this information coming at us we tend to pay attention to things that we are curious and interested about, or information that has a direct correlation to our physical, emotional, or psychological well-being.
Then comes the Encoding. Our senses are being hit with so much information that when we finally process that information we begin to categorize it as a new experience or a connected experience with prior knowledge.
After we’ve successfully paid attention and made some connections (or created new information) we come to the Storage stage. Here we store this new or connected information in our short-term, working, or long-term memory. Where it is stored and how it is stored is associated with how powerful of an experience it is/was, and how often we bring that experience back into our daily lives.
Retrieval is the final stage. This is when we pull information out of the memory to help us in learning something new, or adapting to a situation, or connecting the dots on an experience. Retrieval also allows us to “re-encode” which starts the learning process all over again. 
Consider the fact that technological advances over the years have always impacted how we learn, and changed how we engage with the learning process."

Along with 3E this article and video should give you something to think about as you plan your lessons. Adding the science of learning to the pedagogical tools and discussions you had on Friday and Saturdays should enable you to further develop your pedagogical skills as you grow as a teacher.

Have a good Sunday and Monday,

Yours
Adrian