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How Learning Works (Session 11)
Date and Time: Thursday, July 15th, 12-1pm ET (4-5pm UTC)
Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84329570436
We humans are born ignorant, gullible, and helpless. Innate knowledge makes up a tiny fraction of what we need to know, and our survival depends on our capacity to acquire knowledge—in a word, to learn. (To genuinely thrive, of course, we must learn a good deal more.) But what is learning? How does it work? Are we doing enough to promote it? Are our schools well designed to facilitate learning? How can we facilitate more and better learning?
For millennia, philosophers have wrestled with questions like these. For centuries, creative educators have used trial and error to find out what works. The actual science of learning, though, is only a few decades old. (Wikipedia testifies that the field was “born” in the 1990s.) Now, researchers in many fields study learning empirically: they design instructional interventions, employ them in A/B tests, and look for evidence of what works. Because learning is maddeningly sensitive to subtle features of learning environments, though, findings in the field are frustratingly hard to reproduce.
What can we learn from each other about learning? Suppose we share our experiences, pool our insights, and in this way try to deepen our understanding of this essential process. Join us for what is sure to be a stimulating discussion!
Care to explore a bit beforehand? Start here:
Wikipedia entry on the learning sciences
Journal of the Learning Sciences
Education Theory
How Learning Works: 7 Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching
(Full disclosure: Andy’s sister’s book on the subject)
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