Workshop
Designing and Planning Learning
Activities
Content
 What is learning?
 Underpinning knowledge and theory for
learning design
 Different learning methods
 Memory & the transfer of learning
 Pre-designing materials and being
creative!
Learning
Before you can ‘design effective
learning’ – you need to be clear
about you mean by ‘learning’ …..
Definitions of learning
A relatively permanent change in behaviour
resulting from experience
(Kimble, 1961)
A relatively permanent change in an organism’s
behaviour due to experience
(Myers, 1995)
Learning is the process by which a person acquires
new knowledge, skills and capabilities
(Reynolds et al., 2002)
Research into what adults think
learning is …..
1. Quantitative increase in knowledge
2. Memorising – storing information that can be
reproduced
3. Acquiring facts, skills and methods
4. Making sense of abstract meaning and
understanding relationships in subjects
5. Interpreting and understanding reality
(Saljo, 1979)
….. other meanings .. is it?
 An increase in factual knowledge?
 Being able to memorise & reproduce
 Applying and using knowledge
 Understanding abstract concepts
 Performing well in assessments?
 Learning to ‘do’ something – (e.g. presentations)
 Solving problems?
 Developing creativity?
 Developing an analytical approach?
 Change within oneself as a consequence of
understanding the world differently?
 Something else?
(Fry et al., 2009)
Psychology subject domains relating
to learning
 Behaviourist Psychology
 Social Learning Theory
 Cognitive Psychology
 Experiential Learning
(Stewart , 1999)
Underpinning
knowledge & theory
….. to enable the effective design of learning
Threshold Concepts
 Is there a ‘hierarchy in concepts’ – in what you are
teaching …. i.e. the student must completely
understand ‘A’ to be able to understand ‘B’
 For example (in accountancy) must a student have
an understanding of arithmetic BEFORE they can
learn how to produce a company’s annual report
and accounts ….?
 The relevance of threshold concepts in designing
learning is ……. ?
Student approaches to learning
Surface
Deep
Strategic / achieving
(Fry et al., 2009)
VARK – Learning Styles
 Visual (V)
 Aural/Auditory (A)
 Read/Write (R)
 Kinesthetic (K)
Comprehensive guide available
http://www.varklearn.com/english/index.asp
Learner Student Styles
Honey & Mumford
Kolb’s Learning Cycle
Compare Kolb with Honey & Mumford
Learning Cycle
Individual Learner
Styles
If you were a ski or tennis
instructor – how would you …
Apply a different form of learning to
best meet each of the Honey and
Mumford Learning styles?
Another individual styles model …
Myers Briggs (based on Jungian Theory)
EXTROVERT (E) or INTROVERT (I)
drawing energy from outside or within
INTUITIVE (N) or SENSING (S)
drawing energy from holistic big picture thinking intuition or from the five
other senses)
FEELING (F) or THINKING (T)
basing decisions on personal information or on logic/rules
PERCEIVING or JUDGING
(preferring ongoing development / spontaneity or organization & goal
completion)
So you can be an ENTJ or an ISFP or an ESTP etc
(Swart et al., 2005)
What are your Learning Objectives
seeking for students learn – change in?
(Cannon and Newble, 2000)
Knowledge
Attitude
Skills
Well written learning objectives
govern all the design that
follows ….
Race, (2007: 23- 26) has a list of 24 tips on
designing learning objectives
The process of learning design
Decide whether it is Knowledge and/or Skills and/or Attitude that is to be ‘learned’
Write the Learning Objectives (differentiate between Knowledge, Skills & Attitude)
Decide on the mix of methods which will best deliver the most
effective ‘change’ / learning in Knowledge / Skill and / or Attitude
Decide on a mix of methods so that students of all learning styles have the
chance to ‘be reached’ and the Kolb Learning Cycle can be applied
Check the timing of the activities in your session (s), to see that it all fits and flows
The process of learning design
Consideration must also be given as to
…… how you are going to check / assess
whether what you intended to be
learned has been learned – and when
will you do this?
The process of learning design
Two slides above – the process was
presented in a linear fashion – however
it is an ongoing improvement cycle:
Systematic approach to course /
module planning
Fry et al (2009)
Consider the aspect of student
motivation when you are designing
learning
See table 3.3 in Fry et al (2009: 35-36)
How could you use this
underpinning knowledge in
making the design of Learning
and Teaching effective?
Write notes on this for 10
minutes
Different
learning
methods
Sample of Methods
 ‘Lecturing’
 Listening to presentations
 Discussion
 Guided reading
 Case studies
 Informal skills / knowledge assessments –
quizzes, tests, skills questionnaires
 Self reflection exercises
 Log books, diaries, PDP’s
Sample of Methods
 Using technology – BB, pod casts, video’s,
online learning tools, computer assisted
learning
 Learning from feedback
 Group work
 Role plays
 Games & competitions
 Brainstorming
 Problem solving
Sample of Methods
 Work experience
 Simulations
 Experiential learning
 Outdoor learning
 Carrying out experiments
 Discovery learning
 Vicarious learning
 Coaching / Mentoring
 Action learning
Consider practical aspects
 Facilities available – rooms, text’s, online
resources, technology required, materials
(take or get students to bring)
 Timing and sequencing (mix more passive
sections with more active sessions)
 Timing of assessment & feedback
Activity
 Activity compare the learning design in each
exercise on the next 5 slides
For use following Stress Management Lecture
Pairs exercise
Aims of this exercise:
•To aid students to consider what issues causes them
most stress
•To get students to reflect on what they have learned
which might help them manage the stress situation better
Exercise:
Ask students to spend 2 minutes making a note of the 2
issues that currently cause them most stress.
Spilt them into pairs and ask them to take a turn each at
describing an issue – and discussing possible solutions
for those – reflecting on what they learned from the book /
lecture materials.
For use following lecture on Conflict Management
Group exercise
Aims of this exercise:
•To get students to consolidate their learning on types of ways of dealing with conflict.
Exercise:
Split students into groups of 5.
Ask them to nominate one person to give the feedback.
Ask them to complete the following table (taken from the points on P. 389 of 7th edn
Whetton & Cameron) by:
•Giving a definition for each type of approach to dealing with conflict.
•Giving 1 advantage of that approach
•Giving 1 disadvantage of that approach
•Deciding on which approach might be a more usual ‘best’ approach
Requires:
•5 printed copies of the attached
•This can be printed on acetate and acetate pens taken along if you want them to
give their feedback in a more presentation from the front format.
Brainstorming
In groups of 10 – and appoint one person as ‘The police person’ who must make
the others follow the rules of brainstorming – ie monitor the group (when they are
doing the brainstorming) to make sure that the group does not break these rules:
•Each person should take a turn – go round the group in clockwise direction –
making sure each person has to contribute something when it gets to them
•The ideas should be short
•No one is allowed to evaluate it (say ‘oh that’s good / bad / the same as has
already been said’)
•You can build on an idea from before
•When a person gets stuck – wait until that person comes up with something
before moving on
•‘Wild’ ideas are allowed
The topic to be brainstormed is:
‘How to deal with a difficult boss’
Reflecting on group presentations
Aims of this exercise:
•To give Tutors an exercise where they can mix the students up, to get them to meet and
work with other students
•To give students an opportunity to get used to being a spokesperson in informal group
work
•To aid students to be reflective about how they can improve presentation skills
•To encourage students to use a constructive feedback technique (ie to feedback what is
done well and what could have been done better
•To encourage students to reflect on the learning from the lecture / tutorial
Exercise:
After presentation
•Invite students to go into your groups (possibly their own presentation groups A/B/C/D – or
if you want to encourage them to work with others split them into groups of e.g. 5 students)
Ask them to elect a spokesperson to give feedback (make sure that everyone takes this
role over the 10 tutorials:
•2 things that the group presenting did well
•1 thing that they could improve on
•The 3 main lessons learned from the case presentation / the chapter / the lecture
•Ask each group to give the feedback
For use following Power and Influence Lecture
Aims of this exercise:
•To get students to stop and reflect on how people can be more powerful than their position
suggests.
•To get them to plan how they could benefit from applying similar behaviour.
Exercise:
•Ask the students to think of someone who they respect as being more influential their
position, some one ‘who punches above their weight’.
(i.e. more influential than their position in natural hierarchies in the family / work place /
friends group – hierarchies which can be based on position, financial wealth etc)
The person can be a friend, work colleague, someone in their family, someone famous etc.
•Then – ask them to write for 5 minutes on what it is that person does that makes them so
influential.
•Then ask them to spend 3 minutes making notes of 3 things they could do differently to
benefit from observing the behaviour of this person who they respect.
Learning,
memory &
the transfer of
learning
(Primary source for memory: Baddeley et al., 2009)
Learning Conditioning & Reinforcement
 Classical (Pavlov)
 Operant Conditioning (Skinner)
Positive /negative reinforcement
 Lesson – consciously consider what
‘reinforcement’ messages you are giving
and how often (also relevant for ‘managing the learning
environment’)
Other useful concepts from the domain
of psychology
 ‘Learned helplessness’
 Cognitive mapping
 Insight
 Vicarious learning
 Discovery learning
 Behaviour modelling
Source lecture handouts Dr Ian Bushnell – was Strathclyde University – now
School of Psychology, Glasgow University
Memory - two sides of the coin – is it
what you have .... ?
Remembered (retention)
or what you have
Forgotten (retrieval)
Types of memory
Knowledge
Feelings
Behaviour
Skills (presentation / interpersonal
/ language / creativity)
Motor skills (driving / cycling /
skating)
Student Learning and Memory
IN
OUT
Effective Memory
IN
Getting things
into the (long
term) memory
effectively
OUT
Time in
between
Getting things
back out
effectively i.e.
‘Retrieval’
The memory process – getting
things ‘in’ and ‘out’
Memory
 Sensory memory: Echoic / Iconic
 Short term, ‘working memory’: Verbal / Spacial
 Long term:
Explicit – Episodic / Semantic
Implicit – Conditioning / Skills
Attention
Awareness Test:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSQJP40PcGI
From short term into long term
memory
 Rehearsal
 Coding
 Decisions
 Retrieval strategies
(Ebbinghaus, 1885, in
Baddeley et al.2009)
 If you double the number of
frequencies you rehearse / learn /
practice – there is a complete positive
correlation with what you remember
AND
 ‘Distributed’ practice is more effective
Encoding - organising what goes ‘in’ to
memory can make it easier to retrieve
Encoding - if some mentions
‘Spectrophotometer’ – do you relate it to ...
 Atomic absorption
 Mass spectometry
 Infra-red spectometry
No? But a Chemistry student might …..
What does this tell us about (encoding) putting things
IN to the memory?
 Depth of processing Craik and Tulving, 1975 in
Badderley et al., 2009)
A list of names of friends I have
had:
 Sally
 Steve
 Anne
 Tiami
 Karen
Can you remember …
What was the first time you had
a piece of clothing in the colour
red?
A list of names of friends I have
had:
What was the fourth
name on the list?
Which list of my friends is the
correct one?
 Sally
 Sally
 Steve
 Steve
 Anne
 Anne
 Thomasina
 Tiami
 Karen
 Karen
Different levels of remembering?
Is the level of RETENTION / RETRIEVAL
required to enable:
 Recognition .... and / or
 Recall .... and / or
 Repetition (in full)
Theories related to forgetting
Interference Theory
Delay Theory
Primary and Recency Effect
The Kolb learning cycle has another use -
‘consolidation’
(to get things from the STM into the LTM)
Cues
Can help us access memories
How could you use this
information about the different
levels of memory in Learning
and Teaching design?
Tips and techniques to
improve memory
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/m
emory/improve/
Transfer of Learning
Perkins and Salomon (1992)
 Occurs when learning in one context enhances (positive
transfer) or undermines (negative transfer) a related
performance in another context.
 Includes near transfer (to closely related contexts and
performances) and far transfer (to rather different contexts and
performances).
 Transfer is crucial to education, which generally aspires to
impact on contexts quite different from the context of learning.
What about TRANSFER?
IN
OUT
TRANSFER
Transfer of Learning
Perkins and Salomon (1992)
Findings from various sources suggest that transfer happens by
way of two rather different mechanisms:
 Reflexive or low road transfer involves the triggering of well-
practiced routines by stimulus conditions similar to those in the
learning context.
 Mindful or high road transfer involves deliberate effortful
abstraction and a search for connections.
Conventional educational practices often fail to establish the
conditions either for reflexive or mindful transfer.
Pre-design
activities and
be creative!
Pre-design of activities
Activity
Be creative ……
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b2xUb0VofQ
Conclusions
 To design effective learning, we need to be clear about
what we mean by ‘learning’ on each different occasion
 There is a range of underpinning theory which can help
us to understand how to more effectively design
learning
 There are different forms of learning, it is considered
more effective to use a mixture
 Theories on ‘memory’ are useful when thinking about
the ‘input’ and the ‘output’ of the learning process
 Consideration of how the learning is to transferred is
essential
 Prepare activities ahead and be creative!!
References
 Armstrong, M. (2006) A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. Kogan
Page, London.
 Baddeley, A., Eysenck, M., Anderson, M. (2009). Memory. Psychology Press, Hove.
 Fry, H., Ketteridge, S., Marshall, S., (2009). Handbook for Teaching and Learning in
Higher Education, (3rdEdn). Routledge, London.
 Cannon, R., Newble, D. (2000) A Handbook for Teachers in Universities and Colleges (4th
edn). Kogan Page, London.
 Kimble, G. A. (1961). Cited in Catania A. Charles. (1998) Learning (4th edn). Prentice Hall,
New Jersey.
 Myers (1995) cited in Stewart, J. (1999) Employee Development Practice. Prentice Hall,
Harlow.
 Perkins, D., Salomon, G. (1992) Contribution to the International Encyclopedia of
Education (2nd edn). Pergamon Press, Oxford
 Race, P (2007) The Lecturer’s Toolkit (3rd edn). Routledge, Abingdon.
 Reynolds et al. (2002) cited in Armstrong, M. (2006) A Handbook of Human Resource
Management Practice. Kogan Page, London.
 Saljo (1979) cited in Ramsden, P. (2003). Learning to Teach in Higher Education (2nd edn).
Routledge Farmer, London.
 Stewart, J. (1999) Employee Development Practice. Prentice Hall, Harlow.
 Swart, J., Mann, C., Brown, S., Price, A. (2005) Human Resource Development. Elsevier,
Oxford.
Extremely useful list ……
under ‘Teaching for learning’ section
Fry et al. (2009: 22-23)