Module 4-D
Instructional Strategies to
Increase Learning
TED 367
Methods in Sec. Ed.
Reading
• Read the following in the Duplass
textbook:
– Unit 5 (topics 21-25) Instructional Approaches
– Unit 6 (topics 26-36) Methods
Instructional Strategies to
Increase Learning
• Organizing Information into Concepts
• Bridging Student Understanding
• Visual Tools
Introduction
Fits info. into
schema.
Learning has
taken place.
New
Stimulus
Brain searches
existing networks to
find a place where
new information fits.
Irrelevant,
not useful,
unimportant,
nonsensical
data gets
discarded.
Introduction
• Remember the Magical Number (Miller,
1956):
Memory span of young adults
was found to be 7 ± 2 elements
(chunks) regardless of whether
the elements were digits, letters,
words, or other units.
Introduction
• Let’s look at some strategies to increase
learning.
Organizing Information into
Concepts
Chunking
List, Group, Label
Comparing and Contrasting
Chunking
• Chunking (also known as clustering)
involves organizing information into larger
units of information to aid in remembering
and to support understanding (fit into
existing neural networks).
Chunking
9 individual planets
• Mercury
• Venus
• Earth
• Mars
• Jupiter
• Saturn
• Uranus
• Neptune
• Pluto
Groupings of planets
• Terrestrial:
–
–
–
–
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
• Jovian:
–
–
–
–
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
• Ice:
– Pluto
3 Parts of a PC
(As Seen from Inside PC)
Storage
Devices
Motherboard
(Microprocessor,
cards, RAM
memory)
Power Supply
List, Group, and Label
1. Teacher asks the students as a group to come
up with examples of something. Teacher lists
these on the chalkboard.
2. Teacher asks the students if there are some
ways to organize the items on the list into
logical groups (either in dyads or as a group).
• Teacher guides the class into understanding
the structure of the concept by reorganizing
the material in a table with labels.
(Hilda
Tabb, 1971)
Comparing and Contrasting
• Locate and record the similarities and
differences between items.
Bridging Student
Understanding
Analogies
Mnemonic Devices
Scaffolding
Advance Organizers
Analogies
• All learning requires a bridge from an existing
idea to a new idea.
• These strategies provides a frame of reference,
a link to prior knowledge (something familiar),
and creates a context, a conceptualization for
new learning.
Existing Knowledge
New Idea
Analogies
• “She is a real prima donna!” or “He is a
real Don Juan!” or “You are a Brutus.”
If these were said about someone,
would the impressions you formed
about the person stay with you longer
than if an analogy had not been used?
Analogies
• Parallel construction
• Analogies have:
– Topic.
– Characters.
– A vehicle.
– Vehicle characters.
Analogy Construction
Analogies
Is
like
Analogies
• If Earth were 24 hours old, dinosaurs
would have existed about 1 hour ago, and
humans began about 5 seconds ago.
Analogies
• If our solar system was shrunk to a length
of 1 mile and located in Dallas, PA, how
far would you have to travel before you
reached the nearest star?
Mnemonic Devices
• Mnemonic devices help students
remember information that has no
connection to prior knowledge.
Mnemonic Devices
• My Very Educated
Mother Just
Served Us Nine
Pizzas.
•
•
•
•
•
Huron
Ontario
Michigan
Erie
Superior
• The
country of
Italy looks
like a boot.
Scaffolding
• Scaffolding instruction moves
students carefully from what they know
to what they don’t know.
Scaffolding Example
1. The teacher starts with something
that is familiar and within the
students’ capacity.
• In English class: ask students who the
good and bad guys were in the movie
Gladiator.
2. The teacher relates this knowledge to
new knowledge by using metaphors,
examples, and demonstration.
• Draw an analogy to characters in
Macbeth.
Scaffolding Example
3. The teacher marks critical features of the
ideas presented by students and models
the comparison process.
4. The teacher then shifts the burden for
learning to the students.
•
Ask students to compare the characteristics
and motives of characters from Gladiator
and Macbeth, allowing students to direct the
discussion.
Advance Organizers
1. Advance Organizer
–
–
Start the lesson by asking if
the president of the United
States is a “head of state,”
what is a head of state, and
so on and providing a
definition along the way.
The graphic organizer
would be introduced to
graphically depict some
examples.
Advance Organizers
2. Progressive Differentiation. The
teacher examines and defines each of
the cells in the graphic organizer so that
they can be understood independently.
3. Integrative Reconciliation. The teacher
examines the relationships between the
cells.
Visual Tools
Thinking Process Maps
Venn Diagrams
Discipline-specific Organizers
Advance Organizers
Visual Learning Log
Visual Tools
• Benefits:
– Helps students change their misconceptions.
– Helps students organize and represent their
thoughts.
– Aids students to connect new knowledge to
past experiences.
– Helps students develop concepts (classify
thoughts into smaller number of categories).
Thinking Process Maps
•
General procedure:
1. Identify important concepts in material being
studied [circle them].
2. Rank the concepts from general to specific.
3. Arrange concepts on paper and connect
related ideas with lines.
Thinking Process Maps
Primary Concept
Venn Diagrams
Items
unique
to A.
Items
common
to both.
Items
unique
to B.
Discipline-specific Organizers
• Biology: Life-cycle diagrams.
• Math: Decision trees.
• Reading: Text structures.
Visual Learning Log
• Students keep a graphic log of what they
have learned.
Using Music/Video
Some Benefits of Music
in the Classroom
• Establish a positive
learning atmosphere.
• Build a sense of learner
anticipation.
• Energize learning
activities.
• Change learner brain
wave state.
• Help focus concentration.
• Help increase attention.
From Music and Learning by Chris
Brewer, 1995.
• Improve memory.
• Facilitate a multisensory
learning experience.
• Help students release
tension.
• Enhance imagination.
• Provide inspiration and
motivation.
• Add fun.
• Provide content
information.
Improve Concentration and Focus
• Music stabilizes mental, physical, and
emotional rhythms.
• Music helps learners attain a state of deep
concentration and focus in which large
amounts of content information can be
processed and learned.
Improve Concentration and Focus
• Especially effective:
– Baroque music (Bach, Handel, Telemann)
that is 50 to 80 beats per minute creates an
atmosphere of focus that leads students into
deep concentration in the alpha brain wave
state.
Student Attitude and Motivation
• With music, a teacher can influence
students attitudes and motivation to learn.
• Carefully selected music can:
– Create a positive learning atmosphere.
– Help students to feel welcome to participate in
the learning experience.
Setting the Atmosphere
• Play music as students enter/leave the
classroom can totally change the
atmosphere.
– Enliven (perk up students when they are
weary).
– Calm and peace (when students are overenergized in some way).
– Establish a theme.
– Give students content information.
Music for Focus and Concentration
• Play as background music while students
study, read, or write to:
– Increase attention levels.
– Improve retention and memory.
– Extend focused learning time.
– Expand thinking skills.
Example: Canon in D (Pachelbel)
Music for Creativity and Reflection
• Play as background for activities such as:
– Journaling or writing.
– Problem-solving or goal-setting.
– Background for project work.
– Brainstorming.
Example: Selections by Mozart
Music for Welcoming Students
• Play as background for entries, exits,
breaks. Use to:
– Greet your students.
– Create a welcoming atmosphere.
– Set a learning rhythm.
Example: Four Seasons (Vivaldi)
Music for a Break
• Use for a sound break or movement
activities to:
– Increase productivity.
– Energize students during daily energy lulls.
– Provide a stimulating sound break to increase
attention.
– Encourage exercise/movement.
Examples: Fun songs like…
Wooly Booly, YMCA, The Twist
Improve Memory of Facts and
Details
• Improve memory of facts and details
through songs, chants, poems, and raps
through rhyme, rhythm, and melody.
– Either teach this music to students OR have
them write their own music.
Schoolhouse Rock
SchoolhouseRock.TV
Content Songs
Multiplication Rap
(Teacher Tube)
SongsForTeaching.com
Fifty, Nifty United States
Fifty, Nifty U.S.
(YouTube)
Review:
MODULE 4-D
• Organizing Information into Concepts
– Chunking
– List, Group, Label
– Comparing and Contrasting
• Bridging Student Understanding
– Analogies
– Mnemonic Devices
– Scaffolding
– Advance Organizers
Review:
MODULE 4-D
• Visual Tools
– Thinking Process Maps
– Venn Diagrams
– Discipline-specific Organizers
– Visual Learning Log
• Using Music/Video