Slide 1: Guiding Faculty toward Access: Ways to Facilitate Change (AHEAD 2014)
Beth Harrison, Ph.D., University of Dayton
elizabeth.harrison@udayton.edu
Slide 2: You have a piece of paper . . .
Slide 3: We’re going to talk about “conceptual change”… What it is, why we care, an intro do
the neuroscience of learning, what we can (and can’t) do to help conceptual change happen.
Slide 4: What? Me change?! Resistance. Photo of two children covering their eyes with their
hands, not wanting to see. Cartoon of someone trying to push a man forward while he is
digging his heels into the ground to keep from being moved.
Slide 5: Conceptual change = fundamental changes in the content and organization of existing
knowledge (Vosniadou, 2013). On the left, a drawing of a head, sideways, with gears where the
brain should be, a square thought bubble emerging with the words “Concepts” and
“Conceptions” in it in a basic, square font. On the right, the same head with the same words in
a very pillowy thought bubble, the words in a flowing, script font. An arrow indicating
movement from the left conception to the right, and the word Difficult!
Slide 6: (1) Take a minute or two to write: What do you currently think about why it is hard for
people to change the way they think about something?
Slide 7: What concepts, conceptions, assumptions, expectations do faculty have that we in DS
want to change? (This will be an activity. After the discussion, the words “That’s why we care.”
will appear.
Slide 8: Blank (time for questions, comments)
Slide 9: The neuroscience: Our brains have ~100,000,000,000 neurons. Illustration of a neuron
with parts labeled: cell body, dendrites, axon, axon terminals.
Slide 10: The neuroscience: Neurons in the brain connect at synapses . . . electrical impulses,
chemical transmitters. Illustration showing how neurons connect through synapses created
between axons and dendrites. Electrical impulses are generated in the cell body, pass down the
axon. At the axon terminal the impulse stimulates chemical transmitters that jump across the
synapse to the connected dendrite (on another neuron). Those chemical transmitters stimulate
another electrical impulse in this second neuron.
Slide 11: The neuroscience: Neurons in the brain connect at synapses, forming neural networks.
Image of a tangled web of neurons.
Slide 12: Learning = changes in the brain. Image showing one neuron progressively growing
more and more dendrites, like a tree growing more branches. (1) Grow more dendrites: make
more connections. (2) Use it or lose it: Pruning. (3) Use it: New and/or stronger pathways
(better recall).
Slide 13: Interlude: With someone near you, talk through what you’ve learned about the brain.
(2) Make a few notes: What’s important to you?
Slide 14: Learning depends on memory, on being able to retrieve knowledge stored in the brain.
1. Sensory data enters Sensory Memory.
2. Most disappears very soon, what needs attention is encoded into Short Term Memory.
3. Again, much of what enters Short Term Memory disappears, but some is consolidated
into Long Term Memory. When we remember something, we retrieve it from Long Term
Memory.
Slide 15: Knowledge is stored in LTM in schemata. A schema is an organized grouping of related
material. Diagram labeled “Novice” showing a simple network of concepts related to the
concept House. Second diagram labeled “Expert” showing a very complex network of many,
many linked ideas: An expert’s schemata are complex, integrated, and have lots of connections.
Slide 16: Knowledge is stored in LTM in schemata. Concepts are embedded in schemata. Learn
something new: create a new schema or modify or combine with existing schema, create
connections with prior knowledge.
Slide 17: Interlude: With someone near you, talk through what you’ve learned about memory.
(3) Make a few notes: What’s important to you?
Slide 18: Two techniques that we use all the time: Retrieval strengthens neural pathways: easier
to retrieve next time. Elaboration: retrieval plus builds connections to prior knowledge.
Slide 19: Interlude: With someone near you, explain what a “neural network” is and why we
care. Try to find a simile or metaphor to illustrate. Now switch and the other person explain
“retrieval” and why we care. Try to find a simile or metaphor to illustrate.
Slide 20: Two techniques that we use all the time: Retrieval strengthens neural pathways: easier
to retrieve next time. Elaboration: retrieval plus builds connections to prior knowledge.
Slide 21: Durable learning and conceptual change take time!
 Learning is iterative: reconsolidate: makes modifiable
 Social + affective + situational + motivational aspects
 Draw, write, construct a model
 Reflection
Slide 22: Identify prior knowledge, assumptions, unexamined beliefs.
 Intentional reflection
 Make connections
 Attend to nuances in people’s ideas, figure out how to use them
Slide 23: Searching for info, generating and testing hypotheses underlie knowledge
restructuring.
 Growth mindset (Dweck book Mindset)
 Bring the facts
 Discovery: problem-based learning, build models, argumentation (argue opposite side),
debate
Slide 24: Elaboration is an important and powerful tool
 Engage with others: explain, ask questions, discuss. Social and affective aspects.
 Analogies, metaphors
 Examine differences
Slide 25: Reflection and self-awareness are also powerful tools for conceptual change.
 Recognize complexity
 Set goals
Slide 26: How can we bring about conceptual change? Example 1: Plan for a workshop
 List and discuss ideas, beliefs people are starting with
 Examine relevant data, info, alternate conceptions
 Compare their starting ideas, beliefs, predictions with the new data
 Discuss what people now understand or think
Slide 27: How can we bring about conceptual change? Example 2: Problem-based learning (PBL)
exercise
 You are planning your XXX class for the fall, and you are constructing a Design-Build-Test
PBL project to begin the second week . . .
 Your job is to make the PBL exercise accessible to all the students in your class.
Slide 28: Handout: Ideal solutions—
 Provide equitable opportunity to learn, participate, and demonstrate learning
 Are scalable: focus on your design choices for the class, not on each student’s individual
needs
 Are reusable and sustainable
Slide 29: Handout: Ideal solutions—
 Are “un-remarkable” to the class as a whole, that is, they honor the anonymity and
image of students with disabilities
 Maintain essential elements
 Maintain academic rigor
 Hint: You DO know many good solutions . . .
Slide 30: Follow up activity: With your team, describe a process or protocol you could use in the
future to ensure that you make more accessible choices when you design your courses.
Slide 31: What does this PBL exercise do?
 Uses language of the discipline
 Work in teams
 Discovery learning based in own experience
 Future plan
Slide 32: (4) Take a minute or two to write: Now what do you think about why it is hard for
people to change the way they think about something? Compare what you’ve written here with
what you wrote at the beginning of the session . . . Set a goal for yourself . . .
Slide 33: Resources
 Ho, A., Watkins, D., & Kelly, M. (2001). The conceptual change approach to improving
teaching and learning: An evaluation of a Hong Kong staff development programme. In
Higher Education, 42, 143-169.
 Nussbaum, E. & Sinatra, G. (2003). Argument and conceptual engagement. In
Contemporary Educational Psychology, 28, 384-395.

Vosniadou, S. (2013). International handbook of research on conceptual change. New
York, NY: Routledge.
Feel free to email me at elizabeth.harrison@udayton.edu if you have questions!