Helping Students Learn to Learn
Enhancing Understanding
by:
Engaging Students in
Building Knowledge for Themselves
Objectives of this workshop series
1.
Identify the cognitive development needs of students
2.
Introduce some educational theories which can
help us address the developmental needs
3.
Propose easy methods for teaching / assessment
for helping with these cognitive development needs
4.
Explore ways for adopting / adapting some of the
methods in your course
Adopting / adapting the methods in
your specific context
The facilitators
provide generic ideas
The participants
adopt / adapt the ideas
in specific subjects
Designed
generic worksheets
Directly use / modify
the worksheets for specific
subjects
Suggested ways for
implementing the ideas in
teaching and assessment
Brain storm how to
adopt / adapt the ideas
in your own courses
‘I can only try to memorize.
I don’t understand.’
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‘I just can’t understand the lecture. I memorise the things to
take the examination.’
‘We have to memorize a lot of texts…basically we can’t
understand them when we read, so we just memorize them.’
‘I can’t comprehend the formula.’
‘Actually I don’t really know what they are doing. If you don’t
know, you have to memorise…’
A cognitive weakness.
Explain it to me !!
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I think the lecturer should explain it more clearly.
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I can’t understand by reading it myself, I have to go to the lecturer.
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It’s difficult to understand by reading a book. It will be better for a
teacher to explain it to us.
When I revise at home and have a problem, I hope that I can make a
phone call right away or send an e-mail to the lecturer, and get the
reply immediately.
It will be great if the lecturer has ICQ and turn that on for 24 hours. It
will be even better if he can give us his mobile phone number.
An attitude problem – dependent on teachers.
Helping students to understand
Which approach works better??
More explanation
by teacher
Developing students’
abilities to understand
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Students to
receive knowledge
from teachers passively
Students to
learn
for themselves
We aim at developing independent learners !
Why do students fail to understand?
Students memorise information because
they have difficulties with …
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Seeing relationship among information
Forming a holistic picture of the topic
Integrating and assimilating knowledge for personal internalization
Developing students abilities in understanding is
helping students to change in this direction:
Memorize information 
passively
Assimilating, building knowledge
for personal internalization
Developing abilities to build knowledge –
What educational theories can help us?
3 levels of understanding
(based on Biggs - SOLO Taxonomy)
Extended abstract
(go beyond what is given)
theories, generalize, hypothesize, reflect
Learning strategies to achieve them
(based on Weinstein & Mayer)
Elaboration
creating analogy, self-questioning
linking to past knowledge & experience
Relational
(Understanding via relating ideas)
compare, contrast, explain causes, analyse,
relate, apply
Organization
grouping, categorizing,
summarizing,
constructing concept map
Multi-structural
(Memorisation of information, algorithm)
Describe, list, combine, do algorithms
Rehearsal
repeating, underling, mental imagery
Developing Abilities for Understanding at
2 Levels
Cognitive strategies for
understanding
What
are they?
How to
develop them?
Metacognitive strategies w.r.t.
understanding
What
are they?
How to
develop them?
Metacognition
What is metacognition?
A. Awareness / knowledge of what cognition (learning) is
B. Abilities to control cognition (learning), i.e. the
disposition & habits that support and drives learning
Key operations in metacognition (control of learning)
1. Planning your learning
2. Monitoring your learning
3. Assessing your learning
Developing Abilities for understanding
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My Knowledge Building Worksheet
3-Step Thinking Worksheet
Pattern Detector
Knowledge Building Worksheet
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What is Knowledge Building worksheet?
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It is a tool to help student go beyond memorising facts into
relational and creative thinking, both cognitively and
motivationally
Rationale
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Many students learn by simply memorizing facts as they
misconceive it to be the goal of learning
By showing that disconnected information is of little use,
students are encouraged to link loose ideas together to form
a meaningful structure
Using the Knowledge Building
Worksheet
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How to use?
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Points diagram  new ideas
Examples
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Revision worksheet
Course formation revealer
3-step Thinking Worksheet
What is 3-step Thinking Worksheet?
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It provides a handy means to sharpen students’
understanding of learnt material
Sharpen target cognitive abilities with option sets:
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Logical Reasoning
Knowledge Personalization
Extension and Application
Originality Enhancement
Using 3-step Thinking Worksheet in
Teaching and Assessment
Teaching:
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Learnt Material Organizer
Lecture notes quick-fixer
Assessment:
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Continuous assessment: review exercise
Pattern Detector
What is Pattern Detector?
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It provides a scaffold for students to interpret data
The worksheet:
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The five guiding questions to interpret data
We need your input!
Using Pattern Detector in Teaching
and Assessment
Teaching:
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Using the guiding questions to present graphic
information in the lecture
In-class activity
Assessment:
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Visual data hunt
Regular assignment
One thing I would like to try is