Vanessa Svihla, Ph.D.November 1, 2010

How do you learn?

How do you know?

Learning is fundamentally social.

Authenticity + Inquiry = Learning.

Context matters. A lot.

Unfortunately, not all participants are academically prepared to enter engineering college; they are interested in engineering.. but not adequately prepared for an engineering education. Zarske, M., Yowell, J. L., Sullivan, J. F., Knight, D., & Wiant, D. (2007, June 24-27). The TEAMS Program: A Study of a Grades 3-12 Engineering Continuum. Paper presented at the ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Honolulu, HI.

What can chinchillas

tell us about learning?

Learning is fundamentally social.

The procedure was quite simple. First he collected all the items into one group. He might have had to use another place due to lack of facilities. But the usual facility was going to be enough. He arranged the items into different groups. Of course one pile might have been sufficient depending on how much he had to do. It is better to do too few things at once than too many. In the short run this may not seem important but expensive complications can easily arise. Red problems are the worst. He combined each group with the usual brand. At first, the whole procedure had seemed complicated. However, it had become just another facet of his life. He cannot foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future. But then, one can never tell. After the first procedures were completed, he moved all the groups and used the usual setting. When he arranged the finished materials into new groups, he was careful. He did not want to put an extra wrinkle into his work. He would just have more work later on. Finally, he put them into their appropriate places. Eventually they will be used once more and the whole cycle will then have to be repeated. However, that is part of life.

Context matters. A lot.

Dembo, M., & Howard, K. (2007). Advice about the use of learning styles: A major myth in education. Journal of College Reading and Learning, 37, 2.Stahl, S. (1999). Different Strokes for Different Folks? A Critique of Learning Styles. American Educator, 23(3), 27-31.Reynolds, M. (1997). Learning Styles: A Critique. Management Learning, 28(2), 115.

How do you learn?

Could you learn to play the piano… without playing the piano?

“I thought it was particularly fun as the mentees did not have a budget constraint, as opposed to the first challenge, so this meant, more materials, and more building….Glad to

know they are learning.”

“The budget aspect definitely adds an intuitive challenge for the students that builds more excitement and discussion about design, while making them more conscious of real limitations of engineering projects.”

Authenticity + Inquiry

“Once again at the end of our lesson, I challenged the students to recall the design

process and relate it to what they had just done.”

THE Design Process

THE Design Processes

Engineering Science

GoalMake a desired outcome occur

Understand relations among causes and effects

ProcedureCompare contrastive instances

Establish the effect of each potentially important variable

Inferences

Emphasis on causal inferences

Emphasis on making exclusion or non causal inferences, and inferingces of indeterminancy

Search

Focus on variables believed to be causally related to outcome

Broad, seeks to test all combinations, if feasible

Stop Rule

When the desired, or acceptable outcome is achieved

When systematic test of each variable is complete

Engineering Science

GoalMake a desired outcome occur

Understand relations among causes and effects

ProcedureCompare contrastive instances

Establish the effect of each potentially important variable

Inferences

Emphasis on causal inferences

Emphasis on making exclusion or non causal inferences, and inferences of indeterminacy

Search

Focus on variables believed to be causally related to outcome

Broad, seeks to test all combinations, if feasible

Stop Rule

When the desired, or acceptable outcome is achieved

When systematic test of each variable is complete

THE Scientific Method

THE Scientific Methods

“That was fun!”

But did they learn?Lava is really just baking

soda!All volcanoes erupt like this

one.

How do you know what they know?

“it is hard enough to keep their focus on new projects”

“It really helped to ask them initial questions before each activity to see what they thought would happen.”

“It seemed like they learned the basics of what a chemical reaction is.”

“They were all over the place and not paying attention or listening to any of us. I feel like next time we might need to put in a little more order when it comes to lesson plans that

involve more talking/explaining rather than actively doing/constructing”

Authentic inquiry looks like the real thing, plus scaffolding

Designs for learning

Learning is fundamentally social, so go ahead and make a connection

Authentic inquiry, plus scaffolding

Assessment needs to be authentic